Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

    "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep."       =John 10:11        I recently had my memory refreshed of a clip from the movie "American Sniper" where the father of Chris Kyle is giving a lecture to his two young sons after a schoolyard brawl on the arrangement of the human social condition. He split humanity into three categories; Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves.      Sheep are pretty self-explanatory. They are the people who ebb and flow with the seasons and waves of society. They are completely dependent on the system and rely on stronger and better equipped people for their protection and survival. Out of an ignorance, an ineptitude, or just a general contentment they don't equip themselves to defend themselves and are easily incentivized by fear.  They are the weak and meek, both those who willingly pacify and disarm themselves and those who by handicap and disability are left with no other choice. They are easily discon

"And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. "        -Luke 7:37-38 So January 2020, in the middle of the month, I was in the midst of a state of mind that left me reckoning with some of my past and even some of the stuff that had happened in the weeks prior. I had said a lot of interesting things and had some interesting conversations.      It was pre-Covid time, so school was relatively normal and not everything was as weird as it is now. There was still a weirdness to it, but that's because my life always has a weirdness to it. One Saturday, after a long day of bouncing around Bozeman with my mind hashing out reality and philosophy and everything in between, I w

:    "The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent."      Sun Tzu-The Art of War Over the years, confusion has been a routine topic of interest to me for many reasons, whether they be confusion as symptoms of brain illnesses or injury or the confusion of languages in the biblical story of the tower of babel or...pertaining to the quote above...confusion as a weapon and tactic of war.       Confusing an opponent or enemy is not a new phenomenon and has been used throughout the history of games and warfare. When you have successfully confused an enemy while you retain a high level of clarity and functionality, you have a distinct and pronounced advantage over them. Coupled with distraction, confusion is one of the most effective psychological strategies you can use against an antagonist or opponent. It weakens their defensive capabilities and leaves them vulnerable to attack. You can terrorize, neutralize, or destroy an enemy more effec

There are some things that are inescapable once you are born into the world. Things that no matter how hard you try to evade, they will still impact you in your life.    For one, you are going to make mistakes. This is an inescapable fact of being human. The important thing is you learn from them. The world and many people in your life may not forgive you for many of your mistakes, but human beings are not notable for being the most forgiving of creatures. Forgiveness is a divine trait, not a human one, and the most important person to forgive is yourself. If other people can't move past, that's on them. You are going to royally piss someone off at some point in your life, or many people. Some people will be pissed just because you still exist. Again, this is on them. If you are upsetting people for being who you are when you've done no harm to them, that's their insecurities, their flaws, that they are not strong enough or brave enough to overcome.  Don't be ashame

  I've always wanted to be strong. I looked up to strong people and always wanted to have a level of strength and toughness that I felt I lacked in my life. To me, there is a difference between toughness and resilience. I look at toughness as the amount of stress and trial one can take before they break or capitulate.       I look at resilience as the amount of times someone can recover and the quickness of the recovery after capitulating or breaking.   By this definition I am much more resilient than I am tough. I'm kind of a comeback kid. It's easy to kick me down, but keeping me down can prove to be a continuous and unceasing process. I am going to get back up again and again and again until something finally finishes me off.  That hasn't happened yet.  Something in me has always prevented me from throwing in the towel for good in life, and I keep fighting and keep getting back up even though I have no idea why I keep entering in the match.       I guess I'm a su

Your shoulders make me feel safe. Resting my head there takes my worry away. Your kindness warms my spirit. You have such a gentle approach with me. Your strength gives me courage You've always been strong. Your patience gives me room to grow.  You gave me so many second chances Your mercy spared my life when I dug myself into dangerous situations. You sent angels to stop the monsters from tearing me to pieces. Your hope gives me the drive to push through a life I don't want to live. You give me a lot of hope. Your wisdom and knowledge gave me immense curiosity.  You've graced me with some of that knowledge. Your glory has brought me to my knees. I bow willingly to you because of your might. I bow willingly because I love you. Your liberty allows me to explore your infinite creation and your infinite self. The freedom you gave me is unparalleled to any nation's or any world's. Your love created me Your love protected me Your love restored me Your love heals me Your

    The human mind can be pretty deep. Unfathomably deep. Within yourself is an array and database of information that you have accrued in your lifetime and some that may be wired into your mind by nature. I have some weird beliefs, some divergent viewpoints that give me an alternate perspective on my reality and existence in general.    I know that my beliefs are not super typical, and not everyone shares them, but if my belief that every human mind is an isolated individualized sample of a broader infinite mind is true, than the possibilities, potential, and depth for human consciousness and human ideation is truly endless. Limitless.        All it takes is one idea from one human mind to revolutionize the world.  At the same time though, all it takes is one human constructing one ideology and you can have the potential for a war that can kill millions. Just look at Hitler as a textbook example of this. He wrote a book in prison whose ideas were directly and indirectly responsible fo

    "Insanity can be most defined by a complete lack of self-awareness."       The whole argument that "crazy people don't know they are crazy" has a lot of validity to it. People who are delusional or mentally detached often don't have any substantial or valid insight on their situation or mental state. If you find yourself questioning your sanity, asking an honest question of "am I losing my mind?" then you actually aren't in that bad of a position.       It's when you no longer have the ability to honestly ask that question to yourself that you have a problem.   As far as infinity goes?  Well, believing in infinite things, or believing in an infinite God, is unprovable and unfalsifiable.  Of course finite beings can't prove or comprehend the existence of infinite systems, but believing in such systems and believing in the existence of such infinite powers and authorities is actually quite therapeutic.  It gives people an immense hope

