Re Panopticum: the point is that you don't need effort to control people when they internalize the control. Cherish it.

This concept is an excellent opportunity for anyone with an interest in tossing people around. Marketeers, politicians, anyone who isn't / can't be completely honest with himself and you.

Who resists these temptations?

very good, emil!

the only people who can resist these temptations are those who have evidence in their own lives that believing in goodness, and aspiring towards it, will eventually bring you closer to what you dream, than grabbing what you can from life with no thought for your neighbour.

too many people learn this too late, the hard way.

after a long life of abusing one's matrix, it matters little to turn around at the end, when you are feeble, the damage is done...

it can be learned very early, if the child's innate goodness is not warped by the world around, and it is given enough examples of positive feedback to internalise, enabling sovereignty, empowering the person to trust in truth, even when it seems to be counter-intuitive.

eventually you connect the dots, in my case it took most of my life to expunge the residue from arbitrary authoritarianism, and the learned helplessness it engenders.

my children fared much better, because i put a lot of energy in sheltering them from the type of zero-sum thinking and cognitive dissonance i was exposed to as a child, consequently their integrity is natural, not affected as a virtue.

childhood psychology and wise education, not just instruction, especially in emotional intelligence, would be the fastest, most energy-efficient solution to all the grief in the human condition, i have as-close-to-absolute-as-can-be faith in that.

israeli and palestinian children are not born despising 'the other', they are taught to by ignorant adults, mired in the hatreds of the past.

given just two generations of appropriate education, i bet even that hoariest of enmities could be dissolved.

i saw 'zeitgeist', and enjoyed it, in spite of the slight 'history channel' vibe and slightly gaudy, over-the-top colours and presentation, the message of myths being recursive was a profound one.

well worth seeing, imo...up there with 'the corporation' and 'masters of money'.

welcome back, nice to see you diarying again!

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~