Character is everything. Learning one’s true character helps determine whether or not someone you’ve just met is compatible with you, and more importantly, how. It is pivotally essential to get to know someone’s nature, so as to avoid misunderstandings further down the road.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator consists of sixteen personality types, each of which is determined by comparing one preference to another across eight character qualities, pertaining to life choices, and how one typically makes them.
In this article, I will be comparing the two MBTI personalities who couldn’t be more opposite to each other.
The INFJ is the rarest, and most empathic of the MBTI. They are energized from being in solitude most of the time, as that is where they get their ideas. It is during times of solitude, that the INFJ receives inspiration from his own internal thoughts and imaginations, without the inconvenience of social distractions.
Once solitude is achieved, his intuition naturally kicks in, as that is when his creative juices start flowing. In fact, the precise order in which it usually works is that he taps into his feelings more during solitude, and it puts him back in his right brain that causes an intuitive creative flow.
Once he knows what to do, there is nothing to think about. He makes a snap judgment, often as soon as the following day. Judging is the only analytical trait of the INFJ, but the way in which he does it is a no brainer.
Then we have the ESTJ, the most logical and analytical of the MBTI personalities. Unlike the INFJ who has one analytical trait that adds some balance, the ESTJ has no emotional trait. The ESTJ is good for drafting military strategies, and making business decisions, but that is just about all he is good for.
The trouble with ESTJ types is that they think they can bring that rigidity with them into their interpersonal relationships, and it never ends well for them. INFJ types have a lot of eccentricities about them that the ESTJ will impatiently judge as simply being weird.
In fact, judging is the only MBTI trait they both share, and it happens to be an analytical one at that. The INFJ will judge the ESTJ in his mind, but ultimately won’t care what he does due to his nonchalant nature, unless it affects him directly.
So now, imagine a scenario where the ESTJ is annoyed by some of the INFJ’s eccentricities. Because he is stuck in his left brain, he cannot simply leave well enough alone. He has to somehow try to control what he does not understand, and if he finds that he is unable to control it, he must find a way to destroy it.
The ESTJ is also an extravert, so it doesn’t help that he heavily relies on external validation. It is impossible for the INFJ and the ESTJ to simply sit still in a room, and enjoy each other’s company in silence. The ESTJ will feel awkward about it, and eventually find a way to make some noise, just so the room can feel normal to him, hence why they call them normies.
This could take place in any setting. But for the sake of argument, let’s just assume that the INFJ is in a relationship with the ESTJ. The ESTJ will meet the INFJ for the first time, thinking she knows everything about him, based solely on what she sees, versus using her feelings to actually get to know the INFJ and appreciate where he is coming from. Decides for whatever reason that she doesn’t like him, then decides either to control or destroy him, based on her limited judgment of him.
And because she is an extravert, she cannot simply break up with him and walk away like the INFJ and INTJ are easily capable of doing, she has to fix it somehow. This is dangerous and reckless behavior on the part of the ESTJ. Hence why the ESTJ is a narcissist, and the mortal enemy of all introverted, intuitive types, especially the INFJ.
Imagine being the woman in the relationship, yet your boyfriend is more intuned with his right brain than you are. Her linear thinking, coupled with the irrationality that is an inherent trait of her gender would only further add to her solipsism.
Opposites may attract initially, but they do not sustain in the long run. ESTJ types should stick to their own kind, or at least other extraverts. The INFJ should definitely stick to other introverts, most notably the INTJ.
You can’t help who you meet at work, but you do have control over who you allow into your personal life. This is something to put into practice for your interpersonal relationships.
Have you ever been in a generally happy mood on any given day, then suddenly find yourself feeling sad when a love song comes over the radio that reminds you of someone special? Likewise, do you find that you are rudely interrupted whenever an ad cuts into your music flow, or whenever you abruptly change the genre from something as relaxing as classical music to something as loud as rock and roll?
Well that is having to do with your brain, and how it processes music. You see, there are two sides of your brain, and each side processes things differently. In this article, I will be covering the power that music has over people and their emotions, and in order to get the full picture, I am taking it back to the beginning.
July 1518, Strasbourg, France. It was an ordinary medieval day under Roman rule, when a woman named Frau Troffea suddenly ventured out into the town square, and started dancing at random. Before long, other townsfolk decided to join in on the fun.
It wasn’t until after they realized that they were unable to stop themselves from dancing that they realized that what they thought would be fun was actually a living nightmare.
Hundreds of Strasbourgers danced until their feet were sore and bloody, but it didn’t stop there. Many of them danced themselves to death, suffering from hunger, thirst and exhaustion in the process.
This event came to be known as the dancing plague, a frenzy of inexplicable dancing mania that lasted day and night from July until September. No one seemed to know what really caused it. Particularly because everyone was dancing, but where’s the music?
This only further fueled the mystery shrouding the situation that led to numerous theories throughout the centuries, ranging from demonic possession, to the use of a psychedelic wheat fungus known as Ergotamine, similar to LSD.
The dancing mania of 1518 may be the most infamous account of a dancing frenzy taking place throughout history, but not the first. A few centuries before that in 1284, there was the tale of the pied piper of Hamelin, a mysterious nomad who was offered money by Hamelin’s mayor to help remedy a rat infestation.
His solution was to play some kind of magical silent flute that only the rats could hear to help lure them out of Hamelin. After he had gotten rid of all the rats, the mayor refused to pay him for his services, citing a number of excuses.
So out of revenge, the pied piper returned to Hamelin one year later on a Sunday morning while all of the adults were in church, and used his silent flute to lure their children away, never to be seen again.
The common theme of both stories is the hypnotic power of music on the human brain. A more recent example is a season three episode of The Twilight Zone, titled, “A Piano in the House.”
In this episode, a theater critic named Fitzgerald Fortune purchased a self-playing piano for his young wife on her birthday. The titular piano in question had the supernatural ability to bring out a person’s true character by putting them in a trance, depending on what tune it was playing at the time.
All of these examples may seem like fictional accounts of the power of music, but it alludes to the fact that we don’t fully understand the human brain, we barely scratched the surface. The brain is just as strong as it is vulnerable, and what makes us can also break us.
The dancing fever of Strasbourg suggests that the residents of that town were dancing to music that only they could hear. Likewise, the pied piper of Hamelin played a tune that only the children could hear, kind of like a dog whistle.
