I’m a big fan of boobs.   Most people know this, I think.    I’m all for saving them, that’s why I’ve written the three blog postings this week about Religion, Attitude, and Dichotomy.   They are all part of a one-week, fast-hard-and-furious Blog Off ran by Courtney Slavin of Five Second Dance Party.    She’s a heck of an advocate for breast cancer research and support and is trying to get some funds together to donate in support.

So, me and some other folks have chucked in some cash to participate in a Blog-Off, both to support breast cancer and to have fun in the process.   The voting will take place before Sunday of this week and one of us will be crowned the winner.    If you care to check out their blog entries on the same words that I covered, head on over to the links of participants at the bottom of this posting.

More importantly, if your love of sweater cows is as big as mine, and you have a few spare bucks, I’d encourage you to donate to Courtney’s quest or a similar one near you.    Let’s work to keep breasts a pleasurable thing and not something of pain.

3rd Blog-Off Participants:

Bella
Patti
Ryan
Erin
Jason
Michael

Either we change our ways, or the ozone layer will be destroyed and we will all suffer from skin cancer.

False dichotomies, like the one above, are prevelant in almost every facet of media, advertising, literature, and policy. They are an effort by others to direct the outcome of decisions or direct us away from the alternatives because they do not suit the agenda of the issuing party.

Either we stay in Iraq until their government is stable, or we pull our troops out and they will fall into chaos.

The problem is, it only gives the person making the decision a narrowed set of answers from which to pick. Thus, if you disprove one of the options, the other one must be the one to pick, despite its validity. Thus, the person (or entity) asking the question is automatically directing you to a small subset of possible answers simply by not mentioning the alternatives.

In November, you get to vote either Republican or Democrat.

What about Independent? Green Party? Jedi Party? All of these will be valid choices when it comes time to vote, yet by implying that the choice is limited to only the standard 2-party system, the fields is naturally narrowed through the process of disinformation and exclusion.

But…this isn’t news. Sales people, news reporters, and politicians have both been using this technique forever to try to skew the public’s opinion and viewpoint on anything and everything. The car salesman smiles at you, “So, will you take the red car or the blue car?” By eliminating your alternatives, they try to pin you down to a decision that, one way or the other, will be beneficial to them.

More disturbing than the false dichotomy, however, is a recent trend towards what I will term a blank dichotomy. This is a situation where normally a false dichotomy would be presented, but instead of presenting two or more options in the limited scope, only one is presented and the others are implied. This is happening more and more often and it’s quite unsettling.

This is very, very much like stating an unsupported opinion, except it is leading to the end user. They are encouraged to, “fill in the blanks”, with whatever their minds come up with. Since nothing is specifically stated, the person’s mind naturally starts off thinking of a default thing and then quickly proceeds to something in the extreme.

We must fight terrorism.

What does this statement leave in the wake? A person reads this and naturally thinks, “Well….terrorism has the word, ‘terror’, in it, so whatever will happen if we don’t fight terrorism must be pretty darn bad.” Their mind searches and reels until it settles on something that fulfills their requirement of “something really bad”. Thus is panic and terror already present in something that, by itself, doesn’t elicit any particular conclusion or feeling.

Few people are testing these statements, however, and the general public ends up believing what they are told by “authoritative sources” without truly exploring the validity or application of the information to reality. The media is therefore free to direct the populace’s minds on various tangents without having to do much work at all, resulting in a lot of “shell” reporting and information gathering. All you need is enough.

So…what does this mean for you, gentle reader? How do you avoid and handle the false and blank dichotomies?

Simple — learn to think for yourself only and when someone else is doing the thinking for you, question the validity of their conclusions and statements. Don’t automatically assume that those in charge and feeding you information have your best interest at heart or choose to tell you the whole story. Most of what is out there now is skewed in some direction or another, it is up to us to use our minds to decipher the jungle and make sense of it all. (Yes, this post is skewed, and you know it. Sort it out, dummy.)

False, blank, true — whatever your choices, burn those brain cells for the truth, and the truth will set you free.

(or not, as that’s another blank dichotomy, too.)

Is your nose up or down?

Are you banking left or right?

How’s your speed? Your thrust? Your position?

In the world of aircraft, it’s all about your attitude, the combination of which direction the plane is pointed and the settings of the other systems of the plane. You might be climbing, you might be diving, you might be stalling — it all depends on your attitude.

