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to all of these questions lies in our essential nature.

I'll pause here, and thank you for letting me vent. Periodic venting keeps me from erupting in a torrent of subversion and anarchy. My friends, family and co-workers are accustomed to these outbursts. Some of them patiently humor me, with an understanding nod and smile. Others brand me a self-appointed expert, a flaming liberal spouting cynicism and pop-psychology. Not that they are wrong, but they say these things as if they are bad.

It is certainly true that I have no credentials whatsoever in economics, political science, sociology or psychology. On the other hand, these fields are either so subjective, or so complex and chaotic, that no one can claim absolute understanding even at a very general level. That leaves the field open to self-appointed experts, like me.

Psychology is defined as the study of human behavior. We are all humans, and we spend our lives with other ones. Those of us that survive, by necessity, learn to understand human behavior, and learn to predict how others will behave. In a sense, that makes all of us pop-psychologists. As a young man, I spent some time as a ward of the state and later, as I mentioned, did time in the corporate big house. Both experiences afforded the opportunity to hone my skills in pop psychology.

To the charge of cynicism, I plead guilty without remorse. Cynics are essential - we need them to balance the cheerleaders and yes-men. The latter provide the momentum to get the bus over the next hill. Cynics help keep it between the ditches. They work together to move us all down the road.

The flaming liberal tag is a different matter. The realities of life regularly douse the flames of all my best altruistic intentions. However, if liberal means questioning authority, bristling at arrogance, and declining to worship entrenched power, then I'll sign up.

Having said all of this, I now consider myself absolved of all the unsupported opinions and pop psychology ravings that follow. So back to the point our nature and where it leads.

But before I start into the material, I want to establish some common ground a point of reference if you will, and it is this. As self-aware humans, each of us carries with us a self-contained universe. It is one outlined by our perceptions, and colored in by our reason. No two are the same they are as distinct as the vision and logic of the host. They do however, share one trait. They are orderly and systematic. Even the things that lie beyond our control or understanding must follow some rules. We refer to those mysterious laws as God' or Fate.'

The real world is not quite that way. In the universe that exists independent of the mind, either everything is random, or nothing is. There is no in-between. Either it all means something, or it all means nothing.

Oh, and the essential truth, no one can ever know which way it really is."

Learn more about this author, Jim Mcinvale.
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