Going As Godin For Halloween (Oct 31)

Seth Godin's blog today:

Can you change?

Are you stuck with your habits, your knowledge, your weight, your fitness, your interpersonal skills? Is your future a slightly different rerun of your past?

We spend an enormous amount of time and money seeking to reinvent and upgrade ourselves, working to give up something, start something, build something or change something about who we are and what we do.

And we usually fail.

It's tempting to say, "this is who I am, habits are hardwired, it's in my DNA, I'm going to live with it." Tempting, and an easy way out. 

Change is hard, sometimes nearly impossible. But if even one person as far behind as we are has dug in and done enough work to finish that marathon, to change that habit or to learn that skill, it means that it's not impossible. Merely (astonishingly) difficult.

Knowing that it's possible is 86% of the project.

1. 9+ Book Streak ++
2. 100 + Pages Read Streak ++
3. Most books read in a day (14)
4. Buttkicks, single: 43.
5. Buttkicks, total: 130
6. Buttkicks Streak ++
7. Abs, single: 170
8. Abs, total: 444
9. More Chess Than Day Before ++
10. More Pushups Than Day Before ++
11. More Curls Than Day Before ++
12. Earliest Playing Poker (recorded): 3PM pacific.
13. Earliest Poker Walking: 3PM.
14. Play More Poker Than Day Before (0) ++
15. Do More Pokerwalking Than Day Before(0)++
16. Most Pokerwalking, single: 44 minutes.
17. More Poker Blitz Than Day Before ++
18. Poker Blitz, single: (24 min / 32 min)
19. Most Profit, under 30 min blitz: $12.20
20. Forearms, single: 50
21. Streak ++
22. Obliques, single: 50
23. Obliquestreak: +++
24. Most Poker-walking, total: 1 H, 4 M
25. 6 + book writing streak ++
26. Hamstring stretch, single: 2 m, 22
27. Bridge hold, single: 3 m, 25
28. Hamstring Streak ++
29. Bridge hold streak ++
30. Hamstring, total: 3m 33
31. Bridge hold, total: 4m 33
32. Walk more than yesterday (5 mi)
33. Shoulder Press, single: 28 (hard).
34. Shoulder Press streak ++
35. More Records Than Day Before ++
36. Shoulder Shrugs, single: 61 (hard)
37. Shoulder Shrugs streak ++
38. ??? I may still jog a bit more

Somebody Stop Me (October 30)

1. Buttkicks, single: 42.
2. Buttkicks, total: 125.
3. Buttkick Streak ++
4. Abs, single: 160.
5. Abs, total: 420.
6. Ab Streak ++
7. Blog Streak ++
8. Pomodoro record (9 min * floating), single: 2h 56m.
9. Pom wonderful ++
10. Ab Pullups, Single: 18.
11. Ab Pullups, Total: 32.
12. Ab Streak ++
13. Shoulder Shrugs, single: 60
14. Shoulder Shrugs Streak++
15. Shoulder Press, single: 27
16. Streak ++
17. Forearms, single: 48.
18. Forearm streak ++
19.  Obliques, single; 48
20. Oblique Streak ++
21. Bridge hold, single: 3 min 10 s
22. Bridge Hold, total: 4 min30s
23. Bridge Hold Streak ++
24. Hamstring Stretch, single: 1 min 40s
25. Hamstring total: 2 min22s (easy is fine & good; keeps things moving)
26. Read 50+ pages in a day streak ++
27. Plank Hold, single: 1 min 41 s (hard)
28. Run Further Streak ++
29. Read from most books, 10.
30. Read 9+ books streak++
31. Forearms, total: 133.
32. More records than day before++
33. Write in most books, 7.
34. 6-book writing streak++

October 29 ++

1. Buttkicks, single: 41

2. Buttkicks, total: 120

3. Streak++

4. Abs, single: 150

5. Abs total: 400

6. Streak++

7. Blog streak++

8. Bridge hold single: 3 min

9. Bridge hold total: 4m20s

10. Streak++

11. Pomodoro record (9 min), single: 2 h 30 m

12. Pom wonderful streak++

13. Left Handed Juggling
  -- rocked it again -- 341 juggles. wtf. my arm hurts.
14. Left handed juggling streak ++
15. Forearms, single: 47
16. Forearms Streak ++
17. Obliques Single: 47

