The school system

Todays article will be about our school system and the negative impact it has on us. At least on some people.

My mum told me today on how the kids in school where she works aren't allowed to wear caps and how she feels that she can't justify why they can't when she gets asked.

It is a great example on how the school system is a system built to domesticate us that I believe once was good for some but is now not conducive anymore.

From the perspective of the "domesticated" i.e. most adults. They are only alive to a 20%. They've been so domesticated over a lifetime. They are following scripts these days. Someone on a high level decided that caps shouldn't be allowed in school. The rule has no meaning. No more meaning than to teach children to obey and follow rules. There's no reason to it. The only one would be that a child looks like someone with attitude with a cap on and that is frightening to adults. Adults don't want to be frightened.

You make a rule on the highest level and then you have all your servants enforce these rules. No one can make anything about it because it's orders from up-stairs.

From the kids perspective: The kid is really happy, running around, screaming and finding out things. Then someone tells him to take his cap off. He gets confused when no one can answer his question about why he's not allowed to wear his cool cap on. He doesn't want to mess up his happy mood and aliveness by having someone being angry at him. He takes his cap off and becomes a bit defensive and feels a bit down. Just a bit more dead.

Next time he's told something, he's much more likely to obey "out of habit". Putting in rules just to have people obey domesticates them and kills their spirit. After 20 or so years most spirits are now so crippled and angry that they take it out on the younger generations. Killing their spirits as well.

If we would enforce these rules with love instead of power there wouldn't be a problem. The thing is that we do it with force all the time. When you do things with love instead of with force your outcome is so much better. Think of a dog that's been battered in love vs. a dog who's been raised with punches and anger, the poor dog is always so anxious that he can hardly stand on four legs and barks like a madman at everything. The dog that's been battered in love is the worlds most happiest and loyal dog.

So which way are kids treated in school?

That's an important question.

The tricky thing is that you can't enforce a rule for teachers that says "treat children with love and respect". It stems from how much love these teachers or parents have inside themselves. We got to have compassion for these teachers and parents for they themselves have been punched and bullied so much so that the love they have inside of themselves is so small if even recognisable. They are suffering and their dysfunctional minds are now oppressing others. Blaming them would be the equivalent to blame a cactus for not speaking back when you're trying to hold a conversation with it.

I believe love is the only thing that will change this world. Just look at the craziness that Jesus, Gandhi and Mandela managed to accomplish. That was not with force, that was with love. Everyone has love in themselves, in some it's tiny like a few atoms and in others the love is very strong. For example Gandhi who elevated a whole country to achieve an incredible positive change for so many.

ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on

Consumer society

So last night I read up on what has happened in Sweden, the yearly riot has happened in the suburbs of Stockholm. 350 cars have been burnt and it's all a mess. It's easy to condemn the young people who did it. It was mainly immigrants, the people are angry and make statements such as - that they should be thankful that Sweden let them in. I've myself have been young and there were a few riots when I was younger.

I think many kids growing up are pissed off. We're so filled with energy but there's not much to do. It's very regulated and we weren't born for that, it turns into a clash in our brains. I'm talking about young guys here. They were meant to go hunting and come home with bruises and cuts, exhausted after 3 days in the forest. That's where you got your honor. This is something innate in guys and we die for chance to prove ourselves.

Now in 2013 there are absolutely no ways to prove yourself. I mean you can become the next counter-strike champion (and many do) but it doesn't touch guys as deep as real life action does. Sports work for many but for many it isn't enough. They look to adults and see how asleep many of them are and despise them and society.

You see there are no ways for these youngsters to grow up. Boys need great challenges to grow up. Society doesn't provide any paths these days. Military service is something really good for many men. Because it's still strict. You can't behave however you like. You get sent home or sent to jail. Which is good because society has become so pathetic at setting rules for their members. That's what growing up is about, getting rid of your un-orderly behavior. It might not make sense but if you think about it what is life about?

The whole universe is going towards disorder or higher and higher entropy if you prefer physic terms. But humans actually have free will and can move towards order. I see that as the deepest meaning to life. I feel for you if you don't agree but rules that remove dis-order are actually good. What if we had a soccer game with no rules. Would it be fun to play if the other team could bash your head in at any second or some big guy picked the ball up and ran away with it? NO, the game would be boring as hell.

