Joan, thank you for bringing Gabor Mate to my attention. He does add plenty to our understanding. However, as I assumed, he is doing what everyone in the field of psychology does. They try something they hope will work. If it works, then they keep doing it and iterate. If something doesn't work, they (hopefully) stop doing it. What they don't do is understand the real root cause because they misunderstand the most important experiment is the history of the field of psychology. Or I'm overlooking something simple that no one is bothering to bring to my attention.
James, your approach is far too academic for my abilities. I prefer to look at history, social and political history of why do people do what they do. Why does a person take a selfie stand g at a cliff and fall off?
My understanding is that birth sides of a political struggle tango and both sides become damaged. If the society is well off, more then likely it will moderate itself. Germany chose a dictator on account of the punishment meted to the nation from the WWI Versailles Agreements. In our nation we have suffered under several inferior leaderships that has cost the US dearly. We invaded not one but two nations under W Bush. His daddy invaded another in the Golf War. Our foreign policies have destabilized the Middle East and now it has destabilized Europe. The Reagan period ushered in less regulation and opened the door to savage quest for riches by the wealthy.
The democrats have pushed so far to the left we donтАЩt even realize how far we have gone. The Democratic Party was once the party of the working class and largely white working class but we have abandoned them and we donтАЩt even realize it. So they turned to the party that does not have their interests at all. Zero.
Trump is not conservative or liberal. He has no ethics. He will sell his dead mother for peanuts if she was worth such peanuts. Money is his only quest.
In my opinion, our side (I do identify as liberal/conservative) must change our obtuse ways or we will be condemned to continue making the same mistakes. And frankly, I donтАЩt think we will make the necessary changes to return to significant majorities to rule for the foreseeable future. I have been specific with positions needed to be made and I have been thoroughly castigated for them which leads me to believe that we are unable to understand what is taking place and to make accommodations in order to bring us back to a degree of sanity. I donтАЩt see this happening anytime soon. ItтАЩs human nature to continue making the same missteps.
Bill, if it helps for me to keep it simple, here you go: Love yourself despite your faults, and love your neighbor in the same way. That is the true nature of being human. We are misguided when and because we've convinced ourselves our true human nature doesn't work. That's my simple conclusion. That is not how the conclusion was drawn, which is a bit more complicated.
"This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
I lingered but a moment at the mirror: the second and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen if I had lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house that was no longer mine; and hurrying back to my cabinet, I once more prepared and drank the cup, once more suffered the pangs of dissolution, and came to myself once more with the character, the stature, and the face of Henry Jekyll.
That night I had come to the fatal cross-roads. Had I approached my discovery in a more noble spirit, had I risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or pious aspirations, all must have been otherwise, and from these agonies of death and birth, I had come forth an angel instead of a fiend. The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prison-house of my disposition;"-- Robert Louis Stevenson
I fear that you are correct in your assessment. However, much of Congress May get the picture and persuade a move to invoke 25. At least we can push for that. Getting out of the climate accords is suicidal!
One never knows for sure in a complicated system where even a small change is going to lead. I have been "flabbergasted" for decade each time the Neo-"GOP" has crossed a line of indecency that they managed to evade persisting consequences time after time (surely in part because of the corrupting power of money). Maybe THIS time???
King Trump and Herr Musk are so juvenile that they are squandering their "honeymoon" period just pissing people off; and provoking resistance from many quarters, instead of relative passivity. A smoother criminal would scare me even more.
тАЬIn this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions." -- Lincoln
I think it is likely that inherently the hardest thing for human beings to do is to fully understand the nature of our own awareness; understating the nature and limitations of our own understanding observed and processed of necessity though the limitations our own understanding. that said, I think there is some very useful work out there, Frankl's included. Also much that is questionable. I claim no special expertise, but think we need to pay a lot more attention to our own systems of values, at our own inherent narcissism and how it can both serve and become toxic and the necessity for the preservation of our species of conscience and compassion.
At a particularly low point in my life, I decided to occupy my mind with an assignment, to keep my mind from going to even darker places. The assignment was to compose a listing of 15 statements describing my thoughts about Life тАУ my truths, if you will. Each statement could contain no more and no less than 15 words. It took weeks to finish the assignment, which I titled "Fifteen Times Fifteen."
