To expand on that last post:

man reflects the gods in his own image and from the get go primordial man reflected his animal nature. Humanity en toto should have transcended his animal nature but obviously it has not. Many have, but humanity has issues with evolution and transcendence.

It's not a foregone conclusion but at its core it seems we are at war within ourselves, war between man the transcendent being and man the base animal. We all speculate why this is so, some say, "The God" so ordained it for reasons beyond lowly man's capability to discern, others claim it is nature that has relegated us to behavior consistent with our origins. And so, the battle rages on. But, I believe if we are capable of even asking the question in earnest then we are capable of transcendence if we wish it. Why some choose to do so and others do not is a question for the gods to answer.

One thing is certain, however, it is the juncture of the base animal's experience and the transcendent man's experience that is the focal point of conscious decision. The vital question consisting of, "Do I want to succumb to my baser instincts because it is easier and safer", that which holds the false promise of continued existence or "Do I take that leap of faith and aspire to the higher principles despite the challenges and despite that I must forego the all important me", that which hold the promise of immunity from cosmic onslaughts and promises true existence. For me, it is an easy decision, at least, from a philosophical perspective.

I don't make that distinction between animal and human, putting humans up on a pedestal as separate from the animals. Animals are incredible creatures, and so are we. Life takes many forms, and we are just one of those forms. From my perspective, it is our brainwashing and ethnocentric bias that causes us to think we are separate from the animals. It is also our sociopathy to think that we are better than other animals, that we are superior, and that we are "special" (like "God's Chosen People"). As usual, the influence of the sociopathic mind on humanity is unbelievably disproportionate to their (the sociopaths) numbers. They are few, but their impact on humanity is devastating.

Of course animals are god's creatures as are we all. But the human ability to care for itself by some standards is unique. It's the unique ability alone that we should be grateful for. Either by chance or preordination the human animal is unique. There is no survival imperative demanding that we stalk prey for our next victim meal. Some humans just enjoy it and who is to say what primordial urge is being satisfied in doing so.

Any species could think this about itself, including those that are extinct.

My preacher friend and I have had this argument a couple of times, but he is uncompromising in his belief that man is special, made in the image of god, who has given man dominion over all the other life forms on the planet. To me, this is practically an insane belief, but I understand where it comes from and why my friend is uncompromising (sometimes called "faith", which is heavily encouraged). Because his entire life is founded on such shaky ground, I can't be too tough on him without risking either a mental breakdown on his part or our friendship. That's an example where I chose to let empathy take precedence over truth. With Zook, I chose truth over empathy, gauging Zook to be less fragile and less of a friend. Sociopaths are never really your friend anyway, and my preacher friend is not a sociopath.

In order to have a more accurate view of things, it's really important to step outside the box, which means outside your religion, your culture, your education, and most of all, your brainwashing. Few of us can do this, given that we are a social and herd animal. All of us typically operate from within a very tightly defined box. I try to explore other boxes, and I especially like exploring the unboxed regions of thought. There's a lot of value in that. One of the places where I can see that value most clearly is in the deliberately misnamed Holocaust deniers. They are courageous, thoughtful, curious, well-informed, studied, and reasonable, though the Holocaust faithful will try every way possible to paint them as just the opposite. What a strange picture that makes, one worthy of serious investigation. And out of that investigation can come great value, specifically, the truth.

I do understand what you are saying...All 'value' is relative, and in our case it is completely anthropomorphic so if one chooses to take that stance then there is no counter-argument. Far be it from me to try. But, most 'discussions' have to proceed from somewhere, so I started there. Just between you and I, I came to the conclusion as a youngster that 'grass' was the most elevated of animate creatures on Earth even by anthropomorphic standards. (That's not a joke, by the way). But, I suppose now, I'm not so sure.

So, yeah, I get it...

The above claim by Chico is a good opportunity to study his technique, which amounts to defending his mischief by making an unfounded counterclaim against the exposition of his mischief. The counterclaim offers no rebuttal against the accusation made against him ... only gross general descriptors that create a fog into which Chico's mischief conveniently enters and disappears. I've encountered this favorite technique of Chico's so many times now, that I'm beginning to wonder whether or not Chico has been indoctrinated with method from "handlers" ... not unlike Bill Ryan of Avalon whose previous handler, Church of Scientology, gave him techniques to ward off those who would expose him.

But I'm not going to add another thought of my own here. Here's David Simon, on Rose's Inphinet forum, talking about Zook and Chico in that very thread (Who's an Inphinet Sociopath?) Good folks, please read that very small thread from beginning to end, and you'll get a feel for what happened at Rose's forum.

Here's David's post in the thread, "Who's an InPHInet Sociopath?":
http://www.inphinet.net/threads/whos-an ... #post-6672

Two important questions to be considered here.

(1) Did Zook describe events more or less as they occurred there?

