Join the new world

At the conclusion of the lecture series, honorary certificates and degrees will be issued by Professor Williams based on responses provided in the comment sections of each lecture. Participation counts. Indicate "attendance" by leaving a brief comment. Higher degrees will be awarded in alignment with the degree of critical thinking, mindfulness and humor exhibited by responders.

You are not Phoenix Quinn

Non-sequiter. No points for you.

try harder

Good ol days are back!

20 of these? It seems a lot, but this first one is gold!

Well, you have to take the word of a smoking baby.
I'm in!

Maybe it’s a genetic disease my family carries, or maybe it’s just observational learned behaviour from my mother, aunts and grandmother but I seem incapable of following instructions without questions. Sometimes these are simple clarifications. Sometimes these are more fundamental, like the “but why?” toddlers love to ask. Other times they border on the rude, such as “are you high?”

I am distracted now, thinking about how much we can all benefit by emulating little kids... Questions! Questions important. Questions to authority figures are more important. If the answer is unsatisfactory then don’t just smile and nod like a knowing idiot. Ask another question. In my (long but not long enough yet) life I’ve learned that if I’m wondering about something, then at least one other person in the room is wondering th same thing. Be brave and speak up!

Too often people conflate blind obedience to authority with patriotism. In the end, it may well be those who question (which may be read as "rebel" by said authorities) who truly love their countries. The blindly obedient show a lack of faith that things may be better than they are now.

A true professor makes it difficult to learn. 😉

I have never a blind follower. I have almost exclusively swum upstream. Always question Authority.

YOU ALL OBEY, YOU OBEY THE PIG-RULES FROM THAT NASTY TRASH-FORUM, YOU OBEY BATTLER ORDERS COMING FROM THE DOUBLE-FACED ELITISTS, YOU OBEY, DAY IN, DAY OUT.

YOU ARE SERVANTS TO AN EVIL SYSTEM!



DID THE REVOLUTION EAT IT'S OWN CHILDREN?

No, YOU ARE DOGS LOYAL TO YOUR MASTER, YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF EVEN GRASPING THE MEANING OF THE WORD!


R E V O L U T I O N starts in your M I N D !


❤

Holy sh:t.
You really are crazy

Wow.

You go Girl!

In a sky full of people only some want to fly
Isn't that crazy
In a world full of people only some want to fly
Isn't that crazy
Crazy
In a heaven of people there's only some want to fly
Ain't that crazy
Oh babe Oh darlin'
In a world full of people there's only some want to fly
Isn't that crazy
Isn't that crazy Isn't that crazy Isn't that crazy
Oh
But we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy crazy
No we're never gonna to survive unless we are a little crazy
But we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy crazy
No we're never gonna to survive unless we are a little crazy
No no never survive unless we get a little bit
And then you see things
The size of which you've never known before
They'll break it
Someday
Only child know
Them things
The size
Of which you've never known before
Someday

That is Phil H., fully liberated from all boundaries.

Trust no one, not even yoursmellf.

I will attend each lecture without hesitation.I will treat each subject as though it is natural law and thus is beyond questioning. There, how did I do?

I would expect much better from the one that rebelled against the dictatorship and showed our community the path to democracy and freedom!
❤

Phil your lack of understanding sarcasm is impressive.

hasta siempre

Ice tea

One has to wonder how the idea of anticipatory obedience plays into the concept of determinism as postulated by Skinner in "Beyond Freedom and Dignity". Perhaps anticipatory obedience is not necessarily done out of choice, but out of a predetermined way to avoid pain or punishment. Moreover, and more threatening, is the use of incentives to create a mindset of obedience within the individual. This use of incentives allows for the more effective reward than punishment scheme, as a reward is done to desired actions, and punishment only stops a certain action. Thus, it is more useful for tyrants to have a willing populace, a la Brave New World, than one based on fear. This is why, even in tyrannies like North Korea, the use of propaganda is much more effective than their punishment programs. The combination is what creates the truly dystopian society we so fear, both the repressive punishments and willing slavery.

In a deterministic mindset, is there a way for us to truly avoid tyranny? We must first accept that the tyranny of our operant conditioned brains is futile to resist, but this does not mean we are not able to rebel against human tyranny. The way to change our predetermined notions and fears is to incite new knowledge, this new knowledge will inevitably change the outlook of a citizen, and therefore allow him to be particular to freedom as we know it. This is why in response to propaganda, we must create information. In response to lies, we must incite believable truths. Tyranny is not so much of an outside force, but a force created from within the mind. Tyrannical systems of government do not have truly binding power, rebellion is always possible. Rather the minds of those oppressed create the fear of punishment and longing for rewards that allow tyranny to take place.

In short, information and incentives create tyranny, and are the only ways to truly oppose it.

The same can be said for checking off boxes on all the candidates for one party on a ballot just because you are voting with your party. Knowing nothing of the person you just voted for, having done no research of your own.