That's why we have rules in society. It's good to give people cookies when they do good things but we have to be able to punish people when they express disorderly behavior because what if they are full and don't want cookies. This has worked out naturally and well for such a long time in human society's but has now broken down and no one knows what's right or wrong.

The best would obviously be if everyone was spiritually developed enough so there was no need for authority but as the world is; most people live on a spectrum where they need to obey to authority.
The prison inmate will need to have lots of limits on himself as will a 10 year old boy. But the person in authority should always guide and remove disorder so the person can move up on the scale and eventually not need authority as they have reached a level where it's just not necessary and they and everyone are better off without it.

People like having rules, people need rules so they know what's okay and not. But the authority that's setting the rules needs to always strive to remove and increase the freedom of the people when they are mature enough to handle it. That's why a person or state in authority have such a big responsibility.

Example 1. Your kid is 7yrs and he wants ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Do you consider him and adult and let him do as he wants? No, you tell him ice-cream is once a week only - Saturdays

The kid doesn't know what's best for him and has very little freedom. But you can see that the limitation is coming from a good place because eating ice-cream 3x a day would cause him harm.
You remove disorder from him.

But our society has become a bunch of kidults. Because we haven't grown up and instead of turning into a man or woman at 19-20 it happens at 35 if at all. It will happen later and later. Because growing up is uncomfortable. And our society has been hypnotised into consumer mode.

Things were pretty slow huh...

There is so much talk about obesity epidemics, sky rocketing divorce rates, increasing unhappiness, loneliness, consumerism, increasing crime rates, radical feminism, rape and global warming.

We try to fix these problems separately which is good but where does this stem from?

I've been reading quite a lot and then been letting my subconsciousness piece everything together to get to a common determinant. And I think I've come up with one big determinant. It may go deeper than this but this is as deep as I've gotten so far.

In the 1930's Freud discovered our deepest fears and needs. Processes that were in-programmed in our brains a long time ago and made us survive back in the cavemen days, things like our craving for sugar and our status seeking behavior. So Sigmund Freud found this out and Edward Bernays realized that with this information we could control the free thinking masses, by getting to human's deep fears and desires it's possible to control them. Make them addicted and they will do what you say.

So this started in the 30's what I can remember. Paul Mazur, a Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers in the 1930s, is cited as declaring "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs".

So by making you into an addict in your early years you will forever be an addict seeking endless of highs and be bored with anything else. This is actually real stuff that was invented however mean it is. This beautiful documentary lays it all out of how it was done

It's 4 hours and absolutely top notch stuff on how it all went down. It didn't used to be like this. We're consumers of the highest degree the world has seen so far. We consume music, food, friends, clothes, shopping, relationships. All to get the next high! Because doesn't it feel good to buy the next pair of shoes...it feels so good...for about 2 days.

And what about the fact that quality isn't something that's valued anymore?
Do you know in Norway there is a law that says that you can get your money back if any electronic gadget breaks within 5 years from buying it. They enforced the law because manufacturers intentionally made crappy stuff that would break before their time so they could sell another mobile telephone.

Crazy very crazy. It's hard to see these things. Because we're just like that frog that would jump out of the boiling water quickly but if you leave him in the water and heat it up slowly he wont notice and he will die as the water starts to boil.

Okay so that is what has happened to us in the 20th century but what has happened in the early 21st century is that internet has really hit home. Now this is consumer society x10. I've met some young people that are so addicted to their phone because it beeps 24/7. They are unable to keep any conversation for longer then a few minutes.

When you start your way on an addiction your brain changes. Everything seems boring, lull and meaningless except to have certain parts of your brain fire up with the help of neurochemicals

Now I bet you could figure out the fact that a cocaine users brain would change pretty quickly. But you know the addiction to good food, shopping, consumerism, superficial relationships and facebook are pretty similar to something seen in cocaine users (that's purely on observation by the way). And when society push people to become addicts from a very early age you have a problem. Or if you're a really mean man or woman you see the opportunity to easier manipulate people for your own good??!

Anyways my reasoning here is that most people in the western society are trapped as addicts and that's why we're seeing all of these problems that I talked about in the beginning hint unhappiness. Everyone is guilty of enjoying some consumerism here and there but the scary thing is that on one knows that it's turning them more and more into addicts.

