Working Past The Avatar

This post is an exercise in macro-psychology. It is a situation is fashioned from my perspective of larger events and attitudes that are in the news, condensed down into a metaphor of individuals.

It begins with a girl who has a very abusive father. Not overtly abusive, but subtly abusive. Constantly putting her and everything she does down; not directly, but always finding a way to diminish everything around him. This is where it gets tricky, because her father is not a mean hearted person and he does try to be affable, but he suffers from a deep insecurity that makes him look for ways to belittle everything around him. This is the contradiction that his daughter has to deal with; that he is putting her down, but she knows that it is not a personal attack. However, no matter what she consciously understands about her father, there still is a deep resentment as a result of never getting any positive support from him.

The girl grows into a woman, gets married and has children. All of the people that she grew up with and around, family and friends, know her well enough and they have all adapted to each others behaviors in a complimentary manner, as all people do. But, when she gets married, she inherits family members who are not adapted to her and her family’s behavior patterns and things begin to rub the wrong way. Once in a while, she would look for an outlet for her frustration and begin to antagonize members of her family. Over a few years she instinctively learns that her brother in-law is the easiest target. Everyone else in her sphere of friends and family had learned to let her antagonizing pass untouched. They unconsciously knew that she was trying to create an avatar to unload her pent-up frustrations on, and let it pass as friends and family are known to do. Unfortunately, the brother in-law was stubborn in his ways and that made him an easy target. He would get frustrated with her antagonizing and then display behaviors that reflected her father’s abusiveness and she would unload on him all her pent-up accusations, frustrations, and anger. Then, the first and only people to rush in with offers of advice and solutions to the conflict are the parents and family who measure everything through their established and understood behavior patterns; which are all laced with the same inherent abusiveness that only act to repress and reinforce both of their frustrations. And the scene play over again… and again… and again. In the end, the thing that she never realizes, was that the reason her brother in-law was so stubborn in his ways was because his mother displayed the same subtle abusiveness as her father, with the only differences being what could be considered as cultural in nature.

What does the brother in-law do in this situation? He cannot tell his sister in-law of his perspective of her father, because she would be defensive and only see it as an accusation – an assault on the part of the brother in-law. And, he cannot tell her of his perspective of his own mother, because she would accept it only at that and place all the blame on him and his mother. From my perspective, the best solution for the brother in-law would be to explain the larger story to her and hope that she could suspend judgment until she grasped it in its entirety; both sides at the same time. The solution is for the woman and the brother in-law to find their own common ground. And this, I would argue, is the path to peace in this country and this world. Not for the parents (governments/ corporations) to find the common ground, for their solutions are founded on their own abusive behaviors designed to hide their insecurities. But, for the children (citizens/ consumers) to find their own common ground and release their frustrations and resentments and grow together,.. hopefully without creating conflict against the parents.

Philosophy vs Politics

In the past I wrote on separate posts:
Philosophy is the pursuit of context.
Politics is the pursuit of influence, or control.

Today I will add:
A philosopher will tell you a story so that you can use to get a better perception of the world you live in and the situations you face, so you can make better choices for yourself. A philosopher does not care what you do with their stories, only if you find them useful.

A politician will tell you a story to gain your support, and influence or dictate the choices you make. A politician does not care what you do with their stories either, so long as you do what they want you to do.

(The difference between a salesman and a politician is that the salesman’s motives and objectives are always clear and understood prior to the customer making a choice.)

Israel’s Behavior

I read the news today and thought, “Holy Crap!!! I know this game!!!” Israel is behaving like some family members of mine.

Israel flies war plains into Syria on two separate occasions and drops bombs that hit targets and kills people, then announces that Israel did not intend for these attacks to be considered as acts of war. That is awesome!! Because, as everyone knows, if a Syrian child should happen to look in the direction of Israel with anything but happiness in their eyes, it is perfectly appropriate for Israel to consider that a threatening act of hostility and a sound justification for genocide.

