Best Wishes For 2021 (& Beyond)

I am no oracle, and thus, like so many others, I have to say that 2020 was not at all what I had expected it to be. Not even close. In fact, it forced me to confront human nature at its vilest, to the point where I often lost all hope in humanity.

But I am now reading Humankind by Rutger Bregman (a wonderful xmas present I just received), and I am more than willing to change my attitude. As Bregman remarks early on in his treatise, "our grim view of humanity is also a nocebo (1)." Meaning that, if we see our neighbors as dipshits ('scuse my French), they will be dipshits. A self-fulfilling prophecy that we would all, I think, wish to avoid.

It is the Law of Attraction in full effect. We get what we expect to get. "We are what we believe," Bregman states. "We find what we go looking for. And what we predict, comes to pass."

The problem is that we have been trained to be cynics, to view even kind acts as being conducted for selfish reasons at best (2). Interestingly (and alarmingly, I might add), when economics professor Robert Frank tested his students' generosity, he found that the longer they studied economics, the more selfish they became, and concluded that "[w]e become what we teach."

So instead of focusing on 1001 doomsday scenarios, I wish to shift my focus to more positive potential outcomes for our world instead. I want to believe that humans are more often than not kind to one another, that we all wish for things to be better for everyone, even if we don't always agree on the best way to get there. But we are still trying.

I believe that is the reason why the Hopepunk genre was created as well--instead of focusing on dystopian futures where technology allows the worst of our natures to be expressed as in Cyberpunk stories, for instance, Hopepunk novels show the good that could come of it (3). These are the types of messages I would like to focus on in 2021 and onward.

After all, I posit that the most powerful passage in the whole of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is when Jean Valjean is caught by the police after he stole a silver candleholder from a kind priest. But instead of turning him over to the authorities, the priest tells the cop that Jean Valjean actually forgot the second candleholder (they're a set), for he had given him both. It is a lie, but one that changes the main character's life and worldview around. And for the rest of the story he will strive to reciprocate that kindness with others.

Of course, this doesn't mean that remaining true to this new vision of the world will be easy. It's so much easier to be a cynic than to believe the best of people, just as it's easier to destroy than it is to build. But isn't it so much more worthy a quest?

Notes:

(1) Nocebo is the opposite of placebo. So if instead of giving you a fake pill telling you it's a drug that will cure you, and you thereby do heal from your illness, your Doc tells you she was mistaken and gave you something that makes you gravely sick, you are more than likely to get sick. That's how crazy powerful our mind is.

(2) The news (real and fake) is considered a "mental health hazard" which likes to play on our fears as it's the easiest way to boost viewers with dopamine hits (like cocaine!) that will make them keep watching for more . . . and therefore allow the news stations/services to rake in more dough. How many of us have caught ourselves doom-scrolling? This is the "mean world syndrome," and it leaves those who follow the news feeling sad, depressed, stressed out, and their hearts full of venom for others. I am guilty of this, too, for, with the advent of COVID-19, I ended up spending a lot more of my time checking the news than I used to. Not only tat, but the media is also a tool for controlling "the masses" that political arms love to use (though they don't like to admit to it, as the case with the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed) and has done so--and will continue to do so--for ages, so if we want to be rebels, the best would be to ignore the news as much as is safely possible, and instead focus on living as best we can while holding to high moral standards such as love and kindness.

(3) In this Tor.com article, you can read more about this relatively new genre that aims to refocus our zeitgeist from disillusioned and cynical (hence why we have so many anti-heroes in our TV shows and movies of late) to optimism and other positive traits. Interestingly, for those of you who enjoyed the BBC's most recent The Musketeers series, it was also the reason for the director to bring that series about--he wanted to bring back main characters who, despite their flaws, keep their hopes up, and try to be just and kind no matter how difficult things may get.

Meditation Powers On The Brain

Art by dandingeroz

I am currently reading (among, possibly, 20 other books...yeah, I need to work on that) Mind to Matter: The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality, and though I'm still quite at the beginning, I already have so much food for thought!

The book talks about the science behind how our mind and thoughts can alter physical reality, starting with our own brain. As part of the intro on this topic, it brings up an article written by Tang, Hötzel, & Postner in 2015, which I'll partially transcribe down here for you.

The article talks about an astrophysicist/journalist, Phillips, who decided to check how meditation would affect his brain, and test it medically (to convince his skeptical self should there really be any major effects):

By Robert Voight/Adobe Stock

"After just two weeks of practicing mindfulness meditation, Phillips felt less stressed and more able to handle the challenges of his job and life.;He reported that he 'notices stress but doesn't get sucked into it.'
Eight weeks later, he [went back] for testing. ... They found that he was better at behavioral tasks, even though he showed diminished brain activity. ... [H]is brain had become more energy efficient. ... His memory tests also improved.
His reaction time to unexpected events had been cut by almost half a second. (...)
One of the brain regions the researchers measured the hippocampus, ... and the part of [it] responsible for regulation emotion in other parts of the brain. ... They found that the volume of nerve cells in th[at part of the hippocampus] had increased by 22.8%.
...Such brain reconfiguration is occasionally seen in young people whose brains are still growing, but it is rarely seen in adults. (...)
[There is an] accumulation of a large body of evidence [that has] identified neural growth in 'multiple brain regions...suggesting that the effects of meditation might involve large-scale brain networks.'"

