We are so blessed to have Dr. John Day as part of our LIFEBOAT group. He sends an email like this to a private distribution list almost everyday. (message me for his email if youd like to request to be added) -- Contextually existent, We are taught certain ideal theories about ourselves, when we are young, and they seem pretty good, and we try to conform, but sometimes we are bad. Later on, some of us pore over that wisdom we were offered, and wonder about parts of it. Are we really able to see what is right and do it? When there were a lot of people, larger and older, who seemed to know what was right for us to do, we had to do it when they were around, but maybe only then. We internalized some of that authority. We question that and our own drives. Well, a few of us do. We are already in a smallish group as we look this far into how it is that we think and act in this life, in these bodies, in this world, with other people. The Asch Conformity Experiments show that people in groups of more than 3 have increasingly strong drives to conform, and many will conform without discomfort, even against the information provided by their own perceptions and cognition. psychology.about/od/classicpsychologystudies/p/conformity.htm https://youtube/watch?v=QcmvbXgmdsU These experiments have been recreated, and the stress levels of participants assessed. Most of us will conform within a group, and most of us will feel more comfortable doing so. A few will not conform, but will find it stressful. Very few will not conform, call bullshit and have little stress in so doing. If there is another non-conformist in a group, people have much less stress if they dont conform to the majority. We are animals with group survival and cooperation traits, with a strong conformity bias, and it is variable in its strength as a trait. We have mostly conformity. Perfect conformity would get us all killed by one mistake, wouldnt it? We also mostly follow orthodox authority, even when it deviates from our own moral urges, as demonstrated by the famous Milgram Experiments, where subjects in teacher roles gave (fake) electric shocks to actors in student roles, when they got a wrong answer. The escalating shocks gave more and more apparent pain, even unconsciousness, but most people gave the shocks, at least past the point where they were uncomfortable doing so, and often to the apparent loss of consciousness of the student. simplypsychology.org/milgram.html How do we process the experiences and information, within the contexts of our lives, to make important decisions for ourselves, autonomy decisions? It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it said Upton Sinclair. We can see that we have a cognitive bias to being fed, provided with the necessities of life, and that may be part of our authority compliance, that Milgram demonstrated. The conformity bias is probably the same. Sunning from a group usually meant death in times past. Even 2 people kicked out of a group together would do much better than one, and that may be reflected directly in the weakening of conformity bias if one other member dissents in the same way.. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, is a saying we may reflexively accept as truly reflecting our nature. We respond well to sweetness. We dont want to grasp the unpleasant. Something like a Ted Talk may present us with new information, which would seem to recommend that we see things differently, and therefore engage differently, behave differently. However, these talks are like a homeopathic remedy, where a tiny dose of poison becomes a cure. We are soothed to feel that something is already being done to solve the problem we just learned about. We are off the hook. We dont have to change ourselves. Its in good hands. We can also get the paralysis of analysis. Global warming and nuclear war are good subjects to induce this. There is lots of information about the magnitude of the threat, and so little apparent that one person or a family can do to escape or reduce the threat. theres lots of information. There is no end of information, but it doesnt seem the least bit empowering, more just teaching us to be completely helpless in the face of it. psychology.about/od/lindex/f/earned-helplessness.htm Interestingly, once we learn to be helpless, we generalize that helplessness into situations where we would be able to act, and would have acted, before we learned to be helpless. Whatcha doin about nuclear war and global warming? Im riding a bike to work and growing some veggies out back and reading about permaculture, while I rely on water, electricity, gas, groceries, gasoline, and paychecks coming without interruption from a vast electronically integrated whirling economy, based on oil, coal and cheap things coming from mines far away. I cant recreate all that, and I am actually, currently helpless. If it broke down tomorrow, Id probably be dead before the weather cooled off. Im helpless, but Im working to unlearn helplessness as a way of life. Growing the garden is teaching me a lot, because, as it turns out, I dont know squat. As I engage in the garden, I learn. I put in my manual labor work-outs sometimes. Digging in the ground and cutting down trees and hauling logs and rocks places, and putting in the garden amendments, like truckloads of mulch. Its possible that if I live a little longer, I might get good at growing food that people can live off. Its been done here, and not long ago, without that list of things Id die without. It was damned hard, I hear, but I come from people who did it. Ive got more to start with than they did, but Im softer, and Ive learned to be helpless. So have we all. Do you figure we can unlearn helplessness together? I promise not to mock you for trying. (It would be nice if you reciprocate, of course.) Naomi Klein has an essay here about these problems, especially global warming, coming at a time when global capitalism just completed its sweep of our world, blocking all the exits as the fire of greedy consumption destroys the theater we are in, while the movie plays on. (My analogy.) m.thenation/article/179460-change-within-obstacles-we-face-are-not-just-external All Ive got for you in the face of this mess is to ride a bike, and learn to grow veggies, not just salads, but some substantial food. Not much will grow in the Texas summer, but sweet potatoes, black eyed peas, okra, and watermelons will. The tomatoes and squash are not dead yet, and the potatoes, garlic and onions keep awhile. Other things that keep awhile are good garden tools, cooking utensils, steel screens, good roofs, and bikes, though they need maintenance and tires... Paul Craig Roberts asks if Russia (and humanity) has a future. Thanks Judy. Bound Man enotes/topics/bound-man
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 10:50:22 +0000