Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

 So last year, about this time, I wrote "new decade's resolution" talking about how I was going to maximize to the greatest possible extent conceivable to the human imagination the degree of liberty I can have in life over the course of the next decade. This year, as 2020 draws to a close, a year that was much better for me then it was for 96.731% of humanity, I am going to revise my resolution a little bit.  Here is the 10 things I am going to try to achieve in the next year (and in the rest of my life). 1. I am going to try to maximize to the greatest possible extent conceivable to the human imagination the amount of love and loyalty I have for Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things, and I am going to do my best over the course of the next year to try and say and do things that bring glory to God. 2.  Try to be of service to other people. Try my best to make the lives of the people of my community, my friends and family as pleasant and as respectful as they can be.  3.

So I have heard a lot in passing conversation and in articles read and popularized by certain public figures like Elon Musk talking about what is called "simulation theory."  It's a theory that our entire reality is artificial, something simulated, from another reality. It's pretty much what the the movie "The Matrix" tried to depict in its premise. In our popular culture, there are elements of society who believe that this particular concept is what actually exists. "We are all living in a simulation!" as some people would say. From my own perspective, I don't think that's the case. I believe this reality is very real. It's not artificial at all. However, I do view this reality as a "projection" from a reality that is more complex and advanced than this one. The difference between a projection and a simulation is that something can be projected into existence from another reality and still maintain a level of realness and tru

I think one of the most difficult things a lot of people have trouble doing in the midst of crises and challenges is asking for help. Whether out of pride or out of fear, asking for help can be an obstacle in itself aside from the challenges we are faced with. Many of us just get into situations where we don't know a way out of or we don't understand what we are in the midst of or what is happening to us. We don't know how we can be helped or what can actually help us. As a result, many of us continue in lives and circumstances that become unnecessarily restrictive, sometimes even oppressive, when all it takes to escape from these circumstances is an extension of a hand and the extension of another hand to help it. Unfortunately the helpers often don't know how to help, which is a situation that happens frequently in our world and in our society.  In a world as broken, lost, and, more often than not, quite wicked, many people just feel trapped by the oppressive and rest

     This saying is a pretty common one I heard growing up and in the movies and in books I read. When I heard it said, a lot of times when I was more skeptical and doubting I would find it kind of a  nuisance, sometimes even dismissing any possibility of the truth of this phrase.           I honestly couldn't see how everything could truly happen for a reason, especially the bad stuff.  But then as I got older, I started looking back at my life and noticed patterns and coincidences that I couldn't just simply deny away. I looked at the job I've landed and held down. I have been interested in military/war topics and history, and now I spend 5 days a week cleaning up after the ROTC department at MSU.          I look at the church I ran into and joined, and even though I haven't been perfect in my relationship with them, they still took me under their wing and loved me like a family member, even given my quirks and difficult tendencies.         I look at the last 10 years

 Merry Christmas to my friends and family across Montana and the nation. May the joy and peace of our savior Jesus Christ fill your spirits and hearts this Christmas. I hope for many things this Christmas, and here is a list of my hopes for you this joyous holiday.  If you are grieving someone who is spending Christmas in the house of God from now on, I hope you are given some comfort in knowing that the ones you love and have lost no longer are bound to a world of sin, death, and suffering.  If you are angry this Christmas, whether at a friend, family member, or neighbor, I hope you find peace and the strength and courage to forgive.  If you have hate in your heart this Christmas, I hope you are brought into the light of Love and compassion. If you have jealousy in your eye this Christmas, I hope you are awakened to the spirit of God's generosity, and the inherent value of your spirit and the priceless qualities of who you are, and that you come to know that the value of a man doe

