Tag: Rich Hoffman

Haughty Hoffman’s Philosophy

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Peter Facinelli's The Delivery Movie Trailer by CullensNews

My opinions and logic have been forged in the mines of experience. I’ve continued my education far beyond the requirements of a college degree and I’ve lived every day as though it were my last day on earth. I have also developed many interests which claw at me for attention like children. Some of those many interests are philosophy, psychology, archeology, cyrptozoology, paranormal research, mythology, comparative religion, motorcycle riding, old cars, and political science. And most of the time reading is the best way to explore all those topics.

With that in mind, it may be detected in some of my writing, that I am frustrated with words like “masses,” “institutions,” and “government.” It is my sincere wish that I could share with others some of the experiences I’ve been fortunate to survive long enough to experience. And the wisdom that comes from that experience is invaluable.

And what I’m all about can best be summed up in this video.


 

But it is true; I have little respect for people that live in a box like existence. I have no respect for people that walk in the rain with an umbrella, accept at face value the information they get off TV and the newspapers, and haven’t read a book for a period longer than 6 months between them. So those that get angry at my comments about politics, and the funding of schools, or any other contemporary issue, believe me; I sleep well at night.

I don’t really like to be haughty, even if it comes across that way. But I am proud of the many barriers thrown my way that I’ve survived or overcome to tell another story, and see another day. And I do find myself laughing at those who point from their shackles and judge that people should be like them, slaves of their own making.

It is fashionable to not strive for perfection. I find that statement disgusting. While imperfection is what often happens, to not strive for it in a person’s dealings is a crime. But to say that nobody is perfect is another way of saying that life is too hard and not worth putting forth any extra effort. And I’m not new to this thinking. I’ve always pushed the barriers to the limit even when I was dirt poor.

This was trick or treat at the first home my wife and I had when we were a newly married couple in our early twenties. I’m the one in the monster mask sitting in the chair.

I always thought there should at least be one house that gave kids a trick instead of just lazily handing out candy. Halloween has been a great tradition at our house ever since.

This next video was about 8 years later, after a few children of our own were added to the mix.

And then a few years after that, my family went ghost hunting:

And when I tried out for the Survivor TV show:

And this was just a few months ago, with my son in law and wife. My kids had to work that weekend.

And this is how we celebrate football Sunday at my family’s house.

There are of course many, many events that I can’t include here, but for the sake of showing consistency over several decades, I want to demonstrate that the common theme is family and how much potential there is for a family to be a great and wonderful thing, that will provide everyone in it with an enriched life.
And I could lose every material possession I have and still be wealthy for the experiences I’ve had. And because of that, I shake my head at those that proclaim that money will fix a problem in schools, or politicians try to prop themselves up with increased taxes. If those people weren’t so arrogant in believing they are superior to the rest of us, I would feel sorry for them. But as it stands, I laugh at them, so my presentation comes across as haughty.

When it comes to kids, get in the floor and play with them. Teach them to question their teachers. And take them to a museum sometime. Go on a ghost hunt. Do whatever, but do something. Because nothing will fill your soul as well as experiences with people you care about.

Good times with friends and family is all that really matters.

Rich Hoffman

www.overmanwarrior.com

What is an Overmanwarrior and the Train Metaphor?

Sometimes, when a question is asked, the answer can involve many complicated interconnected themes. Such an answer may involve digging deep. So here it goes:

The term overmanwarrior has certainly created interest of many who hear it? The overman is a concept used in my novel, The Symposium of Justice, where a young woman describes her admiration for a freedom fighter roaming the streets at night in her neighborhood. Being a fan of Friedrich Nietzsche, she learned about the concept of an overman in school by that philosopher which best described her feelings for the controversial vigilante doing the work of a warrior fighting for justice when all others have seemed to have fallen to corruption.

A warrior does not always constitute a person that takes up arms against another human being. Some wars don’t even involve weapons or direct conflict. They are wars of ideas, and such a war is where America currently finds itself. There are hundreds of groups dedicated to the purpose of advancing or repealing current government positions. But, groups are never the answer, because groups are always subject to corruption.

