Pictorial Dissonance

It's more normally the case that people use the phrase 'cognitive dissonance' when discussing verbal tactics, and almost never will you encounter them explaining that the tactics of cognitive dissonance are just as easily applied to images, photographs, and movies.

'Q' custom, bespoke Aston Martin Vantage V12 

And we live in such a totally visual culture now that it's probably more important to perceive what propagandists are doing in the visual arena - in the visual media, and also with pics and images generally. I mean sure there are the obvious recent examples of outright propaganda - the kid lying face down in the beach sand, ISIS and their victims in orange jump-suits, all that sort of thing - but what is altogether more subtle and much more damaging, is the sheer 'photographic/stylistic illiteracy' of modern photographers.

Photographic picture composition is a complex area but traditionally it had six main 'rules:' simplicity, symmetrical balance, asymmetrical balance, radial balance, rule of thirds, and 'framing.' But today, a simple Google search for some image or other will reveal a long litany of pics that are cluttered, 'un-composed,' and dissonant.
  
For me it is possible to consider photographic image composition nowadays as part of the overall field of industrial design...

...Beautifully composed pic, in my opinion

Now I want to discuss more deeply why I believe deliberately poor shot composition is a political and sociological propaganda tactic that is pathological.

But for just right now, let me just post a couple of decently-composed modern photographs which show that subtle ways to impart information are intrinsic to the art of modern photography, especially as it is used in on-line endeavors.  

Scott Adams - 'Cognitive Dissonance' YT Article

I've just started noticing very recently, a few people in the general media trotting out this phrase 'cognitive dissonance' once again.

This thing is a most complex theory in the realm of human psychology and many speakers on the subject who would be said to be expert on some particular specialization - well, they take various stances on what the concept really means and how it is applied in human social groups.

Now you can read a broad summary of the subject in your common Wiki entry, but for my own purposes right now I just want to note that often it is simply meant to label a way in which people trying to persuade others, employ emotions that are not necessarily the result of any linked up line of actual formal logic. And as an adjunct to that, there is also the view that some smart people try to create feelings of disturbance and 'un-quiet' by proposing some emotive consequence, but without what is usually thought of as a necessary set of linked logic sequences that would ordinarily lead to that feeling, yet by using assertive ways to communicate, 'force' those feelings all the same. Hence 'dissonance.' The outcome is not in harmony with the preconditions...

Hey Mr Xi, wanna game dude?

Some of you tend to lose interest when I start to post about seemingly unconnected things - consumer goods, exotic food or locations, that kind of thing, and all of a sudden when there is some underlined matter spoken about to do with the, usually underhanded behavior of some government agency or some private corporation, there is a quite clear spike in the numbers of 'views' on the site data summaries.

And that's a mistake on the part of some people because never will you find me jumping to these 'cognitive dissonance'-type cues and/or trigger articles that the media regularly is guilty of broadcasting. 

Even the most covert of 'operations' is not carried out in a vacuum; there is always some antecedent, and some authentic cause and motivation.

'Cognitive dissonance' is principally used by fairly blunt political types and their marketing gurus and 'agencies' to INVALIDATE the electoral power-base's natural opinions and views; if they cannot find or make a logical sequence of facts that connects up to the feelings they are experiencing (and feelings simply MUST be valid, must they not; that is of course, the structure of the fallacy of this thing when maliciously employed), then it is because they ARE IGNORANT, NOT SUFFICIENTLY IN POSSESSION OF 'ELITE' AND RARE FACTS, and therefore must they hand their power over to whoever is vending them the idea that they are the sole source OF those 'confidential/exclusive/secret/privileged/whatever specious excuse' 'facts.'

'Q' bespoke Aston also has 'aero-cowls...' LOL
'Nudge nudge, know wot I mean, say no more!'

Now, one of the main reasons I have this blog and seemingly 'indulge' in all kinds of what seems like wasteful consumerism and materialist talk, is that hiding inside many such things, are the people and the matters and motivations that you will end up truly desiring and needing to know about, and when you read this blog, over time you will see how important things really connect up logically together - whereas the media will often drop on you some thunderbolt from out of the blue that you had no prior warning or awareness of and that will literally attempt to feed you 'cognitive dissonance' so that you are unable to discern the 'hidden hand' - and from which vague and foggy sets of facts it is altogether too easy for people with ulterior motives to proffer causes of social and political evil like 'the Rothschilds,' or 'the Zionists' or 'the Muslims' or 'the Russians' or else the someone-whoever-it-is du jour. 

For instance, 'Paul Manafort may have received $12.7 million in off-the-book funds from Viktor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions political group in the Ukraine.'

How 'may' have? Where does the 'may' have come into it? Who is claiming this?

How many times did anyone in the media alert anyone (especially at any time along the way) that Paul Manafort has been working for the Republican Party and the US government since as far back as Gerald Ford in the '70's?

Many people are speculating that all of this FBI apple-cart turn-over that has happened with the casting down of Comey, Brennan, Clapper - and the destruction of the political essay of Hillary Clinton, is really due to some group of people inside the CIA itself carrying out a 'palace coup' against those leaders of the 'Deep State' elite bureaucrats.

Paul Manafort

Apparently, Paul Manafort has been 'sent to jail' by a judge just now because Mueller's people are angry with the current state of play with their own coup d'etat against Donald Trump.

