The power of imagination destroys a nation or saves it. Your mind holds the future of your personal life, and the life of these United States of America. We’ve seen imagination, tapped by entertainment, scuttle the values that built this magnificent republic. Can the willing suspension of disbelief turn the tide and redeem us all?
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12 replies on “Your Mind Holds the Future: How the Power of Imagination Destroys a Nation or Saves It”
An unexpected effect of my 2021 daily Bible reading program is discovering that I’ve lost my fear of the doom I imagine before us. And it’s not because I’ve convinced myself that this world is taking a turn for the better, instead, I’ve become more comfortable with the likelihood that it’s going to get worse. “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.” from Revelation chapter 22 ESV. We can allow our imagination to demoralize and immobilize or we can use it constructively to anticipate and prepare. “I have stored up your word in my heart . . . I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways . . . Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” from Psalm 119.
7 guitars, drum kit, and countless other instruments sitting on the floor behind Zo. Sitting quietly, static, silent. Think of the imagination it takes to get music out of those instruments. Not noise, but music, rhythm and melodies. An incredible about of positive imagination to make music or write lyrics. It’s not just “I want to build a dry cleaning shop”, although that’s good and positive, but I would have thought Bill would have given a nod to Zo on the imagination it takes to make music.
Then again,I’ll cut Bill some slack, for think of the imagination to write a Firewall, or a screenplay or come up with the hundreds of Afterburners, or Hot Mic, or Declaration Entertainment or Trifecta’s or Right Angles.
We’re fortunate to have found, and subscribed to see the results of such imaginations as displayed by Bill, Alfonzo and Steve and Scott.
Agreed and I am myself often astounded and in awe of people with that special quality of imagination we call “creativity”.
I’m an avid reader but I don’t think I have it in me to create a best selling novel. I’m an habitual listener to music but I know for a fact that I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket let alone create one (the tune, not the bucket, I’m pretty sure I could make a bucket).
People like Zo and Bill and Steve and Scott and all the others whose creativity they share with us are something to be truly grateful for. And considering the dearth of gratitude in the world that’s a fine thing, if people would only appreciate it.
ACTS, I’m with you. I could make the bucket for sure, from CAD to fabrication, and do some destuctive testing on it as well. But carry a tune?
As a young kid, mom made me take piano lessons. That lasted 1 summer. Reading music was like reading T.O.S. docs on each website. I just skipped it. THAT will kill a future in music.
We are indeed a little lucky to have stumbled on these guys.
It’s why I’ve been a supporter since my first Afterburner of Bill tying customer service lessons of his father to Apple Corp’s success with the Iphone. Still one of my favorite Afterburners. I’ve learned much from these guys. Like I said, lucky.
Tim – Did you watch the last 45 seconds of the one with Zo’s impromptu outro? Cold, sat down and jammed. Very cool.
Yes, Ron..yes I did. In the words of Uncle Bob in Tom Hanks That Thing You Do….”That was swingin, man”. I thought I had commented on it, but maybe I started then got distracted. That was the smoothest little whatever, riff, set, jam….whatever. I could have watched him go off for at least 15 minutes. (Bill, can you agree?)
Seriously sweet to see that. Funny to see him do that, as speed metal is his current genre if I recall him saying so. That’s the cool part of being such a talented musician. Zo can swing from speed metal to a little jazzy jam.
Reminded me of Roy Clark’s ability to go from Hee Haw banjo to one of the craziest versions of Malaguena I’ve ever seen. Mind blowing talent. It’s swingin man!
By the way, here’s the link to that Roy Clark live unedited bit on the old “Odd Couple” show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xssnp7R51A
Roy Clark was amazing. That bit was superb and he played a great violin piece earlier, I think.
Reminds me of an interview of Eddie Van Halen who was asked who he thought was the best guitar player, and he said Roy Clark.
Dreams give people reasons to strive to achieve better. Dreaming doesn’t achieve them, that still requires action.
As I understand it, the reason people continue to buy lottery tickets based upon a false hope of winning is fundamentally-rooted in the fact that human being do not inherently-comprehend risk. Our amig-duh-lah is wired to overreact to any situation with the sole purpose of self preservation. Conversely, that same instinctive wiring is used to falsely expect winning a random lottery with a success probability near zero. Basically a lottery is nothing but a tax upon those who cannot understand mathematics.
I guess that depends on the person buying the lottery ticket.
If you’re the kind of person who spends $50+ on an unwinnable lottery thinking you just might be the one who wins it, and you do that repetitiously, you’re a fool and a dupe.
If you spend $1 for a lottery ticket once in a while for fun and realize that you’re not paying for the miniscule chance to win the lottery … but rather you’re spending $1 on a dream … If the dream is worth a buck to you it’s probably the cheapest dream you’ll ever buy. Viewed that way, you get value for your dollar bill and today, a dollar bill ain’t much money at all.
Here’s the thing, this is how I see attitudes like you express above. You don’t do it, you think that doing it is stupid, you think that if you did it that would make you look stupid, you think anyone who does do it is demonstrating their own stupidity.
You can feel free to substitute “it” for anything you like. “It” might be playing the lottery, gambling in a casino, jumping out of airplanes for the thrill of it (something I do not do, anymore, and never did do for fun), getting married again after a bad divorce, riding a motorcycle, smoking cigars, drinking fine liquors, etc.
“It” can be anything you can find a reason to disapprove of.