Perhaps the pied piper is immortal, and resurfaced in Strasbourg centuries later, assuming a different form. Perhaps he cursed the unsuspecting town of Strasbourg, same as he did Hamelin, using advanced knowledge of subliminal messaging that medieval surfs could not even begin to fathom, then mentally raped them with it.
Fast-forward to the present, and the youth of today are delinquent and disrespectful, all due to that ghetto rap music. Traditional African-American culture was a prideful thing, especially in the south. Ladies were classy, the gents were well dressed, and the music was respectful and evident of creative ingenuity.
But then, something tragic happened. Their culture was infiltrated, and they were sold a lie. The new order of the day is to be a “gangsta” and a “hustla,” and to envy one’s own brother for even his very potential to be prosperous.
Something similar happened in Jamaica during the 1980’s when reggae evolved into dancehall, following the untimely death of Bob Marley. Reggae was the conscious vibrations of the nation, but dancehall is the rebellious wild child, and all about the hype.
But here is what I am really alluding to. Did you know that dancehall is recorded on a 440 hz frequency, while reggae uses a 432 hz frequency? It is not just reggae versus dancehall, but all popular music is recorded on a 440 hz frequency, while traditional music, such as jazz and classical music are 432 hertz.
Each frequency has a different effect on the listener. Particularly because 440 hertz puts you into your left brain, which is useful for analytical thinking and reasoning, while 432 hertz puts you into your right brain, which is good for love and creativity.
The left brain may be good for critical thinking, but that’s all it is good for. The problem is when you stay stuck in your left brain, and allow that linear kind of thinking to cross over into your interpersonal relationships.
But if all you listen to is 440 hertz music, then it makes you more susceptible to suggestion without you even realizing it. And what if there really was an agenda to program the masses to be more narrow-minded, therefore easier to control?
So if there is a shift in the consciousness of post-modern society, it is most likely attributed to the fact that all mainstream tracks are being recorded on a 440 hz frequency. And though there are other factors to be considered outside of music, music is the main factor.
The good news is that indie artists tend to record their work on a 432 hz frequency, so there is an alternative that you can choose to listen to. Music is more than just entertainment, it is medicine for the soul, and definitely the mind. Under the right circumstances, it can also be weaponized against you, it is not to be trifled with.
Over the past three weeks, I have explored the sixteen Myers-Briggs personality types, particularly within the context of employment compatibility. However, Myers-Briggs can also be applied to other aspects of social life, such as friendships, dating and business.
In this article, I will be exploring the idiosyncrasies of each personality type, and how they might relate to one another. Because being aware of this and knowing how to apply it in real world situations is sure to allow for smoother interactions in all areas of life.
There are eight character traits within Myers Briggs, four analytical, and four emotional. They are as follows;
Left Brain Right Brain
Extravert Introvert
Sensing iNtuitive
Thinking Feeling
Judging Perceiving
Some Myers Briggs types strictly lean to one side or another, while others have a mixture of both quotients to varying degrees.
The way to know what personality type you are, as well as the personality type of anyone you are interacting with is to answer four questions that are as follows;
Who are you based on what energizes you? (a) Self validating (Introvert) (b) Seeking validation from others (Extravert)
Where do you get your ideas? (a) My imagination (iNtuitive) (b) The world around me (Sensing)
How do you decide what to do with your ideas? (a) With what I think (Thinking) (b) How I feel (Feeling)
How do you act upon your ideas? (a) Things must go according to plan (Judging) (b) I am more flexible to changes and prospects (Perceiving)
Keep these four questions in mind as we explore each type throughout the rest of the article.
Introverts:
Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging (INTJ)
The INTJ is an introvert who gets his ideas from his imagination, decides with what he thinks, then acts upon it by making a swift judgment. Though an introvert who gains ideas through his intuition, he is still analytical when it comes to executing his ideas, the opposite of the ESFP whose analytics lean more towards social contact (see number 11).
The combination of being introverted and intuitive, suggests that he values his solitude, and spends much of his alone time in deep thought. So then when it’s time to execute his ideas, he wastes no time in making snap judgments.
Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving (INTP)
The INTP is an introvert who gets his ideas from his imagination, and makes decisions based on what he thinks. But unlike the INTJ, he is more flexible to changes when it comes to deciding. He is more reserved in that regard, and that makes him a procrastinator.
But procrastinating has its benefits, especially if the outcome will be final, as there is room to make adjustments should the INTP change his mind. The procrastination of the INTP would likely piss off the more impatient judging types, especially those who have already spent a lot of time in thought.
Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving (INFP)
The INFP is an introvert who is inspired by their own imagination, decides what to do based on how it makes them feel, but tends to be more flexible when it is time to act.
The INFP is only one of two types where all four of his traits are aligned to one side or another. In his case, the INFP is entirely right brain dominant, relying solely on his emotional quotient. Unlike the ESTJ, who is the polar opposite (see number 10).
Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging (INFJ)
The INFJ is an introvert who is inspired by his own imagination and decides what to do based on how it makes him feel much like the INFP before him.
But unlike the INFP, the INFJ makes swift and aggressive judgements once his mind is made up, much to the shock of others around him who were expecting him to be entirely illogical.
This makes the INFJ the single rarest of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types, which often causes the INFJ to come into conflict with those with ulterior motives who thought it was easy to manipulate him.
The INFJ is the most idealistic type, and therefore the most creative. The INFJ is more likely to thrive from working in professions where he is free to express his creativity.
Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving (ISTP)
The ISTP is an introvert who is inspired by the world around him, decides what to do based on what he thinks, but is open to change and prospects. One might rate the ISTP as being one of the more analytical of the introverts, yet they have trouble making up their minds.
As such, the ISTP tends to procrastinate when it comes down to them making decisions on how to advance with their plans. This can be frustrating for others around them, as they tend to become impatient with the ISTP once they realize that he is not quite as analytical as they thought.
Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging (ISTJ)
The ISTJ is the most analytical of all the introverts. He gets his ideas from sensing the world around him, decides what to do based on what he thinks, acts by making rigid plans, and is unyielding in his convictions. In spite of all that, the ISTJ still values his solitude, as that is when he thinks and decides based on what he senses within his environment.
Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving (ISFP)
The ISFP is an introvert who gets inspired by sensing what is going on in the world around him, decides based on how it makes him feel, but is indecisive when it comes to acting upon what he has decided. His sensing trait adds analytical balance to his otherwise emotional personality.
Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging (ISFJ)
The ISFJ is an introvert who gets his ideas from being able to sense the world around him, decides what to do with it based on the way it makes him feel, then acts upon it with knowledge and intent. The feeling aspect of his character adds a sensitive touch to his general demeanor.
Extraverts:
Extravert, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving (ESTP)
An ESTP is the polar opposite of the INFJ. This is due to the fact that he is an extravert who gets his ideas from the world around him and decides what to do with his ideas based on what he thinks. But his shortfall is that he hesitates when it comes to acting upon his ideas. He is more open to changing his plans versus the INFJ who makes snap decisions and sticks to them. That one trait of being perceiving over judging makes him slightly less analytical.
Extravert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging (ESTJ)
The only other MBTI type next to the INFP who is entirely aligned to one side or another, the left brain in this case. The ESTJ is an extravert who gets his ideas from sensing the world around him, decides what to do based on what he thinks, and acts upon his decisions by judging.
Due to being left brain dominant, the ESTJ is the most analytical of the Myers Briggs types, therefore the most controlling. It’s good to be analytical, especially in leadership roles, but excessive logic can work against you. As such, the ESTJ is the quintessential narcissist of the lot, and the mortal enemy of the INFJ (more on that later). They are rigid, and everything must go their way. It’s either their way or the highway, and they take this mindset with them into personal relationships. Because they are extraverts, they also tend to seek external validation.
On the other hand, they also tend to get things done, which is actually a good thing. Though they can be useful at times, one should tread carefully when dealing with an ESTJ. I could have said that the ESTJ should find balance in life, but instead I will say that the ESTJ should seek out other ESTJ types where they can happily thrive among themselves.
Extravert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving (ESFP)
The ESFP is an extravert who gets his ideas from being able to sense the world around him, decides what to do based on how he feels, and acts upon them based on perceiving and being open to change.
He is only half analytical and half emotional, the extraverted opposite of the INTJ, which adds some balance to the mix.
Extravert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging (ESFJ)
The ESFJ is an extravert who gets his ideas from sensing the world around him, decides what to do with them based on how they make him feel, then acts upon them by making a firm judgment. He is mostly analytical, but the feeling trait adds a healthy balance of emotional quotient to his character profile.
Extravert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving (ENTP)
The ENTP may be an extravert, but still finds time to be intuitive when it comes to getting ideas. He decides what to do with his ideas based on what he thinks, but is more perceiving when it is time to act.
The ENTP is more balanced because he possesses two analytical traits, and two emotional ones, which makes him a bit more reasonable even though he is left brain dominant.
Extravert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging (ENTJ)
The ENTJ is left brain dominant, with intuition being the only emotional trait. As analytical as he may be, getting ideas from within, versus the world around him, adds a nice balance that makes him more human.
Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving (ENFP)
The ENFP is right brain dominant, with extraversion being the only left brain trait within his character profile. Being an extravert adds a bit of balance to his otherwise emotional quotient that makes him more relatable.
Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging (ENFJ)
And finally, we have the ENFJ. An extravert who has equal balance between intellectual and emotional traits. This makes him more relatable to wider groups of people. Even though he is internally motivated, one can rely on him to make snap decisions due to his judging trait.
Within the cranial cavity of the human body, there lies an organ called the brain, responsible for regulating all the physical and cognitive functions of the human machine. There are two sides of the brain, the left side, responsible for logical thinking, and the right side, responsible for emotional thinking.
Logical and emotional thinking both have their time and place. For instance, anything having to do with counting and measurements, or making business decisions is strictly left brain, while writing, art and music is more right brain. As a side note, writing is right brain, but editing is left brain, coming from a writer.
There is supposed to be balance between the two. The problems arise whenever one spends too much time in one side of the brain or another, as doing so causes an imbalance, not to mention a whole bunch of complications within your relationships.
Imagine the awkwardness that will arise from bringing your right brain into the boardroom, or your left brain into the bedroom.
On a gendered level, men are more logical, and women are more emotional. This is what causes unrelatability during a lover’s quarrel. The man is unable to relate to what his wife is saying because he is arguing from a logical perspective.
Meanwhile, the wife is arguing from an emotional perspective, and finds it difficult to relate to her husband’s linear thinking. That is why they often fight over something as miniscule as him forgetting to turn down the toilet seat after peeing.
Whenever there is a disagreement, the couple must be cognizant of this fact, and try to arrive at an amicable conclusion by being more considerate of each other’s perspectives.
In the context of a relationship, the man should try to balance his logical thinking by being emotionally available for his wife. But that does not mean that you should tolerate a wife who is using emotional thinking as a way to excuse away toxic or irresponsible behavior.
On a creative level, a man who is right brain dominant is often misunderstood by society. He would be considered weird for not fitting into the expectation that a man should be logical.
Everyone from your parents to teachers to employers to colleagues to so-called friends and even your girlfriend will lose their patience with you, and be quick to judge you harshly.
This is probably something that you have experienced for much of your life, and will probably continue to experience for as long as you continue to hang around normies.
This is due to the fact that you are creative. And that they expect men to be more mathematical, or to perform more physical labor, while women are expected to be more creative.
Of course, that is just a stereotype, and a harmful one at that, as it limits your potential, and puts you in a box where society determines your worth. There is nothing wrong with a man who is more creative. Eighty percent of the music and shows we consume would not exist without male writers and performers.
But the thing to do is to realize that you would be better off hanging around your creative equals. People who will uplift and encourage you versus trying to limit your potential.
There are those who were meant to be intellectual geniuses, and those who were meant to be creative geniuses. Everyone cannot be an intellectual genius. If society would respect the individual’s right to choose, they would feel free to pursue their true passion, which would in turn make this world a better place.
Submitted for your approval, the new hire at a company. As soon as you arrive on the scene, it seems as though everyone at the job site is already familiar with you? Worse than that, it seems like they were expecting you all along. But how did they know your name if you were never formally introduced? In just a moment, you will read about a specific hiring practice that is far more common than you would expect. Yet more bizarre than the weirdest episode of The Twilight Zone.
It seems at first, that you are the teacher’s pet. Popular beyond word, and an instant hit at the job site, you find that your new colleagues naturally gravitate towards you. More than what is considered normal for someone they barely met. It seems like they are accepting you into established cliques. But why you?
