I've argued for years that personal outrage is a limited resource and encouraged people to spend theirs wisely. If there's a really effective means of coerced learned helplessness, I think it's this.
What I used to think was that the best way to control people was to scare them and then convince them you had the solution to their fears--a form of mass-gaslighting. I've since realized I was mistaken, and that the most reliable method is to psychologically pummel people into a state of confused bewilderment and then speak loudly. If there's a term I could use to describe public sentiment these days, it's confused bewilderment. All of this has parallels to the worst kinds of interpersonal victimization.
This change in media, public participation and political maneuvering coincides with remarkable progress in AI technology. This may not be directly related, but after Cambridge Analytica I have my doubts.
The Great Filter theory has some appeal. I'm thinking that if it's valid, it looks something like this; smart enough to become really dangerous and ignorant enough to maintain competitive priorities instead of collaborative/superordinate ones. And here we are. And capitalism really does suck.
I have trouble with the outrage moderation. I wonder if being a spendthrift has some bearing on my periodic speechlessness.
One of our Fray (RIP) regulars was salivating over the possibility of vengeful violence against people who vocally opposed Trump, before the election, and he went all in on Pizzagate too. He blocked me after I said something that I thought afterward might have touched on his childhood. So I wonder after reading your comment if the worst kinds of interpersonal victimization aren't more common than one might like to think. I guess they are?
I thought I had replied to your comment earlier. Didn't mean to let it languish.
Interpersonal victimization is more common. There's a more subtle sort that's ubiquitous and truly nefarious in its own right. Not only do people not appreciate the impact of ambiguous trauma, they can't even describe what it was that happened to them. We absorb our identities largely from our parents, but it's not what they tell us as much as everything implied by how they interact with us. I've met some gravely wounded people raised by pleasant-seeming narcissists who quietly used their children (or at least one or some of them) into receptacles for all of their shameful projections. But of course kids are egocentric, and by default assume that they deserve whatever is being forced on them. I have many stories.
I still haven't met anyone yet whose seemingly inexplicable behavior, once I finally had enough context, didn't make sense.
PS. He blocked and unfriended me on Facebook. No one mentions the downsides of intelligence, but the amplification-potential for self-deception is just stunning. I see survival advantages to that, but only of the most unflattering and gruesome sort.
I've argued for years that personal outrage is a limited resource and encouraged people to spend theirs wisely. If there's a really effective means of coerced learned helplessness, I think it's this.
What I used to think was that the best way to control people was to scare them and then convince them you had the solution to their fears--a form of mass-gaslighting. I've since realized I was mistaken, and that the most reliable method is to psychologically pummel people into a state of confused bewilderment and then speak loudly. If there's a term I could use to describe public sentiment these days, it's confused bewilderment. All of this has parallels to the worst kinds of interpersonal victimization.
This change in media, public participation and political maneuvering coincides with remarkable progress in AI technology. This may not be directly related, but after Cambridge Analytica I have my doubts.
The Great Filter theory has some appeal. I'm thinking that if it's valid, it looks something like this; smart enough to become really dangerous and ignorant enough to maintain competitive priorities instead of collaborative/superordinate ones. And here we are. And capitalism really does suck.
Thanks for the nod, Weldon.
I have trouble with the outrage moderation. I wonder if being a spendthrift has some bearing on my periodic speechlessness.
One of our Fray (RIP) regulars was salivating over the possibility of vengeful violence against people who vocally opposed Trump, before the election, and he went all in on Pizzagate too. He blocked me after I said something that I thought afterward might have touched on his childhood. So I wonder after reading your comment if the worst kinds of interpersonal victimization aren't more common than one might like to think. I guess they are?
I thought I had replied to your comment earlier. Didn't mean to let it languish.
Interpersonal victimization is more common. There's a more subtle sort that's ubiquitous and truly nefarious in its own right. Not only do people not appreciate the impact of ambiguous trauma, they can't even describe what it was that happened to them. We absorb our identities largely from our parents, but it's not what they tell us as much as everything implied by how they interact with us. I've met some gravely wounded people raised by pleasant-seeming narcissists who quietly used their children (or at least one or some of them) into receptacles for all of their shameful projections. But of course kids are egocentric, and by default assume that they deserve whatever is being forced on them. I have many stories.
I still haven't met anyone yet whose seemingly inexplicable behavior, once I finally had enough context, didn't make sense.
PS. He blocked and unfriended me on Facebook. No one mentions the downsides of intelligence, but the amplification-potential for self-deception is just stunning. I see survival advantages to that, but only of the most unflattering and gruesome sort.