Your comment reminded me of one of those statements, found in the very center of the piece I wrote.
"In people, in things or in ideas, the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness."
I am not sure I fully agree, but I think that there is truth in that. Every choice brings limitations and vulnerabilities, though some choices seem more fruitful than others. I certainly think the choice of Neo-Republicans to win by lies and treachery is both their super-power and their greatest vulnerability. I hope to see it send them sprawling yet, without, I hope, too much "collateral damage". What we do next will matter.
Joan, I'm sure it does. I'll check it out. However, my argument is that adding "plenty to the understanding" built on an unstable foundation is not what we need in this moment. What we need in this moment is the stable foundation. See my first (351 word) newsletter:
I'm not arguing; I'm investigating, and I appreciate science while knowing that the instruments for monitoring and quantifying (and legitimizing) some kinds of brain functions are lagging behind this time of stimulated neural functioning. Seeing the brain as parts in slow motion is unlike seeing the potential of an intuitive artist in the midst of creating (one example). The computing power of monitoring brain functioning isn't up to speed, even while it's surging ahead. I spent several hours at Harvard's Lichtman Lab years ago, where I began comprehending glia while watching Google-funded equipment try to capture the micro-dynamics of our chemical and electrical systems. I now have a better grasp of what I do not know.
As it applies to our social behavior, nothing beats self-reflection, but wounds skew our abilities to focus. I recommended Gabor Mate because he's done so much work with humans in pain, in the grips of addiction, ruled by trauma -- I'm not idolizing, I'm saluting his ability to be present as a compassionate witness which is a needed skill for complementing more mechanistic models for understanding.
Bringing psychedelics into the conversation makes sense because many billionaires in tech (some of whom are now holding political power up front and behind the scenes in our country) have admitted to using them; they shift consciousness and I'm guessing, often bypass polarized concepts like left/right brain and conscious/unconscious functioning.
I'll take a look and add that Gabor Mate's work, however you investigate it (books, YouTube videos, webinars) adds plenty to the understanding.
Joan, thank you for bringing Gabor Mate to my attention. He does add plenty to our understanding. However, as I assumed, he is doing what everyone in the field of psychology does. They try something they hope will work. If it works, then they keep doing it and iterate. If something doesn't work, they (hopefully) stop doing it. What they don't do is understand the real root cause because they misunderstand the most important experiment is the history of the field of psychology. Or I'm overlooking something simple that no one is bothering to bring to my attention.
James, your approach is far too academic for my abilities. I prefer to look at history, social and political history of why do people do what they do. Why does a person take a selfie stand g at a cliff and fall off?
My understanding is that birth sides of a political struggle tango and both sides become damaged. If the society is well off, more then likely it will moderate itself. Germany chose a dictator on account of the punishment meted to the nation from the WWI Versailles Agreements. In our nation we have suffered under several inferior leaderships that has cost the US dearly. We invaded not one but two nations under W Bush. His daddy invaded another in the Golf War. Our foreign policies have destabilized the Middle East and now it has destabilized Europe. The Reagan period ushered in less regulation and opened the door to savage quest for riches by the wealthy.
The democrats have pushed so far to the left we donтАЩt even realize how far we have gone. The Democratic Party was once the party of the working class and largely white working class but we have abandoned them and we donтАЩt even realize it. So they turned to the party that does not have their interests at all. Zero.
Trump is not conservative or liberal. He has no ethics. He will sell his dead mother for peanuts if she was worth such peanuts. Money is his only quest.
In my opinion, our side (I do identify as liberal/conservative) must change our obtuse ways or we will be condemned to continue making the same mistakes. And frankly, I donтАЩt think we will make the necessary changes to return to significant majorities to rule for the foreseeable future. I have been specific with positions needed to be made and I have been thoroughly castigated for them which leads me to believe that we are unable to understand what is taking place and to make accommodations in order to bring us back to a degree of sanity. I donтАЩt see this happening anytime soon. ItтАЩs human nature to continue making the same missteps.
Bill, if it helps for me to keep it simple, here you go: Love yourself despite your faults, and love your neighbor in the same way. That is the true nature of being human. We are misguided when and because we've convinced ourselves our true human nature doesn't work. That's my simple conclusion. That is not how the conclusion was drawn, which is a bit more complicated.
