Self-knowledge

If you try to become friends with yourself or get to know yourself, it can be like trying to become friends with a drunkard or a slippery careerist. 

Don't call yourself out. It only creates trouble. It's like calling out a narcissist or a psychopath. They won't change. Try grey rocking instead and lower your expectations.

Small-town mentality

Social media has made the small-town mentality global: gossip, superstition, narrow-mindedness, intolerance, and reactionary resentfulness.

Delusions, illusions, and mistaken beliefs exist; they are created in the brain alongside sensible and rational reasoning; they are made of the same substance.

Think of an upright, average German man in the late 1930ies. He sees the world as it is, not as it should be. What would such a man arrive at, do you think?

Or, imagine sitting in a night bus on your way home, and a bunch of drunk neonazis get on. Would you tell them that they're stupid and misguided? Of course not. You would shut up and hope that they don't notice you.

By the same token, small countries can not oppose the US will. The US is today's Roman Empire.

History repeats itself. The fall of Babylon, the fall of Rome, and today we are witnessing the downfall of the US empire. But these days, we have nuclear arms.

Physicists ask: What is the origin of the universe? Is there life on other planets? What is an electron made of? They devote their lives to finding answers to such questions. They don't ask: Why are we destroying our planet? Why are we killing each other? What's wrong with us?

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021. It cost 10 billion dollars to build. And it can look 13.6 billion light-years distant. Very few people care about what was happening that far away that long ago. We care about what is going on here on Earth at this time. The James Webb telescope project is a boondoggle. It's time to wake up from all this technological boys' play, spaceships, and aliens. It's like the girls' unicorns and rainbows but much more expensive.

Japanese soldiers were stationed on isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. They were under strict orders never to abandon their positions and never to trust fake news and propaganda from the enemy. Some held the positions for several decades after the end of the war.

Do you believe that God created the world? Do you believe that God rules the lives of men? Do you think five-year-olds get bone cancer because he wants to teach them a lesson?

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

You are not what you think you are; you have been duped. The world doesn't work the way you think it does. You are like a deceived husband who believes his wife has gone to Paris with her sister.

You don't know how the universe works. You don't know how your mind works. You don't know what will happen to you when you die. You don't even know why you are here right now, reading this. All you can do is speculate.

The horse does not need the rider; it's the rider who needs the horse.