Likewise, many things depend on your psychological attitude as well, not just your viewpoint, which many seem to cite. The emotion with which you approach a situation is important, don’t get me wrong, but so are other aspects, like your preparation, your determination, drive, willingness to risk, and ability to improvise just being a few. You can’t fly a plane simply by pointing it “up”, nor can you pilot a successful life by simply attempting to be positive about everything.

Nothing grates on my nerves more than the perpetual happymonger who insists on spreading fucking joy into every crack of existence just for the sake of being the ray of sunshine up everyone’s ass. Anyone who sees past this can easily point out the many different flaws in this system of constant cheer — life isn’t always pleasant, and being happy isn’t always productive. Sometimes it’s very applicable to the situation; many times it isn’t. Having someone shove that down your throat constantly just ends up labelling them as the eternal jackass.

Is this a matter of attitude? Clearly not. Pure emotion is usually extremely dumb. Attitude is smart — it is your emotional state plus all the above components, arranged in a manner such that when the bumps and struggles of your situation do hit you full-force, your airspeed doesn’t fall so far that you drop out of the sky. The way you initially formulate and interactively adjust your attitude shows a lot about your ability to handle life situations with intelligence and experience.

The Attitude Captain amongst us will evaluate every possible aspect of the situation, assess them all with objectivity and fairness, and then approach with their attitude adjusted, having their pieces in place to make a successful go at it. The Captains are also sharp enough to know the limits of their planes; if things won’t hold up in a hard turn, they know better to use some other aspect to replace what that hairpin turn would have gotten them. If they get halfway into a loop and find out they don’t have enough speed to keep going, they can quickly grab their other resources, realign them, and get out with all engines still turning over.

These I envy. They are the ones who simply radiate confidence and assuredness in life, the people you admire from afar in a crowd, even if you have never met them. Their attitudes are pointed in the right direction, and all their settings are within the green. I often long to know their secret, because some of them fly so far and hard and fast and never catch ground.

No two airplanes are built the same. Likewise, your craft might be big or small. Your engines may be tiny, but you are able to easily make turns. Maybe your powerhouses are huge, but you can’t stop on a dime. But all of us have the ability to use what we have to get where we want to go and to get there safely and smartly.

Pilot on first runway, you are cleared for take-off en route to the rest of your life. Safe travels.

Religion is probably the biggest threat to the continuation of our species in terms of development, whether it’s mentally, emotionally, intellectually, or psychologically, that exists today. And chances are, you’re part of the problem.

Yes, that means you, too, Mr. Atheist.

Religion starts with beliefs, you see — things that we accept without question, without examination, without solid proof. They extend from the very inconsequential to the very serious and taint nearly every aspect of our modern lives, oftentimes without making themselves obviously known, but ultimately affecting vast tracts of our lives. Religion then takes these beliefs, removes questioning and doubt, and makes them habit.

“But, Nathan, ” I hear you ever-so-daintily chide your computer screen, “I thought religion was about God?”

Well, think about this, then: Are you patriotic? Do you think your country is pretty great? Have you always thought that? Do you stand up at parades, salute the flag, clap for soldiers, put your hand on your heart during the national anthem, and celebrate your country’s independence?

Funny. People stand up in church, make the sign of the cross, reward pastors and priests, kneel to pray, and celebrate Easter, too.

Do you really know why you do any of these activities? Do you know the true meaning behind each action, where it came from, why people do it, and how it is supposed to matter? Do you think about such things each time you do them or are you simply mechanical about it? Do you feel like a schmuck if you don’t do them, but can’t really figure out why? Ah, ha. Busted.

At this point, there will be some readers who are screaming at their monitors like morons, “What??? Beliefs are bad!?” No. Did I say anything about beliefs? Yes, I did, but I also said that religion are beliefs gone out of whack. To be honest, we require beliefs to cover the gap between what we can reasonably examine and prove and what we require to function as humans in a complex world.

I cannot prove that my car will always stop when I hit the brakes, at least, not without a great deal of my own examination and/or research. I do, however, believe that they will work and work on a consistent basis. This belief covers the gap between what I know about how brakes work and the fact that I need to drive my car to get to work.

In fact, I would go as far to say that I am religious about my brakes. I hit them without question, as a matter of habit, never giving them a second thought. Like I said — some things are trivial.

But when it comes to more serious matters, this is where religion has its major talons sunk deep within the structure of our lives and refuses to let go without a fight. “You have to go to church!” Do I? “You have to pray if you want something!” I do? “You have to bow down three times a day on a carpet!” Really? Why?