18. Obliques Streak ++
19. Pec-Aerobics, single: 18 minutes
20. Pec-Aerobics Streak ++
21. Shoulder Shrugs, single: 59
22. Shoulder Shrugs Streak ++
23. Shoulder Press, single: 26
24. Shoulder Press Streak ++
25. Ab Pull-ups, single: 17
26. Ab Pull-ups, total:
27. Ab Pullup streak ++
28. Most books read (in part) in one day: 9.
29. Read 8 different books (at least 5 pages each) Streak ++
30. More Records Than The day before Streak ++
31. Run more than day before streak ++
32. Ab Pullups, total: 31.

***

October 28 Records

1. Asskicks, single: 40
2. Asskicks, total: 118
3. Asskicks Streak ++
4. Abs, single: 140
5. Abs Streak ++
6. Left Handed Juggling
    -- Just rocked this one -- surpassed the left hand: 269 juggles.
7. Run Longer Than Day Before Streak ++
8. Shoulder Shrugs, single: 58
9. Shoulder Shrug Streak ++
10. Shoulder Press, single: 25
11. Shoulder Press Streak ++
12. 7 minute Pomodoro (1 Hour +) Streak ++
13. Forearms, single: 46
14. Forearms Streak ++
15. Obliques, single: 46
16. Obliques Streak ++
17. Abs, total: 350
18. Bridge Hold, single: 2 min, 55sec
19. Bridge Hold Streak ++
20. Pec-aerobics, single: 17 min
21. Pec-aerobics, streak ++
22. Ab Pullups, total: 30
23. Ab Pullups Streak ++
24. (((More books written (in part) in one day Streak ++))) 6
25. Read 50+ pages in a day streak ++
26. Most books written (in part) in one day:
27. Most books read (in part) in one day: 8
28. Blog Writing Streak ++
29. More Records Set Every Day Streak ++

The Perfected Self (article)

The Perfected Self.

October 28 Records

1. Asskicks, single: 40
2. Asskicks, total: 118
3. Asskicks Streak ++
4. Abs, single: 140
5. Abs Streak ++
6. Left Handed Juggling
    -- Just rocked this one -- surpassed the left hand: 269 juggles.
7. Run Longer Than Day Before Streak ++
8. Shoulder Shrugs, single: 58
9. Shoulder Shrug Streak ++
10. Shoulder Press, single: 25
11. Shoulder Press Streak ++
12. 7 minute Pomodoro (1 Hour +) Streak ++
13. Forearms, single: 46
14. Forearms Streak ++
15. Obliques, single: 46
16. Obliques Streak ++
17. Abs, total: 350
18. Bridge Hold, single: 2 min, 55sec
19. Bridge Hold Streak ++
20. Pec-aerobics, single: 17 min
21. Pec-aerobics, streak ++
22. Ab Pullups, total: 30
23. Ab Pullups Streak ++
24. (((More books written (in part) in one day Streak ++)))
25. Read 50+ pages in a day streak ++
26. Most books written (in part) in one day:
27. Most books read (in part) in one day: 8
28. Blog Writing Streak ++
29. More Records Set Every Day Streak ++

Guest Blog: The Overjustification Effect

The Overjustification Effect

Records Set: Oct 27

1. Ass kickbacks, single: 39.
2. Ass kickbacks, total: 116. (overzealous)
3. Ass Streak ++
4. 7-minute Pomodoro Productivity, single: 2 hours
5. 7-minute Pomodoro Productivity, total: 2 hours, 30 minutes
6. Ab Pullups, Single: 16 (tough one)
7. Ab Pullups, Total: 28
8. Pectoral Aerobics, single: 16 minutes
9. Pec-Aerobics Streak ++
10. Forearms, single: 45
11. Forearm Streak ++
12. Obliques, single: 45
13. Oblique Streak ++
14. Bridge Hold, single: 2 min, 45 seconds
15. Run Further Than Day Before Streak++
16. Abs, single: 135
17. Abs, total: 340
18. Abs Streak ++
19. Bridge Hold, total: 3min, 50 seconds
20. Pec-Aerobics, total: 30 min
21. Shoulder Shrug, single: 56
22. Shoulder Shrug Streak ++
23. Shoulder Press, single: 24
24. Shoulder Press Streak ++
25. Distance travelled while juggling, single: 2 tenths of a mile.
26. Distance, juggling, total: 4 tenths of a mile.
27. More Records Every Day Streak ++

