Aristotle’s Great Souled Man

Aristotle’s Great Souled Man

I make notes here on Aristotle’s description of the Great Souled Man.

All of the sources for this post come from Roger Crisp and his article “Aristotle on Greatness of Soul,” which can be found here.  Source text is in blue italics.  

 (1) Risk and danger  (IV.3.1124b6–9):

The great-souled person, because he does not value anything highly, does not enjoy danger. He will avoid trivial dangers, but will face great ones, and, again because of his attitude to goods, will be unsparing even of his own life.

The Magnanimous Man faces great dangers.  Trivial dangers are below him.  He even faces deadly dangers.

 (2) Giving and receiving benefits  (IV.3.1124b9–18):

The great-souled person is inclined to help others readily, but he is ashamed to be a beneficiary, since it is a sign of inferiority. If he is benefited, he will repay with interest, to ensure that his benefactor becomes a beneficiary. He will remember with pleasure benefits he has conferred, but will forget those he has received and feel pain on being reminded of them.

The Magnanimous Man tends to be prepared to help others.  Getting help shames him, since this signals inferiority in reference to the benefactor, so he will repay the debt with interest.  Memories of giving bring him pleasure, but he will forget received gifts because the memory will bring him pain.

 (3) Attitude to others  (IV.3.1124b18–23):

The great-souled person will be proud [megas] in his behavior toward people of distinction, but unassuming toward others. For superiority over the former is difficult and impressive, while over the latter it is easy and vulgar.

He carries himself with pride and honor among honorable men, but becomes unassuming when among common people.  Effort is required to carry himself among the honorable - a worthy task, but impressing the common people is easy, and thus, not a worthy task.

 (4) Level of activity  (IV.3.1124b23–6):

The great-souled person avoids things usually honored, and activities in which others excel. He is slow to act except where there is great honor at stake, and he is inclined to perform only a few actions, though great and renowned ones.

He preserves his effort for only those things involving great honor.  He avoids the usual honor of things thought of as excellent.  

 (5) Openness  (IV.3.1124b26–31):

Because the great-souled person cares little for what people think, he is open in his likes and dislikes. And because he is inclined to look down on people, he speaks and acts openly, except when using irony for the masses.

He speaks his mind about likes and dislikes among the honorable people, since he cares little for what others think.  He will tend to look down on others.  When speaking to the common man, he will speak with irony.

 (6) Independence and self-sufficiency  (IV.3.1124b31–1125a16):

The great-souled person will not depend on another, unless he is a friend, because to do so would be servile. Because nothing matters to him, he is not inclined toward admiration, resentment, gossip, praise of others, or complaining. His possessions are noble rather than useful, because this is consistent with self-sufficiency. Again because nothing matters to him, he will not be rushed: His movements are slow, his voice is deep, and his speech is measured.

He does not depend on others, which would make him a servant.  He only depends on friends.  He does not much admire or complain.  The things he has are symbolic, and not necessarily useful.  He is not in a hurry.  He moves slowly.  He has a deep voice, and he speaks with efficiency.

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Commentary

This description seems like a fragment.  I am not sure how many ancient texts survived these two millennia, but this feels like a sketch or a draft.  Aristotle, in his greatness, must have written much more on this subject.  Some believe that we have only one-third of his original works.  

Depth of feeling is not one of the traits.  Today, after the Romantic Era from 1820 to 1900, we have a tradition of honoring deep feeling.  Perhaps the ancients thought that this was self-indulgent.

Spirituality is not apparent here.  A man of rituals, with meditation and contemplation, seems not to be one of this type.  Can a great priest be a Great Souled man?  It is perhaps not conceivable with this description.  

Figures that come to mind with this description are Frederick the Great, Napoleon, George Washington, Wellington, Arnold Schwarzenegger (no joke, I read his biography several times), George Patton, Louis XIV, among others.  Jacques Barzun may also be a candidate.

These people tend not to be likable, except to their friends, with the exception of Schwarzenegger, which may turn many off, although he is definitely a Great Man, with no exaggeration on my part.

So, is Aristotle describing a great general?  A soldier?  He is definitely not describing a priest.  For every society, the two leaders that emerge are Priest and Warrior.  This description fits more closely to the warrior type.  