It is questions like these that go unanswered in modern religions. Oh, sure, they get answers from the proponents of the religion, but that’s like asking a car salesman why you should buy the new model on the lot. The answer you get is tainted and skewed and simply cannot be trusted to give an objective viewpoint on the subject.

So, then, what to do? Well, a person should have enough sense to question all of these things themselves, to derive the best possible answer from all available information, and come upon a conculsion for themselves with a varying degree of certainty. Then that conclusion should stay available for further scrutiny at any future time given a change in the information making it up or the evidence supporting (or denying) it.

The fact is, people are lazy and critters of habit. They prefer to stick with their religious mantras and habits rather than break free and find their true meanings and beliefs. It is easier to go to church every Sunday, sing the hymns, put the dot on your forehead, cross yourself, or stand up when the flag comes by than it does to question these actions and examine them.

But, really — ask yourself: Are you comfortable with treating your beliefs on life, morals, salvation, sin, God, and patrotism like you treat the braking system of your car?

I think your car’s out of control and headed towards a cliff — here’s hoping you’re right!

Victory isn’t a word that strikes much interest in hearts these days, and certainly doesn’t appear much in marketing or sales tactics. Nobody says, “Feel the victory of biting into a Big Mac.” There aren’t any signs that say, “Victory can be yours for only $19.95 plus shipping and handling,” and you don’t see game shows named, “Victory Against Ben Stein”.

It is, in many ways, an antiquated word, ranging up there with names like, “Gertie” and the concept of ironing and starching your underwear.

There is a lot of emphasis on winning however. You can win a reality TV show. You can win the lottery. You may even win an all-expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi. There was talk of, “winning the war on terror”, but now nobody really believes there’s anything there to start with, so that’s a bit hollow at this point. However, you certainly don’t see the government using the term like it did in World War I and II — “V-Day”, “Victory at Sea”, etc.

So, what’s the difference between “winning” and “victory”?

Both appear to be measurable — one knows when they have won or when they can claim victory in a situation. In fact, in many ways, one could say that winning is a part of victory. So — winning is a subcomponent of victory. What else does it encompass then?

From what I am able to tell, victory has a larger component than simply crossing a line ahead of someone else. It contains within it an emotional or psychological component as well, perhaps a welling-up of satisfaction that accompanies the winning, or a morally- or ethically-influenced sense of “correctness” about your win. There’s a clear superiority to your winning the contest versus the other party(ies) success.

“Not only did we win,” says the coach, “we were victorious.” Their sense of goodness surrounding their win might have been brought upon by soundly defeating a rival team in a fair match or simply winning with good spirits, sportsmanship, and ethics. Perhaps this win was a particular moment in the team’s history, prompting not only another notch in the stick for the good, but a turning point in attitude, team spirit, or camaraderie.

So, taking this into account, when in life should we try to win and when should we be victorious? Are we winning too much and leaving victory and its concepts behind in modern usage?

Our society is very “win”-oriented, prompting everyone to engage within a contestual activity with one another. The problem arises from the vast and increasing number of people who are out to simply win the activity rather than make a good, solid, and fair victory instead. Crossing the line ahead of anyone else, regardless of your journey to the line, has become the point, urging everyone to bend, flex, or even break the rules to get the advantage over others.

This is partially because victory oftentimes rewards no better than winning, at least in terms of material or monetary goods. This leads to lazier winnings, trying only to finish and using whatever means available to do so, rather than making a judgement call about the quality of their performance. Without external incentives, the standard goes straight down the flusher.

How, then, should good people be using this information to apply to their own lives? Simply put, winning is fine and good, but winning isn’t everything. You may very well have that top job, but if you had to burn bridges, shun friends, backstab co-workers, cheat, and slander your way to the top, you have only won, but not claimed victory. You are a scum; a successful one, granted, but morally and ethically vulgar.

The true victor, on the other hand, considers the journey as a part of the end result. The quality and content of the struggles and challenges that are overcome and the methods used to do so are what really rest in the victor’s mind — “How can I succeed and remain a good, moral, and ethical human?”

The victors no doubt lose more than the scandalous winners; of that I am certain. This may lead to much depression by the good folk of the world, but fear not — your victory, when it comes, will be that much sweeter, and you will still be able to live with your head held high in the knowledge that you won and you did it with a clear conscience. That, in and of itself, may be the best victory of all.