This phase is called, The Charm. It is typically short-lived, and it usually isn’t long before you begin to notice that they really don’t like you that much. Every move you make, on and off the job is heavily scrutinized.
Your workload is disproportionately larger than everybody else’s. And your undying loyalty to everybody else in the company is expected, often at the detriment of your personal ambitions.
Before long, it is undeniably obvious that they really don’t like you at all. But what could have possibly changed? “What did I do?” Nothing. You didn’t do anything to warrant that kind of ill treatment. But if you challenge the status quo in any shape or form, it won’t be long before they find a reason to fire you.
What you perhaps haven’t considered, is that they all knew how it would end, right from the moment they first hired you. This is especially true if they have different client sites across town. They then wage a war of attrition by sending you to work at a client site far out of your way.
Say for example, 25 miles away by bus. It is even better for them if they know you catch the bus to work. Because then, they can be certain that you will be late more often than not.
As soon as you get there, they want to put you to work the graveyard shift. A huge inconvenience, as doing so goes in direct opposition to your circadian rhythm. Not only that, but they also want to single you out to do overtime, disproportionately more than that of your fellow employees. This cuts into your personal time, as if they haven’t already hijacked one half of your waking hours for the day as it is, now they want more.
Then they tell you that you will be paid time and a half for working overtime. This is gaslighting because that extra pay will only go towards paying bills and taxes. Perhaps it would go towards purchasing an extra meal that you wouldn’t need if you went home when you were scheduled to go.
You now find that working for them has cost you more in the long run, than if you didn’t need a job. But hey, what’s the deal? I thought the whole point of having a job was to make money. That is not the way they see it. They don’t want you getting rich off them.
Their whole agenda is to get rich off you. They are just using you until they decide that they are done with you. Then you will be left worse off than when you first started. Everybody is in on it, and it is entirely by design. But why were you of all people singled out for exploitation?
Do you remember taking a personality test when you were being hired? That test is called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This test indicates what kind of personality you have, based on the way you think. They ask you a series of questions that seem irrelevant for your job description. But perfect for their agenda.
Typical Meyers-Briggs questions would include, “Do you prefer action thrillers, or psychological thrillers?” “Do you leave things up to chance, or see it through to the end?” “What is your favorite candy?” “Are you a Tootie Fruity?” And a very common one is, “What would you bring to the company potluck?”
People tend to answer those questions unwittingly, because they seem so harmless on the surface. Plus they also seem like a lighthearted distraction from the nervous energy that most people feel while on job interviews. It helps to put them at ease.
It is truly a pity they don’t realize the sinister motive behind those questions. They don’t seem to realize that corporations tend to reword the Myers-Briggs questions, then mix them in with other questions so as to be more subtle with it. But Myers-Briggs or not, applicants do have a right to ask the interviewer, “What is the purpose of asking me those questions?”
I have always stated that there are only three different kinds of people on earth; sadists, masochists, and hedonists. Sadists gain power and pleasure from inflicting pain, while masochists gain pleasure from receiving pain. Only the hedonist gains pleasure from both giving and receiving pleasure, therefore the most reciprocal of the group.
MBTI seems to suggest that there are sixteen personality types. I am of the view that each of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types fall under one of my three archetypes. Of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types, the INFJ is the rarest.
INFJ stands for Introverted iNtuitive Feeling and Judging. All that simply means is that you judge people, places and things based on the way they make you feel. And because you are an introvert, you do so internally by using your imagination.
Because you tend to process things internally, most people are intimidated by your silence. This is due to the fact that they don’t really know what to make of you. It’s just that they will never freely admit it.
So it’s either they will lazily and nonchalantly write you off as being weird and awkward, or they will do things deliberately to provoke you, hoping it would somehow make you show them who you really are. The same is true in all social settings, not just employment wise.
If you are an INFJ type, the company you are about to work for will find that out by having you complete the Myers-Briggs Indicator. Once they know who you are, it’s game on. They will move other employees around, just so they could make room to put you at a disadvantage. They will send other employees to befriend you with ulterior motives. They will spy on you, and test you without mercy. For no other reason than the simple fact that you are an INFJ.
Most companies are toxic, and tend to target INFJ types. It is possible that each company is incentivized by some higher power to antagonize the INFJ. They feel as though the INFJ’s only place in this world is to be everybody else’s slave. So their goal would then be to steal the INFJ’s place on the throne, and drive him into bankruptcy, homelessness, mental disease and substance abuse.
Or it could just be that the INFJ is generally hated by everyone for reasons that said people could not even begin to explain? Can you imagine being so cruel and sadistic, that you would knowingly send an introvert to work in a zoo as noisy as a mall or an airport terminal? Why not a quiet warehouse or a parking lot?
If MBTI was intended to create an easier path towards personality compatibility, then why are they subverting and perverting it for their own sick agendas?
For the INFJ, freedom is a priority, and it is often regarded as being more important than money. Now don’t get me wrong, money is also important, but it should never come at the expense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For that reason, the INFJ should never be caught dead working for another person. The INFJ should always strive to work for themselves.
The road to entrepreneurship can be quite the arduous one, as one may not yield short term dividends. But short term sacrifice for long term gain is a worthy sacrifice. You should never change your character to please anyone. But you will always be a target for the other types, especially extraverts, unless you rethink your list of priorities.
As INFJs we tend to be intuitively smart, so we will just have to figure it out. Finding an INFJ support group, and attending INFJ retreats across the world, is a really great place to start, and a great way to meet other people like yourself, who have had similar life experiences.
In the complex sphere of human diversity, there is a need for smoother and more fulfilling interaction. Everyone has navigated the social scene at some point or other in hopes of meeting someone of like mind. But doing so can be quite the daunting task, as not everyone is sincere.
However, personality compatibility is necessary to allow for a more seamless existence. That is where the Myers-Briggs Personality assessment comes into play.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by American writer Isabel Briggs Myers, along with the help of her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, during the second world war. It was later adapted into a personality test by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), who published it in 1962.
The MBTI is based on Carl Jung’s “Dictionary of Analytical Psychology,” where he discussed his theory on psychological types and individual preferences.
MBTI determines an individual’s personality type, based on a dichotomy between four different psychological processes and responses, that includes the following.
Introvert vs. Extravert
iNtuitive vs. Sensing
Thinking vs. Feeling
Judging vs. Perceiving
Whenever one mixes and matches each of the four dichotomies, it results in a total of sixteen Myers Briggs types.
