Discriminating Tastes

Let me offer one simple post here, everyone can follow this and I promise I'll be straightforward. Discrimination is discrimination, prejudice is prejudice, and bigotry is bigotry-and they are all the same. It's very obvious that whatever you call it, "reverse-racism" or "double-back flip, half-gainer", however you adorn it, it is what it really is. It doesn't matter if it's "reverse-" or "positive-", because that's just one more way of having a prejudice in the very language of discrimination. Being race/class/sex/etc.-ist is discriminatory and being bigoted is having a prejudice. None of it is good or acceptable and there's no need to complicate it.

That's it.

Stockholm is Everywhere.

I will argue that what has been described as "Stockholm Syndrome" is a common and necessary part of society, indeed a vital part of being human in any culture. It is widely recognised that the mechanisms behind this psychological condition apply to not only hostage situations but commonplace, everyday relationships as well. The reason for the ubiquity and necessity of this dissociation of mind and reality is twofold: there are societal forces coercing us to accept lifestyles which it also pushes us to resist and there is a natural predisposition towards insanity in the human psyche.

Throughout evolutionary history there have been adaptations, made by individuals and groups, which maintain homeostasis with the surrounding environment. That includes other peoples, other societies, and so there had to be a way to overcome the essential differences in encountering these foreign cultures. To whit, if one were to join another culture, by choice or by force, one needs to have some way of dealing with the new expectations and duties. This is important since the taking of prisoners and slaves is historically near-unanimous throughout all societies. The ability to empathize and excuse one's captors is vital in situations where escape is not an option. Not only does this facilitate physical self-preservation, but also as a mental measure. The constant rebellion against a situation, such as a rejection of ones' status or role, will lead to an increasing pressure upon the mind of the person. This will become unbearable if that individual cannot change that situation, even if only within his or her own mind. Imagine you believe yourself to be better than everyone around you and yet you are treated worse because of societal expectations. That belief will persist within your own mind, inescapably reminding you that you are not fulfilling your duty or potential. Not losing one's mind from all these conflicting stresses and messages is indispensable, especially in the daily life of modern times.

I mention the inherent instability of the human mind, and I do need to explain. I mean by this the capacity for deception: lies, to self and others. The ability to deceive others can be seen as an evolutionary adaptation, something that will contribute to survival. The capacity for self-deception, however, is different. It would seem to actually be contrary to ones' interest in most cases. To not be sure that ones' perceptions are accurate, means that one can never be sure that what one thinks is real actually is. This seems to be a maladaption, unless we factor in the nature of human culture, where this ability becomes useful and, as I've said, necessary.

Defeat Is In the Air

There are times when I've felt like a loser: like I didn't know what to do, that I owed something to someone else, or "they are right and I am wrong." These are all ways that I've felt less than myself-basically feeling sorry for myself. Of course this isn't all the time, I'm like most others in that I have "highs and lows", but I have found something about those low times. When I feel like there is no hope, or I've screwed up beyond redemption, like some other is better than me or has "shown me up", it's not the end until I think it is.

What I'm talking about here is being in a state of helplessness, or feeling vanquished. The concept of defeat is only with in the acceptance of the confines of win/lose, or "zero-sum", thinking. One can only be defeated if one believes in it. When you refuse to stop struggling even though you lie broken and crying at the feet of those who wish you harm, when your mind is still saying, "I'll get through this, I can make it!", you are still winning. When you refuse to slink off with your head down, when someone has taken their best shot and you simply carry on, there is nothing of defeat about you. How can you be beaten when you don't give up? It is only in your attitude, thinking that "once X happens, then all is lost" is just a way of cheating one's self. In essence, the only way to be beaten is to think so; the only one who can defeat you is you. Once again, it is thinking that makes reality and truth.

"It's Perfect!"

Sometimes we may be tempted to wait to do something: to improve the item, take stock more fully, or study the problem and find a better solution. If we put off doing it until it's a better time, we risk not doing it at all. It becomes a trap we fail to recognize, and we end up not accomplishing anything. I imagine that many artists, leaders, scientists, and presenters have been dissatisfied with what they put out. I could even picture Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being unhappy about the content of one of his speeches, as amazing as they are to this day. It is easy for someone to find fault and nitpick their own work, to think they can do better. It isn't important, because if it were any more refined it might seem unnatural, or it may fly over another persons' comprehension. It is better to do the best one can at the time and go with what one has. The only reason this is here for you to read is that I finally gave up editing and just posted it! It is better to make a move and trust in, and hope for, the best than stand rooted and not accomplish anything. Don't wait until it's perfect, because it never gets there.

A Series of Rules, or Rulers

Society is nothing more than a collection of expectations, things that have come together to shape who we are and what we think. It would not occur to many of us to live another way, to have a different approach to living. It may seem odd to consider as anything other than the natural way of things having ones' life in two parts: "a job" and "life outside of work" . Yet things were not always this way, indeed, even the concept of money is relatively new. Life would continue if drastic changes were made, it was in the past when people lived simpler lives and it will be different in the future, in some way. Lives not filled with toiling at one thing all day, something that had no relation to one's life. Rather, in the past people were constantly connected with all aspects of their lives, and were not dependent on only one thing to sustain them, instead they were intimately familiar with everything around them. Life was filled with connections, between people and land and the world. I do, in fact, question those who think or say they would prefer to live in another time period, given how acculturated we are. Though there are still some remaining who continue historical lifestyles in parts of the world, and some vestiges of it in our own culture. I think people are beginning to figure out this separation is why they feel hollow and isolated, and how to reestablish themselves in the world. For a fun treatment on this, read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.