| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/4/2008 8:33:57 PM | I have a valid question: Where are the great and original thinkers of our time? Where is our Albert Einstein, Kalhil Gibran, or William Blake? Where is our Plato, Socrates or Solon?
He or she and their potential remain unutilized within the constraints of a society that has no room for them. Their efforts dormant or unrefined by the entertainments and indulgences we abuse.
Video games and television distract our William Blake’s from the purposes that torture beneath the surface. Fast food and a promiscuous culture have dulled our Kalhil Gibran’s. Our Michelangelo’s and Da Vinci’s are more likely to be smoking a joint whilst drawing anime cartoons to their favorite Coldplay album; as opposed to orchestrating visionary images on walls and ceilings.
Our society does not suffer for it.
This unit of society functions with or without anyone of us utilizing our potential, without any of us challenging and strengthening an individual creativity. I believe this society actually does work better when we do not achieve anything of value. Relevant and innovative thoughts and actions can be perverted and utilized out of the realm of their former intention, which is fine if there was some good involved. But there never truly is any good involved. Things run more smoothly if there is no true good involved.
That is fine.
Those of us who continue onward will remain hidden; dissociated and subdued. Most of us find lighted flames within us extinguished long before we ever become effective. Laying before us is the choice to march with all the rest, slumbering and moving, or die trying to be effective. Some find it too great a burden. How does one ignore what seemed to be purpose? Emptied of what we believe to be purpose, the shell which we did inhabit is crushed by moving mass of slumbering (yet moving) shells. Pounded into submission by marching footsteps, the pieces can never be rebuilt and the damage done impossible to rectify. What has become did wound and wrong the Thinker, and soon the desire may leave the rest of us. We may never invest energies beyond our own reach. We may ignore the desire to create and give forth what we know to be of value.
Take away all the distractions and the world is brighter than the electronic screen, the emotions deeper than any script and any death and any violence then bares more gravity. With gravity does come the up and down swings, the highs only as decent as the lows. Greater than anything we can fabricate and transmit. But we have since slipped into a constant, a neutrality or grayscale, where we can twist any which way and it really has no consequence. So why waste our time feeding stomachs that cannot swallow what we fashion. The gorging must be constant to keep the previous lie resting calm in dark recess.
So all our lives will be spent waiting for some great thinker. But no one is coming, as we are all dead and moving to rhythms which we did not design. All our lives are spent before we arrive. Unless, that is, one stands up and leads us through the open door that remains unguarded. The roads are long and in all honesty there is no pay off. So how can any entice one to follow, lest the totality?
An old nursery rhyme comes to mind. My little sleepy sheep, if I leave you to wander, will you come back to where I am? | |
|
| |
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/5/2008 6:27:19 AM | Ah, yes Hawking, that completely validates my point. A terribly debilitating disease seperates him from a society which I condemn in my trite and prosey rant.
He is a fine thinker, considered to be the most intelligent individual alive. If he had not this inhibiting condition, where would he be, what would he be doing? If you know much of the man we can predict his life would have less successful or uneventful, the disease changed the direction and purposes he sought. He may have become a brilliant teacher with a drinking habit at the very most.
Now he remains locked inside himself, cut off from society. Revolution and revelations made by one man's potential then ripple outward.
Imagine if we were all individuals. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/5/2008 9:22:24 AM | Well get to it man. Burn you're computer. Move to Alaska. Become a genius.
It's as easy as 1-2-3. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/5/2008 2:49:35 PM | Here's a list for you. Note that the second highest is a bouncer! lol.
"Hey Moose!"
Physicist / Engineer Kim Ung-yong has a verified IQ of 210
Bouncer Christopher Michael Langan has a verified IQ of 195
Engineer Philip Emeagwali is alleged to have an IQ of 190
World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is alleged to have an IQ of 190
Author Marilyn Vos Savant has a verified IQ of 186
Actor James Woods is alleged to have an IQ of 180
Politician John H. Sununu is alleged to have an IQ of 180
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is alleged to have an IQ of 180
Mathematician Andrew Wiles is alleged to have an IQ of 170
World Chess Champion Judith Polgar is alleged to have an IQ of 170
Chess Grandmaster Robert Byrne is alleged to have an IQ of 170
World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer is alleged to have an IQ of 167
Mathematician / Physicist Stephen W. Hawking is alleged to have an IQ of over 160
Microsoft Founder Paul Allen is alleged to have an IQ of over 160
Actress Sharon Stone is alleged to have an IQ of 154
IQ doesn't mean smart, and I wouldn't hold Sharon Stone up to Einstein. But I bet he wouldn't mind. lol | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/5/2008 2:50:52 PM | Hawking is not cut off from society. He's a university professor, speaker, married with 4 children.