How many times before Flynn was even a household name did we say here he was a 'good guy?'

Try this on for size and tell me what you think it feels like... Paul Manafort is a deep cover CIA operative. 

And with that in mind, perhaps we can now attend to what I really wish to push you into realizing - we are on the threshold of another 'Roaring Twenties.' And you have not seen that ANYWHERE before have you? Admit it.

Now if I'm right, and I am, what are you going to do NOW, to ensure that you have a head-start on the party.

What Is An Entrepreneur?

I'm addressing this article with particular direction to those younger readers, maybe who have conceived they have some entrepreneurial bent within themselves.

It's all very well to want things, to want expensive things, or to have them and to enjoy having them as a collector - and therewith to require the necessary level of income to be able to maintain the lifestyle entailed.

Yet, having money or making large amounts of money is not an unknown thing on this planet by any means - lots of people do it. And lots of people have the name of 'entrepreneur' and many of those do indeed perform such a function in some form. Too many, however, are merely repeating fairly narrow tried-and-tested, and also mostly 'restricted entry' templates for some traditional business. You can't just jump straight into the high end watch-making business, for example, even though you might be a young lab scientist with some innovative composite material or metal alloy which would be highly suitable and applicable to watch-making.

The Rolex Swiss main manufacturing facility

What is passed off as 'exclusive' or 'luxury' in today's world is highly forward-planned, heavily marketed, and scaled-up industrial production output. It's neither rare nor particularly exclusive in reality at all.

Take a look at the Rolex manufacturing facility in Switzerland - it's vast. It's also closed and locked right now. And that is because the 2018-19-20 models have all been made already; they were made in 2016, pre-marketed until this year's Basel World Trade Fair, and only now are they hitting the retailers from where they will be sold over the next two to three years.

But look at the factory again - it caters to an 'exclusive, high-end market,' does it not?

That would be like, a market of between half a million and a million people.

In truth the point of entrepreneur-ship is not 'selling things' or, not just selling things... It's about finding ways and means to do human things quicker, more easily, less expensively, more efficiently, with better materials - in short it is all about the upward progress of humankind through technology. 

To me this photo is about shot composition and coloration,
not 'money!' What does it say to you?

And to be able to have access to new 'ways and means,' to acquire the technical 'know-how,' you have to be open to learning things that other people reject as possible, or that other people are closed-minded about from the outset.

Now, the number of human beings you will ever encounter, who have that necessary mindset, of being able to accept new propositions, is almost impossibly few... Warren Buffett doesn't have it, and neither does Bill Gates. These men are unarguably rich. But they are not entrepreneurs in the purest sense.

And the lifestyle and feelings and rewards that a real entrepreneur has, are totally different - of a different order and magnitude, that anything people like the Gates or the Buffetts of the world ever get even close to experiencing.

Shock.

But fact, nonetheless.

Glorious Luxuries

One of the best things you're ever going to have, is a Flanders Red Ale, accompanying a 'Carbonnade Flamande' - which is a beef stew made with the aforementioned 'red ale.'

American-made, but nonetheless a traditional 'Flanders-style Red Ale...'

Red Ale is a sour ale made with different kinds of organisms than the usual sort used to ferment normal beer and ale - and then the ale is aged in oak casks for more than a year, often several years. Red malt is also used to give the beer or ale its color - there are, as you know, several kinds and especially colors, of malt used to make various beers and ales.

Red Ale is also fruity in taste, like plums or raisins, and not bitter at all. 

Now although it is commonplace to call thinly-sliced potato chips 'French fries,' they are really more part of Belgian cuisine, and traditionally potato chips, or 'fries,' are served with the 'Carbonnade Flamande.'

I'm not sure whether every wealthy person you meet will know about Flanders Red Ale, but then, there are a lot of things that today's wealthy people are shown and know about by the same token, that the underclasses have very little exposure to - like the 'aero-cowls' on the latest Rolls Royce Dawn convertibles...

'Aero-cowls' on the latest Rolls Royce Dawn convertible

We have left off the 'Russian Propaganda Spy Story' today - which, by the way, following the immediate prior article here, sent the viewer numbers sky-rocketing! Well, we have except that the Flanders ale, is red... 

  

The Russian Propaganda Spy Story

Here it is, at last - 

THE RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA SPY STORY.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NQNKuFc_eg4fzLDDFrVxZSjrwvqTo96z

In page 126 of the free downloadable PDF, Dr Peter Duncan is named as the key strategist who has been driving the Russia narrative, and who more than likely, 'encouraged' various US chiefs of Intelligence responsibilities - John Brennan, James Comey, others, into a grossly misguided belief about what Russia's involvement in anything was.

You are looking at total competence personified -
and clear-headed objectivity. 

However, on May 4 of this year, General Paul Nakasone took over from the (outstanding) retiring Admiral Mike S. Rogers as 'Unified Command' chief of the NSA and the US Cyber Command. Together with Gina Haspel, the US Intelligence strategy as a general rule, will become more and more objective and based on firm facts, rather than innuendo and UK-bias and Russo-phobic prejudice.

And hopefully, we can all get back to considering the relative merits of various expensive trinkets and other silly nonsense more appropriate to retiring gentlemen, and a few ladies.