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Freddy Martini

Notes on The French Attack

The Symbolism

Again, whomever did this made the dates symbolic.  World War I ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: November 11, 1918.  The attacks took place just after Veterans Day - two days after, on Friday the 13th, of all dates!  We Americans shun this type of thing, but he rest of the world is plugged into insinuation and symbols more than we would like to admit.

This will be construed as a taunt, to those who know their history, also.  What was World War I for France?  It was the worst thing to happen to France because most of French men were exterminated during this war, and left them very weak for decades to come - they could not even put up a good fight in World War II because of the mass devastation of World War I twenty years earlier.

So, the leaders of this attack are apparently taunting France into another blood bath to exterminate another generation of Frenchmen.

Multicultural Complications

A strange little fact many people do not know about is that just about every famous and effective Islamic terrorist has roots, and usually spent a lot of time, in France.  Islamic Terrorism is the action of Westernized Muslims out of France.  Thomas Sowell performed tons of research on this subject in his trilogy on Conquests, Race, and Culture.

In the United States, the great multicultural group is mainly hispanics: Spanish, Indian, and Mestizo Catholics, mostly.  The United States was founded as a Protestant nation, and the Catholic Church is very strong here, so, the multicultural question in the United States is not as much of an open warfare question as much as it is in Europe.  In the US, it is mostly a case of everyone trying to get along.

In Europe, with its Catholic and Protestant cultural roots, cannot exactly assimilate a people who cannot conceive a separation between church and state, and a different religion at that.

In the United States, hispanic Catholics can become assimilated within one generation.  In France, we are told, muslims even to the third generation have not yet assimilated in to French culture.  

ISIS

As far as we can tell, this is not a terrorist organization, this is a State.  They have conquered land, and are establishing control over a territory.  These are not frustrated men blowing stuff up, but warriors and kings establishing real power on earth.

France is a secular nation, and will probably have to go to war - in some form  - against this ISIS State.  The only problem is the Faith of the French.  In any war or battle, it is not the men with the biggest guns that win in the long term, but those who have the most Certainty in their Cause.  The Cause does not matter.  It only matters what the nation believes.  Whomever is more Certain will win the war.

The United States was driven out of Iraq after we stayed there for over a decade and overthrew the government and executed their King.  Our enemies had more Certainty and Faith than we did, and we were defeated.  The same thing will happen to France unless they have something we Americans do not have: Absolute Certainty in the Cause - more so than your enemy.

The history of France suggests that they are up for very bloody fights to the death.  The question is do they believe in themselves more than ISIS (or whomever in the hell actually blew up Paris yesterday).

American Military Anecdotes

Anecdotal evidence suggests that in the last five years, the American military has gone through a transformation of morale to the point where we can no longer fight any serious wars.  We could not defeat the forces within Iraq even after trillions were spent.  So, in some estimates, it is doubtful that the US would have the will for a supporting bloody war in support of France - which we are militarily obligated to do as a member of NATO.

Final Thoughts

We are all instinctively in support of France at this moment.  We want to wield the sword and defend the Land of Louis XIV and Napoleon.  But, after time goes by, we will lose our Certainty as we did after the War or Terror, and lose Faith in the Cause.  I hope I am wrong.

We spent trillions thus far, and the heart of the West - Paris - was attacked openly and brazenly.  So, what did we accomplish with the War on Terror beginning in 2001?  Almost nothing.  Paris is the West, and the West is Paris.  When Paris falls, the West falls, and we no longer exist.

Is this the End of the West as we know it?

Let us pray that the French have something we do not have, and are absolutely Certain about it.

Priorities

Priorities

Success minded people at the beginning of their day have some idea of what they want to accomplish.  Those who have been at their craft for many years may be able to keep a list in the mind.  Many of us begin the day with a written list.  For some reason the ritual of making the list imprints it upon the day and the focus is sharper than otherwise.

Stephen Covey

Covey wrote the classic work on effectiveness with his Opus, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”  The book has no peers.  I will summarize the habits below, from memory:

• Be Proactive - No excuses, you are fully responsible for your life
• Begin with the End in Mind - Create the vision before executing
• First Things First - Important things are never subordinated to unimportant things
• Seek first to Understand then to be Understood - This sequence is important for Influence
• Think Win-Win - Think long term when making deals.
• Synergize - If you can get the group into a creative zone, with ideas flowing, you understand this.
• Sharpen the Saw - take care of you Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit or you will pay the price of neglect.

Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss in his book, “The 4 Hour Workweek,” explains the 80-20 rule of a priority list.  What are the 2 things I need to do today that will give me the greatest output in accomplishing my goals?  No more than 2!  In time, you may get to the higher level of effectiveness where  you only put one item on the list - this is when you know you really have yourself together!  For us mortals, no more than 2 items on the list.  

Priority Means Focus

When I began my career, I followed a training program that a Covey spinoff suggested, using a Franklin Planner.  You would list all the things you had to do for the week, and then put them on schedule for each day of the week.  Then, for each day, you would label each item on the checklist A, B and C.  A items had to be done today. B items may slip until tomorrow, but no further.  C items could be done anytime that week, or could slip to the next week.  

What is the problem here?  There is no focus.  There is a list of crap on paper.  We need to delegate and outsource everything to a point where we have no more than 2 things on our list every day as Priority.  

When you have a list of crap that you “have to do,” most people are overwhelmed and often give up and go back to the “seat of the pants” life of the moment.  This is not good.  You have to write down what you need to accomplish, and you have to do it in a way that you are not overwhelmed.  So, one or two priorities!  There is nothing wrong with a list in the background that you look at every week or so.  But, you cannot be looking at the long list every day, because you will lose focus on the Priority Item - Number one and number two.  

Maturity

Someone famous once said that the essence of maturity is making choices.  When you choose one option, you destroy the alternative.  When you spend one hour eating lunch in New York, you destroy the option of eating lunch in Miami.  Time cannot be gotten back.  

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Freddy Martini  

Mac versus Windows

Mac versus Windows

Broad Trends in Computers

For the past 10-15 years, computers have settled into categories and there is not much experimentation going on as there was in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.  After Internet became a fact of life for the masses, things became standardized and experiments are all done except at the irrelevant margins.  Nowadays, it seems like the desktop, workstation and laptop are also going away for the masses as handheld computers, i.e., smartphones, take over the market.  Dell laptops are dinosaurs, but clueless companies still hand them out.  Applications are all standardized: spreadsheets, word processors, PDF, JPEG, video, audio, etc have all been sorted out.  

Appliances and Reliability

A computer is now an appliance like a microwave oven.  Everyone knows what is expected, and it should do as expected all the time unless it needs the rare repair.  You may be laughing now if you have ever switched from lower tiered products to Apple.  And, you should laugh.  Now, think about this.

Do you ever expect your microwave oven to freeze up in the middle of warming your coffee?  Does it require a reboot when you have 30 seconds left on the timer for warming coffee?

What would you do if your refrigerator just quit working and required you to unplug it and then replug it to work again?

In either of these cases, you would have a defective product, and would be justified in asking for your money back.

Computers and Reliability

Why do we accept the low quality behavior of Windows based machines like a Dell?  You may be in the middle of a million dollar deal, and your computer can display some ridiculous pop-up with the message “An error has occurred,” and your computer will freeze.  You are left hanging.  You will have to reboot, and this will take another ten minutes.  Wasted time is the worst offense for Top Players.  When you are in the Big Leagues, you cannot waste time.

Apple Experience

I hesitated for many years getting an Apple product.  I come from software and engineering where we have lots of fun programming and tweaking, and there is some value in being “computer savvy” in many places.  But, what does this all mean, being “computer savvy”?  It means that the appliance is defective.  If you need technical help to do something, the appliance was not designed correctly.  It is a basic rule in Product Design: the design should reveal its function.  A handle tells you where your hand belongs - no need to read a manual or spend hours screwing around figuring things out.  A new product that requires more than a few minutes to figure out has a defective design.

When I switched to a Mac, the experience was amazing.  It worked like a Microwave oven - it never crashed.  Everything that happened was expected and intuitive.  Nobody should have to read an owner’s manual for a vacuum cleaner.  We have valuable time and do not want to waste time because a product designer was not doing his job correctly.  When I open my Mac, it is immediately ready - I do not have to wait even one second.