To put this into the context of some of my family members – anything that Syria does is a condescending and demeaning provocation, but Israel bombing Syria is just Israel being honest in sharing their feelings. So, if this whole Middle-East thing were to move forward the way things work with some of my family members, if Syria were to disagree with Israel’s honest sharing of it’s feelings and try to defend itself, that would be a sign that Syria wasn’t processing their feelings properly and Israel would need to bomb them more in order to help them release their pent up emotions in a more healthy and productive manner.

Fortunately for me, dealing with some of my family members is easier than dealing with Israel. All I need is a thick skin and a good sense of humor. No bomb shelters needed.

Willful Naiveté

In the constantly cycling evolution of society, the United States is at the point of Willful Naiveté. I just read a little thing about a Boston resident ranting against the conspiracy theorists. I am not saying that the conspiracy theorists are right. From my perspective, they are being willfully naive as well. People are living in denial, and that denial is manifesting itself in many different ways. I am reminded of a story of mine from back when I was working in the Forest Service.

Me and a coworker were driving out to a work sight when our truck got stuck in the mud. We started working the truck out of the mud with him digging under the important tire to get to solid ground, and me hauling rocks to put under it. We both were being very delicate and gentle. It was rather funny. Maybe twenty minutes into the effort he accidentally splashed a little mud on my pant leg and I gave him a sharp, but half joking rebuke for it. Six hours later we were both shirtless, and after many separate turns switching between digging under the tire and hauling rocks (we had found a spring in the middle of an old two track) he was thigh deep in muddy water hunched over with his arms in the water and I was bringing in a huge rock. I dropped the rock on the edge of the pit that we had dug and watched it roll over and fall into the water, splashing water all over his head and back. Fortunately he was a very good natured person – as I am sure he could have whooped me good – he looked up at me and said, “That is how you get back at me for getting a little mud on your pants?”, and we both laughed like crazy. Two hours later we got the truck out and we were both covered in mud from head to toe.

I don’t remember exactly when we transitioned from daintily trying to dig the truck out without getting dirty to accepting the fact that if we were going to get the truck out we needed to forget about everything else. I think it was somewhere between one half hour and one hour into the effort; when we figured out that we were on top of a spring. And that is how I see the United States. We are in the period before realizing that we are in a rut that will require serious work to get out of. (Much more serious than any sort of budgeting compromise or increased security system. Our problem is foundational; rooted in our very social structure, and our societies perception of self.) However, unlike my truck story, many people are willfully holding themselves in that state of naiveté: either by creating elaborate stories of blame, or by blindly believing whatever they need to believe – or whatever they are told – to allow themselves to go back to their simple and irresponsible lifestyles of constant entertainment.

A Born Leader

I have always agreed with Plato and Aristotle that philosopher’s make the best leaders. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a Real Philosopher anywhere near a position of power on this planet for a very, very long time. What do I mean by “Real Philosopher”? Well, I am glad you asked.

A Real Philosopher is not necessarily someone who studies philosophy. To study philosophy and to practice philosophy are two different things; just like the difference between an art historian and an artist. A Real Philosopher is someone who is hard wired to think of the big picture from many angles and perspectives. In our society it is easier to recognize and accept the opposite of a Real Philosopher. It is the image of the “Rain Man”; the autistic, or Obsessive Compulsive who is hard wired to see the tiny details… to count the toothpicks that had fallen onto the ground. The Real Philosopher exists at the other extreme – hard wired to always consider the big picture. Constantly calculating and recalibrating the big picture in their minds.

Today, none of our leaders are Real Philosophers. They are all regular people hard wired to think of nothing more than their own interests within their immediate environment. Trained to play the role of someone interested in the big picture. More and more we are discovering the hidden value that people with autism and OCD can have in a healthy community, as though they were being hard wired that way to play a necessary role that we are still unaware of. I can see a society that is not structured around genetic lineage, or inherited wealth, but roles filled by selecting from a pool of people naturally hard wired to fill a certain role in society. Making the criteria of selection both nature and nurture.