Introverts:
Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging (INTJ)
Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving (INTP)
Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving (INFP)
Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging (INFJ)
Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving (ISTP)
Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging (ISTJ)
Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving (ISFP)
Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging (ISFJ)
Extraverts:
Extravert, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving (ESTP)
Extravert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging (ESTJ)
Extravert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceiving (ESFP)
Extravert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging (ESFJ)
Extravert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving (ENTP)
Extravert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging (ENTJ)
Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving (ENFP)
Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging (ENFJ)
Everyone has found themselves perpetuating both ends of the dichotomy at some point or other, but the type in which you are more dominant is determined by how you answer each of the following four questions:
Who are you based on what energizes you?
(a) Self validating
(b) Seeking validation from others
Where do you get your ideas?
(a) My imagination
(b) The world around me
How do you decide what to do with your ideas?
(a) With what I think
(b) How I feel
How do you act upon your ideas?
(a) Things must go according to plan
(b) I am more flexible to changes and prospects
If you prefer self validation over external social validation, you are an introvert. If you get your ideas from your imagination versus the world around you, you are intuitive.
If you decide what to do based on how you feel, rather than what you think, you are feeling. And if you are rigid with your plans, you are judging. That would make you an INFJ, the rarest of the Myers-Briggs types.
INFJs are the empaths of the personalities, thus more prone to being targeted by predators. Introverts in general should carefully consider with whom they would rather share their limited social energy, but INFJs particularly have an extra responsibility to guard their energy, and save it only for themselves or those who are willing to reciprocate.
The MBTI was a marvelous invention, and can be used to determine compatibility in platonic, romantic and professional situations. However, it is not foolproof, as there are those who have been known to use the MBTI to abuse those who are unsuspecting.
Join me again next week, as I discuss a very common abusive hiring practice.
“I wouldn’t change if I could, and can’t if I would.” — B. Lorenzo Buckinchere
I recently thought about buying a house. I thought about the freedom I would enjoy, and the fact that I would be afforded maximum privacy and not have to worry about paying rent every month. That thought filled me with feelings of elation.
Then I thought about all the responsibilities that owning a house would entail. For starters, I would have to pay property taxes annually, not considering any potential mortgage.
Then there are repair costs to consider, plus I’d be responsible for my own security. Suddenly, the thought of owning a house didn’t seem like such a good idea after all, especially when you plan on remaining a bachelor in the long run.
And that was when it dawned on me that owning a house isn’t really for me. Sure, it is a great investment to own something you can call your own, if you have a wife and kids that is. But I am a die-hard bachelor. If I owned a house, I would occupy my own room, while the other rooms would remain empty. That’s a lot of empty rooms that come with all of the extra responsibilities.
But then one may be wondering, “But you can rent out the other rooms in the house. Why don’t you at least run an Airbnb?” Yes, but then I’m very peculiar about who I allow into my living space, and I don’t want any problems.
Then there are those who would argue that, “Owning your house would provide you with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.”
To which I would reply, “Yes, and so should having a wife and kids. Except that for me it doesn’t.” Only I decide what fulfills me, or perhaps not.
Perhaps I was born with my personality already intact. Perhaps my path was preordained, and I have no control over it. It just so happens that at some point, I chose to accept it. So now, I wouldn’t change if I could, and can’t if I would, only my gardening I would miss.
I can’t be fake, I wear my heart on my sleeve. If I were to forsake my true character, just to fit in with this world, I would be committing an act of self-hatred, and to me, it is not worth it. So I embrace reclusion, and I do so wholeheartedly.
As a reclusive bachelor, I would be perfectly happy living in a one bedroom apartment, so long as the neighbors are quiet, my surroundings are clean and above all else, I have privacy.
Of course as a straight male, I fully intend to date, but I don’t need a house for that, only if we decided to start a family, which I already told you I don’t want. It goes deeper than simply not wanting to buy a house, or share my space. I am a staunch antinatalist.
An antinatalist is someone who doesn’t want to be responsible for bringing innocent souls to earth just to toil and suffer in this shithole, only for them to get corrupted and turn wicked. And yes, we still get laid whenever we are ready, but we use different forms of contraception, whatever suits us individually.
But if I don’t want kids, and I am a reclusive bachelor, then what is the point of being in a relationship? Companionship. You see, there are different kinds of relationships, and for someone who enjoys playing the field, sleepovers suit me best.
Writing this article is just one of those times in which I am reminded to be grateful for the fact that I don’t need companionship everyday, as that would become an inconvenience. I have other business to tend to, and long term cohabitation would only serve as a distraction, especially considering the way modern relationships are. You gotta be careful who you allow to enter a place as intimate as your living space.
So to recap, if I don’t want kids, I don’t need to be married, or enter into a long term relationship. And if I want neither marriage, nor kids, then there is no point in buying a house. Minimalism is the most drama free way to live for one who is reclusive.
Some people have a superpower. They are able to see, and hear things about others that most people cannot. It is like they know what you are thinking before you even think it. But how do they know?
Are they actually highly perceptive, or just plain nosey? In this article, I will be covering the topic of what it means to be tone deaf. As well as some steps you can take in order to overcome it.
When most people talk about being tone deaf, they are usually referring to someone who sings off key, because they are deaf to musical tones. Less often, they are loosely referring to someone who speaks louder than the general energy of the room.
Or someone who gets too close when speaking to you because they think that you cannot hear them clearly enough. And sure, that’s a part of it. But that is only one form of tone deafness.
There are very few people who, when they talk about being tone deaf, they are in fact referring to someone who is unable to pick up on social cues, most notably sarcasm.
One who is not able to discern social cues is considered tone deaf because they generally do not pay attention to verbal tone, or body language. As such, they may end up getting the wrong impression about a particular person, or situation.
The best example that I can immediately think of, is from a season 6 episode of “How I Met Your Mother” called “Return of the slutty pumpkin.” In that episode, Katie Holmes guest stars as the titular slutty pumpkin in question, and the object of Ted’s obsession from a season one Halloween episode.
When Ted finally gets to meet her during the sequel, he is disgusted to learn that she is obnoxiously narcissistic, and full of sarcasm. Their chemistry is way off, a far cry from his expectations.