So reading this, I of course totally want to try it out (especially if meditation will allow me to get less angry at, say, loud neighbors that keep me up all night, or help me stay focused on my writing). Despite being terrible at sitting for long periods of time with nothing to do but focus on my breathing and whatnot.

BUT...

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

Meditation is a double-edged sword.

Indeed, meditation can exacerbate problems instead of helping us overcome them, particularly if we are already suffering from certain mental or personality conditions.

So instead of calming us down, meditation could instead "trigger anxiety, depressive episodes, or flashbacks to past traumas," and turn one more aggressive. In worse cases, it can truly make you lose your mind entirely, lose yourself and your identity entirely as "the boundaries of [your] ego dissolve," and push you towards suicide.

So, yeah. There's that too.

All of this does prove that meditation changes your brain, but whether it's for the better is not necessarily a given. And with my kind of writer's mind, I think I need to be careful. So for now I think I'll stick to what I know works for me, which is what I like to call "active meditation" or exercise (which I definitely don't do enough of, quite frankly).

Still, it is fascinating to see how much of an influence our thoughts have on our body, is it not?

Additional Sources:
When Mindfulness Goes Wrong
What Mindfulness Gurus Don't Tell You: Meditation Has a Dark Side

University Life - Paris, 13th century C.E.

It's that time of year again! The beginning of a new school year :)

As students start college, I'm reminded of my first semester at the University of San Diego. How overwhelmed and lost I felt, terrified of this new educational system I didn't know, of getting poor grades (many a tear was shed after computer science classes), and being forced to return to Belgium.

Thankfully, I had the help of some wonderful friends and even more wonderful professors, and thanks to them I learned to love learning.

So, for those of you wondering what's to happen to them on this new adventure of theirs, I thought this account of student life at the "model for northern European universities and the study of logic" might bring an interesting contrast (and perhaps some similarities?) to today's universities.

Almost all the students at Paris, foreigners and natives, did absolutely nothing except learn or hear something new. Some studied merely to acquire knowledge, which is curiosity; others to acquire fame, which is vanity; others still for the sake of gain, which is cupidity and the vice of simony. Very few studied for their own edification, or that of others. They wrangled and disputed not merely about the various sects or about some discussions, but the differences between the countries also caused dissensions, hatreds and virulent animosities among them, and they impudently uttered all kinds of affronts and insults against one another.

They affirmed that the English were drunkards and had tails; the sons of France proud, effeminate and carefully adorned like women.

They said that the Germans were furious and obscene at their feasts; the Normans, vain and boastful; the Poitevins, traitors and always adventurers.

The Burgundians they considered vulgar and stupid. 

The Bretons were reputed to be fickle and changeable, and were often reproached for the death of Arthur.

The Lombards were called avaricious, vicious and cowardly; the Romans, seditious, turbulent and slanderous; the Sicilians, tyrannical and cruel; the inhabitants of Brabant, men of blood, incendiaries, brigands, and ravishers; the Flemish, fickle, prodigal, gluttonous, yielding as butter, and slothful. 

After such insults form words they often came to blows.

I will not speak of those logicians before whose eyes flitted constantly 'the lice of Egypt,' that is to say, all the sophistical subtleties, so that no one could comprehend their eloquent discourses in which, as say Isaiah, 'there is no wisdom.' 

Don't both the teacher and students look so happy?!

As to the doctors of theology, 'seated in Moses' set,' they were swollen with learning, but their charity was not edifying. Teaching and not practicing, they have 'become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal,' or like a canal of stone, always dry, which ought to carry water to 'the bed of spices.'

They not only hated one another, but by their flatteries they enticed away the students of others; each one seeking his own glory, but caring not a whit about eh welfare of souls.

Have a wonderful school year and enjoy it all as much as possible (vacation time as well, if you can, trust me)!

Sources:
The Heritage of World Civilizations: Combined Volume (9th Edition)
Text: Translations and reprints from the Original Sources of European History, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Department of History, University of Pennsylvania, 1902)

The Origins Of The Samurai

During the Nara period, in the late 8th century, Japan shifted from conscripted armies (a concept that failed) to official troops whose taxes were remitted in exchange for military service.  The samurai remained the military force of Japan until the foot-soldier revolution of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The word samurai comes from the verb samurau, 'to serve.'

Learning Inception-Style

Now that school’s about to start (or has just started), I know many a student who will bemoan the fact that there’s going be waaaaaay too much material to learn; meaning lots and lots and lots of repetitive exercises until the lessons are well anchored in their neurons.

But according to some joint US and Japanese studies, it appears that some time in the future, students will be able to just download that knowledge into their brain:

“It can ‘incept’ a person to acquire new learning, skills or memory, or possibly to restore skills or knowledge that has been damaged through accident, disease or aging, without a person’s awareness of what is learned or memorized.”

However, don’t think you can just sleep on your schoolbooks and have the information seep into your mind just yet.  So far, the study’s only involved visual perceptual learning via the early visual cortex, but scientists believe that this type of learning might be applied to other areas of the brain as well.

As always, there’s a word of caution that accompanies such research:  be careful of how people end up using these methods—perhaps they’ll try to implant new memories inside you or brainwash you more easily so some Evil Mastermind will be able to ply you to do its bidding more readily!

Source:

NBC News