(2) Is Chico correct in his counterclaim that Zook "deliberately twisted" and created an "elaborate deception and manipulation"?

One of us is lying, to be sure. And if one of us is lying so brazenly about one event that happened at Rose's forum not so long ago, how many more occasions of brazen lying from this individual are archived at Rose's forum, on other forums ... on his own forum here at SOS?


Pax

ps: FTR, David Simon [Inphinet membr "david" and UP member "dsimon3387"] and I had our own nasty tete-a-tete as can be seen by my reactive temper in the "Proactive tamper versus reactive temper" thread that I created:
viewtopic.php?p=3678#p3678

So I was pleasantly surprised when my former nemesis, David, defended yours truly against Chico's contrived charge of sociopathy against me. To his credit, David didn't let the past history of mutual animosity between himself and myself, get in the way of his assessment of Chico's claim that yours truly was a sociopath. Indeed, he went further and gave a detailed assessment on Chico's psychological nature and concluded that Chico was probably a sociopath.

hmm interesting...

I've come to the conclusion that one of my cats might be a sociopath. He is always fighting and losing battles with the cat across the street. Now the cat across the street is a stalking antisocial personality. Big, mean and quite proud of it. I've tried to mollify the meanie by inviting him in but he always runs when he sees me, leaving in his wake two growling very unhappy cats, Kitty Cat and his adopted younger sister, Little Kitty. I don't give up trying to make them all friends despite the obvious challenges.

I have a nephew that was granted a diagnosis of antisocial when he was in his teens. I've watched this kid grow up and change from a shotgun wielding gangsta' to a good, reliable, and seeming caring human being. I often wonder if it is real. I watch him closely for the 'signs' but I don't see them. I believe that the professionals state that the only effective therapy for personality disorders is cognitive-behavioral (CBT). As for as I know, he has never received any such treatment so I continue to wonder if he is 'healed' and if so, how? Internal motivation? Is the 'monster' lurking, waiting to unleash? I don't know, but it is interesting to watch life unfold with the passage of time.

Zook ...

This is a sociopath accusing his opponent of his own malfeasance. Why must you do this over and over? Well, we know why, unfortunately. You are asking for a paddlin', again, all while thinking you've got me nailed this time. I'm beginning to think you are not less fragile than my preacher friend and are already descending into your mental breakdown. So I'm feeling sorry for you. But I've learned that sociopaths always play on our empathy, so be warned that I'm going to ignore my empathy if you insist on pursuing this ridiculous attack. I will expose you again, if need be.

All I have to do is show a couple of examples of how you've twisted the history at Inphinet to suit your own selfish purposes. Given that all the posts are still there, and I lived them, do you really think that will be hard for me? Have you forgotten that you were twisting the history of Inphinet even while you were there, and even Rose, the administrator, had to correct you? Here's just one example to refresh your memory.

So do you really insist on going down this road again, Zook? It's your call.

It can be real. There are people who behave exactly like sociopaths, even though they are not really sociopaths. Sometimes something wakes them up and they change.

Check out Ronald Bernard as an example.

I've nailed you virtually every time I set out to nail you. And you're been nailed yet again in this very post. You must be a masochist, Chico. Not sure if masochism alone qualifies one as a sociopath, in any event, it's you that's twisting things yet again and projecting actions on others.

Here's proof of your projecting behavior in this particular case as exposed by me (specifically, from 6:00 to the 23:00 minute mark):
https://ln.syncusercontent.com/mfs-e993 ... 4b38046ebf

FTR, I had already untwisted your attempt at twisting things on the SOCIOPATHY UNPLUGGED thread, e.g. when you tried to claim that I stated Rose had changed the poll numbers when I said no such thing. I said that she changed her vote and had enlisted two cohorts to change their votes as well. You knew better but still you tried to make it seem that I accused Rose of manipulating the numbers when in fact I had accused Rose of manipulating the members (to change their votes).

My explanation is also archived here at SOS:
viewtopic.php?p=19508#p19508

The thing to note here is, even after I had excoriated Rose in that audiofile, she felt compelled to return my poll numbers to their original state by conferencing with her two cohorts, and all three of them changed my poll numbers to their original state. Chico's attempt at distorting the historical record is nothing new. After all, it is his bread and butter rebuttal.



Rose never corrected me on anything while I was there. She wrongly accused me of misbehavior. I proceeded to call her out with documented evidence. I made her look into her mirror. And she had to concede to herself that she acted out against me because she didn't like the energy I was providing. Mine was good clean honest energy. But even that wasn't enough to prevent Rose from labeling me - albeit temporarily - a sociopath. In fact, Rose had to inspect and overcome the dishonesty in her own reaction to me - after David indirectly pointed it out - before she decided to restore her first impression of me, which was neither negative or positive, but introductory.

Free advice to you, Chico, never challenge genuine truthseekers to revisit the archives. They will return you in a bag of subatomic particles.


Pax