Fitting In vs. Self Awareness

From my perspective, a major reason why are world seems to be so screwed up, is because the average person will go to great lengths to fit in, but they will not put an ounce of effort into learning about themselves as individuals. As a result, people will only look for a pre-established story that they can apply to themselves, they buy the same things that everyone else buys, do the same things that everyone else does, and try to fit themselves into a preconceived category… the better the category, the higher their social status is then perceived. The scientific community – being victims of capitalism – enable this by spending all of their efforts trying to help people fit in, because that is where the money is. It is my opinion that it is this that created our drug addicted psychology culture; just doing what ever it takes to help people fit in. Don’t get me wrong, feeling like we fit in is important, but I don’t think it is more important than discovering who we are for ourselves… first. Only then can we achieve the luxury of knowing how we fit in.

Discovering who we are takes work. I define that work as spirituality. Consider these lost young people who are trying to figure out how they fit in, but they cannot given the current perspective of everything. So, instead of making an effort to figure out who they are, they just sit in the basement, play video games and blame everyone else for their feelings of alienation. A healthy culture would teach that being different is alright and that it is no one else’s fault. And, if we feel like we don’t fit in, the best thing to do is roll up our sleeves and make an effort to understand ourselves, and if we need help pursuing that path, that is OK too. But, what is not OK, is to teach that the only form of help available is to have a professional tell us who we are, why we don’t fit in, and what we need to do in order to fit in. That is a trait of a very unhealthy culture. What that is doing is applying marketing techniques to psychology.

I know many people who fit in perfectly, but are so utterly lost when it comes to their own identity. And, I know a few people who are completely at peace and comfortable with who they are and how they get along, they have found how they fit into their community in their own way, but they all had to go through a phase of not fitting in for a while as they did the work to figured it all out.

Radical Capitalism: Reliving History

The media is currently banging their “Radical Islam” drum. Taking a break, of course, from their “Socialism”, “Radical Environmentalism”, and “war against Christmas” drums. Which got my to brain thinking about the real cause of death and destruction.

Many people think that religion is the main cause for war and destruction, but from my perspective, religion is the most popular justification for war and destruction. The real reason – the cause – of war and destruction in our world has not changed in millions of years… resource allocation. Which got me remembering my forest history.

The bronze age was fueled by wood – by forests. It is true that they also needed the ores to smelter bronze, but the wood that fueled that smelting process was way more important. The proof of this was the fact that the dominant bronze production centers migrated with wood availability, not with ore production. Bronze production centers moved with the forests. Empires literally rose from the ashes of their forests, and collapsed in the shadeless desert that was created from their lack of foresight. Imagine these Bronze Age Kings and Pharaohs telling the bronze producers to increase output at any and all expense. So desperate for wood to burn that they dug up all the stumps and roots. Wars were fought between empires to gain control of forest resources, and the wars stopped when there were no forests left to fight over. Then, the Aegean Apocalypse occurred and brought an end to the Bronze Age altogether.

It was this reality, awareness of this history, that caused the creation of The Forest Reserves, which turned into The US Forest Service, by such figures as Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt. The purpose of The Forest Service was to prevent this “Tragedy of The Commons” from occurring in American forests, while also providing a sustainable supply of resources to the economy. It makes so much sense it almost hurts.

Now, if only the oil industry and The Department of Energy could think like that… or think at all. (I kind of doubt that they are the type of people who read books.) Because, just like the Bronze Age was fueled by wood, the Silicon Age is being fueled by oil and gas. I just read an article about the new documentary movie called “Gasland Part II“. The movie documents how hydraulic fracking is destroying communities by contaminating the water supply. Then there was the recent pipeline break in Alabama…  not to mention all the wars for oil and gas resources.

I remember Dick Cheney saying that conservation did not make for good national policy. I am fairly certain that is exactly what the Pharaoh was thinking… and the Kings of Persia and Greece… right before their empires crashed into history. But, I guess that is the appeal of unregulated capitalism… it is easier to throw our ethics, humanity, and identity out the window, than it is to come up with more clever and sustainable solutions.