because with a large enough sample, individual deviations for things like actual hours worked and the strengths and weaknesses for particular work-related skills should even-out.
That's exactly how the myth of the "gender wage gap" was started, ignoring the fact different people WITHIN THE SAME JOB, worked different hours, etc.
So which is it:
1) the gender wage gap exists and is proved when we examine the average worker in each job, ignoring hours worked.
After all why would you buy a Chromebook that ONLY works on the net...
ah, that old debunked chestnut, you've been swallowing Microsoft's "Scroogled" Ads haven't you ?
in fact my partner being like-minded finds such expression quite flattering. we relate to each other in such ways as to express how we think about each other regarding looks, behaviour, intention, etc. when she says i look "healthy" and "happy" it's a good thing to me, just as when i describe her as "assertive" and "strategic", she finds that a turn on too.
we don't say things like "oh baby, we were meant to be together as kindred spirits. i knew it in my heart the moment i sensed your aura!".
we don't think like that, so we don't behave like that, by ourselves or towards each other. when one of us asks how/why something works, the other doesn't respond "magic man done it!". we explain in an adult way by respecting each others mentality and development. we don't condescend each other as if we're teaching a child.
we have our own ways to relate to each other and have our own "language" of sounds and looks that's personal to us, just as many couples that are tight have such relations. but we certainly don't patronize each other by assuming the one of us is incapable or unwilling to learn the truth about the reality we live in, indeed it is our happy pursuit to change ourselves in order to learn this reality.
unlike theists, who prefer to adhere to a prescribed reality and will do anything to refute any evidence of the contrary. such as the ICP and idiots that follow. if write a song titled "miracles" and use the world often in it's lyrics, yet admit to not even bothering to understand the way it's defined in your languages dictionary, then you are either a devout believer of your own personal reality, or willfully ignorant of a reality you know is true and wish wasn't I.E. delusional.
in other words, these clowns are using the English language in ways that well-adjusted people can't relate to. this behaviour is usually called "crazy". yet i bet that ICP and their followers take comfort in the self-imposed ostracizing from society (really, who "kicked them to the curb?") even though no one made fun of them before they started *wanting* to be different. they had nothing special about themselves, so they created this identity, just like any teen-angst-y bunch of people acting out. a desire to be special, yet a desire to non-conform, resulting in creating a separate identity they can all relate to. well done clowns, you have successfully created your own non-existent problem to simultaneously perpetuate an complain about.
the more the rest of us say their ignorant and nuts, the more the clowns say "see? people on the outside looking in don't understand us, that's why we gathered together so we circle-jerk in our own self-imposed support group".
perpetual, hypocritical bullshit.
i agree on the kill themselves part, but i'd be quite happy to see them do it slowly and painfully. unless there are too many and the novelty wears off, then they can hurry-the-fuck-up.
listen, i get that they are using "miracle" as the word to describe how much they "appreciate" the things they mention in the song, what i don't get is you and they both believe "understanding" gets in the way *of* that appreciation.
it's a romanticized world view that prefers to remain ignorant, instead of learning the *why* and only enjoying the *what*. like a child that doesn't want to grow up for fear they'll never appreciate magic shows again once they learn how they work. what i disagree with, not fear, is simply the preference to remain ignorant instead of evolving through learning. for the hedonistic idea that they prefer a perpetual state of "wonder" that they believe "understanding" will belittle. willful ignorance.
i have no fear about what they believe, as i don't believe *in* fear. fear is simply the belief that a choice will lead to an undesirable outcome. there is nothing mystical in that, or any "miracle" that the ICP "appreciates". if they want to marvel at the "the sun, the moon, the ocean and stars", that's great, but there is a difference between wondering "wow! that's so cool i wonder how that works", and "wow that's so cool that it looks like magic, i want to stay in this state forever by not learning how the magic is done".
that's the crux of it, a preference to "miracles" over understanding, a willful preference to remain undeveloped. a romanticized preference by an irrational, over-emotional, unstable mentality that prefers it's own "world" to the real world. just like the child resists the parents teaching them all about the real world, because the child's fantasy is much more entertaining with less effort. looking at these clowns, they are just big kids too, they have the most immature lifestyle and world-view, and they sing and entertain other followers about it all. they promote staying in the child's mentality for as long as you can, resisting learning and understanding for fear it will steal the "magic and miracle" away and you'll never be able to "appreciate" it as much.