And then there is one scene throughout the episode where both Ted and the slutty pumpkin are on an uncomfortable date together. And while cuddling with him on the couch, she questions in her mind, “does he not get sarcasm?” Suggesting that she thinks he is tone deaf.
The irony of how she perceives him, is that she is the one who is tone deaf. Thinking that she is being cool, not realizing that she is singing off beat, and just being awkward the entire time that they were together.
Now personally, I am no fan of sarcasm. I think that it is just an excuse to be rude and obnoxious to other people for no reason in particular. Some people are just toxic and negatively charged, and it is best to respect them for what they are, and abandon them.
But what if you cannot immediately abandon the situation? Whether or not you are sarcastic by nature, your survival depends on being highly perceptive. Because after all, what they said about, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” is a lie. What you don’t know can, and will in fact cause deep, long term pain. Perhaps more deliberately so for the simple fact that you truly don’t know.
It is not just sarcasm that poses a threat for the tone deaf. There is also a very common narcissistic tactic where they decide to target a stranger, and bombard them with a bunch of personal questions.They do this for no other reason except for the simple fact that they get off on the power trip.
The more private and introverted they figure you are, the more likely they are to make you a target. Because the single greatest violation that anyone could possibly have committed against a private person, is an invasion of privacy.
This tactic is plausible because there are people who are naturally curious in general. But those people are more friendly, and the narcissist is not. The only way you can immediately discern if someone you just met is on a power trip, can be heard in the subtlety of the tone in which they are using. But how will you hear their tone if you are tone deaf?
Another tone you might miss, is more visual in nature. Just in case you thought that audible tone was the only kind in existence. Say for example, you are apartment hunting. After much deliberation, you find the one you like at long last.
Everything else is perfect, but then you notice that the bathroom has a walk-in shower when you were kind of hoping for a bathtub. You don’t think it’s really that big of a deal because everything else is in place.
Two months into a one year lease, you are unhappy because you are not able to soak in your bathtub with a glass of Merlot after a long day like you really wanted to do. It is not long after that, where you begin to realize it is not just the bathtub. There are also no windows facing west, and you happen to like watching the sun set.
Then you realize that the paint on the wall doesn’t quite match the color of the drapery set you had in mind. And it is too late to cancel your lease at this point when you should not have signed the bloody thing to begin with.
The tone of the apartment told you that you would not be happy living there. The tone of something in which you are investing time and money is telling you that you won’t be free to express your true sense of individuality.
But how do you see the visual tone if you are tone blind? For that reason, you need to learn the subtle cues that someone or something doesn’t serve your best interest.
Do you know why a tone deaf person doesn’t pay attention to social cues? Because they either don’t know what they are looking for, or they just don’t give a damn.
If they don’t know what they are looking for, chances are it is because no one ever taught them. Because once you know, it would be impossible to not notice. Even if you don’t care, you won’t be able to help but to notice things by chance.
The modern world is a noisy one that is full of distractions. From cars, to smartphones to overpopulation, and the ever-increasing lack of privacy. There has never been a time such as this, and subtlety hides in distractions. As a matter of fact, it thrives on it.
This is why meditation is so important. Because it blocks out the distractions of the world. Most importantly, it blocks out the most impactful of all distractions, the one taking place inside your head. So that you can hear what is really going on around you.
Before long, you will begin to notice some details about your environment that you were previously unaware of. The irony of your discovery is that those nuances were always there. You just didn’t notice them because you were too distracted by the complexities of modern life.
If you meditate for one hour a day, everyday for one year, it is only intuitive to expect that after a while, you would no longer be tone deaf. When your head shuts up, your heart starts talking.
For much of human existence, it has been widely accepted that there are only two genders, male and female. However, in recent years, and with the advent of social media, there has been an influx of people coming forward who claim to be intersex.
Named after the mythological creature, Hermaphroditus, a hermaphrodite has been historically understood to be an organism that possesses both male and female genitals, and as such, are able to reproduce asexually.
It has been generally believed that only some insects are hermaphrodites, and that no human is truly a hermaphrodite in the sense where they possess the genitals of both genders.
However, that is not to say that there aren’t some humans who belong to one gender, while being internally dominant with the hormone of the opposite gender. For example, you may have a woman who produces more testosterone than estrogen. Externally, she is a woman, but internally, she is a man.
People who have this gender anomaly are called intersex, a rare minority of the global population. They have existed since time immemorial, but no one knew who they really were, because they have always had to identify as their external gender, for fear of being ostracized for it. Or worse, being labeled a witch, especially during medieval times, and risk getting burned at the stake.
An intersex person is not to be confused for a transsexual, as the intersex person was born with gene mutations, while the transsexual chose to be transformed into the opposite gender after birth.
The gene mutation in question could be caused by a number of environmental factors, such as; smoking, drug and/or alcohol abuse, asbestos particles, POW experiments gone wrong, or conceiving an offspring with a close relative.
Last week, I covered the topic of incest, and what forms of it are more acceptable. So now, let’s touch on the topic of POW experiments. The nazis were known to conduct several experiments during the second world war.
They wanted to create a superior race of men called the ubermensch, and as such, they created a drug that would cause the nazis to be bigger and taller, compared to jewish people.
Unbeknownst to them, those experiments left some of them with strange gene mutations that would cause their offsprings to be born with hormonal imbalances of varying forms.
Some of them would end up developing the hormones of the opposite gender, while others of them would not develop any hormones at all. The ones without hormones would end up being asexuals, while those with opposite hormones would be intersex. That gene mutation may even skip a generation or two, until one day, somewhere down the line, an intersex baby is born.
They would go on living normally until a trip to the ER, or a comparison of their pubescent development (usually during a shared shower after gym class) would expose their anomalies, and cause them to consider that there may be something different about them. After which they would likely try and find out what it is.
In rare cases, they wouldn’t discover their true gender until further down the road when they meet someone special, and try to conceive a child with them, only to realize that they are not getting pregnant. Then only to discover after a medical exam that they will never get pregnant.
This will cause a great deal of heartache for the intersex gendered individual, and all because they were born with the side effects of an experiment gone wrong. Of course, the nazi experiment gone wrong is just a theory of mine, and it is worth noting that most intersex persons were simply born with naturally occurring genetic mutations.
If they have a loving, supportive spouse who is mature enough to understand that being with an intersex person doesn’t mean that they’re gay, then they have all the emotional support they need to help them get through the heartache of not being able to conceive. They may even choose to adopt a child in time, but only after they have come to accept themselves for who they are.