Records Set Today (Oct 26)

1. Ass Kickouts, single: 37
2. Ass Kickouts, total: 103
3. Ass Kickouts Streak ++
4. Blog Streak ++
5. Ab Crunches, Single: 130
6. Abs, Total: 330
7. Ab Streak ++
8. Pectoral Aerobics, single: 15 min
9. Shoulder Shrugs, single: 53
10. Shoulder Press, single: 23
11. Shoulder Shrugs, total: 133
12. Shoulder Press, total: 83
13. Forearm, single: 44
14. Obliques, single: 44
15. Pectoral Aerobics, total: 30m
16. More Records Every Day Streak++
17. Forearm, total: 125
18. Forearm streak ++
19. Obliques, total 125
20. Obliques streak ++

Records Set Yesterday (Oct 25)

1. Forearms, single: 43 each side
2. Obliques, single: 43 each side
3. Ass kicks backwards, single: 36, each side
4. Ass kickouts, Total: 96
5. Ass kickout Streak ++ (increasing #3 & #4 every day streak)
6. Ab Crunches, single: 120
7. Ab Crunches, total: 325
8. Ab Streak ++
9. Forearm Streak++
10. Oblique Streak++
11. Forearm Total: 120
12. Oblique Total: 120
13. Hip Twist Game: 3 minutes (single)
14. More Records Every Day Streak ++
15. Child Pose, Single: 3 min, 21 seconds

Pirsig's Notecard System, Part One

Concorde Fallacy #3: McRaney's Final Thoughts

Early on, the [Concorde] project was predicted to be a failure, 

but everyone involved kept going.

Their shared investment built a hefty psychological burden 

that outweighed their better judgments. 

After losing an incredible amount of money, effort, & time,

they didn't want to just give up.

It is a noble & exclusively human proclivity, 

this desire to persevere, the will to stay the course -- 

studies show lower animals 

& small children do not commit this fallacy. 

Wasps & worms, rats & raccoons, toddlers & tikes -- 

they do not care how much they've invested or how much goes to waste. 

They can only see immediate losses & gains. 

As an adult human being, you have the gift 

of reflection & regret.

You can predict a future place where you must admit

your efforts were in vain, your losses permanent,

& when you accept the truth, it is going to hurt.

42 Days, No Alcohol (Mark It 42)

Just split a fat tire with my lady. Going to google a before picture of the beer & an after picture of a fat belly.

Working on repairing the treadmill. I miss walking while working, but I have started the be-all, end-all of Streak-records. Every day, I will set more records than the day before.

Wednesday I did ten. Eleven yesterday. & at least 12 so far today.

Still have the blogging streak & the ab streak, within the streak of streaks.

Drunken Monkey Quits Cold Turkey; Only Eats It Boiling Hot

You can see it.
You can look at scholars, great scholars, & somehow you will find they are missing.
They may know much about the Veda, the Bible, the Koran; 

they can recite, but you can see there is no radiance in their eyes.
Yes, there is much dust that they have gathered from scriptures, much smoke that they have gathered thru knowledge.
They are well informed--but almost dead.
They have missed life somehow, they could not find time to know what life is.
Writes Osho.

& then there's Rama Krishna, who describes the human mind as a "drunken monkey, stung by a scorpion."

   In other words, a certain level of Attention Deficit Disorder comes with the territory of being human. 

   That doesn't mean we all need to go out & get on Adderall.

Just as a monkey leaps from branch to branch, so the mind leaps from one thing to another, constantly distracted. 

   The experience can be stressful -- this experience which we sometimes tautologically refer to as "life."

            & the more active your brain is, the more distractions, the more stress. 