Quantity over quality - consumerism
The quick buck - crime

I think that other cultures quickly will follow in the foot steps of the Western world. Saudi Arabia has a reported 62% divorce rate. China and India will start to consume more and more as their middle class grows. Companies are more then ready to supply the people with stuff to buy and change the masses into addicts that love the high you get as an addict.

It's so unbelievable if you think about it, they found out our deepest weaknesses and then decided to use them and turn us into junkies the best they could. Maybe there wasn't any other way, I don't know.
I brilliant short book is written on the topic and it's so good that I instantly ordered another 3 copies and sent to my family to make sure everyone of them read it after I was done with it.
It's Mastery by George Leonard
If you have the slightest interest in any of this, read it! READ IT! It's one of the best books I've read and I've read over 200 books in the last couple of years.

I don't know what can be done about the consumer society, it's hard for addicts to understand the peacefulness that can be have by not having an addiction. By not having the craving for yet another high. And only god knows what will happen to us as humans as addiction is being put on turbo with the new iphone/ultra consumerism/addictionism.

Although I don't believe in religion per se I think it made a very good job in instilling morals and values in people. There were probably some very clever guys back then that realized this same thing and did the best they could with what they had. I will not comment about the result but I think their intentions for humans were very good. I think it's up to the individual to pull them self up and I think humans have this inclination but right now society is in war with these inclinations. Society makes it harder and harder to get rid of your addictions and rise above them.

Peace

Rumbling and tumbling

I was in Thailand around Christmas and did a few workouts, so when I got back to Perth I signed up for Brazilian Jiu jitsu. I did Japanese jiu jitsu for a few years when I was a youth and then almost a year of BJJ in my teens.

I just got back from a rolling session at another club. It's Saturday and a competition is coming up so schools hook up with each other so that everyone can have a feel of each other. Sitting by the sideline is like being 7yrs and sitting at the school yard.

Everywhere you see big grins and friendly hand shakes. As soon as you get in you know people.

All the animals rumble around with each other

Even cells rumble and tumble

I wonder when human stopped play fighting. Research even shows clearly that kids that get rough-housed by their parents are less prone to develop ADHD. And you know why? It's because rough-housing develops your brain.

You don't run the risk of someone pulling your hair, bashing a rock in your head or something like that, there are many rules to it. And you would be surprised at what kind people are doing it. Guys, girls, skinny, fat, old, young. And you go against everyone.

It would be the best rehabilitation for dementia, depression, anxiety, anorexia, stress or anything you could think off. If your kid (boy or girl) is having any problem in school or is having any new spectrum disorder, send him to a bjj school and your boy or girl will be turned into a man or woman. He will start to behave much better because he actually get to move around with other people a few hours a week.

The only downside would be that when you try to rough-house him, he might trap you in an armbar.

Do no fall in the trap into thinking it's just a guy thing. There were plenty of girls there today. I think the most important thing is to go there to have fun and learn and rumble around. But that's with everything in life, you got to enjoy the process instead of trying to get the black belt i.e. the end result. I think we're so hypnotised into getting to the end NOW, that we forget that the best thing was actually using your senses and doing it.

A school here in Aus recently banned children from doing handstands, cartwheels and somersaults.
Jeez...I know this is extreme but it's where we are going and I laugh everyday at all the craziness that's going on.

They've made the legal system to such a big thing here (2nd to US) that people always have to watch out. It doesn't cost anything to sue people, the lawyers have a No Win/No Pay deal. Haha listen to that, that's even funnier, so some bum that hasn't done anything in his life can order a coffee at McDonalds and burn himself on it and make 10million dollars or however much it was, what a joke.

Rant over, life's v good over here. Not like everyone's else but I've made it myself. You can always feel sorry for yourself because this or that circumstance, you are where you are and doing what you're doing. Compared to others it might be better or worse but you are where you are, enjoy your time and slowly improve in life.

Read good books - they are compressed kryptonite

My eating habits

People are usually surprised that I've been eating the same thing every day for 2.5 years now.
It was 2.5 years ago that I decided to start training and change my eating habits for real.

I realise that there were quite a few different views on the topic of food and diets.
Actually I love the world diet because everyone who is or have been on a diet hates that word I've noticed.