But not everyone who ever bought a lottery ticket has their brain wired for dominance of the impulsive primitive circuits, doesn’t understand risk or has less than your grasp of mathematics. I don’t think you realize this because you seem like a decent guy but you’re insulting people needlessly and with zero validity when you come across like that. I realize you’re just voicing an opinion so I’m sure you’ll realize I’m just doing the same thing.
Of course if your actual intention is to insult others, that’s a completely different matter. I don’t think that’s your intention but if it is just say so. Then we can all reciprocate. Because I can think of all kinds of things to say about someone who thinks they’re better than others because they neither do nor approve of “it”.
It’s easy enough for you to clarify whether your intention is to insult people or not, whether you think that you’re better than other people because you don’t do “it”, and that you’re an inveterate virtue signaller trying to show everyone how wonderful you are compared to everyone else … If that’s the case you don’t even need to answer, just click thumbs down and we’ll all know.
I’m one of those “spend a dollar occasionally” people.
I see the math as essentially the same as buying insurance.
In both the lottery and insurance, I pay in a small amount of money and, if a specific unlikely event occurs, I get a big pay-off.
In the case of insurance, it’s a disaster of some sort. In the case of the lottery, it’s a specific set of numbers being drawn.
And buying insurance is responsible and buying lottery tickets is foolishness.
Go figure.
The people who say that lottery tickets are a voluntary tax have a point. They are that and if that’s all they were the point would be more valid.
Above Dave Pimentel says “the reason people buy lottery tickets as I understand it …” (emphasis mine) and then proceeds to make the ridiculous statement that the reason people buy lottery tickets is “fundamentally-rooted in the fact that human being(sic) do not inherently-comprehend risk.”
Say what? Since when do human beings not fundamentally comprehend risk or the risk-reward relationship? What kind of human being thinks that he’s so much more intelligent, astute and sensible that he comprehends risks and no one else can muster up that particular survival trait? Because that’s the implication, that other than him everyone is stupid, other than him no one can correctly and effectively evaluate and grasp the concept of risk.
I tell you what kind of person thinks like that — The exact same kind of person who would use the word “sheeple” derogatorily. People like that act like they’re somehow gifted with some cosmic insight that the rest of us don’t have. The yardstick they use is the degree to which you agree with them or not. They’re so ‘smart’ that their position ‘is the only one any intelligent person could possibly take’. If you don’t agree with them (in this case I strongly disagree with the idea that humans are inherently incapable of comprehending risk) then you must be stupid. You must be like a sheep easily duped and led by your nose. Hell, you’re not even smart enough to understand the idea of risk.
In my experience that mentality is what stupid people use attempting to mask their own intellectual weaknesses. It’s exactly the same tactic constantly used by the Left. I.E. “Smart people believe in man made disastrous global climate change. If you don’t ‘believe’ you’re a ‘science denier’ and any person of intelligence would have to see things the same way the Left does.” You can substitute “climate change” for any of the other positions espoused by Leftist professors in nearly every modern university. Socialist neo-Marxism, Critical Race Theory, Post Modernism, etc. all live way up on the lofty pedestal Leftists use to place themselves above anyone who isn’t in lockstep with them.
We have that same sort of thing on the Right and it’s no more valid for us then it is for our adversaries on the Left. That’s why I’m bothering to spell this all out as clearly as I can. I’m all for using the tactics of our foes against them but this tactic doesn’t work for anyone with two brain cells to keep each other company.
Worse, on the conservative side of that coin it’s usually used in friendly-fire situations. It’s toxic virtue signalling; “You’re not a good conservative if …” and “I’m a better conservative than you because I do or don’t …” etc.
As far as risk-reward goes as applies to the lottery, a dollar is a tiny little risk and the reward is potentially huge but it’s also very, very, very unlikely that you’ll realize that reward. Any sensible person knows that and there are a lot more sensible people than not. The odds of winning are infinitesimally small but they’re not zero unless you don’t play. If you don’t play you can’t win. You can play for a dollar and that much money won’t even get you a cup of plain coffee at Starbucks.
When he was alive my Dad had a “system” for the lottery. He would never play it unless the jackpot was over $10 million. He said that would be enough money, in one lump sum and after taxes, to make a significant difference in his life. Anything less just wasn’t worth his dollar bill. Then he would buy his ticket, usually a quick-pick, and that gave him the “right” to dream about what he would do if he won.
If I were visiting I’d spend a dollar and buy a ticket too. Then we’d go home, have a couple drinks and talk about what we would do if we won. We knew we weren’t going to win but we also knew that the odds while long were not zero.
A dollar bought a dream and nothing more. Neither of us were so inherently unable to evaluate risk or so stupid that we didn’t know exactly what we were buying with a dollar bill. It’s a lot cheaper and more pleasant way to spend an evening with your aging father than going to a movie.
Obviously, it’s gambling of a sort and just as obviously there are people who act foolishly in gambling situations. One of the things Dad and I would talk about while dreaming our dream was how futile it was to spend more than a single dollar. With odds that astronomically high stacked against you, spending $50, $100 or more does not significantly increase your chance of winning. If your numbers are going to come up, then they are going to come up so changing your odds from a billion to one to 999,999,950 to one is not a worthwhile consideration, to us.
The dream of winning the lottery was worth exactly one dollar to us. For some people that dream might be worth more and if so more power to ’em. I’m not going to judge them and I’m sure as hell not going to assume they’re too stupid to understand what risk is.