The initial problem with human culture is that although at a core somewhere deep in our unconsciousness, we crave independence; our conscious behavior is still very group oriented. The reason for this is that it is safe, and all humans that breath air, and have a heart beat considers safety as a dominate thought, so self preservation is at the front of everyone’s minds.

The below graph is an example from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a very fine book by Robert M. Pirsig of quality, of what makes a quality person or great leader. What is featured below is a diagram of a train traveling down a train track. The track, ahead of the train branches off in many directions. And the decisions for turning the train down one of those tracks is at the front.

Click to view:
Quality display

Now the train itself represents the organization. And the leaders of that train you would think would be at the front of the train. But most of the time, what happens, is that the leadership is at the back, because in the back, it is safe. In the back, if the train crashes, the people at the front of the train are the first to feel it. The one’s in the back can jump off to save themselves, if need be. Also, if it is discovered that the train is on the wrong track, the ones in the back can cast blame on the direction chosen.

What any employee realizes, unless you are fortunate enough to work for a company where the leadership is at the front of the train, is that unless you join the leadership at the back of the train, you are vulnerable. In short, we all know people who do this. We call them ass-kissers.

Organizations that I would most attribute to having leaders that spend their time at the front of their institutional train are Microsoft, when Bill Gates was heading the company. George Lucas and all his satellite companies like Industrial Light and Magic, THX, and Lucasfilm. Richard Branson and his many companies, but those are leaders that are very short in supply.

To illustrate the point here, let’s use Star Wars as an example, one of my favorite films, and sources of literary entertainment. That is one of the most popular films in history, and the original trilogy of films is over thirty years old, and is still beloved by fans.

Now consider, that film making institutions have had thirty years to produce similar film makers as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Yet they have been unsuccessful to do it. Film Schools have had thousands upon thousands of hungry enrolments, yet there is nobody, and I mean nobody capable to produce at the level of George Lucas. And when I say that I’m talking not just about making a great movie, many critics would say that Star Wars is not a good movie. What I’m talking about in a good movie is a film that is recognizable to most anyone in the world, and characters that have become part of the human fabric and is almost as recognizable as the members of most people’s family.

Walt Disney was a high school drop out. Lucas was a man that had his life change after a near fatal car crash, and Spielberg snuck onto the Universal Studios lot and pretended to be important until he talked his way into a position. What all those men have in common is they didn’t follow the rules, and stayed close to the front of their individual trains so they could quickly direct themselves.

Oh, you were about to mention Jim Cameron, director of blockbusters like Avatar, Terminator, and Titanic. He was a truck driver for a while, until he became possessed with the hunger to make movies. And he has a long history of pushing rules to their absolute limits. He certainly doesn’t play it safe.

Now I use film makers as an example because I know quite a bit about the industry and it’s always been interesting to me, of how a film will dismantle their teams at the end of production, and re-assemble at the start of a new. It’s a perpetual state of starting a new company with each film, which presents a whole sector of problems of their own. But the point is, no institution under countless millions of collective hours of study, have been able to duplicate the success of the men mentioned above. Not even with any of the great technological leaps. It still requires a great leader with vision way out ahead of everyone else to bring a film like Star Wars to being.

There is a reason some individuals are so good that all others around them fail in comparison, and often fail miserably. And Pirsig’s chart about quality is the place to start in defining what it is.

This is why schools fail, because schools teach institutionalism. In schools, there are dominate factions of groups that emerge, and they often collect in the back of the train where it’s socially safe. And anyone that dares to head to the front of the train, are ridiculed to no end. Because there is a fear among those in the back of the train that the individuals at the front might appear more important, because innately, it is understood that it is very possible that such a thing may occur. So peer pressure forces the leaders to the back of the train. Only the boldest of the bold stay in the front of the train, and can withstand the ridicule coming from the back by the masses of their peers.