//

Before I change my habits I ate a little bit of everything. Some cheap pork with spaghetti...some of this and some of that. And I had to think about what I was going to eat tonight and so on. Sometimes I forgot or procrastinated and got super hungry and ran off to get pizza. I wasn't fat or anything but the most annoying thing was that I didn't enjoy food and a lot of my brain capacity went to thinking about food.

My criteria for my new food habits was this

1. Had to be healthy stuff and a minimal amount of carbs if I wasn't training (add carbs if training)
2. I did not want to have to think about food. I used to think about the next meal and how many times I'd eaten today or if this was too unhealthy - NO MORE any of that
3. I wanted it to take a minimum amount of time to prepare.
4. To taste good

I also read up on the 8 hour window theories and research and I gave that a try. That was great. Common wisdom is that one should have a big breakfast as soon as one wakes up. I've always had porridge when I woken up. I think that's good because as a kid it's not as easy as it is now to change things around. To eat breakfast at 12am just feels so natural to me. I don't have to sit there at 7am and down that breakfast when my stomach is smaller then my fist. Around 12am I get naturally hungry. Another big plus is that it's much easier to not over eat because you just don't have enough time to do it.

A normal day for me would look like

12am
Bake

4pm
Bake

7pm
Nuts, berries and yogurt

9pm
popcorn and milk (if I'm training)

The bakes is consisting of...
1kg chicken
1kg kangaroo minced meat
500g bacon
500g cheese
500g broccoli
300g mushrooms
1 squash
3 eggs + 300grams thickened sour cream
Black pepper and extra hot chilli sauce

I make the bake once a week so it's always ready and does not require any preparing time then microwaving. I can make it in 30min and the cost is 38$
I love it and it seems like I can't get enough. When I'm at home I put some sour cream in there and eat it out of taco breads. I usually eat the bake with 1 or 2kg of sweet potatoes as well.

Boring?  NO! I love it. Even if I eat the same thing every day I get a lot of variety every day and best of all, I don't have to use up processing power thinking about food.

A theory about raising children

I hereby say that the world is not as good as it could be and that lots of people go through un necessary suffering, anxiety and depression. I think we all can agree on that one. 

Our brain has two halves to it, the right side and the left side.

The RIGHT side is

Looking at the whole

Loving and caring

Feels connected with everything

It's the side that artists use when they draw and paint and create

The right side is also very neglected in western society. There is almost no focus on drawing or creativity. So the left side is very dominant in people in these days.

The LEFT side is

Making you feel like you're distinguished from the everything else

Good for abstractions

Math and science and following instructions

Jill Bolte said some very interesting things in this video

When you don't have a left side but only your right, you feel a connectedness and love for all there is yada yada yada...

Too bad then the educational system is on a crusade against the right side. The right side thinks independently of culture, rules, laws. It acts on instinct, it may even be your being.

The left brain has some excellent talent, it can follow instructions really well.

I understand why the educational system is in a war against the right brain and keeps pushing the left side to grow big. Because what would happen if people came to their senses?

And realised that all cultural and religious mind stuff is secondary to experience itself?

It would be way harder to control the masses, that's for sure. 

But maybe it's time...

Everyone says this is up to the individual but I think the government be a part of this. If they changed it up a bit. Waited with abstract thinking till children are around 11years old and ready for it and let them experiment and be kids, creating and cultivating a right brain side before we got into all the abstract left sided thoughts....

Just some quick food for thought

Bedtime over here in Australia

2012/2013

2012 is almost over...

Last night I came back to Perth after 5 weeks of work/traveling.

It was so important for me to get away from the small university bubble I usually live in. To meet people with a completely different view of the world and to see their side of things as well as sharing mine has been amazing. It made me realise again how lucky I'm but also that life should be about fun and not taking yourself too seriously.

I meet this wizard who was probably 65 years old with white hair. He had been traveling non-stop for the last 25 years. Before that he had been very successful in setting up businesses in Ibiza. He was very down to earth and recommended a few places that I should travel to. Goa, the Masai people in Africa and South America. It almost got a bit emotional when I left and said good bye.  

He also taught me that I should listen to myself and do the things I wanted to do without listening too much to everyone else. He was also a lot into enjoying the moment and how people are working themselves to death, saving for their pension but they might be dead in a heart attack before that. I think goals are very important as well and I'm sure this guy is not JUST living in the moment. Interestingly I read in a book recently about two guys that had performed some serious research about heart attacks. 90% of people with heart attacks before 60 years of age is people with a type A personality. I think that if you live a stressful life you actively should try to flush the cortisol out of your body everyday. 