Whether it's a stimulant or alcohol or cigarettes or marijuana, drugs are often sought after simply to deal with this particular problem: the active mind & its endless...everything.

 

                        Your brain just won't quit, will it?

Which can be exciting, don't get me wrong. 

   I'm personally afraid of what my life would be like if my brain were perfectly optimized, if I were to quit all the drugs I take, if I were to exercise every day & eat well every day. 

   The word "ZOOM!" comes to mind when I think about it; I feel as though life would be zooming along in that imagined, optimized world. 

If I were to self-actualize like, say, the Buddha or Jesus Christ or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I...well, I don't even want to think about it; it scares me that much.

            Nevertheless, the goal of self-actualization is the goal of this blog. 

This blog will be an autobiographical account of one man seeking to eliminate certain habits, or behaviors.

   Not for any particular reason. 

One could as easily say I'm bored with my current habits as one could say I'm seeking enlightenment. 

   No matter; 

            if successful, I expect both increased novelty & a degree of enlightenment.

I have nothing against my addictions. 

   Addictions are what make us human. 

We have nothing to do other than the behaviors which form our habits.

   Our choice is to either keep our current habits, which is generally easier, more passive, inertiatic, &c., or else to build new addictions, habits, behavior clusters, &c.

Moderation is nice & worth considering.

   But in my mind, moderation implies addiction to a system of behaviors, the result of which is...moderation.

All I hope to do, all I think any of us can hope to do is find the best things to which we can addict ourselves.

   Moderation, love, peace, idk.

Drunk Monkey, Cold Turkey is an autobiographical account of a man attempting to modify his own behavior...for the "better," whatever "better" means.

   

The details herein are intended to be exhaustive.

   This is as much for me as it is for you, if not moreso.

Frankly, this sounds like a really boring idea for a blog, but I'm going to write it anyway.

Sunk Costs 2: the Concorde Fallacy

McRaney writes,

You may not play FarmVille, but there is probably something similar in your life. It could be a degree you want to change, or a career you want to escape, or a relationship you know is rotten. You don't stick with it, or return to it over & over again, to create good experiences & pleasant memories but to hold back the negative emotions you expect to feel if you accept the loss of time, effort, money, or whatever else you have invested. 

If you dropped your cell phone over the edge of a cruise ship, you would need James Cameron's unmanned submarine fleet to find it again. Sure, you could spend a small fortune to retrieve it, but you wouldn't throw good money after bad. When the argument is laid out like this, logical & rational & easy to pick apart, you can pat yourself on the back for being such a reasonable human. Unfortunately, the sunk costs in life aren't always so easy to see. When something is gone forever it can be difficult to realize it. The past isn't as tangible a concept as the sea floor, yet it is just as untouchable. What is left behind is just as irretrievable.

Sunk costs drive wars, push up prices in auctions, & keep failed political policies alive. The fallacy makes you finish the meal when you are already full. It fills your home with things you no longer want or use. Every garage sale is a funeral for someone's sunk costs.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Our good friend David McRaney writes:

The sunk cost fallacy.

The misconception: You make rational decisions based on the future value of objects, investments, & experiences.

The truth: Your decisions are tainted by the emotional investments you accumulate, & the more you invest in something, the harder it becomes to abandon it.

***

When you lose something permanently it hurts. The drive to mitigate this emotion leads to strange behaviors. Have you ever gone to see a movie only to realize within fifteen minutes or so that you are watching one of the worst films ever made, but you sit thru it anyway? You don't want to waste the money so you sit back in your chair & suffer. (Battlefield: Earth, for instance, Chariots of Fire) 

***

What about that time you made it back home with a bag of burritos, & after the first bite you suspected they might have been filled with salsa-infused dog food, but you ate them anyway, not wanting to waste either money or food? If you've experienced a version of any of these, you've fallen victim to the sunk cost fallacy.

Sunk costs are payments or investments that can never be recovered. An android with fully functioning logic circuits would never make a decision that took sunk costs into account, but you would. As am emotional human, your aversion to loss often leads you right into the sunk cost fallacy. A confirmed loss lingers & grows in your mind, becoming larger in your history than it was when you first felt it. 