I have sat across the table from mayors, state representatives both state and federal, powerful industry tycoons, party bosses, actors, stunt men, pro athletes, company heads, powerful drug cartel leaders, and in some cases worse and more powerful criminal elements, and in all those circumstances I have never met a man, or woman that I was so in awe over that I would cast celebrity worship in their direction which they fully expect. I have enjoyed the company of some of those people, but I’ve never considered them superior in any way to my thoughts, or strategies, and this is a recipe for disaster, because in deep investigation to the motives of individuals and their quests for power, are deep seated needs for honor given by title.

Titles are a very old, European idea, where they somehow elevate a man or woman to a position of respect. I have seen people that have clawed their way into positions of power, who get so lost in this infantile idea, that they can see nothing in front of their faces. The title they’ve acquired they fully expect to deem them respect because they worked hard to obtain it.

But, it’s in the value system of titles that many fail to understand the merit of the United States Constitution. In that brief moment where the truly brave, and truly intelligent gathered together in a small group of colonies in the late 1700’s, far from political influence, they rejected that structure because of the corrupt nature of man, mankind having a tendency to be corrupt, because of their love of titles.

On more than one occasion I have seen these men in high places reward those around them for displaying tendencies of weakness. When men show weakness, they show that they are willing to get in line for the fight for peeking order mentality. They will bide their time till they get to head a company, or a be a powerful politician. So weakness is encouraged in their subordinates.

More importantly, such weak personalities love to sit in the back of the train together where they can huddle against the exit door. The focus of their energy is in preparing to cast blame instead of solving problems. That’s why they sit so close to the exit, at the back of the train.

The bold ones, the ones at the front of the train will always be responsible for success, because it is their hands that guide the train down the correct track. But if they choose unwisely, they are the first to be blamed for taking the whole train down the wrong track.

Now the leaders in the back of the train call out commands, on which track to take. But because they are in the back, by the time the information gets to the front, the front of the train has already passed the point on the track where they could change course. This is not an accident. This is by design, because the leaders in the back are only concerned about the appearance of control. They don’t actually want to be in control. They would rather claim later that they assigned the people at the front to steer the train successfully. And if the people at the front steer onto the wrong track, then the leaders can claim that the visionaries did not follow their directions. It’s the old blame game, and it is the heart of everything that is wrong with the world.

Communism won’t save society because it requires leaders who will gather at the back of the train. Democracy certainly won’t, because the votes take place in the back of the train. Religion won’t work because it’s focus is on the next life, and not the one in front of us, a republic won’t unless there are strong individuals behind it willing to meet in the front of the train. No system of government will ever save society. People have to save themselves at the individual level, and if everyone does this, then society will reap the benefits and become saved.

I was raised a Christian, and learned very young that Jesus Christ was killed because he stirred up trouble at the Temple. What he was teaching was something the organized religions and local governors couldn’t control, and Jesus was a threat to that order. Now I don’t say that to mess up anybodies religious ideas. The motives of why Jesus sacrificed himself can still be debated and embraced. But at the heart of the social problem with the crucifixion of Jesus, he was a threat to political and religious power, and he had to go in order to maintain that order.

Another great revelation for me came after reading the book Forbidden Archeology The Hidden History of the Human Race. In that great book, years of undocumented archeology was reported stacked up in museums and universities because the research done at those universities were published in text books as facts, and would make that information obsolete with the new information. This is not a book of conspiracy, just a catalog of undocumented finds, undocumented because orthodox science does not understand how to document the finds. In this way, science becomes equal to religion and politics, where they hold to ideologies for the sole purpose of maintaining some level of control.

For instance, a university that does work on evolution and publishes those findings may advertise themselves as a leader in the field of science, and use that information to recruit new students. But if information comes out that makes the previous information obsolete, then that information would be dangerous to the university recruiting efforts.

So the university is less concerned about pushing the boundaries of understanding, then it is in growth as an institution, because the leaders are in the back of their train. There are of course parts of the university, scientist, teachers, etc, that are boldly in the front of the train, and the university loves to take credit for those personalities. But they will distance themselves quickly if something goes wrong, because the over-all goal is to maintain power.