That is possible, a book has been written on the topic, it's called the relaxation response. It's about doing 20min of relaxation, 'meditation' or prayer everyday. I did quite a lot of that in Thailand, it was good for me. I also picked up drawing. It's like being in another dimension when you draw. Sometimes I sat for more then 2 hours completely focused on the thing I drew. 

Well I met a whole bunch of people from all over the globe which is always very interesting. Some alcoholics and they always have these crazy stories. Me and my good old wizard friend discussed this and we came to the conclusion that people should not talk too much about things they hadn't experienced themselves and we had a good laugh because that would mean that in the beginning of life you could only listen and not talk so it didn't make sense but there's something to it and we both sensed it. It's a shame I didn't take a picture of the man but picture Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.

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This is the first morning in India and no this is not something special this is what they look like.

You see the turban he is wearing, that's because he is a sikh. If I got things right there is a class system in India from the upper class with priests down to the untouchables which have nothing. Then you have the Sikh's which are outside of the system. They are the "morally right" people. I saw this straight away on his demeanour in how he stopped traffic and dominated his environment. Anyways if you ever have troubles in India such as you don't want to pay a taxi or you crash into someone, snatch one of these guys and they might be able to sort things out for you.

This is us in the mornings, loading the cars to go out to different schools to treat. We lived in a missionary as you can see. Amazing to see how the Fathers gave it all to help other people and to be of service. They didn't really have any amazing chest of gold to go home to and eat good food. Their lives had one mission and that was to help others. Touching.

This is how you sat, Andrew had to spread his legs for the driver to be able to shift gears. Personal space is something that doesn't exist in India.

 Me on the first day with Linkan Ray and Chandan Barman.

 Me and Josh in the slum

 These are the kids of people from Bangladesh. They come to India to break rocks. They sit in the sun and literally break rocks with a hammer. The smaller rocks makes good cement and the like. 

It looks like hard work but then again maybe it ain't too bad being with your family and friends hacking away at rocks in the sun. Maybe it's worse making lots of money but you're away from family and friends in an office for 90% of the day?

 Us at Baghdogra with our fabulous translators 

The school bus

Mount everest 5:30 AM

 Me, Ruhi and Oscar up in a monastery for monks. Played some hacke-sack with them. They won. 

 This is a random stop in the mountains with some Nepalese kids

Me and Josh looking good in front of the holy mother

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Then I arrived in Thailand...

 My secret beach

 Twice I did the 2 hour trekk though the jungle, it was warm

 Jungle monkey

 Down there is where we came from

The Muay Thai Champion

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I also read and finished 4 books.

Pulling your own strings

It's great to be humble but not on the cost of letting other people slap you around.

Sex at Dawn

Read on your own risk, this is a great book. But not if you don't want your reality on the human psyche chattered.

My Big TOE (Theory of everything)

Another mind bender. This is not a book for the closed minded. It may be the next big paradigm shift in thinking but in that case it will take a couple of years because he's a head of his time. Then again all great scientists and explorers were ahead of their time. Be open minded but skeptical. Open minded to not miss out on stuff but skeptical to not get sucked into things that will waste your time.

Zlatan

His autobiography. 

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Now I'm off to get some New Years Resolution scribbled down and get ready to tackle my last year of University - unreal. Let's have some fun in the last year.

Being a gardener

Sharing a bit of wisdom today...

Having a girlfriend is very similar to having a piece of land where you grow veggies.

If you water it regularly soil it once a year and pick all the weeds that are growing in it you will have plenty of good tasting veggies.

However if you don't pluck the weeds and don't water it regularly your piece of land will turn into...

Some people call this a bitch. But remember that it might have been your fault for not taking care of your piece of land. 

If your girlfriend has turned into a bitch over the years. See her as that piece of land. It will take lots of work, probably a few seasons (read years) if it's grown over a long time. You just got to pluck the weeds. i.e. force her to tell you what's up and then deal with it, water regularly and soil once or twice a year.

Are you going to man up and take care of the piece of land you own or are you just going to keep neglecting it? Up to you brother