Everyone knows that Apple products cost a little more.  However, when you calculate the time lost on working with Windows systems with failures, reboots, bugs, latency, booting up, etc, in the long run, the Windows system will cost perhaps ten times more, if not fifty times more.  Effectiveness-minded people put a premium on time.  And wasted time is the most hideous loss one can have.  I mean, when was the last time you had to update the “Configuration File,” or lost a Word file due to the computer automatically rebooting due to an “Important Software Update.” When was the last time your computer just stopped working, you rebooted, and it worked again, and you have no freaking clue what just happened?

After being around since the middle of the 20th century, and after the integration of Internet to computers, and a few years after that of market sorting of standard applications, there is no excuse at this time for computers to not be an Appliance, and not a fun toy for hackers.

The Solution

When purchasing a product, you must always calculate the long term cost.  There is the price tag.  Then, there is the cost in terms of time from failures, repair, frustration, reputation, etc.  Will you purchase a chair or table from Wal-Mart?  Probably not, if you are looking for long term value.  

At this point in time, using both types of machines, I must say that Windows is for people who do not mind wasting time, while the Apple products are for people who want to get on with living life, and see computers as an appliance, and not something to be fiddled with.

Look for things that have some beauty.  Apple products are designed to be beautiful.  Windows is drab and blue.  Life is about excitement.  Being bored is the root of all evil.  Purchase things that get your heart beating faster, and lift your spirit.

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Freddy Martini  

Consequences of Low Intelligence

Consequences of Low IQ

Many of the strange things happening in business, finance, and within the courts nowadays is the result of the lowering of IQ over the past 100 years.  Bruce Charleton has been studying this for some time.  You can read about his findings in this article.  

In finance, we have hordes of people who cannot link numerical analysis to business fundamentals like honesty, employee spirituality, architecture, sensibility, creative flow, and the like.  For intelligent people, this is easy to do.  But, tell me when was the last time a Harvard MBA explained this to  you?  We have ignorant leaders who know how to handle the bottom like with “cuts” in spending, but have no idea how to generate revenue, and seem to not link up the cuts in spending to decreasing revenue.  American automotive companies are the biggest example of cutting your costs and pressuring suppliers, which will eventually crash the entire system of industry.  Low IQ leaders attack problems piecemeal, and have no sense of the system, and cannot think more than one level of cause and effect.  

Knowing details of finance, law, supply chain, revenue, costs, etc, is not enough intelligence to run a complicated company.  Systems knowledge is a must, or you will crash the system.  Having an MBA will not cut it, because the MBA does not select for intelligence.  

We have an entire civilization built by a people who were 15 points ahead of us in IQ.  They built the system we are using.  However, we no longer understand the system, and it keeps crashing due to the “fake” intelligence of paying attention to the bottom line - which is not even half of the required intelligence to run a complicated enterprise.  The MBA is perhaps the biggest scam of the age.  You cannot apply a financial or business formula and think that is all there is to running a company.  

We have people on the courts making decisions that are clearly low IQ.  I actually read court decisions.  In my background I have had to parse sections of codes for industry, law, and technical standards to apply to a concrete project or operation.  It is a matter of keeping track of categorical concepts, subcategories under those concepts, precedence of applicable code, cross references, and categories of interpretation underneath all this analysis.  In the past, a lot of people could do this.  Nowadays, fewer people are able to keep up and hold all this stuff in their heads to make a decision or judgment call.    

Reading court decisions nowadays, it is clear that the participants have no concept of a clearly defined term and concept.  They have no solid grasp of the principle of Mutual Exclusion.  They have no firm grasp of the logical functions of AND and OR.  You will find terms that have a mysterious meaning that can be interpreted by the individual in many ways.  You will find the lack of precedent on important related cases at hand, and instead the reliance upon fuzzy mysterious concepts that are ill defined, and more apt to be of use in poetry or music.  

What are the consequences of such madness?  We introduced reason as a method of settling differences in a court of law based on common understanding and agreement of terms.  When we do not use reason, and defined terms, what are we arguing?  We are arguing feelings.  What is the problem with this?  You cannot argue feelings.  If two people hate each other, you will not stop the hatred by arguing logic.

