DrContrarian

  There is meme floating around social media that goes something like this: Think of how dumb the average guy is. Then realise that half the population is dumber than that. Whilst there is a level of smug superiority in that, there is also an element of truth. An IQ of 100 isn’t much intellectual horsepower. Not that great thinking is a prerequisite to all that matters, but by the same token the invention of mathematics, technological advancement and great art was probably not produced by the bottom half of the bell curve. Averages being what they are; gets us cultural norms that are, well, mediocre. And such is life. The people who created Facebook as a technological platform undoubtedly had well above average IQs. The platform has the potential to be and do amazing things, some of which we have experienced. But consider the average (normal) Facebook post and social experience. It’s about screaming goats on the one hand or people gloating about their breakfast o...

Acceptance Enjoyment Enthusiasm Stillness No-thingness

1. Reminiscence 2. Anticipation 3. Hope 4. Fear 5. Judgment 6. Possession

Knowledge is fossilised intuition. Love is built on a foundation of fear. Your senses bring the trouble. Pornography is a mirror, Art is a window. Passion is ignorance. Enjoyment requires the temporary suspension of reality. Fun is a requisite illusion (for sanity.) Hierarchy is a circle. Nothing is more important. Personality is the projection of consensus. All invention is rediscovery. The end is radical step change. Everything is natural. Happiness is not meant to be. Consequence is the shadow of living. Poetry is the language of pain. (Pain is the language of poetry…) Feelings are over-rated electrical connections. Equality is an error of measurement. Luck is being surprised by destiny. A path offers least resistance. You can only see as far as you can think. Greed is the fuel of the universe. Process determines outcome. All people are afraid. (Because we think more than we are.) Values are anchors of insecurity. An ounce of failure weighs more than an ounce of success. All the...

The biggest killer of success is success. (The fear of failure grows in direct proportion to what you have got to lose.) This Contrarian principle has a number of corollaries: Bigger is always worse Innovation leads to less innovation Growth leads to death If you think you disagree, just add (ultimately) to the end of each of the above. Such is Life.

In this little piece I can guarantee you complete happiness for long as you live. Follow one piece of advice and you will experience complete and total happiness – I promise. But let’s begin at the beginning: There is an age-old question: when is enough, enough? The glib answer is ‘never’. Or even glibber: ‘when it bleeds’. Or something like that. But jokes aside, how good are we at detecting when enough is enough? On a physical level it is pretty easy. Most people would have pain receptors to guide them through that one. On an emotional level it is probably harder, but still not too difficult. People generally are self-aware enough to know when they are happy or sad – and also when they are making someone happy or sad. On psychological level it is another story altogether: We are told from a very young age that we can be whatever and whoever we want to be. We are led to believe that we are free to do as we please. We are brainwashed into believing having fun is all that m...

Having grown up and lived in South Africa we are/were , possibly more than other nations, exposed to pain and suffering. Few us do not know a family who has not lost a loved one through rape or hijacking, or even just through the carnage on the road during festive seasons. The pain of such violent and seemingly unnecessary suffering is probably more severe than ‘normal’ pain. The Reach for a dream Foundation strives to alleviate the immeasurably sadness of children being terminally ill, apparently with some success. It always amazes and saddens me to see a skinny, bald-headed 7-year old exhilarated by a ride in a hot-air balloon; or a little deformed girl ecstatic about an opportunity to sit in the cab of a steam locomotive or the cockpit of a jet. The absolute, unmitigated, joy is so apparent, and they are so blissfully unaware of the profound sense of tragedy that permeates that scene. The late John Denver, well known for his soppy Country & Western ballads, phrase...