I am a very social person. I talk to everyone, try to treat everyone with respect, and I value company and companionship. I have a lot of friends who put up with my moodiness, shenanigans, loopiness, and quirks, and they treat me well for the most part.  I know, I can be a little unpredictable, but there is a lot going on in my head all the time and sometimes its hard to manage. I do a much better job than I used to. I love people. I love talking to people. I love learning from them. I'm social, yes, but discretion isn't something I excel at. I can be a bit much for a lot of people. I know that, but its kind of just who I am. I like to talk and I learn from conversation. I always try to give the person I'm talking to a fresh and new perspective, and take from their knowledge whatever valuable insight I can. I have a pretty vivid imagination. Growing up, I liked really big numbers. Billions, trillions, quadrillions, that kind of number. When I was little, I used to imagine h

 Even after all your mistakes, I still love you Even when you say things not dignified  Even when you say things out of spite Even when you say things I don't like I will still love you Even when you sin Even when you hate Even when you degrade others I will still love you, even though I know You are better than that I know your heart, Josh I know your strength, Josh I know you can be better I know you try I know the hows and the whys Of your life I will set you free Free from sin Free from hate Free from failure Free from disappointment Free from corruption Free from fear Free from death I'll set you free To live your dreams To be with me To help you see What it truly means To be safe and free And you'll always be Secure with me I love you I have always loved you I will always love you For eternity Merry Christmas

In medicine, the Hippocratic Oath is probably the single most important oath or proclamation a doctor or medical professional can swear by.  First, do no harm. Such a simple statement, yet so important in terms of taking care of people who are sick and troubled. I try to live by it, even though I am not a doctor or nurse. I don't like hurting people. I never want to get into a position where I'm taking pleasure out of someone elses suffering and at their expense.  It's not something that's very pronounced in my nature, hurting people. I don't want to be the bad guy. I've been hurt a lot though, and I'm human. As a result, I've had a lot of vengeful, spiteful thoughts in my life. Out of anger and vengeance I have hurt people in my life. Family members. Friends. I haven't physically harmed or crippled them, but verbally I can do harm. And I have. I can be a little lippy sometimes, but I promise my bark is....quite a bit worse than my bite. It's ama

  Being born in the United States, the most powerful country in the world, and possibly the most powerful country to ever exist, I am exposed to the concepts of Power and Freedom all the time. America's primary goal as a collective nation is to strive for Liberty for the people of this country, and even the world as a whole.        It's even in our pledge of allegiance. The relationship between power and liberty is a complex one.  Having Liberty often equates to having a degree of power, and vice versa.  Having power over other people can restrict those poeple's freedom to live the life they want to or make choices in their own interests without compulsion or coercion.      The person who has power over others has more liberty at their disposal, oftentimes more resources as well, and definitely more influence, but naturally also more responsibility and the consequences of their choices might be of a greater intensity.     The main goal of a nation that prides itself on libe

I have put quite a bit of thought into the concept of an infinite existence. I've written a lot about infinity and realities and universes over the course of the last year.  In this hypothetical infinite existence, I've been meditating on its components and structure to try to construct a more clear presentation of the concept. Obviously, my primary reference point for an infinite existence is the world and reality I am currently in right now. In my thinking, I have narrowed down, in my mind at least, 7 "foundation stones," of my conceptualization of an infinite existence, with the tie in of each foundation stone being that each one can be tied into infinity somehow.        The first "foundation stone," and the most important and the origin of all the rest, is consciousness.  The absolute foundation of the infinite existence would be an infinite consciousness, of which all other consciousness in existence would be finite, isolated samples of.  This would be

Infinity is one of the most intriguing and powerful abstract mathematical concepts encountered by humans. It has profound and complex mathematical implications when applied to various theories and realms of thought.      Combining the concept of infinity with other abstract concepts, forms, or ideas leads to complexity unparalleled by any other and this complexity is often elusive to most people.       The concept of weaponizing infinity can be a fun mental exercise. It's not so much a physical weapon as a weapon of the mind.  It is using infinite constructs and different forms and types of infinity to target and stretch minds to a much greater limit than they have been stretched before and effectively "blow the mind up." Another mental application is weaponizing an infinitely complex system, turning that system against the great enemy of infinity, and the great enemy of all things; nothingness and void. Nothingness is the great source of evil, destruction, and death in e