I often see great thinkers interviewed on Charlie Rose. They specialize in subjects that interest them, as Hawking does.
http://charlierose.com | |
|
| |
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/7/2008 6:48:34 PM | Most of those famous minds had to die to become recognized so we could have plenty of them with us and not know it.
There are some terrific writers around who are not philosophers or poets. A lot of this eras great thinkers seem to be political animals.
 | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/16/2008 7:18:33 PM | IQ isn't one measure of ones ability to think, alot of these philosophers had a high spiritual and emotional quotent as well.
TedTalks.com is a conference held with all the great minds of our generation, and they conduct their own little 20 minute talk about what they are challanging with the world, and how it will evolve.
If your looking for a speaker who talks for a strong sense of purpose, leadsership and the win/win, then maybe Dr. Stephen Covey is up your alley.
If you are looking for a guy who's going to spit out common sense, but in doing so, raises your own awareness of yourself and have you thinking thoughts you would have never thought other wise, then maybe Jim Rohn is your man.
Tony Robbins, also a very entertaining and motivating speaker.
Ok, maybe none of them created a strong movement into a better form of government, but their philosophies will eventually make way for the men and women of the new millenium, and eventually someones going to hit the nail on the hammer.
I'll quote this from TTC's "Philosophy of Mind"
"In the past 50 years, we have made physchological breakthroughs that we would have never thought possible, - infact, we are extreamly close in knowning how exactly the Brain works"
In Short: There are Billions of Books, Audio Books, Lectures, Speaches, anything.. There isn't just 1 Einstein, but millions of Einsteins out there that it's soo hard to just single out that truly unique one. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/16/2008 7:27:09 PM | Noam Chomsky.
Pierre Grimes.
Lloyd Gerson.
Bill Maher - although he is not an intellectual in the academic sense. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/16/2008 11:18:06 PM | IQ doesn't mean smart, and I wouldn't hold Sharon Stone up to Einstein. But I bet he wouldn't mind. lol
It doesn't, but it shows the potential that is there, problem being that there is a lot of people with a high IQ but no drive to put it to use.
smoking a joint whilst drawing anime cartoons to their favorite Coldplay album
Pot isn't really to bad for creativity and intelligence, I used to write computer programs while stoned, did it in college and scored way over the next person down from me (3 or 4 hundred points over). In some cases it's not so good, but others it forces you to study on just one point at a time, removing the complexity of a seemingly complex problem. Though I had to stop smoking the stuff, besides the cost, it did have a bad effect causing me to not comment my code, so now when I look over the code I have to step through it to figure out exactly what it's doing. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/20/2008 9:20:54 PM | | Our great and original thinkers are not just sitting at home smoking joints and listening to Coldplay or watching video games for the most part they are sitting in a corner bar or a pub of some sort drinking away there misery. Unfortunetly they do not recognize there own potential and if they are aware of it they are doing absolutley nothing to put there brilliant minds to work whether it be loss of imbition or just plan disreguard for there own talent. Implying that video games and television and such other useless distractions are what are keeping these rare individuals from coming forth with the thoughts trailing through there brains is crap, our Da Vinci's and our William Blakes remain hidden in the simple minds of our youth and in the minds of us who are to ignorant to notice our own brilliance. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:20:33 AM | I saw Richard Florida speak last week about the world's switch from an industrial society to a creative society.
He might go down in history as the sociologist who identified and coined this new revolution that is having such an impact on our lives. Not a philosopher, not a genius, not an inventor, but someone who was able to qualify a major shift in our society. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/22/2008 7:41:40 AM | I believe that we are all overstimulated and so immersed in our own little worlds that a truly great thinker would hardly be noticed. There seems to be a lack of critical thinking skills and discernment. We collectively fall for whatever scam comes along. If we all really thought for ourselves, most of the falsehoods perpetrated on us would never get the better of us.