*THAT* is what i disagree with, and that's what this is all about. the religious deity i mentioned is the same entity that any child would follow and fear, the deity of their own creation. i never mentioned a particular religion, simply a belief, and the belief is the God of ignorant hedonism. these clown kids are afraid to grow up, and are encouraging other people to retard their ways too. the fear is not mine, but the ICP, for they are scared that they will have to grow up into adults and assume the responsibilities that come with that.
you only have to listen to one of the clowns replying to the many reactions to the "miracles" track, to understand that this is an immature child in an adult's body. one who is still seeking an identity, and resisting the outside world because that world doesn't believe in magic the same way.
go here: http://www.hollywoodrag.com/index.php?/weblog/insane_clown_posse_on_the/
and notice how this clown describes how even though he sings and performs about "miracles", he doesn't even want to know the dictionary definition of what he promotes to others. this is a person with his own beliefs, and cares less what that may be interpreted as in the real world. this clown is ignorant and delusional.
"We've been "The Most Hated Band in The World" for many years. Without all the hate on the outside, it wouldn't be as warm as it is on the inside with the Juggalo Fam. Instead, all the hate "Miracles" generates makes us sad. Sad for the haters."
here we see that the clowns are a couple of kids that have separated themselves, a resistance to integrate with adult social norms, and have retarded themselves and creates their own identity that suits them, even right down to the visual identity of clown make-up. these are not rational people, these are the actions of someone who refuses to integrate with the rest of society, even to the extent of refusing the accepted definition of words and scientific facts. all in the name of remaining in the child-like state of wondering at miracles.
they fear the real world and the perceived lack of magic that comes with "understanding", they are afraid of growing up (although hasn't stopped them procreating it seems) and they want to stay immature. you only have to look at they videos and listen to their songs, they are awful examples of an undeveloped mind, one that is intent in staying such.
you say that we have the wonders of modern knowledge because people before us experienced a state just like ICP are portraying in their song "miracles, i believe you are mistaken. for it was not a state of magic and a preference to remain ignorant that led to our current marvels, it was a sense of wonder of *how* things worked. a sense of discovery and a desire to understand, even if it meant the dilution of previous "miracles" of the world-view. these explorers preferred to know, more than to stay in a state of wonder. to them, knowing and understanding was better than "magic", understanding so as to evolve and learn towards even better wonders. that's the difference, they wanted to learn towards better wonders. they wanted to evolve and change the universe through understanding and sharing the knowledge.
that is completely the opposite of what this song is about.
i think for the most part, you seem to be saying that understanding has little to do with appreciating the "beauty" of anything, that is, that our happiness shouldn't be dependent on knowledge. understanding shouldn't get in the way. whilst this may be acceptable for some things, to enjoy them without knowing how they work, it is for the most part not applicable on the whole.
you *can* enjoy something without understanding, but that choice of ignorant hedonism over learning will lead a short and fruitless life, as you will not be able to evolve and be happier. to two most important things for a human are health and education, you need health to stay alive, and education to evolve and change. neither of which happen if we all sit back and marvel at "miracles" without wanting to know how things work. we need to keep changing and evolving through health and education, otherwise we remain in the caves and die when one of the many possible Extinction Level Events hits our species.
none of this changes the fact that this song DOES promote mysticism over education.
do you really prefer to live in a state where you never create anything yourself, only to self-gratifyingly enjoy wondering and enjoying the awe of what already exists?
don't you like the idea of being responsible for your own life and create better things and being happier through your own advancement, creating more than there already is?
"But to sit there and appreciate their beauty and power when viewing them instead of concerning ourselves with exactly how they are made or what chemicals caused what, allows us to enjoy them more, its the magic of the event. And yes, Magic is used figuratively."
who said anything about not being able to enjoy them due to understanding? i simply said it's my preference to understand, so as to be able to create better things and enjoy *them*. i don't want to stay 2 years old forever wondering about unicorns and rainbows. our brains don't work like that, we have information pouring into our brains 24hrs non-stop and we constantly try to make meaning out of all the data, we evolve. it's increasingly more difficult to remain ignorant due to this process, requiring all sorts of effort to stop information entering our senses in case we accidentally process it and figure how things work. witness all of history with dictators and cult leaders trying to keep the peasants stagnant by outlawing reading & writing, trying to stop people evolving and getting more enlightened. trying to stop wisdom.
do you believe that deep meditation is a bad thing for wishing to understand the universe and how it works, trying to seek out the greater truths that lead to greater happiness? would you tell Buddhist monks that their pursuit of ultimate knowledge and peace is a futile one that will lead to a loss of wonder and "magic" ?
"But you see, all that aside, you are still missing the point. What's the difference between a man made hill and a small mountain? Very little when you are enjoying the beauty of it and the wild life surrounding it. You skip the details and appreciate the real things that have value to you- you seize the moment more or less."
say you, to the rest of us we place value on what we identify and believe in. if we built that hill, then we may value it for it's use to us (we built it for a reason yes?), and just because you say so doesn't make it so. you can't tell the rest of us "...You skip the details and appreciate the real things that have value to you- you seize the moment more or less...", as it's up to the individual what the appreciate and *why*. maybe we like the details, maybe we like the understanding of the knowledge that went into the creation of the hill. maybe we are happy evolving to a state that we can understand the purpose and mechanism of how to build a hill. maybe we're proud of our achievement instead of remaining ignorant of the mountain and thinking "i wonder how that mountain came to be". doesn't the very fact a state of *wonder* suggest to you a desire to *know* ?