I could literally go on and on for hundreds of thousands of pages with such examples. But the bottom line is that the very nature of quests for power prohibits making correct decisions in a timely manner, and all institutions are prone to fail because they are built by the architecture of psychological deficiencies.

So back to the overmanwarrior idea, an overman is a person wishing to creatively, and intellectually move beyond the planes of reality accepted by the current masses. They crave to, metaphorically speaking, be at the front of the train. And given the nature of power, it takes a special person to function without a desire for power. And it takes a warrior of sorts to combat those that will attack any threat to that power base. As shown, it takes a special type of person to be outstanding which should go without saying. But nobody will ever become outstanding, standing with the cowards in the back of the metaphorical train.

So an overmanwarrior is standing against the peer pressure of group institutionalism to uncover the truth of our past, and the fate of our future, while making firm decisions in the present. And they can do this because they are beyond the infintile yearning for power and control of others, because they are masters of themselves.

Rich Hoffman

www.overmanwarrior.com

The Impact of Free Will

The Impact of Free Will

A topic that always comes up regarding what role the individual plays in a social context against the responsibility of government is the idea of what free will is by definition. There is always a lot of debate on what government should do for the people, which we will hear a lot about during this coming political season. But none of them seem to grasp all aspects of the argument. And to do that, one has to go down the Rabbit Hole a bit. Politicians in general are unequipped to contemplate anything much beyond the law because they are generally, classically trained, and unable to see much beyond the field of their specializations. And the public often looks to politicians incorrectly as their leaders. So the true natures of things don’t often get discussed.

So let’s discuss free will.

What if we take the explanation from the film, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole where they explore the quantum nature of a particle and compare that to the larger concept of the nature of choice, or otherwise, free will? In What the Bleep, a very good and informative film, they used a basketball player to describe the multiple tangents of the shooter tossing the ball in the basket. In that situation, all variations of the actions of the player exist simultaneously most of them involving the ball missing the basket, however only one or two of all those simultaneous possibilities involve the ball going into the basket.

I am using a basket ball here because that was the example used in the film. I tend to think about these types of issues while practicing bull whips, which bring about the same types of conclusions. Anyone that aims at a target will experience these types of ideas.

So given that thought, it is determined that all those potentialities will occur. But it is free will that chooses the one that involves the ball going through the basket. Now to grasp that thought, one has to accept that there are simultaneous realities occurring at any given moment for every object in existence and the way those objects interact with other objects is mathematically infinite for the sake of discussion. Such concepts are part of quantum theory, and just because it is difficult to accept such a thing, it is foolish to discard the theory. It’s like saying radio waves don’t exist because we can’t see them. In fact they always existed, all through time, and we were unable to detect them until we invented the radio.

So back to our issue of tossing a basketball into a basket, the entity making the choice is the one shooting the ball into the basket.

This brings up the idea of what an enlightened society is. Is it a society that does not have war, but yet has a social hierarchy where everyone understands their peeking order? Is it a society where nobody acts out of self interest or aggression? Or is a society where everyone climbs into bed together without care of gender or social pact, such as in marriage, where thoughts of property are the center piece of such a covenant and abandoned in favor of community property. Or is it to mimic nature, where the strong survive and lift up the weak by example and peer pressure? Where an occasional forest fire destroys all but the most robust plant life and the killing of a thing is done by the one that eats it, and not shared as a social burden? Many politicians pick one of the above as their platform, and all of them lack a true understanding of the total situation.

I would argue that all forms of social engineering are subject to corruption, because governments don’t understand all the mechanisms at work. They function from a vantage point where each individual soul thinks itself to be a bodhisattva on their own kingdom lotus petal. And no enlightened society will ever occur with laws, but with the proper understanding of one’s own ego in relation to the universe. And we have a long way to go on that path. Each individual is the ruler of their own existence. It is each and every person that moment by moment must chose the correct choice among the countless possibilities in the shared timeline of collective existence.

