Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

Coronavirus has made me a sober and bored thinker. My drive to better myself is constantly unsatisfied. My thirst for knowledge remains unquenched, even after all I've learned. My analytical mind always needs something to analyze, so I have decided to continue my side series on the CIA and intelligence gathering and break down the concept of enhanced interrogation for a few minutes.      Enhanced interrogation is pretty much a Euphemism for torture, although torture is probably just one component of EI. I don't think government agencies and the military just sit around and indiscriminately brutalize suspected terrorists or enemies of the state. Torture has taken place throughout time, and throughout almost every nation or culture in history during wartime at some point.      This doesn't justify it. Just like the institution of slavery, just because an evil has happened everywhere and everyone's been guilty of it at some point doesn't legitimize the evil....

Today, I want to focus on trauma. In particular a disorder called complex PTSD. This disorder hasn't been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as of yet, but is recognised by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies. C-PTSD is distinct from strict PTSD in that it deals with intense prolonged, repetitive trauma of the course over years, decades, or a lifetime.  Sufferers of C-PTSD include a wide range of people, including, but not limited to, victims of repetitive sexual abuse, child abuse in many forms, victims of unrelenting school bullying and brutalization, victims of slavery or human trafficking, Prisoners of War, people living in Warzones, Veterans exposed to multiple highly traumatic events over an extended period of time, and many other situations exposing someone to intensed, prolonged trauma over the course of a long period of time.   A major defining trait of C-PTSD includes feelings of entrapment and captivity (you feel...

I heard a story once about Nazi German propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels talking about propaganda during the Second World War. Goebbels had spearheaded the Nazi's information warfare and manipulation of the German people quite successfully and had an effective propaganda system of his own. However, in reference to the United States, Goebbels was attributed to saying something along the lines of "America has the most sophisticated propaganda system in the world." Even putting it above his own country's rather effective system.     Back then, he probably wasn't too far from the truth. Today's timeframe? Again, he probably wouldn't be too far from the truth in modern times either. Between mass media, 24 hour cycle news stations, the internet, and Hollywood, America's propaganda system is very advanced. Extremely advanced. The dissemination of information has reached a level of ease and sophistication in the United States, as well as other parts of the w...

If a region starts running out of food and running out of water, potential for armed conflict increases dramatically. In those places with significant resource scarcity, like deserts or places stricken by severe drought and have their agricultural output severely crippled by an economic collapse or climate change, conflict is not far off in the distance and only a matter of time before it strikes.  Looking at the most volatile regions on the planet, and aside from the religion component that drives war, many of the hot-to-the-touch warzones and potentially conflict-ignitable regions are in hot weather climates. In fact, I would say most of them are. Think about it, hot weather, arid, desert climates have more water scarsity and can't produce as much agriculture, leaving many of them to rely on imports and trade from other countries to survive.    Water depletion and droughts will inevitably force mass migrations, since humans can't survive very long at all without water, ...

Fear is the mind-killer. One of my favorite science fiction quotes ever. It comes from the book "Dune" by Frank Herbert. As far as the psychological impact of fear, fear is quite the uncomfortable experience. Any situation where you feel your life or the lives of others around you are at imminent risk is never going to be a super fun experience for anyone. Fear puts you in a difficult position. It forces you to make a choice of either facing your fear and overcoming it, or fleeing from it and finding security elsewhere. Unfortunately, fear and fear inducing things will follow you, no matter where you try to run and hide.   Fear breaks the mind, and we are often put in a position where we make irrational decisions that often put our security at further risk. When our families are threatened, or our lives are threatened, we don't always think rationally or clearly about our circumstances and make choices occasionally that compound the problem.    Fear makes humans herdable,...

Code is any physical system of symbols, sounds, textures, or other substantial sensory stimuli that stores information that has a particular meaning or purpose. The information stored within code has a particular function or application in a given context or situation.  Given this definition, pretty much every form of language is a code, whether that be English, mathematical proofs, Python code or software code in general. Anything with symbols, substances, and syllables that carry a weight of either abstract or concrete/physical meaning or describes the purpose and function of something is essentially code. The words "code" and "cryptology" usually has the connotation of secrecy or a clandestine nature to it, but to someone who doesn't speak english, understand Egyptian hieroglyphics, or the mathematical description of quantum field theory, all these forms of information are essentially encrypted code, because you, as the audience that doesn't share in the ...

The more unforgiving your society is, the more tumultuous and rebellious it will become. There is a time and place for harshness, but unnecessary and excessive punishment and retribution I've noticed only fuels the bitterness and resentment in both the punished person and the family of the punished person. This in turn perpetuates the cycle of vengeance and hate that fuels crime and terrorism.         If you are brutal to a group of people, their children and their families will have vengeance instilled in their hearts, and many will come looking for it as they get older or get the opportunity. This one of the reasons our country gets into so many endless wars. We fuel vengeance and hate.  Our enemies are often just as unforgiving and merciless as we are, and even if decades go by, many of our enemy groups of people and even enemy ideologies in their own right will scheme and plot revenge against a system they deem to be oppressive and antithetical to their...