"..., it's about not letting the understanding get in the way of the enjoyment..."
yes, to YOU.
you *have* been saying that knowledge and understanding is counter to appreciating the "magic and wonder" of the sensed state. don't try and back-track now and say you weren't in agreement with the ICP's stance that knowledge is counter to appreciating the magic of this universe. stick by your original comment unless you want to recount it and admit you were mistaken.
"...why would a closer relationship with reality require anything more then appreciating what is around you?..." really? you believe you can achieve a closer relationship with reality without knowledge, learning, and understanding? please enlighten the rest of us poor idiots doing it the hard way educating ourselves.
"...I know that the reality of the situation is that gravity exists and has certain behaviors, but we don't know for a fact why it exists, and we can't recreate it in it's entirety in any experiments. that doesn't mean it isn't a reality though..." yes, we don't know the rest of the whole universe, but we are increasingly getting there. just as we can't be as happy with out toys from when we were 2years old, we know that we need to keep advancing and finding better things to keep us happy (the thing that keeps us alive). so we learn, we learn how to make better things to keep up with our incessant brains to keep us occupied. we learn about things, and we create things. those things are tools to create even better things, which become the tools to create even better.....and our lives go on. we live in a constant state of wanting more, because our brains get bored of the same things. we have to change, so the universe around us has to accommodate us. if the universe doesn't present us with new entertainment right outside our window, then we have to go out and explore for ourselves to keep us occupied. it's either that or we try to stay ignorant, wipe our memories and watch re-runs of our favorite cartoons in an attempt to convince ourselves we couldn't be happier.
you may prefer the idea of holding off on learning how the universe works, for fear it will diminish your happiness, there are others that think otherwise.
"...it's about not letting the understanding get in the way of the enjoyment"
i've already stated that there are those of us that *prefer* to be happier through learning how the universe works, leading to a better appreciation by knowing it's place in how things work. yet who of us said that learning, understanding and science, etc gets in the way of happiness? i tell you who...YOU. you have stated many times that things are less "magical and wonderful" once they are understood. this is where you are backtracking, and where i hold you to your original comments.
you said:
* "it's about appreciating the things in life without needing to boil it down to some boring explanation"
* "A rainbow or the birth of your child is a special moment that should be enjoyed and cherished, not some technical bullshit that takes any subliminal meaning away from it"
* "It's about events that are a power greater then you- like 75,000 people in a room acting as one. the miracle isn't something any god did or caused, it's about how something is greater then the individual or you and against the odds, it came about"
* "It's about how we should be in awe over those things instead of having it dwindled away to light refracting in a certain way."
here you say in all your ways that we should not learn, we should be in awe, and we should simply appreciate the world as it is without will to understand it. exactly what the ICP propagates, a desire to remain ignorant of the *why* and simply to be forever happy with the *what*. you also say that those people that prefer to learn the *how* will be less happy because the "understanding gets in the way". how quaint of you to tell other people how happy they should be and how they should achieve it.
"And who said anything about an ultimate goal and why would a closer relationship with reality require anything more then appreciating what is around you?"
i did, there's your internal perception and there's external reality. to know external reality requires learning all there is to know. otherwise there is your internal reality which is less than real and therefore makes for mistakes in any plan for the future. if you want to think that rainbows are magic, go ahead, just don't try and tell other people that they will be less happy for learning what makes rainbows. that's a bunch of elitist crap for you to say you know best and that people re better off not knowing. you may enjoy living in your head, please allow others the choice to live closer to reality if they believe it leads to more happiness.
as for what makes life, that is entirely up to what you decide it's defined as. a painting can come alive, a movie can really come alive in it's 3rd act, a book can be alive with characters and adventure, a cooking recipe can come alive when adding lemon juice, you can be alive when you enjoy your preferred pursuit.....life is whatever you choose it to be, and if you choose it to be an unborn human, then that's your choice. it doesn't make it true for everyone else though. it's like asking what beauty is. it's a personal definition. and yes we can create life, in many ways. we do it as humans, and recently as this month we created artificial organic life in the lab, without a miracle needed. just simple knowledge and desire. but we wouldn't be able to give birth, or create life in the lab without knowledge that we gained by desire of wanting to know how things work. we desire knowledge because it leads to more happiness.
if you prefer to believe happiness lies in ignorance, be my guest. but these "bunch of nerds" believe happiness is elsewhere of ignorance. yet you say they don't get it and that they are teaching people a way that leads to "getting in the way of the magic". resist knowledge is your message, hence in line with ICP.