What are the further consequences of this?  Arguments will be settled by force.  What type of force?  There are many  types of force.  There is the barrel of a gun and the club, like a mob during a violent protest.  There is intimidation, which is the American Political Modus Operandi at this time.  There is charisma, which was used by dictators like Napoleon and Hitler to great power and often destruction.  There is hypnosis using the media.  There is seduction, the most common form of power maneuvering known to Man.  There are many kinds of force to be used by anyone so inclined to use such methods.  

We are no longer a nation of Laws, but a nation of Men.  We do not have the IQ to maintain the civilization we were given.  Each fool is arguing his concrete case without reference to the overall system - context.  Each fool on a court is arguing his feelings. Each fool on the street is throwing Molotov cocktails to impress his girlfriend he slept with last night for the first time.  

Religious fanatics do not discuss theology, but grab any random scripture from the Bible or Koran, and uses his feelings to discern the interpretation instead of studying the last 2000 years of argumentation from the Fathers of the Church.  

But, I guess this is what it is like to live in a Third World country.  Everything is chaos and Force rules.  Keep your head down so you do not get shot at.  

But to be a Man requires that we do not complain without offering a solution.  Complaining without offering a solution is whining.  What are we to do?  Study Machiavelli.  Study Robert Green’s “The 48 Laws of Power.”  Never appear to be weak.  Destroy your enemy totally when attacked.  Force rules, and you cannot afford to be weak.  

That is the world we have now.  There are no Laws.  There are only Men.  Strong men and weak men.  Do not be weak.

That is the point.  The only point.  It can be a hard pill to swallow.  It does not go down easy.  But, that is where we are.  You cannot wish it to be otherwise.  Because you will be killed for wishing. 

Have fun and enjoy!

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Freddy Martini  

Cold Shower Week One

Cold Shower

Cold showers are recommended for several reasons.  I will report my first hand experiences.

The How and the What

The first week was the adjustment period.  I have been doing it for just over one week.  I would bathe or shower as usual.  Then, after I was finished with cleaning, I would turn the faucet knob right one inch at a time.  I was easing into the cold.  The warmth was still there, with increasing cold.  Once the cold hit me fully, my body would get shocked and I would get a bit dizzy.  At this point I would exit the shower and that was all for the first week.  On the seventh day, I was getting used to the shock, and I figured that if I would not anticipate the shock, perhaps it would not be as shocking.  It is perhaps like a gun: when you fire the gun at the target, you will have more accuracy if you do not anticipate the recoil.  Make the bullet firing surprise you.  The same with the cold shower.  It worked!  After I psyched out myself, I could stay under the cold for a while longer.  Thus, the second phase - I do not get dizzy and exit, but I feel the cold, unanticipated, and I rotate under the spigot for a little more time, making sure that my entire body has flowing cold water on every spot - front, back, face, neck, etc.

The Why

Why take a cold shower when it shocks your body and is uncomfortable?  There are some health benefits on cold showers - physical heath benefits like fat loss, better hair, better skin, etc, but I was after a more lofty goal: spiritual.  I wanted to approach it as meditation.  

I think in our modern world, we are not exposed to stimulants like our ancestors were.  Thus, the little things have the ability to bother us.  Pebbles in our shoes, greasy hands, sweat dripping into our eyes - these things may drive us nuts if we are not hardened to common irritants.  A cold shower shocks every part of your skin.  When it hits your face, you have the same reaction as it someone threw you into a cold river.  Thus, it throws a large stimulant at your system, and thus, during the rest of your day, mild irritants are dialed way down to the periphery of your consciousness.  That fat guy in the office who throws tantrums?  Well, he is just part of the background noise, and you barely notice him any longer.  When you exit your car and drop your cell phone on the concrete as you are walking toward a restaurant entrance - it no longer breaks your stride or injects stress hormones to throw you off for a few minutes because it is now just minor background noise, and does not irritate your senses because the cold shower conditioned you for shock, and irritants no longer register as irritants, but as noise.  

Conclusion

Like hard exercise makes us physically tough.  Like trials make us hardened characters.  A cold shower in the morning is a good way to turn all your irritants into background noise.  The irritants are dialed down from a 10 to a 3.  

Is this worth the discomfort?  Yes it is.  When your mind and body can focus upon the task at hand and ignore the background noise and irritants, you have a large gain for a minuscule cost.  