One of the primary incentives that a straight male may have for dating an intersex female is if he is an antinatalist. The cis-gendered female could get pregnant just by them staring at each other, but the intersex female cannot.
All he has to do now is to go out and meet an intersex female who also happens to be an antinatalist. Keep in mind that the intersex gender is a rare find.
Summer is coming to an end, and although the humidity is unbearable, people are still out and about. Taking advantage of the weather by carrying out many home improvement projects while they still have time left. Now is as good a time as ever to talk about the concept of DIY, and why it is non-negotiable for me.
When I was a teenager, growing up in Jamaica, I was surrounded by overbearing women in the family of my origin. Whenever I attempted to fill out an application at the dentist, they would attempt to emasculate me in public by grabbing the pen out of my hand, and say that I “write too slow.”
Could it be that the only reason they volunteered to drive my brother and I to the dentist, is to watch how I do things, and then try to treat me as if I am supposed to be inept?
They never tried that with my brother, but they always did it to me. In fact, they actually tried to pit my brother and I against each other by saying that he is more responsible than I am, despite him being four years my junior.
My brother and I were very close during childhood. We grew up together. We used to play together. But now, he chose to become more like them. For that reason, we grew apart in adulthood.
When I later moved to Brooklyn, I realized that my father’s older daughter is the same as my mother and her sisters. Then I remembered that half the teachers at school were more or less the same way. Yet I was the one who always grabbed the toolbox whenever something needed to be repaired. Or when the door got jammed, and someone was trapped inside.
Well geez, is it any wonder that I only date women who were made in the very opposite of their image and likeness? Who the hell would want a daily reminder of it?
To make matters worse, I wasted the best two decades of my adult life working for one blasted ingrate after another. They did everything within their power to try and make me feel incompetent. In the end, I had nothing to show for it.
And so, I made up my mind, you see. I decided that I was going to take on a DIY approach to life. For the benefit of those who don’t know, DIY is an acronym for “Do It Yourself.”
So from doing my own laundry, to cooking for myself. To stove repairs, to pumping my own gas (I could never live in Jersey), to changing my own oil, to changing a flat tire.
I take pride in doing it all, and doing it by myself. If anyone tries to undermine my sense of independence, it makes me very angry, and I will physically fight them.
As such, I spend plenty of spare time on YouTube, doing research and taking notes. I research everything from home improvement, to car reviews, to medical research, to sleep study, to dietary research, to psychological research, etc.
As a journalist, my homework is always done, but never finished, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That is because it really is a game changer when you are educating yourself versus going to school, the Ultimate DIY Project.
Speaking of game changers, it truly is a breath of fresh air to not have to work for people for a living. There were challenges along the path. And yes, there are still challenges, but they are all worth it.
Self-employment is not easy. You have to be your own accountant, pay the full share of medicare and social security, and file your own taxes. But that is exactly the point.
You also have to be your own secretary and scheduler. Because managing your time effectively will be your biggest responsibility. Now, that is not to say you cannot ask for help if needed.
Rare exceptions to the rule would be, if there is an emergency that is too big for you to fix. Or if there is something that you don’t know what to do, and you just don’t have time to learn it on the spot. There is also no problem if you delegate menial, repetitive tasks to Chat GPT.
In fact, there are actually some things that you are innately good at doing. While there are other things that other people are better at doing than you are. For example; you might be great at changing the brakes, but your wife might have a green thumb that you don’t have. Let your wife beautify your backyard, while you change the brakes on her car. It’s called teamwork.
Countries understand this fact, and put it into practice. Otherwise, we would not have international trade relations. “Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.” It is actually quite normal to delegate responsibilities based on people’s natural talents.
We were not meant to know everything. We should certainly learn as much as we can. But we also have to leave room for others to discover their own unique talents. That is what makes each person valuable.
Sometimes when I revise my list of accomplishments, it feels like I am reading someone else’s work. It makes me proud to know that I am capable of producing such a masterpiece, if I do say so myself. Do you know what else makes me proud?
I am proud of my driving. I am proud of my cooking. I am proud of my laundry and housekeeping as a straight male bachelor, who is often unfairly stereotyped with the expectation of being scruffy. I am proud that I never stole anything from anyone a day in my life.
I am proud that I have totally taken charge of my health, and my diet. I am proud that I have totally taken charge of my finances. I am proud of my blog, and the things that I write.
But do you know what I am not proud of? When I completed a project of some kind, only for some jackass to ask me,
“Oh wow, you made that all by yourself?”
*awkward silence*
“It’s good!”
*shrugs*
As if to suggest that it would be surprising that I could be capable of producing quality. That sort of thing stays with you long term. It’s kind of hard to believe in yourself when someone keeps on doubting you during your formative years. I could have been way ahead of where I am today, if only they didn’t put any doubt in my head.
Any positive reinforcement that I had came mostly from myself. So now, I want to do it all by myself. It gives me a greater sense of accomplishment in the end when I don’t accept any help along the way.
It gets to where, even if I end up dating a debutante heiress at some point, I will tell her not to give me any money, nor to pay off any of my debt. And I will literally break up with her if she cannot respect that. Especially if she knows where I am coming from.
Incest has a stigma attached to it that often leads to social shame and degradation. Incest is defined as having sexual relations with a blood relative, that is the simple definition. However, incest delves much deeper than meets the eye.
Just food for thought, but in this article, we will be giving some historical context on the different forms of incest, and explore what kind is more tolerable, versus what is not.
The reason why incest is not encouraged started out with concerns that are more biological in nature than it is social. Because if the blood of both parents are too similar, then their offspring would have an increased chance of developing autism, and/or sickle cell, among other diseases.
For that reason, infant mortality chances are higher. Not only that, but the expectancy for a normal quality of life diminishes if the product of incest survives infancy. It so turns out that there is an advantage to mixing one’s blood, whether racially or familially.
Because if one family has a history of cancer, and the other family’s genes are stronger, that cancer may possibly skip a generation, or be rinsed from both their bloodline all together.
Incest was not uncommon among early humans, as there is evidence of it taking place throughout medevial Europe. It only became a social stigma in recent history, and for really good reason. It served to prevent the birth of more inbred morons. But what if I told you that almost everyone on earth is somehow related?