The old saying, "you have to stand for something or else you'll fall for anything" springs to mind. But everyone is too preoccupied with their own petty little concerns to do anything effective so I suppose that we will continue to be lead around by the nose. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/22/2008 11:32:09 AM | | There are plenty of great thinkers alive and well, active and publishing. You can find them online, on TV, and at your local bookstore. I'm not sure what your post had to do with your question. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/22/2008 3:00:03 PM | | It wasn't my question. I don't suppose you would understand what my post has to do with the topic. But then you may very well fit the profile for the people that I was talking about. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/22/2008 3:03:43 PM | I wasn't addressing your post. I was addressing the topic and the original post. But you may well fit something. This calls for 
I dream of a day when content is judged not by the context of the self-important but by the thread in which it exists. I have a dream, I think. | |
|
| |
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/23/2008 7:10:57 PM |
Actress Sharon Stone is alleged to have an IQ of 154
small mercies, I might not be as rich as she is or as attractive ( relatively) but at least I have a higher IQ.
But hang on. what is IQ really. only a measure of potential.
So lets celebrate the achievers in the world and forget IQs | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/23/2008 8:13:22 PM | | Distraction is what you’re getting at isn’t it? (rhetorical) I feel your point very well. Yes, this society does seem to be overly complicating itself in many ways to distract us from what really matters. Like "Angelah7 "and "Last not Least" touch on, those that do know what’s missing tend to be buried within it also, as the ‘system’ that controls us and dictates us, hints to those that know of its true colours, the daily reminder, that they’re fighting a losing battle. Regarding "Paumanok’s" first post, they’re hiding - it’s a question of publicity, which is perhaps counterproductive to the grand financial system of things. Hence, a system of conformity, where abstraction and questioning have only a market value, allow artistic expression, and human emotion respectively as commodities, to remain nothing more than that. Which like your point "Nix1982", asks us where our species might be heading? (which doesn’t have to be rhetorical) Yes, if I may delve a little further, it appears we're becoming only a mentality that admires our own faults than to do anything about them, as that way, the climate we live in now favours to only marvel at its, and thus, our own paradoxes. I guess that's postmodernism for us. | |
|
| |
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/24/2008 10:30:26 PM | I apologize for posting such an idiotic rant, seems it is my way to drink and write these days. What I thought and how I presented it may have been two different entities entirely. Because of that we squandered precious time, evaluating and debating the rantings without yield.
Apparently, we must acknowledge that few of us will come to agreement with what constitutes a 'great thinker'. Some of my examples did not qualify and, unfortunately, only were utilized out of stylistic need rather than content; confusing definition at foundation.
Maybe I know little more than my empty glass, and should stay out of matters regarding the hoi polli.
Yes, I will take my thinking and HIDE it, I will neglect to think for a mass that seems kinetic yet hopeless. Hmmm . . .too subtle?
. . .where did I set my glass? | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/24/2008 10:41:58 PM | Yeah the world isn't as boring as it used to be. No time to stop and think. Only time to work and be entertained. And there is much work and entertainment to be had. 
Although since I started working a 45 minute drive away, I have found I think about things more. I don't even turn on the car radio when driving. Thinking is more fun. There was a bad time in my life where my only entertainment was my imagination. I think my imagination grew very chubby during that time. Now it's gotten an appetite. FeeD mE SeYmouR!! lol | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/25/2008 12:34:59 PM | | It was not an idiotic rant and nobody should EVER hide what they are thinking and it is very true that not everyone will agree with what constitutes a 'great thinker' for some it may be an individual who knows a lot about science and for others it maybe an individual who knows a lot about art there are a lot of 'great thinkers' amoung us and whether or not they come forth with there thoughts instead of hiding behind a bottle or a joint or a television or wasting precious time doodling on bar napkins or sketching a vision on a scrap peice of paper they are still blessed with brillant minds but it is there choice what they are going to do with what they were given, please don't think that your thoughts or opinions are idiotic never expressing ranting ideas is another way of hiding and that's what are 'great thinkers' have to stop doing. | |
|
| The Dreaming and Thinking . . .
Posted: 6/25/2008 1:18:49 PM | | There's more to us than meets the eye. Complicated is an expanding word in our times. It used to mean what it was used for. Nowadays, even the most simple things in life have a complication to some degree. Tasks that are to make your life easier for example - the designer clutter as I'd like to call it. I suppose I'm ranting now Nix1982, and expressing such frustration should steer us towards a higher clarity but distraction only closes the 'box' more often than not. What brings with this frustration though, is the fact that we pursue it via a higher emotional drive than most. And if I may, that's perhaps what the world is lacking today, as again, distraction can suppress a lot more than we would like to think. | |
|
Home
login 