    Symbolism is used in every culture and every society and has been since the dawn of human history. Symbols are the units of our writing systems and how we document and write down our history and knowledge. Symbolism is a phenomenon unique primarily to humanity, with humanity being the only organism known to use advanced symbols to convey and transmit information and meaning to an audience or individuals within a group or collective culture.            Symbolism is defined by the transmission of meaning and information between conscious beings. WIthout an established set of meaning and consensus on that meaning, the symbol has no power or influence over an audience. Symbols are useless without meaning. Once meaning has been assigned to a symbol, that symbol holds influence and power over the minds of those who understand its meaning.         Units of meaning are the foundational parts of abstract information. Symbols are one of the primary vectors of the transmission of abstract ide

      There are things in this world that attract such a hate, such a fear, that is so irrational it borders on insanity. There are things that I never understood how they could warrant such hatred. Even the sins, weaknesses and shortcomings that are wrong shouldn't be seen as inherent, condemnable, or irredeemable.   The whole message of the cross is redemption, mercy, and grace yet so many people, both christians and non-christians alike, harbor so much hatred towards people for traits they can't control or sins that are forgiven so easily its like washing mud from a hand   Hate itself is a darkness. A poison that turns otherwise sensible people into monsters. Hate  from my perspective, is more condemnable than weakness or mistakes. If you harbor hatred against the innocent, the sick, the sinner, or the weak, I feel you will find yourself more quickly judged or possibly condemned by God far more then the target of your hate. Even so, God's mercy and grace extends infinite

Competition doesn't always have to be a Zero-Sum game. Yes there are winners and losers in life. That is natural, but losing in most situations in life shouldn't have to equate to destruction. Maybe in war, yes, but not running a business or feeding your family or sporting matches or going to school, or almost any other facet of life and society.  Honestly, aside from warfare there shouldn't be any competition where the loser doesn't gain some sort of benefit or lesson from the loss, and even in warfare many times the loser is humbled to the point of reformation of their society. Just look at Germany or Japan after World War 2.       Yes, survival of the fittest is a very real concept and a very real circumstance in nature, but fitness can be taught and developed. The unfit don't always need to be weeded out and destroyed. A Darwinist approach works well...in the jungle...or in the wild...but it makes for a brutish and unnecessarily harsh and unforgiving environment

       When you are the big dog on the block, it's easy to throw around the little guy. Always has been. It doesn't take much challenge to rough up the weak and the small.  It's easy, which is why it happens so much. If you want to take an evolutionary look at our species, humans clearly are a predatory species. We always have been, even down to our primal origins. We also were prey at one point. One of those strange species that has fit the role of both predator and prey throughout its history.     Predators usually prey on the weaker and smaller. This is true when humans prey upon their own kind. "Picking on someone your own size" just takes too much work...and too much courage. Something human predators lack significantly.   Human predation of humans takes many forms. Bullying is one of them. Slavery is another. Oppression within any society is predatory at heart. Subjugation is an act of predation.  These things are predatory because they include a more physic

     There is not a single human being on the planet who is a lost cause. There is hope for anyone and everyone who still draws breath in this world. Even into eternity and the realm of God there is always hope and mercy to be found for those who lost so much and had such misfortune or detriment fall upon them in life. Jesus is the great rescuer of the lost. The great savior of sinners and broken people. The great returner of broken dreams.       To Jesus, there is no such thing as a lost cause, a hopeless case, or an impossible situation.  Even though people lose hope sometimes and sink into despair, eternity and the Kingdom of God is a place where hope never dies and the lost are found eternally, never to be lost again.  With God, all things are possible, and all those lost are findable.       Jesus specializes in the mending broken hearts and broken dreams, and eternity is a long time to have dreams fulfilled and rest in the glory and peace of God endlessly.  He never forgets about

    I talk a lot about the infinite mind of God in many of my conversations and postings. I am fascinated with the idea of a mind and conscious force that is infinite in its complexity, infinite in its depth, infinite in its understanding and comprehension, infinite in its creative capacity, and has an infinite array of forms and ideas to work with in its creative endeavors.     The idea of infinite ideas is fascinating in itself, but I think a mind like this has such an understanding and grasp of the intricacies and complexities of all things that finite minds like ours have no ability to even fathom a fraction of a fraction of the comprehension and sophistication of this infinite mind.      I view that this infinite mind is the foundation and source of all of existence. Existence is just a mental conceptualization and projection of this infinite mind, and the physical substance and space of this reality is just one of countless platforms by which this mind and other created conscious

    I had a short chat with an ROTC cadet today about this topic. He said the above quote to me. I was telling him about my interests in the psychology of ideas and my view that ideologies appear to operate in a symbiotic relationship with human beings.  What I mean by this is that the people who follow an ideological or religious movement bear host to the information and ideas that constitute the movement in a similar way as to how an animal would host a virus, parasite, or other symbiote in its body.     All wars are conceptual to a certain extent. War is a mental concept in its own right, an abstract force of the human condition that is just as mental as it is physical.          I have heard the war on terror being called a "concept war." A war not just on terrorists, but on the concept and force of terror in its own right. Winning a war against an abstract concept like terror is exceedingly difficult. The concept and force of terror, like any other idea of existence, will