It is no secret that the population of humans on earth has boomed over the last century. At the turn of the common era, there were only two civilizations on earth who kept census records, the Roman Empire and the Chinese silk road.
There were other tribes on earth at the time, but they were few in number, and mostly scattered across the earth. The global population was estimated to be around one hundred million people.
Most oriental people are said to be descendants of Genghis Khan, as he is believed to have fathered many children throughout his lifetime. If that claim is true, then almost all Asian people are somehow related.
In 1066 CE, the Normans invaded England during the Battle of Hastings. They conquered the anglo-saxons, and William I was crowned king. William was believed to have fathered many children, so it is commonly believed that many modern British people are descendants of King William.
With this occurrence taking place in China and England, we can assume that it is a recurring practice of Kings and Emperors throughout all civilizations.
One can only expect that the same is true of King Solomon being the common ancestor of many jews, or Julius Caesar being the common ancestor of the people living in most modern countries that are former Roman provinces.
It was widely known that Kings and Emperors had many concubines. The more vast his power, the more concubines he had. Some of those concubines were commoners who wanted to mix their blood with royalty.
And what king would refuse the advances of an attractive, voluptuous seductress? The more concubines he had, the greater his chances of spreading his seed.
Migration and settlement patterns throughout the centuries would see that king’s blood travel to all corners of the earth, and as such, the likelihood of being related to people from distant lands have increased.
Fast forward to the turn of the 20th century, and the global population has grown past one billion. This is good for trade and commerce, because the 20th century saw a paradigm shift in the west, where the economy went from being largely agricultural, to being industrial. A large population would fuel the workforce that is needed to sustain an industrialized economy.
The population further increased shortly after the second world war, as the world witnessed the largest baby boom in all the history of the world up until that point, hence how that generation got their name. The population was then around five billion strong, and would increase to seven billion over the next 60 years.
In 2024, we are 8 billion strong, and most of us are related by blood in some way, yet that hasn’t stopped the population from increasing even more. The population is estimated to reach ten billion people globally by 2050.
When you see a girl you like, and you decide to ask her out, chances are, you are asking out your cousin. But that’s ok, so long as she is not your first cousin.
Needless to say, having sexual relations with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are unacceptable. Particularly because there is a power dynamic between parent and child. Even if all parties involved are consenting adults, it leaves one to wonder why the child thinks incest is normal.
Siblings are still too close. Even though they are in the same age group, there are still too many similarities in their blood that would have a negative impact on their offsprings.
Then there are kissing cousins.
The nobility have been known to marry first cousins so as to keep the wealth within their bloodline. Working class white puritans also marry their first cousins to keep their bloodline from mixing with another race. As there is no way of them knowing whether or not a white person outside of their family is purely white.
Those two groups commit incest for a specific reason, then there are those who commit incest just because they feel like it, and they just don’t care what anyone else thinks. Or they were raised like that, and they think it is normal.
First cousins are entirely too close in blood. Third cousins, I think, are safer. But even fifth cousins are still too close for my taste. If I meet a super random stranger, and she just so happens to be related to me, she is likely to be a 10th cousin, or perhaps more distant, which is fine.
While relationships between very distant relatives may technically involve shared blood, they do not carry the same risks or social stigmas as closer relations. Therefore, such relationships are often not considered incest in the conventional sense.
It is no secret that hedonism often gets a bad rap. It is often confused with narcissism, and people who openly practice varying forms of hedonism are frequently the subject of envy and ridicule.
Perhaps hedonism receives a bad reputation because people do not fully understand it. They think they know what it is, but if that was the case, it would be clear that what they are actually alluding to is decadence. But what is the difference?
Hedonism is defined as living so as to extract the most amount of pleasure with the least amount of pain. That is not to say that they are lazy, for a hedonist will choose to make sacrifices under the right conditions, and for the right reasons. The only rule for a hedonist in order for him to willfully make a sacrifice is that it has to be worth it to him.
All hedonists have a vested interest in sustainability, some more materialistic than others. A hedonist may choose to indulge in worldly pleasures, but it is not coming from a worldly place. A true hedonist can be satisfied with less, so long as he is safe and comfortable, a decadent infidel cannot.
Decadence is defined as senseless and needless overindulgence in materialism, often at the expense of others. An infidel cannot comfortably co-exist with a hedonist, knowing that they are equally sustained. It won’t be long before the infidel tries to sabotage the hedonist, hoping it will somehow prove him to be more superior.
An infidel needs the dichotomy of winners and losers in order for his world to make sense. He thrives on sadistic chaos, while the hedonist thrives on hedonistic chaos.
By that, I mean to say that a hedonist will find order in the chaos of self-sovereignty, which is hedonistic chaos. While the decadent infidel will seek to sabotage the hedonist’s transcendence into self-sovereignty, causing sadistic chaos.
Though decadence is mostly sadistic, there is also a masochistic element to it. As there are some decadent infidels who will binge on food and wine to the point of nausea. Then they will vomit to make room so they can binge some more, as was the case during the final days of the Roman empire. But the practice of gluttony is not unique to them. Wherever there is decadence, you are sure to find gluttony.
That form of indulgence is not the hedonistic way, as there is no vomiting in our world. Sure, we may love to indulge, but not to the point of self-inflicted abuse and degradation. Overindulgence is not true pleasure, only a smoke screen to mask misery. Our mantra is pleasure and happiness all the way, but everything in moderation.
I even have a personal rule that I do not go out to indulge unless I take care of house first. That means, the bills have to be paid, the fridge has to be filled, the trash has to be emptied, the floor mopped and the bed made.
In that way, whenever I do go out, there is nothing on my mind that could steal my joy. I am also reassured that when I return home, I can step into an orderly house. If you find everything intact as you left it, you can be certain there were no intruders while you were away, an added benefit.
Sometimes when you clean, you find something under a table that you didn’t even remember owning. How can you be certain of the things you own if you won’t even clean? Those who practice decadence would never clean their own house. It is either that they choose to live in filth, or they clean their house begrudgingly if they have no one else to do it for them.
Decadence is a disease, and one of the mind. It is usually what happens whenever a civilization is on the brink of collapse, as more people tend to overindulge as a means to cope with life’s complexities. There is evidence of upheaval even in the name itself, as decadence comes from decay.
Decadence was commonly practiced towards the end of the Roman empire, and history is now repeating itself throughout the west. Hedonists indulge, while infidels overindulge, the difference lies in one’s mindset.
