Ramblings of a Retired Mind

A must-read to understand our country today. https://ia801609.us.archive.org/29/items/kaufman-s-clinical-neurology-for-psychiatrists-pdfdrive/The%20Basic%20Laws%20of%20Human%20Stupidity%20%28Carlo%20M.%20Cipolla%29%20%28Z-Library%29.pdf 

  “Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.” Robert Frost

  Comfortable Lying   “Liar!” We hear the word everywhere today, thrown around in politics, media, and everyday arguments. But what does it actually mean? By definition, a liar is a person who intentionally communicates untruths—a prevaricator, fabricator, or falsifier. Psychology typically categorizes these individuals into three distinct types: • The Habitual Liar: Someone who lies frequently as a matter of daily habit. • The Pathological Liar: Someone who lies compulsively with no apparent external benefit. • The Inveterate Liar: Someone whose deception is so deeply ingrained that it is impossible to change. But these clinical definitions miss a much more common, insidious breed: The Comfortable Liar. This is the person who tells a lie without experiencing a single shred of internal conflict or guilt. They are masters of convenient moral logic. To survive their own deception, they convince themselves that their falsehoods are necessary, welcomed, and even deman...

  Terrifying Truth   I live in a yurt. Not many people do. If you've never been inside one, there is something important to know: there are no corners. My bathroom is round. No corners. My bedroom is round. No corners. I have no closets because I could never build one without creating a corner. The walls of my yurt curve like waves on an ocean, flowing continuously around me. Nothing interrupts their movement. No sharp edges. No angles. No corners. I live alone. I work alone. I work in my yurt. I have a garden where I grow fruits and vegetables. It, too, is round. No corners. I do not drive. There are too many corners where streets meet, too many sharp angles in the world. When I go into town, I walk with an almost unconscious avoidance of corners. I stay away from the edges of buildings and where walls meet. I weave left and right, always moving in a curved stride. There is a method to my movement. There is a reason. He grabbed me and twisted my arm. “Yo...

  Terrifying Truth The mirror shows an image. But there is no depth—no depth of understanding, no glimpse into what lies beneath the surface. Is the image looking back at me the person I truly want others to see, or simply the person I hope they will see? I know that when I look at someone, I am evaluating them, too. Do they like what I like? Do they believe as I do? Are their morals the same as mine? And I wonder: when they look back at me, are they asking themselves the same questions? We all wear masks. We reveal our true selves to only a limited few. The rest of the world sees the image we choose to present, the reflection in the mirror, carefully shaped by what we want others to believe about us. But a mirror can only show us the surface. It cannot reveal the fears that weigh upon us, the worries that keep us awake, or the joy and hope that quietly live within us. It shows us the face we present to the world, but never the story behind it. What is the truth? Perhaps ...

  “Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery. If there’s the hundredth part of a false note in speaking the truth, it leads to a discord, and that leads to trouble. But if all, to the last note, is false in flattery, it is just as agreeable, and is heard not without satisfaction. It may be a coarse satisfaction, but still a satisfaction. And however coarse the flattery, at least half will be sure to seem true. That’s so for all stages of development and classes of society.”   Fyodor Dostoevsky

  “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” Albert Einstein