The Khan Academy offers free courses, today I speed through their lesson on "the attention economy" and how we can push back against it, to reclaim what is ours.

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I've been using the term "machiavellian" for years. Recently, I looked it up. Today, I'm sharing what I found.

Machiavelli was a teacher of "evil". He believed virtues were a waste of time. He said successful founders and supporters of government must be violent murderers to sustain control. Fear is a more powerful motivator than fear, so he encouraged brute force and violence as a means to an end.

We can combat this type of thinking by encouraging empathy, connection, and morality.

Wikipedia's Page on Machiavelli.

The Forbes Article on Workplace Machiavellians

Quora's Responses to someone feeling more Machiavellian.

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This isn't about disagreeing about policies or politics, anymore. We currently live in a world with a sizable minority of people are disagreeing about reality itself.

We cannot allow those who disagree with reality to create a new one.

What do we do when we're forced to tolerate people who support authoritarianism?

How does a pluralistic democracy deal with people who threaten the existence of such a thing?

We must set firm and clear boundaries against actions + movements that threaten the pluralistic democracy that keeps them safe, provide a viable off-ramp from authoritarianism and intolerance, and teach explicitly a "tolerance for ambiguity and difference".

Watch Cybel Canterel's Original Video on TikTok.

Read episode scripts on Julie's Medium Blog.

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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There's an Arabic saying, "لايدرك كله لا يترك كله" or "What cannot be achieved in its entirety should not be abandoned completely."

Until death, failure is psychological. 

Little Miss Sunshine the grandpa reminds her she’s not a loser for failing, he explains that losers are the people who are too afraid to win, so they never try. 

Very Well Mind's "What happens after I die?"

Maya Angelou's Poem "When I think of Death"

Read the Poem "If you're not planning on going to heaven, go to Norway."

Read the Poem "Your older self is begging you to enjoy right now"

Read the Medium Post "What's worse than dying"

Read Ebonee Davis' Tweet on "Trees Becoming Stronger"

Read episode scripts on Julie's Medium Blog.

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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My family has never been one to talk about death, we pretend it doesn't exist until it blindsides us and ruins our lives. But building this wall around the inevitable has created a feeling of deep fear around the entire subject.

So, as I get older, and I am forced to face this reality more and more, I am beginning to realize that it's never been about my fear of "mortality" in and of itself, but my fears are in feeling like I never truly lived.

To face my fear of death, I have to be willing to face my fear of living fully.

Very Well Mind's "What happens after I die?"

Maya Angelou's Poem "When I think of Death"

Read the Poem "If you're not planning on going to heaven, go to Norway."

Read the Poem "Your older self is begging you to enjoy right now"

Read the Medium Post "What's worse than dying"

Read Ebonee Davis' Tweet on "Trees Becoming Stronger"

Read episode scripts on Julie's Medium Blog.

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DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief Fund

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” James Baldwin

"Whatever goes up must come down." And here we are, at the center of the arc, trapped in the gaudiest, most valuable, and most improbable water wheel the world has ever seen. Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise.” James Baldwin

“Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death — ought to decide, indeed, to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us. But white Americans do not believe in death, and this is why the darkness of my skin so intimidates them.” James Baldwin

Baldwin's Book: The Fire Next Time

Wikipedia for The Fire Next Time

Alok V. Menon Video "Death is the room"

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You cannot imagine what it would be like to be dead, because death is an absence of existence. There is, literally, nothing to imagine – because nothingness itself cannot be imagined. There is no perspective, no view from nothingness, nothing to which it can be approximated. So that is the first recommendation: realise that being dead isn’t an experience. Death itself isn’t really a thing at all. In Epicurus’ words: ‘Death is nothing to us.’ - Sam Dresser

Read the original Article on Psyche.co

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Read this today's original source, here.

"When you’re overwhelmed with information, you don’t think deeply about it; you have to process it very quickly. So, you tend to process it through existing biases, and that encourages people to form groups in tension with other groups." - Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart Nicholas Carr

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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If the internet is an AYCE buffet of unlimited, endless options, there’s bound to be items you find disgusting, that will make you physically ill. There’s also bound to be items you find delicious AND nourishing and can’t get enough of. But a majority of that buffet will be… fine. 

It will be mediocre filler foods that you don’t remember eating at all. You may even fill yourself up on the “just okay ” foods and not realize how much better of a meal it could’ve been if you’d been more patient or critical with filling your plate. 

Not to say that mindless consumption isn’t incredibly healing, sometimes.

I just think it’s become normal not to think about anything we engage with, and that can be more toxic than medicinal.

It is not all bad, it is not all good, but it is not neutral either. It is what I make of it. It is a reflection of how I engage with it.

It, like any tool, can be used as a weapon if we’re not being conscious with how we wield it.

This is why choosing to engage is such a powerful process.

Deciding when it’s too much, setting boundaries, creating realistic expectations, and being careful with not letting the algorithm co-opt my agency; all these take conscious effort.

The key is staying present and conscious as often as you can.

Engaging with shit because you want to, because you make the conscious choice to, not simply because it’s there.

I think a lot of us have become conditioned to believing “inconvenience is a barrier,” and in reality, on the other side of inconvenience is so much freedom and fulfillment.

A healthy amount of resistance is what builds muscles, minds, and ideas. Friction is not the enemy.

We are constantly bombarded with shit trying to make us numb, sad, hopeless, defeated, so that we become so overwhelmed with the idea of any additional discomfort (even when it’s the good kind) becomes absolutely unbearable.

The wealth-hoarding class wants us to be good little cattle who give over our time, data, energy, money, and peace without questioning.

So every time we act with intention, we push back against the systems of manipulation, profiting off of our misery.

Read episode scripts on Julie's Medium Blog.

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Now, as much as I want to push society towards more “analog” and “slow” options because I genuinely think it would be good for us all to get off of these algorithms for good, it’s not the only way to opt into more conscious consumption.

When I take a moment to consider the vibe I’m seeking, before engaging with anything, I find myself being more critical with what I engage with. I also find the process to be ultimately more fulfilling and rewarding.

If you are addicted to social media or streaming, this may be a difficult transition, but you don’t have to change everything about your habits, right out of the gates.

You can start with one intentional act a day. As a practice.

Quickly, you’ll realize just how much time and energy you’ve spent digesting shit that you didn’t even enjoy. You’ll start to notice how unfulfilled you tend to feel after spending hours online with no sense of purpose, and how it doesn’t always have to feel that way.

Read episode scripts on Julie's Medium Blog.

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.