I personally think the world the way human beings truly want it now most exists in Key West, Florida. There, under the protection of the United States, that tiny island has no dictators, or power hungry politicians. Mallory Square nightly and without organization of any kind has performers breathing fire and escaping from coffins of nails like Houdini, but the heart of much of the island gathering there is to watch the sun set. There are many different ideologies co-existing in Key West within a fairly confined space.

Now some of that bothers me, in that much of the interest in such a place is to be free of inhibitions. But, it does provide a good window into the kind of world humans would make for themselves if left alone, without politics. There is virtually no crime in Key West, and people for the most part leave other people to live the way they want. It says to me, that it is politics and the politician needing bloc voting, and for people to always be in conflict that causes most of the trouble in a society.

A drive down US 1 will show this tendency very well. I had the fortune to make the trip to Key West by motorcycle last year with my wife, and I can say from the back of that steel horse, I could see the subtle change island by island as politics from Miami, and the United States in general gradually fell away more and more the closer we got to Key West.

I would say that is one of the best examples in the world of such a society, because there aren’t many places that have a nice road that takes you 160 miles into the middle of the ocean away from the mainland of a country. And the people there have decided for themselves how they want to live.

So I would argue that as a bench mark, Key West is the reference of what humans want from a Republic. And it is one of the best examples on planet earth of what free will in a collective society will chose as each person navigates their own decisions along with every object they come in contact with. Everyone must choose wisely for themselves in order for all life to flourish.
There isn’t a single politician alive that is capable of shooting the ball for you. They can’t even see the ball. Just a metaphor, but hopefully, you get the point.

Rich Hoffman

www.overmanwarrior.com

Education Funding and Institutional Delusion

We’re coming up on the levy season, and Lakota, which is the school district closest to me, is asking for another levy after we just voted no on the last one initiated in May.

There are many, many reasons I don’t support a new levy. Many of those issues are dealt with in the below video done by John Stossel for a 20/20 assignment. This video reflects my own experience with public education, that it has become an entitlement culture for the staff, weakened by union connections, and the philosophy has become too progressive for my taste. Not something I wish to spend almost $10,000 per kid.

In my business experience, anything over $6,000 per child is a complete waste of money. Anything over that number, I believe you need to restructure the administration, and benefit packages to support $6,000 per child. But as shown in the 20/20 film, there are schools that have cut their cost per child below $5,000 and they are performing at a superior testing level.

What voters have to admit to themselves before they can see this issue clearly, is that the system is essentially a scam. The state sets standards schools have to live up to. The state has to create those standards based on federal mandates which are imposed because the state accepted federal money.

From there organizations like that which reside in Ohio, my home state, such as the OSBA lean on state officials to shape education policies which of course are expensive to follow. The more money spent, the more jobs created, which the administration can then take credit for creating at tax payer expense. The reality is, most of those jobs created could be consolidated, and would be in the private sector.

In February of 2010, I put together this video about progressive education policies.

It is important to understand that things don’t have to be like this. That the control is truly in the people’s hands, and that the education policies of our modern age are doing very little to shape positive aspects of our national pride, teaching students to be self-reliant human beings, heck, most of the kids coming out of the school system don’t know basic geography and history. So what are we teaching kids if they don’t even know where Iran is in the world? And if they know more about American Idol than what’s happening in the next election cycle.

True, most of us would rather not pay attention to the details of an election cycle. There are many things more fun to think about. However, for a republic to work, people have to invest a bit of themselves in understanding what to tell their representatives in government, what to do. When those representatives know that the population doesn’t care, and aren’t watching, they’ll do what most people do when the boss isn’t looking; they’ll goof off. And that’s why we have corruption in those offices, because the people are apathetic and not watching.

And that is how people who are employed by education have scammed the system. The word was when they were getting education degrees and putting in their years, earning their pensions, that the money was good in education. They didn’t have any thoughts that someday, like social security, the funding may run out.

In Ohio, led by the OSBA, they have become very good at twisting the arm of the voter through school superintendants. And they use the dirtiest trick in the book. They hide behind children to make their argument. It is impossible to attack their position once they stand behind children and tell you that if you cut their funding, then you’re kids will suffer.

