Words, A Simple Approach to Reason

By Dominique Mellow

"Words" is a piece that challenges the meaning of existence and cries out for reason, without which it would be nearly impossible to control our passions, which often demand action but not necessarily in the appropriate way.

The author makes a direct appeal to the reader's interest in the need to internalize the concepts that need to guide humanity toward a more dignified port.

The author attempts to balance the forces of existence and clear up the misunderstanding that has been ingrained in his beliefs through two dialogues, but he never receives the help he needs, which is analogous to the seeming reality that we currently inhabit.

Idealism is a wish that is articulated and that the author recognizes as unreal but leaves open the possibility that it might be used as a tool to comprehend happiness.

The author tries to explain why the loss of faith is regarded as an almost normal attitude in Western culture.

The chapters are organized according to the author's intended logic in order to get closer to his innate desire to act morally, which is frequently compromised. These chapters defy the barriers that are typically put up to prevent the psyche from exploring different avenues for a better understanding of what we urgently need.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dominique Mellow
• Release date: Oct 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798848773019

Dominique Mellow

Dominique Mellow was born in Lisbon, Portugal. He took courses in English composition: research and writing at Arizona State University; Deliberations for Social Change and Justice at Harvard University; The Conscious Mind: A Philosophical Road Trip at Trinity College; and English Grammar and Essay Writing at Berkeley University.The writing habit first emerged when he was a young lad and was inspired by his life stories.He spent about 20 years as a journalist and general manager of a television station in Canada. He attended Berkley University's Journalism for Social Change program; the University of Michigan's Fake News, Facts, and Alternative Facts course; and Boston University's Ethical Leadership program.Additionally, he worked as the assistant editor, designer, and editor of a magazine for two years.

Book preview

Words II

A Simple Approach to Reason

Copyright 2022 Dominique Mellow

Published by Dominique Mellow at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License

Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.  This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.  If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.  If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Preface: João Lam dos Santos, Ph.D.

Chapter One: Words

Chapter Two: Dialogue

Chapter Three: Average

Chapter Four: Love

Chapter Five: Conflict

Chapter Six: The story of John and Madeleine

Chapter Seven: Loneliness

Chapter Eight: Freedom

Chapter Nine: Uprightness

Chapter Ten: Theoretical Ideology

Chapter Eleven: Dialogue II

Chapter Twelve: Dear, dad

Chapter Thirteen: Reason

Notes on the author

References

Preface

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the courage and value of the author’s challenge, as he has been a friend of mine for a very long time, or should I say, it is indeed a privilege to reflect on his reflections.

The courage to question subjects, often seen as taboos, as he ‘peels the fruit’ taking an approach to the psychoanalytic realm of being here. This is not an easy task, actually may even be dangerous if one is caught at the crossroads of religious fundamentalists. Ideas can be trapped in conspiracy theories or worse and questions may hurt somebody at a blasphemy level. On the other hand, discussing ‘the truth’ is just like analyzing reality without escaping the conflict of interest. Let’s say, off the record, aren´t we already like being inside a ‘cosmic test tube’ observing our own reactions? Certainly, it would be much easier to see the picture from out of this inner world. Questions like ‘are we confined to a stochastic environment’? And ‘are we on track?' Or, ‘Is it part of the game?‘ ‘Are the rules being developed upon the time?’ - Let's think about it.

It is indeed relevant the author’s approach to ‘Singularities’ with his conclusion to be the very same meaning in all dimension levels of what we call life.

This work has an evaluation of our continuous presence on a vast idea of the infinite or eternity. Then, million dollars questions like «what are we doing here»? And who’s ruling it? What can someone get from nothing except nothing? It seems that something always happens out of something. At first, it looks too good to be true. The author shows a solid basis of culture in terms of Human History and Sociology having first-hand experience reporting true cases.

And it flows, questions on the so-called ‘Big Bang’, the necessity of calling it ‘Big’ and, to sound even bigger, they have called it ‘Bang’. On the other way the ‘real thing’ appears not so linear but much more distorted, in a manner Physics would now feel embarrassed to explain.  So, he goes beyond open minds, over the state of the art of our knowledge, with an effort to break the barriers of ‘our science’.

Frankly speaking, this is a work made of love and with no doubt, it is worth the time and energy you take to read or even digest it. João Lam dos Santos, Ph.D. Civil and Materials Engg. University Professor and Researcher, Portugal

WORDS II, A simple approach to reason Dominique Mellow (If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein)

Chapter One

Words

Once upon a time, this creature started speaking. We are aware of a number of hypotheses on the origin of the ability to produce intelligent sounds. They date back between 50,000 and two million years. Whatever their origin, it's safe to say that humanity quickly realized that those sounds would be a vital addition to life for everything—good and bad.