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." This is a common childrens saying and is often taught to kids to help them cope with being called names and bullied. I must admit, this phrase and its message is not true. It's utter nonsense, to be honest. Words can be weapons. They are weaponized all the time. Just look at racial slurs and hate language.  For the sake of decency, I'm not going to write any of them. I'm sure my audience knows most of them anyways. The N word. The "other" F word. There is such a thing as attack language. Some words, when used in a certain way are like hitting someone in the face.  Rarely do you see a fight start without the exchanging of language first. When you know what a word means, or what a phrase means, and they are used against you as an attack, they will affect you. Its not so much the word itself as it is its meaning. Meaning, or understanding, is what does the mental damage. The word or phras

     So, in a couple of my posts over the years, I've dropped the term "weaponized insanity" a few times and in a few contexts. To define it and describe it, weaponized insanity is the use of psychological, information, or chemical means to induce a state of insanity on an individual or culture/nation and get them to tear themselves apart and self-destruct through fear and madness.  It's a concept that's been explored before in movies and books. A good example would be the psychotropic hallucinogen in Batman Begins that the bad guys use to attack Gotham City with.    I'd like to explore a different concept. "Weaponized Enlightenment." This would be the inverse of weaponized insanity. It would be the use of psychological, information, or chemical means to give complete and utter clarity and awareness of truth and reality to an individual or culture/nation and get the population to have complete and full cognitive and mental functionality.      Using a

     I try to be a free thinker. I try to maintain an open mind and an open heart. I try to think as deeply about reality as I possibly can. I am looking for freedom in the only place in my life where freedom can be exacted to an absolute; my mind.       Unfortunately, in this world, differentness of thought often equates to insanity to the layperson. Humans are often not very complex, and so when they encounter complexity in another human, it can be intimidating. Even frightening.  In an attempt to cope with something they don't understand, humans like to label.       Often times, they don't even understand the very label they attach to people who in turn they also don't understand.  Insanity's a loaded word. Oftentimes the person who wields it against another person doesn't even understand what they are saying.        One of the worst things you can do to someone is to get them to question their own reality. It is a debilitating tactic, one that, unfortunately, ca

"Fear is a path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate...leads to suffering." -Yoda I've been a Star Wars fan all my life. I've seen all of them at some point, and some of them dozens of times. The quote I've mentioned above stuck out to me when I first heard it when I was little, but I didn't understand it until I lived it. In my adult life, I saw the unfolding of this in my own life firsthand      It starts with fear. But the anger and hate are the most poisonous of these emotions.  I don't like how much anger I have. Sometimes there is a subtle, even passive-aggressive venom that spews out of my mouth or on paper that I'm not always proud of. I can't get away with exploding on people or showing heightened aggression, so my anger is a lot quieter. It comes out in the language I use sometimes.  The words I say. The bitter and spiteful rhetoric. It is something I am trying to work on, but the darkness in my mind isn't

In order to understand the world, circumstances within it, problems within our nation or society, and finding solutions and avenues to approach those problems, the gathering, processing, and analysis of information is essential.  The word intelligence just means "knowing." It is the knowledge about the world and the affairs within it a person or agency has gathered over the course of time.  Naturally, gathering information is the primary function of intelligence agencies and groups involved with national security.  I'm going to talk about how the two primary forms of information (abstract Information and Concrete information) pertain to intelligence gathering, as well as how the concept of uncertainty is applied to the two different types of information.      Concrete information is the physical, measurable, substantial information that makes up our physical world. Being aware of concrete information primarily deals with being alert and aware of the physical world and you

One thing I try to consistently be in my life is loyal to those I owe loyalty to. Loyalty one of the most important character traits that I strive to have and I strongly appreciate in other people. I am loyal to my job, try my best to be loyal to my friends and family and, yes, even in the midst of my resentment and disappointment I am loyal to my homeland.       I will never go out of my way to be a danger to people in my community or a danger to my nation in any way that can be of a severe detriment. I stand to lose immensely by becoming threatening to systems and situations far more powerful than me. Even in the middle of some of my deepest throngs of bitterness and resentment, if the shoe drops and our society went to hell, I'd still willingly step in harms way if it meant protecting the interests of the people I care about and the interests of what our country stands for, like liberty, justice, and opportunity.   I love loyalty. It's such a cool concept. The idea serving t