***

So let's be like androids.

Try To Beat It (or, Broken Treadmill)

The 10 mile-a-day walking streak ended at 8 days.

Early in the day,
even before I discovered that the treadmill
wasn't working for more than 10 seconds at a time,
I had the thought to stop the streak,
despite the fact that I wasn't sore or anything,
it wasn't a difficult record.
Plus, if I took the thing to 30 days,
I might not ever try to beat it.

***
Still haven't missed a day of blogging since I started blogging (& I've started two other blogs*). So that streak remains.
Today should be day 4 of a Record + Streak, in that 4 days ago I started by doing 200 ab crunches, & each of the last two days I did more than the day before.

Still haven't had any alcohol since 9-11.

Still haven't had a job since a guy pulled a gun on me at Papa John's in 2003.
***
*Dilettante.
**Writing Is Easy.

The Way (part 2)

When you have zero evidence, 

every assumption is basically equal. 

You prefer to see causes rather than effects, 

signals in the noise, patterns in the randomness. 

You prefer easy-to-understand stories, 

& thus turn everything in life into a narrative 

so that complicated problems become easy. 

The Way works to remove the narrative, 

to boil it away, 

leaving behind only the raw facts. 

Those data sit there naked & exposed 

so they can be reflected upon 

& rearranged by each new visitor. 

Scientists & laypeople will conjure up new stories using the data, 

& they will argue, but the data will not budge. 

They may not even make sense for a hundred years or more, 

but thanks to the scientific method, 

the stories, full of biases & fallacies, 

will crash against the facts & deliquesce.

Ten Commandments

When I talk with people about self-growth, realization, et al, I usually walk away with the same conclusion every time: the number one cause of not becoming a self-actualized Maslovian-Csikmenthalyian Saint -- is simply forgetting that one wants to be a saint in the first place.

Second, we forget that "getting there," becoming (more) "enlightened," is hard work consisting of singular modifications to ones current behavior, thought patterns, &c -- a one by one accounting & conversion from diseased 21st century thinking to -- you know -- the indescribable because I'm not a saint either.

I don't know what sainthood looks like. It seems to involve violent death a lot of the time, as if we needed a further reason to keep us from even trying, in addition to our torpor, ignorance, et al.

***

What I do suspect is true, however, is that no path toward actualization could exist without these first two commandments, base on the two points above.

Ten Commandments for becoming, you know, that vague unearthly thing at the top of Maslow's pyramid:

-1- SIMPLY don't forget that you want to become a saint.

-2- SIMPLY - now this is the part of the commandments that will vary from those other 10 commandments you might be familiar with - SIMPLY ask yourself AM I A .SAINT YET?

---2a--- if you find yourself to be a saint, call this number immediately: HUG-81-NO-EGO.

---2b--- if not saint,

What's the easiest thing you could change about yourself, something that would obviously make you more saint like? 

You are commanded to remember the next baby step in your journey at all times (as in, at LEAST once a day).

(To be continued...)

Barely Streaking

Kept the blog streak alive.

 Barely.

Ten miles walking.

Barely.

No alcohol.

 

I think I'll have a drink soon.

It's late but if I do a dozen curls or more I can get the curl record total.

Mankind's Ability to Be Trained

From German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:

Man excels all the animals even in his ability to be trained. Moslems are trained to turn their faces towards Mecca five times a day & pray: they do so steadfastly. Christians are trained to cross themselves on certain occasions, to genuflect, &c; while religion in general constitutes the real masterpiece in the art of training, namely the training of the mental capacities -- which, as it is well known, cannot be started too early. 

There is no absurdity so palpable that one could not fix it firmly in the head of every man on earth provided one began to imprint it before his sixth year by ceaselessly rehearsing it before him with solemn earnestness. For the training of men, as of animals, can be completely successful only in early youth.

Made me think of these sort of things:

& how important it is for advertisers to hook em young.

Enclothed Cognition (Silly Ego)

Again from You Are Now Less Dumb (not pictured):

Enclothed Cognition
The Misconception: Clothes as everyday objects are just fabrics for protection & decoration of the body.
The Truth: The clothes you wear change your behavior & can either add or subtract from your mental abilities. 