Edgewood, a community just to the north of Lakota lost it’s levy passage by just a few votes, and the reaction toward the community is the same as it is to every district across the state; as taught by the OSBA in their seminar for superintendants, they cut busing, cut sports programs, and make other schedule changes that make it difficult for parents to adjust. Their thinking is that if they put enough hardship on parents, then the parents will vote their way during the next election, because the increase in taxes are less than the fuel of driving their kid to school, or paying for the sports programs on their own.

To call it what is it, would be to call it a form of extortion. Only the assailants have smiles on their faces, and we are forced to trust them because they care for our kids. You see, they know what many don’t want to admit, that they are day care providers first, and educators second. They know that parents are strapped for time and cash maintaining their careers, and don’t have time to watch over their kids during the day. And they certainly can’t afford day care for their children over age 5. For many parents, finding a way to deal with summer break is challenging enough. As long as they see the light at the end of the tunnel at the end of summer, they can get by. But parents now more than ever, rely on schools to watch their children while they work. And school officials know this, and use that information to pad their pensions, and provide incomes for themselves that would be unheard of in the private sector.

And before anyone says it, I raised my kids with the same principles. Even when my own kids were in the middle of their educations, I still didn’t support the wasteful spending. And at the heart of my opposition is a strong dislike that I have for institutionalism.

Anyone with just a bit of investigation can see that there has been a progressive political movement in the United States for most of the last century. The strategy is as clear as a battle plan from The Art of War, Sun Tzu’s classic book. First break up the American Family. Second replace the family with a centralized authority, which is public education, and change the values of the youth through that centralized authority.
In my experience with the western arts, cowboys are the symbol of American values. They stand for rugged individualism, which was the spirit in founding the country. And as I meet young people these days, I don’t see them learning those elements in school. They are learning interdependency, and other values that my experience say’s is mostly irrelevant to a good and happy adult life.

The video below are people I’d consider to be amoung the best and brightest in this country. Not becaue they have degrees, which some of them do. Or because they have extremely high IQ’s, which some of them do. These are the type of people I call friends and all of them represent what is best about America. They don’t do what they do for fame or money. They do it because of what is good and right in their hearts. And they have what’s right for America in the front of their ideas.

I live by a saying; advice is only as good as the person that gives it. If the person giving the advice is an unhappy person, then the American dream is something lost to them, and they aren’t in a position to advise young people how they should live their lives. Happiness is not something obtained through money, so throwing money at a situation is not an answer I endorse. So my position on taxes, public welfare, and school levies is that I generally don’t support them, because I believe that institutions in most every instance, will fail by their nature, institutions lack accountability and allow for poor strategists and lazy minded employees to hide in the massive structure of an institution.

And passing a school levy only feeds the institutional monster. It won’t get rid of it for good.

Rich Hoffman

http://www.overmanwarrior.com

Sheriff Jones Interview over Immigration

Recently, we did an interview of Sheriff Jones, the popular Southern Ohio personality after he returned from the Arizona border on a fact finding mission regarding the new Arizona Immigration law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N53YIzOCm_s&hd=1

The problem with immigration, especially illegal immigration, is that it’s not just about people seeking a better life in the United States.

As the Sheriff points out, a majority of the illegal drugs in the world go to the United States.  And most of that is brought in across the southern border.  It can be argued that drug lords are only answering to the demand of the public.  But in reality, the drug problem, like many other social problems, are perpetuated by rival economic powers to undermine the strength of our nation and culture.  So just because there is a demand, the merit of that demand is an internal issue that must be dealt with. 

In the mean time under the Tenth Amendment, Arizona has a right, and obligation to create a law to stop the terrible effects of illegal immigration.  And the President of the United States has absolutely no right, or authority to question it.  To do so is an abuse of power.  And anyone that thinks otherwise does not understand how America is supposed to be running. 

Rich Hoffman

www.overmanwarrior.com