As I go through my life, entering into my 30's next July, I am not just going to focus on liberty and all those big, fancy liberty concepts as I progress into later adulthood. I'm going to attempt to focus on achieving happiness as well, and just in general become a better person. With what I've been through, a consistent positive attitude is hard to maintain. I have a lot of unresolved challenges and darkness that I more cope with than overcome at this point, but I'm sick of my negativity and cynicism. I couldn't have ended up in a better position for a year like this.       There are a couple major keys to happiness I have discovered, and the liberty and peace of mind that comes with finding a happy, joyful life. The first one is gratitude.  Gratitude is a major, massive component of joy, peace, and happiness. Without gratitude, none of us can truly be happy, and none of us can truly value or appreciate love that God gives us and our loved ones give as well. The S

You are stronger than you know You are brave and bold almost to a fault You are smart You have a big heart You are loving You are kind You are compassionate You have a beautiful mind You are honest You are good You are responsible You are loyal You are safe You are faithful You are exactly who you were supposed to be You are resilient You are blessed You are going to enter into God's Kingdom You are going to explore world upon world You are going to see wonders upon wonders You are going to find peace and joy You are going to find victory and glory You are going to have a valuable life You are going to have a wonderful story

I've heard debates over the course of my life on the nature of time. A lot of it had to do with whether time was cyclical or linear. Topics like eternal recurrence, where the universe just recycles itself over and over and everything just keeps happening over and over. Not the most ideal arrangement by any means, but its one possibility.       The other argument is for linear progression. A truly endless progression of new events and happenings with some coincidences and mimicry of events, but no pure recurrence.         I like that arrangement better. I also like the concept of timelessness. A state of existence where time is irrelevant and even non-existent, yet there is something still there. No before. No after. It just is. That's kind of how I view God. A truly static, unchanging thing. A timeless Creator. The Creator of time. The Creator of everything.  Since I believe His creation is infinite, I believe their are many ways of arranging time. Time, from my view, would be

Beliefs are a core part of a person's identity. They are not physical attributes of someone's face or body, nor are they necessarily skillsets that are marketed for economic benefit.      Even so, beliefs form one of the most important parts of a person's identity; the structure and content of their mind.  I've talked a lot about beliefs in previous posts and how I relate to them and how I view them. I view beliefs as ideas and concepts you view to be true, whether in the face of great certainty or great uncertainty.        Beliefs form such a massive part of a person's identity that a person wouldn't be who they are without them. It's not a coincidence that the words "identity" and "idea" share the same etymology and root.         Our ideas about life and our mental idea about ourselves and who we are naturally form some of the core tenets of our belief system and as a result a core component of our identities.      In fact, one of the g

     "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"      -Psalm 27:1      Fear has been a blight on my life since as far as I can remember. I have made some terrible mistakes because of fear. I have derailed my life out of terror and fear of things both real and unreal.  I have lost many dreams and shattered many ambitions because of my inability to master my fear.     Unfortunately, fear is one of those things that entered into this world when this world became the fallen place that it is. Fear is a fact of our world. I live in fear of the damage my mind can do to me when I lose control of my thoughts and lose control of my behavior.  I'm afraid of insanity and the times where I have been without control of mind. I fear the "normal" things, like losing loved ones or losing my job or losing my house. I fear being judged by peers and co-workers. It's actually quite unfortunate, but