Worlds Colliding (Silly Ego)

From David McRaney's You Are Now Less Dumb:

The Misconception: You celebrate diversity & respect others' points of view.

The Truth: You are driven to create & form groups & then believe others are wrong just because they are others.

   You see yourself as part of some groups & not others, & you spend a lot of time defining outsiders. The way you see others is deeply affected by something psychologists call the illusion of asymmetric insight, but to understand it, let's first consider how groups, like people, have identities. & with both individuals & groups, those identities aren't exactly real.

   Hopefully by now you've had one of those late-night conversations fueled by exhaustion, elation, fear, or drugs in which you & your friends finally admitted you were all bullshitting each other. If you haven't, go watch The Breakfast Club & come back. The idea is this: You put on a mask & a uniform before leaving for work. You put on another set for school. You have a costume for friends of different persuasions & one just for family. Who you are alone is not who you are with a lover or a friend. You quickly change like Superman in a phone booth when you bump into old friend sfrom high school at the grocery store, or the ex in line for a movie.

When you part from that person, you quick-change back. The person on your arm forgives you. He or she understands; after all, he or she is also in disguise. It's not a new or novel concept, the idea of multiple identities for multiple occasions, but it's also not something you talk about often. The idea is old enough that the word person comes from persona, a Latin word for the mask a Greek actor sometimes wore so people in the back rows of a performance could see who he was onstage. This concept--actors & performance, persona & masks--has been intertwined & adopted throughout history. 

Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage, & all the men & women merely players." 

William James said a person "has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him." 

Carl Jung was particularly fond of the concept of the persona, saying it was "that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is." 

It's an old idea, but you & everyone else seem to stumble onto it in adolescence, forget about it for a while, & suddenly remember again from time to time when you feel like an impostor or a fraud. It's okay; that's a natural feeling, & if you don't step back occasionally & feel funky about how you are wearing a socially constructed mask & uniform you are probably a psychopath.

Social media confound the issue. You are a public relations masterpiece. Not only are you free to create alternate selves for forums, websites, & other digital watering holes, but from one social media service to the next, you control the output of your persona. The clever tweets, the Instagrams of your delectable triumphs with the oven & mixing bowl, the funny meme you send out into the firmament that you check back on for comments, the new thing you own, the new place you visited--they tell a story of who you want to be. They satisfy something. Is anyone clicking on all these links? Is anyone smirking at this video?

The recent fuss over our oversharing culture & over the possible loss of privacy is just noisy ignorance. As a citizen of the Internet, you obfuscate the truth of your character. You hide your fears & transgressions & vulnerable yearnings for meaning, for purpose, for connection. In a world where you can control everything presented to an audience, domestic or imaginary, what is laid bare depends on who you believe is on the other side of the screen. You fret over your father or your aunt asking to be your Facebook friend. What will they think of that version of you? In flesh or photos, it seems built-in, this desire to conceal some aspects of yourself in one group while exposing them in others. You can be vulnerable in many different ways but not all at once it seems.

Walking In San Diego (Records' Spreadsheet IMG)

I can't say certain words without singing certain songs in my head.
Walking is one of them, thanks to my mother who because I once attended college in Memphis, Tennessee, calls me from time to time, whenever she hears "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn on the radio.

That song is so bad that it's good sometimes, especially if your feet have been ten feet off Beale.
***
That is to say, the walking streak is alive. I'm in the middle of Day 6, ten miles. Set a cumulative pull-up record yesterday (12).

For most of my life I've never been able to do two.
***
Here's a snapshot of the record shit:

Squats, Total in a Day	93
Squats, 1 Go	33
Flying Balance (R), Count	2m40s
Flying Balance (L), Count	1m40s
Flying Balance (R), Time	1m4s
Flying Balance (L), Time	1m52s
hip twist standing	1
total	2
Standing Pec BS	11
total	28
hang from thing	1m23s
hang as curl from thing	50s
15 pound curls	50
total	102
pushups	30
total	110
juggling	56m
total	56m
15 lb shrugs	50
total	130
15 lb shoulders	20
total	80
15 lb pushups	123
total	299
LUNGES	14
TOTAL	14
Left, one handed juggle	204
Right, one handed juggle	237
Hamstring Pushbacks	30
total	90
forearm	40
total	100
obs 30	40
total	100
Ab Pullups	15
total	27
pullups	5
total	10

The Vegan Agenda (in case I forget)

My biggest frustration with the Vegan Tribe is that it's a tribe that is based SOLELY on a negation. There is nothing that it is to be a Vegan.

