the _alf blog

Thursday, August 17, 2006

The Alf has nothing to do with the animal liberation front

Just as a matter of record, the pseudonym "Alf" (yes, it's a pseudonym, my mother didn't name me "Alf") has nothing to do with the Animal Liberation Front, or the American Liver Foundation, or the Alien Life Form, as seen on TV in the 80s. (Although I have nothing against any of these three entities.)

Alf is just my alias: Alf.

What is the Mind?

This article on www.scientologytoday.org, is an explanation of what the mind is. I really like it, I've never gotten anywhere near as succinct an answer from a psychologist:

In Scientology, the mind is a communication and control system between the individual being—i.e., the thetan—and his environment. The individual uses his mind to pose and resolve problems related to survival and to direct his efforts accordingly.

The mind is composed of mental image pictures which are recordings of previous experiences. These mental images are what is often thought of as memory. They are three-dimensional color pictures with sound, smell and all other perceptions. These pictures are actually composed of energy. They have mass, they exist in space and appear when a person thinks of something. For example, a person who thinks of a cat will get a mental image picture of a cat.

The mind is made up of two parts—the analytical mind and the reactive mind. The analytical mind is the rational, conscious, aware mind which thinks, observes data, remembers it and resolves problems. The reactive mind works on a completely stimulus-response basis. It operates below the level of consciousness and is not under the individual’s control. The reactive mind exerts force and the power of command over his awareness, purposes, thoughts, body and actions.


Goodspeak

Searching for 1984 on the web selects some rather interesting results. This page in particular I found very humorous, a translation of google news into goodspeak. Excellent work comrad.

The Alf quotes from 1984, by George Orwell:


The Ministry of Truth -- Minitrue, in Newspeak -- was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:


WAR IS PEACE


FREEDOM IS SLAVERY


IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The Alf's Favorite Quote from the Declaration of Independence

The second paragraph:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States..."