And, you get all the physical health benefits to go along with that.  Targeted exposure to Eustress increases our effectiveness, and we live that much more intensely and excitedly.

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Freddy Martini  

Fundamentals of Analysis

Fundamentals of Analysis

What is the essence of analysis?  It is categories.  It is like biological organization into animal and plant kingdoms.  Perhaps it can be vertebrates or invertebrates.  Under each category are subcategories that do not cross fit into both categories.  It is mutual exclusivity that defines analysis.  Break things into categorical pieces, and ensure that the pieces within a level are mutual exclusive categories.  This is the process of analysis. 

We Have a Fire

Let us take a concrete example and perform some analysis.  We have a fire.  A building burned down.  What is required for a fire?  Three things: (1) Oxygen, (2) Fuel, and (3) Sufficient Heat.  This is called an AND gate in logic, which means, all three factors must be present, or Fire does not exist.  Take away any one of these three, and there is no fire.  So, let us ask the question.  Was there sufficient oxygen?  Probably so, unless we were under laboratory conditions where someone removed oxygen, we can safely assume there was a 20% concentration in the air.  Was there fuel?  What can be fuel to a fire?  Wood, gasoline, cloth, dust, organic material, etc.  One must identify the fuel.  What else do we need?  We need a source of heat.  What could be a source of heat to ignite the Fuel?  Cigarette lighter, stove, matches, hot wire from a shorted electrical circuit, pilot light from a gas stove, flint material rubbed together to produce a spark if near gasoline.  Thus, to establish the cause of the fire, one must identify the three things necessary to make the fire, and clearly connect them to the physical manifestation of the three requirements.  What gave oxygen?  Air.  What gave fuel?  Gasoline.  What gave heat?  A hot stove.  Congratulations!  You have performed basic cause and effect, and have identified by analysis the cause of the fire.

Murder Scene

Let’s use an example with identifying a suspect for a crime.  There is a dead man on the floor of a hotel on the second floor.  The dead man is 230 pounds, muscular, and 29 years old.  His arm is broken, and his face is smashed in.  The door bolt is broken and the door handle on the bathroom door is broken off.

Who could have done this?  Let us look at the first thing: Skill.  Who would have the skills to do this?  Who can break off a door bolt?  A strong man - perhaps a muscular man.  Could it be a school girl?  No.  A teenage 11 year old boy?  No.  An 80 year old woman?  No.  A 70 year old man?  No.  To overcome and kill a man 230 pounds and muscular, what would he look like?  Probably muscular, very strong, not a skinny pimply faced teenager.  Probably a trained fighter, boxer, or martial artist.  

So, we have established categories above, and excluded a lot of options in the analysis.  Male, 20-35 years old, muscular, fighting skills, strong as hell, strong hands.  So, this eliminates a lot of people so that one can focus on the profile of the suspect.  You do not strip search a 100 year old woman in a nursing home to see if she was the suspect, even if she hated the dead man and said she wanted to kill him.  She just could not have done the job.  Maybe hired for the job, but not performed the job.  

Rapid Heart Pulse

What is the cause of a rapid heart pulse?  Adrenaline causes the heart to pump faster.  Why does the heart pump faster?  What does the heart do?  It mainly provides oxygen to all things in the body.  Thus, when the heart beats fast, something in the body is asking for more oxygen.  When you run fast, your muscles need more oxygen, and secrete chemicals and hormones to signal the need for oxygen, which signals an increase in adrenaline, which raises the heart rate.   Something is lacking oxygen, and demands action from the heart to provide the extra oxygen by pumping faster.  If you are resting in your bed and your heart is racing, what does this mean?  Something is asking for oxygen.  Perhaps your lungs are clogged from pneumonia and your body is not getting enough oxygen from a regular heart rate, and thus, the system demands faster pulse to make up for the deficiency.  Perhaps you are scared to death of something, and your body signals with chemicals and hormones to prepare for Fight or Flight, which raises the heart rate to prepare for very intense muscle movement for a Fight or Flight.  

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What is the takeaway?  Ask yourself “What are the necessary conditions for this to have happened?”  “What could have caused each one of these conditions?”  Write down all the conditions, and trace backward to a cause of the condition.  Make a picture of cause and effect.

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Freddy Martini