Let me repeat: There is nothing that it is to be a vegan. 

If only non-vegans knew how much infighting there was in the Vegan Tribe, they'd never be afraid of us. Well, they're not afraid of us. 

As far as I can tell, the only people sort of in the Tribe that anyone's afraid of are the marginalized-even-by-us super-out-there animal rights' activists. I couldn't even tell you the first thing about them. I don't even know if they still exist. 

I'm so afraid of the NSA most of the time, that I don't even want to look up if animal rights' activists, in the Malcolm X sense of activism, exist.

***

But it could mean something, someday to be a Vegan. 

It might be general knowledge some day, cross your fingers, that all the world's greatest environmentalists are Vegan. 

Elon Musk, if he's not Vegan, might be a better environmentalist than SOME Vegans, by virtue of inventions. But think about it, short of bloody inventions, you have to stop eating meat to even rank above a Vegan who commutes two hours to work daily in a Humvee.

***

It could mean something to be a Vegan. We could be defined as (whisper tone) "those who don't eat meat or dairy," AND (BOLD LOUD TONE) "Those who DO ________."

Aha. The _________. The thing that the majority of tribes have. 

Atheists & Agnostics know what I'm talking about. I consider myself to be all three, Vegan, Atheist & Agnostic.* I've also been self-employed for my entire adult life. 

The reason I took to Veganism so easily was because the version I adopted was Ethical Veganism. A positive belief about limiting animal suffering.

***

But that's just it. Limiting. Are we only seeking to limit? I only know a few Vegans who seriously believe that they'll see an endgame of Vegan World in their lifetime.

In fact, my frustration with Veganism's only being defined in the negative, as opposed to the current system of factory farms, animal agriculture, &c -- is that hardly any Vegans have any idea of any Vegan endgame, period. 

Zoopolis, the book: I've been told maybe there.

But my lady-friend, if you talk to her about what she thinks the ideal world is, & you start talking to her about lions & tigers, she has to invoke Virtual Reality to make it work.

You see, I have a problem with the fact that the Carnivore Tribe seems to be actively protecting species, whereas if you take Veganism to its logical conclusion, a lot of Vegans end up saying things like: "Cows and pigs don't need to exist. At all."

& so, in virtue of the fact that my lady-friend wants to limit or even eliminate animal suffering, she's willing to eliminate animals.

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A month ago, my frustration boiled over & I asked my lady to ask her r/Vegan friends what, if any, ideas they had of "The Vegan Endgame."

The very last post, was finally an answer. I like it. Here it is, so I don't forget:

Phase 1 - Initiate a positive feedback loop involving (a) familiarity with veganism, (b) convenience of adopting a vegan lifestyle, and (c) the number of people who are vegan.

Phase 2 - Once we hit a certain threshold where veganism is familiar, convenient, and popular then launch a full-frontal political assault on the animal agriculture industry. Think civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Phase 3 - Institutionalize veganism as the only acceptable cultural norm with our newfound political majority. Have policy battles over fringe issues like whether it is okay to do very limited animal research for life-threatening diseases, whether people can eat meat with a doctor's note, etc.

I think a mostly vegan society (both morally and legally) is attainable probably by the end of this century if not sooner because there is no compelling reason to continue exploiting animals. Once the issue ripens enough in our collective consciousness the emperor of carnivorism will be observed to have no clothes. The only possible exception to this is where meat-eating or animal research are deemed medically necessary to save lives. I don't think our society is ready to give up using animals for truly life-saving purposes yet, though technological advancement will ultimately make.

& that's from antiqua_lumina

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Here's the ENTIRE THREAD.

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*How could I be both Atheist & Agnostic? Start with Penn Gillette's God No book; maybe I'll revisit.