ESSAY: The Mind Works Associatively

               I've been working on an essay on association and human thought processes for a few months and I just want to share my introduction to the very exhaustive essay, if only measured by length and not the breadth of thought (I'm sure it is simplistic to some and some think I am a moron). I wrote this essay because it is becoming increasingly evident if not factual that the minds of humans work solely by associations and the associations we create are coded in our genome as the method for survival. I do not argue against the animalistic nature of human behavior because we are animals but what separates us is our supposed cognitive ability. Associations are becoming so simple and easily created so that cognition is not only muted but destroyed. This can be scaled by the education system in western society and what has been achieved by the citizens but human cognition has been stifled by the dominate associations in our society to a standard where even Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists, Journalists, Professors, Teachers, and other Professionals those who achieve the pinnacle of systemic education are also bound by simple associations that stifle thought and actually have caused a severe digression in the prestige of these professions and the value of the standard achieved.

      Now what do I know, I must give the obligatory I don't know a goddamn thing about shit! warning. This essay is just what I have observed about certain segments of Western society and how thoughtless, if there was ever a thought in the head of the architects of this western world, we have become especially when it comes to the ease in which we accept information. This essay has been a great relief from the completion of my novel. I hope it makes you think, just a little bit.

Here's a picture of a mother cat and her kittens I took on the Hilaria, I mean Mother's Day.

The Mind Works Associatively: Introduction 4000words

            The mind works associatively for survival. I understand that humans must associate certain animals and insects with danger, certain clouds with the rain, and the sun with the need for shade or sunscreen, a growling stomach with hunger, a dry mouth with thirst, and many other necessary associations with the need to persist. What I also understand is that for centuries humanity’s incessant need to create associations has been exploited, in fact, many have been exploiting the need for the human mind to create associations for social and economic gain. Associations are not created just for social or economical gain but to create historical revelations and associate cultural identity, and physical or ethnic markers with what are considered historical successes (despite a vast world history that has constantly been erased then rewritten). Very generally, our mental framework our thought processes as a societal whole, as a group of people living in cities and towns, studying in universities or in libraries without any goal for a degree, sitting in coffee shops, wandering museums, “criminals” in prisons, or watching homeruns at baseball games are controlled by a collective need for comfort. We all live on a large landmass called the United States of America and are governed by the same rules and laws, ostensibly, which are based upon judged behavior (very very very generally speaking I understand the Black Justice System).

            There is this theory called Associationism that has many aligned theories most notably behaviorism and empiricism. Without going into the very complexed and detailed (as if the names of those theories don’t make the thought processes evident), some could argue convoluted meanings of Behaviorism and Empiricism, and how they may connect with Associationism I will posit simply what I believe Associationism is and what it has meant to the western world. People will inherently associate certain behaviors with what they have witnessed, their personal empirical data. Despite our own empirical associations being contingent upon already created associations. Associations created based upon the details of individual instances, what type of person robbed them, what type of weather destroyed their home, etc. Their immediate environment informs their mental processes but their mental processes are informed not only by individual experience and how a person, food, experience may affect them but by associations created before any personal encounter with certain aspects that exist or one may encounter within a society. I am basically saying that many people assume what will happen to them based upon preconceived prejudices despite no experience with “x” force. Associationism cannot be validated and will not be validated because we must experience truth and not judge people or experiences based upon the associations we can create in our finite environments.

            Our own experiences inform Associationism’s ideas, thought processes, and modes of thought. Cows are associated with food (sorry Indians and vegan fucks!), spiders with danger (sorry countries that eat spiders), rats with pestilence (sorry countries that eat rats), bats with vampires (sorry countries who eat bats), fire with warmth or fire with destruction etc. I believe that most associations are inherently true because of survival it is necessary to create associations. But I also believe that associations are being manufactured and used for very devious motives. I believe this innate human psychology has been used to create false associations that create and bolster false narratives not only about individuals and entire groups of people but about history. Humans are tribal undoubtedly. But we cannot live or act based upon simple associations that we believe protect our tribe. Especially considering our proximity to other tribes in the western world. Humanity constantly touts our mental acuity in comparison to animals but we make associations in a very complex society similarly to the very animals whose intelligence we degrade.

            So what I want to do is challenge the associations that are being created or have already been created in our “society.” Society is defined as the reader and myself ostensibly living in the same world under what some argue are the same laws and moral standards, the western world. These western world associations are generally used as the basis for a lot of arguments made by a lot of despicable, unthinking, scumbags. This society has actually digressed in terms of intelligence and thoughtfulness because of these associations. This is the only association I want to make but this society should be associated with the Babylon of the Bible, there are the many unaccountable, destructive, self-serving, narcissistic, degenerates that are claiming that their selfishness should be celebrated for no other reason than them claiming their existence. A bunch of people who think that in a society dependent upon cooperation and honor and morality, decorum, some semblance of agreeing to the implicit social contract agreed to when being born into a society. We should care about the mores of our neighbors. We should actually know our neighbors, especially in these trying times, and these false associations disallow any true instance of building better families, which build better communities and a better society.

            Here are some of the Associations that may have some validity or truth in them but they are ultimately being used solely for manipulation...

PART I: Theory = Fact or an Accurate Account of Reality (next week)

PART II: Education and Intelligence are Synonyms (soon)

PART III: Progressive is Progress (soon)

PART IV: Every Piece In A Museum is Art (soon)

PART V: A Change In Law Means a Change In Behavior (soon)

PART VI: The Fallacy of Validation (soon)

PART VII: "I Call It the Truth" (soon)