Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:34 pm
<I think my students (freshmen psychs) may appreciate this thread as a good illustration of selective perception.>
Well, there you go. I read Spinoza a few weeks ago, and there in the midst of his laborious logic he says that after a young person has accepted an erroneous idea, not being fully educated in how to recognize one, he later becomes really ingenius in cococting defense of a falsity. As Dr. Freud would say, "neurotic"; able to function within certain limited mindrames, such as a boring job, but in a constant state of denial about certain facts that confront them.
My heart goes out; it is a chronic condition that even Dr. Freud's couch couldnt deal with very effectly or expeditiously. Freud noted that neurotics have an intolerance for ambiguity. And thus we read them now enamored of dualistic cosmology, with only black/white, evil/good, blessed/damned issues to deal with. Of course, any psychopathologist who looks at the way the cosmology was put together can see how it psychologically appeals to alpha male ego in need of redemption for its efforts to dominate others.
This cosmology of course, is mixed in with many high sounding moral principles and assumptions about the nature of man, who as they say, should have *dominion* over the earth. Which is to say, on the Earth, but not really *of* the Earth, as if there is a heirarchy modeled on their own kingdoms, of plants, animals, man, saved souls, angels, and an alpha male tyrant Father god. The kings being in between man & saved souls.
There's none of the ambiguity of a myriad life forms that wouldnt all fit on Noah's ark, nevertheless the logistics problems of getting them there. The neurotic focuses on magic numbers, and never adds it all up.
The Bagavd Gita calls them Avatars. That is forms that are created and animated by the divine, which exist soley as a challenge to the fulfillment of your kharma. The Gita never talks about the "will of god", but poses question s to you about what will of yours got you here. But anyway, the Avatars are like cosmic robots, mobile Turing machines, that are programmed to think as they do, and responds as they do. The thing about an Avatar is that you cant teach it anything. But you may learn from it.
So- I glance at their rants from time to time, and sometimes they inadvertently give me another insight into what was, is, and will be, going on. And the reality of history and pre-history is much more interesting than scripture. But sometimes, you know, you listen to propaganda, and suddenly you learn something about where its coming from.
So the reason the Fundies have become more strident, and more numerous, is that so many were driven off the fence by the challenges of modern life, and chose the simple solution of Faith. As Wallace in "Culture & Personality" notes, when a civilization is headed down the tubes, people's coping skills dont work so well any more, and they egnage in "magical thinking".( Which I guess is his contribution to the lexicon of sentient beings.)
And so we who live in the United States of Denial, hear them get louder. But we all know that wont solve the problem What's needed is more case management, but unfortunately, the case managers of previous generations practiced birth control much more professionally, while the client class didnt, and now the case load has gone thru the roof.
I hear the nurses are catching on, and realize their own reproductive problem. Maybe we should be importing nurses as well as doctors. But in anycase, the irrationality will go on at the election campaigns and voting, so there's no telling if funding for archaeology will continue. Things can get pretty chaotic if a mass of neurotics wakes up.
But maybe they aint programmed to, and we who have a clear eye on history and pre-history, are programmed to worry about where we are. But trying to teach Avatars, or give them a hard time about it, is a waste of time.
Well, there you go. I read Spinoza a few weeks ago, and there in the midst of his laborious logic he says that after a young person has accepted an erroneous idea, not being fully educated in how to recognize one, he later becomes really ingenius in cococting defense of a falsity. As Dr. Freud would say, "neurotic"; able to function within certain limited mindrames, such as a boring job, but in a constant state of denial about certain facts that confront them.
My heart goes out; it is a chronic condition that even Dr. Freud's couch couldnt deal with very effectly or expeditiously. Freud noted that neurotics have an intolerance for ambiguity. And thus we read them now enamored of dualistic cosmology, with only black/white, evil/good, blessed/damned issues to deal with. Of course, any psychopathologist who looks at the way the cosmology was put together can see how it psychologically appeals to alpha male ego in need of redemption for its efforts to dominate others.
This cosmology of course, is mixed in with many high sounding moral principles and assumptions about the nature of man, who as they say, should have *dominion* over the earth. Which is to say, on the Earth, but not really *of* the Earth, as if there is a heirarchy modeled on their own kingdoms, of plants, animals, man, saved souls, angels, and an alpha male tyrant Father god. The kings being in between man & saved souls.
There's none of the ambiguity of a myriad life forms that wouldnt all fit on Noah's ark, nevertheless the logistics problems of getting them there. The neurotic focuses on magic numbers, and never adds it all up.
The Bagavd Gita calls them Avatars. That is forms that are created and animated by the divine, which exist soley as a challenge to the fulfillment of your kharma. The Gita never talks about the "will of god", but poses question s to you about what will of yours got you here. But anyway, the Avatars are like cosmic robots, mobile Turing machines, that are programmed to think as they do, and responds as they do. The thing about an Avatar is that you cant teach it anything. But you may learn from it.
So- I glance at their rants from time to time, and sometimes they inadvertently give me another insight into what was, is, and will be, going on. And the reality of history and pre-history is much more interesting than scripture. But sometimes, you know, you listen to propaganda, and suddenly you learn something about where its coming from.
So the reason the Fundies have become more strident, and more numerous, is that so many were driven off the fence by the challenges of modern life, and chose the simple solution of Faith. As Wallace in "Culture & Personality" notes, when a civilization is headed down the tubes, people's coping skills dont work so well any more, and they egnage in "magical thinking".( Which I guess is his contribution to the lexicon of sentient beings.)
And so we who live in the United States of Denial, hear them get louder. But we all know that wont solve the problem What's needed is more case management, but unfortunately, the case managers of previous generations practiced birth control much more professionally, while the client class didnt, and now the case load has gone thru the roof.
I hear the nurses are catching on, and realize their own reproductive problem. Maybe we should be importing nurses as well as doctors. But in anycase, the irrationality will go on at the election campaigns and voting, so there's no telling if funding for archaeology will continue. Things can get pretty chaotic if a mass of neurotics wakes up.
But maybe they aint programmed to, and we who have a clear eye on history and pre-history, are programmed to worry about where we are. But trying to teach Avatars, or give them a hard time about it, is a waste of time.