    I have heard about a debate that is ranging in the sciences and mathematics about whether or not concepts in mathematics and science, inventions, or technology and human innovation in general are "created" by human beings or are "discovered" by curiosity driven scientific and mathematical explorers.     This debate is not new. It's been going on for a while now. I first heard about it from my economics professor friend at MSU and did a lot of thinking about it on my own.      To some it up, there are certain academics and mathematicians who view that many mathematical concepts and constructs are man-made. "Created" by the human mind and rendered solely as the constructs and inventions of human beings.       This branches off into technological and social innovation and ideation, where inventions are the creations of the inventors and innovation is more creation-oriented and its existence is mostly contingent on human creativity.       The opposing

   One of the most fascinating concepts in Buddhism I have encountered in my readings is the concept of "beginningless time." Time that stretches on to an eternity before the present moment.         Beginningless time is a hard concept to grasp for humans, since every human being alive has a clearly defined beginning. Even the universe itself had some sort of beginning, although we do not have a complete grasp on the complexities and intricacies of the beginning of our universe.        As a result, the concept of beginningless time is foreign to many of us. Something that we have a hard time wrapping our heads around.  The concept of beginningless time opens the door to the idea that consciousness and willful entities of all sorts, human or otherwise, have been "doing this forever."            In other words, conscious beings have been interacting with each other, competing and forming relationships with each other, for truly an eternity already, let alone the etern

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."       -Ephesians 6:12.  There is evil in the world. I have no doubt of this. I catch glimpses and hear whispers and rumors and stories of evil here and there, even while I myself am living a rather secure, rather comfortable, and rather good life.       Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. I've learned the truth of this over my life. Many evils, like slavery, abuse, corruption, and criminality are often hiding in plain sight. Right in front of us, sometimes even.   What I know to be true is that the Devil and his angels are everywhere.  Scripture describes the Devil as "the prince and the power of the air" Eph. 2:2 implying that even the air of this world is his territory. Scripture also describes him as the prince of this

We are all made of light, in a sense. All matter is is condensed, structured energy at its core. Light is just energy as well. Light, to me, is the basic energy. The foundation of all things physical and even spiritual is light, from my perspective.  I look at examples from scripture to reinforce the importance of light in my mind. In the beginning, the first thing God said...the very first words out of his mouth was, "let there be light." He spoke existence into existence.     I look later on in the New Testament and think of the Gospel of John and recall Jesus being described as "the light" on multiple occasions throughout the gospel. It said the darkness "did not over come him".    Light is often synonymous with goodness or righteousness. Based on the genesis account, I think I can speak truthfully when I say light is from God. So, obviously, Jesus, being the incarnate word of God as the gospel of John describes him as, its only natural and fitting that

       We all have a creative side. We all have the ability to create art or to tell a story. It's an inherent component of our humanity and our minds.       Creativity is such an essential component of the human condition. Our society wouldn't be as advanced, nor would our culture and leisure be as rich, without creativity.     Creativity is fostered by liberty. Liberty provides the framework and platform by which creativity flourishes. You need liberty in order for creativity to reach its highest potential or for it to even exist at all. When liberty dies, so does creativity.       Tapping into Creativity can be difficult, but we all have creativity within us.        Fortunately, for me and for everyone else, creativity can never be completely stifled or destroyed. The very concept of creativity comes from the mind of an infinite God. No finite, narrowminded thing can destroy an infinite construct. Nothing can destroy an infinite mind.         Since I view that human minds ar

"Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.' And they divided His garments and cast lots." -Luke 23:34 Forgiveness is hard. It can be extremely challenging to learn how to let go and be at peace with tragedies and wrongdoings in your life. Some things are harder to forgive than others. Somethings are easier to let go of. The great burden that comes with lack of forgiveness is bitterness. A sour taste in your mouth or a burning anger in your chest that never goes away. Bitterness is poisonous. It makes your mind "stuck in a rut" trapped in a cycle of pain, grief, and anger that can be quite mentally crippling.  If unchecked, bitterness leads to hate, and hate leads to a destruction of relationships and even crimes and physical harm. It's the old "hate leads to suffering" Star Wars quote.  It does. Bitterness poisons you. Hate destroys you. Forgiveness is the only way out of the destruction and mental poisoning of