I've spent my entire life observing how we communicate, whether through spoken, signed, or written words. We may all be aware of the power of words, but few of us are aware of the path that those expressions occasionally take. We may work hard to achieve a goal that feeds our interest, ego, or power. Some of us have a special ability to speak brilliantly for a small group of people or for hundreds, if not millions, of people, the latter being possible through the use of newspapers, radio, television, or social media. We shape our minds and fill them with our quirks, dreams, and greed, much like a bulldozer finds fewer obstacles in its path. Where would we be without words? Would we achieve the status we attained if we could not speak? Possibly we could think of the reason to be alive and, not so much, where we came from; however, we could not ask or write the question, and, therefore, it would be somewhat difficult to examine and theorize about our origins. We speak, and because of it, we can do wonders and achieve the condition set aside for intelligent beings. It is agreed that we are intelligent, but what is our ranking degree? The question arises from the interpretations we draw from our social, political, religious, and scientific lives. The regular component of society does tend to embark on unconfirmed information and, thus, make decisions based on data that may hurt themselves or, otherwise, influence others into incurring the same inaccuracies. One might ask, and should ask, what is a piece of confirmed information? This is a very difficult question with several tricky and uncertain answers. However, if one uses reason, the response might be to carefully assess all information we receive and minimize the risk of being a target of what we think are facts, but that might not be so. The reality will probably be, as it generally is, hidden and difficult to find. Because of this, we must exercise our naturally given power to decontaminate those so-called facts. One of the most important factors in this misinformation started back in January 1983, the official kick-off of the internet, with the discovery of the communications protocol known as TCP/IP, Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, in the 70s. Now everyone would be able to get information and give information on the most variable themes. And here resides the problem, where anyone can use the written word to communicate his or her arbitrary ideas and views. This does not mean that, before the Internet, the situation did not exist; it was obviously less abundant, but now the world of possibilities is magnified in a new exponential model. In my personal experience, all of us are aware of this reality, but we tend to overlook it, and, as a consequence, misperceptions get installed. It is difficult to look for closely aligned answers to facts because of the profusion of information we receive daily from a huge number of sources. Nonetheless, we cannot afford to run the risk of putting ourselves in a situation that might damage our relationships with ourselves and the world. That is all fine, and the majority of readers will concur with the idea. Still, we rarely follow our naturally acquired instincts and try, at least, to be careful with the absorbing material. Why is this? for any number of reasons, which I will try to address. The first one has to do with the time involved in research to inform ourselves more accurately and contribute to a better understanding of the world around us. By doing so, we are investing a slice of our intellect to improve not only our lives but also those of others. Without investing some time in digging for the apparent truth, the tendency is to believe whatever we are experiencing off-hand and, if we feel like it, post it to social media, hence the term viral, which may be funny or may raise some eyebrows together with the levels of anxiety and apprehension we confront in our daily lives. It is easy to read something and immediately share that information with tens of thousands of people who, probably, will use that information in the same manner as we did. This is the reason the phrase fake news has been in our ears so much these days. Even with all the awareness against it, and even if everyone has knowledge about it, which I am pretty sure we all do, it appears that we will ricochet that information no matter what, thus contributing to that unthinkable and innocent act of the distortion of the facts given to the sea of our Facebook friends, many of whom are engaged in the same lethargic mode and following the easiest way, which is not to challenge whatever piece of information they have just received. Why this tendency to embark on the first boat that comes around without so much as checking the price we pay for the ticket? Will it be because it is easier? Or, deep down inside, we do not mind being fooled and fooling others in the process. We do it without thinking too much, just for the pleasure of passing on the information before anybody else. We have been doing this for centuries, although on a smaller scale. But, should we not observe the progress of humankind, reaching century XXI and acquiring a tremendous value in the knowledge which enable us to reach and observe the cold beauty of the Moon six times, starting in 1969, and eight, out of fourteen attempts, successful landing on Mars, with the emphasis on the project Perseverance which, not only landed on the red planet but also transported a small helicopter, capable of flying on its thin atmosphere taking pictures to send to Earth? Moreover, this is happening in our solar system at the edge of the Milky Way, and we dare to go farther away with the probes traveling out of our planetary system, like the adventure that started in 1972 with Pioneer 10, which is now more than 125 astronomical units away from our Sun. Is this true? The question arises because I was talking about fake news, and thus, one has the right to ask the question. These are facts based on information received from NASA. Now, we can doubt what NASA is putting out there, but will it be wise? The advance we experience, a result of our technical and scientific achievements, validates that the power we now have was discovered by humans, whose door was opened during the period of enlightenment, from 1715–1789. And all of this is because we can look up to the sky and ask questions, one of which is deeply rooted: Why are we here? It is interesting to note that, even with all the advancements in various areas, we still do not know the answer, and chances are, due to something called the uncertainty principle, we will never have the ability to discover it. Therefore, there is a law governing our intellect that breaks down when we formulate the question, What are we doing here? Theoretically, we could go all the way back to the Big Bang and explain, in a very simple manner, what took place after that event: the expansion of the universe. However, what happened before the Big Bang? There were no known physical laws and no way of knowing what was beyond that event horizon. and God appeared. He wanted the universe to commence and, therefore, ignited the fuse for the explosion of matter into the void. This might fit into the idea that there is an omnipotent being who rules over everything, but what was He doing before the Big Bang? The