"This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
I lingered but a moment at the mirror: the second and conclusive experiment had yet to be attempted; it yet remained to be seen if I had lost my identity beyond redemption and must flee before daylight from a house that was no longer mine; and hurrying back to my cabinet, I once more prepared and drank the cup, once more suffered the pangs of dissolution, and came to myself once more with the character, the stature, and the face of Henry Jekyll.
That night I had come to the fatal cross-roads. Had I approached my discovery in a more noble spirit, had I risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or pious aspirations, all must have been otherwise, and from these agonies of death and birth, I had come forth an angel instead of a fiend. The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prison-house of my disposition;"-- Robert Louis Stevenson
I think "misguided" is the key word here.
I fear that you are correct in your assessment. However, much of Congress May get the picture and persuade a move to invoke 25. At least we can push for that. Getting out of the climate accords is suicidal!
But do you understand what Title 25 is? The cabinet takes over. Do you know who is going into the cabinet? Think about it
A scary thought to be in a place where the Government will be worse than Trump if he is not at the head. Even so, I have to agree!
One never knows for sure in a complicated system where even a small change is going to lead. I have been "flabbergasted" for decade each time the Neo-"GOP" has crossed a line of indecency that they managed to evade persisting consequences time after time (surely in part because of the corrupting power of money). Maybe THIS time???
King Trump and Herr Musk are so juvenile that they are squandering their "honeymoon" period just pissing people off; and provoking resistance from many quarters, instead of relative passivity. A smoother criminal would scare me even more.
тАЬIn this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions." -- Lincoln
You got that right, brother.
I think it is likely that inherently the hardest thing for human beings to do is to fully understand the nature of our own awareness; understating the nature and limitations of our own understanding observed and processed of necessity though the limitations our own understanding. that said, I think there is some very useful work out there, Frankl's included. Also much that is questionable. I claim no special expertise, but think we need to pay a lot more attention to our own systems of values, at our own inherent narcissism and how it can both serve and become toxic and the necessity for the preservation of our species of conscience and compassion.
At a particularly low point in my life, I decided to occupy my mind with an assignment, to keep my mind from going to even darker places. The assignment was to compose a listing of 15 statements describing my thoughts about Life тАУ my truths, if you will. Each statement could contain no more and no less than 15 words. It took weeks to finish the assignment, which I titled "Fifteen Times Fifteen."
Your comment reminded me of one of those statements, found in the very center of the piece I wrote.
"In people, in things or in ideas, the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness."
I am not sure I fully agree, but I think that there is truth in that. Every choice brings limitations and vulnerabilities, though some choices seem more fruitful than others. I certainly think the choice of Neo-Republicans to win by lies and treachery is both their super-power and their greatest vulnerability. I hope to see it send them sprawling yet, without, I hope, too much "collateral damage". What we do next will matter.
Joan, I'm sure it does. I'll check it out. However, my argument is that adding "plenty to the understanding" built on an unstable foundation is not what we need in this moment. What we need in this moment is the stable foundation. See my first (351 word) newsletter:
Link: https://jamesrcarey.substack.com/p/a-stable-foundation-e01?r=2nayrh
I'm not arguing; I'm investigating, and I appreciate science while knowing that the instruments for monitoring and quantifying (and legitimizing) some kinds of brain functions are lagging behind this time of stimulated neural functioning. Seeing the brain as parts in slow motion is unlike seeing the potential of an intuitive artist in the midst of creating (one example). The computing power of monitoring brain functioning isn't up to speed, even while it's surging ahead. I spent several hours at Harvard's Lichtman Lab years ago, where I began comprehending glia while watching Google-funded equipment try to capture the micro-dynamics of our chemical and electrical systems. I now have a better grasp of what I do not know.
As it applies to our social behavior, nothing beats self-reflection, but wounds skew our abilities to focus. I recommended Gabor Mate because he's done so much work with humans in pain, in the grips of addiction, ruled by trauma -- I'm not idolizing, I'm saluting his ability to be present as a compassionate witness which is a needed skill for complementing more mechanistic models for understanding.
Bringing psychedelics into the conversation makes sense because many billionaires in tech (some of whom are now holding political power up front and behind the scenes in our country) have admitted to using them; they shift consciousness and I'm guessing, often bypass polarized concepts like left/right brain and conscious/unconscious functioning.