"And who said anything about an ultimate goal and why would a closer relationship with reality require anything more then appreciating what is around you?"
what on earth are you blabbering about?
are you trying to tell us that there is a "subliminal meaning", yet one that is also consciously knowable to us? do you even know the definition of the words you use? (although as you're against knowledge maybe that's obvious).
you really expect us to understand what you mean when you talk about "things greater than you " and how without meaning it is basically joyless? why do you have this inability to acknowledge that someone can know the scientific reasons for how human birth works, AND still derive great happiness from the event they helped create? you really are saying that once you understand something, it is a one way ticket and you're unable to enjoy the happiness that was once possible through experiencing it in ignorance.
you are basically saying once you pass the age of childhood and start learning with your brain to become conscious of the universe you live in.....you get less happy? WTF? unless you're going to tell us that there are selective things that it's okay to know and still be as happy?
"You insist that you're right even though you ignore the very words that say you are wrong. It seems that you do this in order to impose your own reality instead of dealing with the one presented to you. No one is against learning, science, or parts of evolution, In fact, I'm not even sure why you are bringing evolution up in this conversation. Miracles in this song are not the biblical god did it bullshit, it's the can you believe this is happening type"
no i don't insist i'm right, YOU are the one telling us w can't be happy with things the same way once we learn them. remember that. YOU are the one telling us that we can't appreciate things because "understanding gets in the way". YOU are the one telling us YOUR reality is the right one. you are completely ignoring what people with other beliefs are telling you. that's ignorance. you tell me i am wrong, yet i tell you there are curious learners out there that are happier learning, you still deny that? are you really telling us that these people don't exist and that they're in denial and wrong about what they believe makes them happy? do you want to tell them they would be happier if they didn't understand?
"Why is it that you are claiming I support something or believe a certain way when I have never said anything of the sort? "
oh, but you *have* been saying that. as i showed above. you have said many times that people who like to learn and understand "lose the subliminal meaning and miracle...." and hence can't be as happy compared to not understanding. ergo, not knowing = mnore happiness. the very definition of ignorance.
you see, to believe in "miracles" suggests a belief in the supernatural. by this very word, there is a mentality of ignorance. that there is an unknowable reason for the existence of the miracle: "magic man done it" or some equally supernatural voodoo. to say that childbirth is a miracle, and denounce the scientist who understands the mechanism involved as being less happy than if he were ignorant, is your message. just because YOU see something as a miracle, doesn't mean other people are less happy because they DON'T se it as miraculous. you literally say: "unless you think this is a miracle, you aren't enjoying it as much as me". which is insane to tell us that we're missing the "subliminal, greater than you, miracle because you learned the truth".
now, you've been banging on about the lyrics and how they're taken out of context, and also how i should read them. apart from the fact that i have heard the song (i actually would love an instrumental version as i love the music), and read the lyrics, let's pick some choice lines that truly represent the message of the song:
"Pure magic is the birth of my kids" --seriously? it's a miracle, not biological science, simply magical miracles?
"Plant a little seed and nature grows" --nature doesn't grow when you plant a seed, nature is everything in this universe, including processes. unless you believe in the SUPER-natural, and hence "open your mind" to all sorts of "miracles" like ghosts...but i'm ahead of myself here. let's continue....
"there's enough miracles here to blow your brains" --or, maybe if you learn how things work, your brain evolves and is capable of understanding more, hence you get less headaches wondering "fucking magnets, how do they work?"
"And music is magic, pure and clean
You can feel it and hear it but it can't be seen" --can't be seen, usually, no miracle though. nothing supernatural about humans learning the knowledge of music.
"I seen a caterpillar turn into a butterfly" -- really? this is considered a miracle?
Miracles ain't nothing to lie"
"Shaggy's little boys look just like Shaggy --seriously, it would be a fucking miracle if they DIDN'T!
And my little boy looks just like daddy"
"Crows, ghosts, the midnight coast -- oh you have to be fucking joking...GHOSTS !
The wonders of the world, mysteries the most
"Just open your mind, and it ain't no way
To ignore the miracles of every day" --open your mind to what? supernatural rubbish?
so there we have it, i've gone over the song quite fairly and found nothing about what you describe as "the song is about appreciating miracles, not in a God way, just simply not letting understanding get in the way". it does indeed seem like the song is about seeing everything as "miracles", and that it's less important to understand why things happen, because science lies. it is quintessentially a song that promotes mysticism over science, the supernatural over natural.
"For the last fucking time, no one has ever said we shouldn't analyze and explain things, I said we shouldn't allow it to get in the way of what makes it special"
there's your presumption: that there are people that understand and let it get in the way of appreciating and happiness. you exclaim plenty of times "WTF? who ever said...." yet here is your presumption without evidence, so i ask you who ever said they were not appreciating things through understanding?
"It ain't over until it's over." -- Casey Stengel
