The violations that plague us don’t come out of thin air one day. It is the result of the culmination of traumas inflicted onto us from day one (and actually before, while we are still in the womb) of entering into a world that profits and runs off of others people’s trauma. We literally live and operate in a place that is rooted in trauma and carries out traumatizing rituals on its most vulnerable people. So long as we passively accept these cultural narratives and practices, we cannot and should not expect better from our society.
Tag: knowledge
Gina Haspel: Torturers Should be Punished, not Promoted
Gina Haspel doesn’t belong at the head of the CIA. She doesn’t belong in the CIA at all. Nor does she belong in any other position of government authority. Gina Haspel belongs in prison.
A Public Choice Perspective on Trade
Let’s say you could make a strictly economic case for government interference with people’s trading activities, that is, with their ability to cooperate freely with others across the world. (I have no idea what “strictly economic case” even means, but stay with me.) Would we free traders have to give up? No way.
The Limits of Modern Psychology
I am incredibly cynical of how most people, our culture and professionals regard psychology. This isn’t because I understand it and I can prove them wrong … it is because the methodology, concepts, and premises of most current thought is horrible.
This Job Is Going To Be Legendary: How Archetypes Keep Showing Up In Work
I think it’s helpful to look at how the “new” jobs of today reflect the same archetypal social roles played out in the legends we love. Humans and human institutions may change in form, but they do not change at heart.
The Myth of Institutionalized Learning
This weekend conversation exposes the deep, underlying myth in our culture that children cannot learn unless they are systematically taught. Whether in school or school-at-home, children can only learn when they are directed by an adult, when they follow an established curriculum, when they are prodded and assessed. How could a child possibly know how to identify plants if it wasn’t part of a school-like lesson?
Meditation is Selfish
We are surrounded by thousands of beliefs, ideas, and expectations which tell us that we exist for the sake of pleasing others, impressing others, placating others, pacifying others, satisfying others, and helping others. We must have a reminder that we exist for our own sakes – that we are ends in ourselves.
75 Times Around the Sun
Yesterday I observed the 25th Anniversary of my 50th birthday. On the original occasion, I opined that, like Merle Haggard, I could say “my life’s been grand!” I said at the time that I had lived a great half-century, therefore no matter what happened to me after that I could say that most of my life had been grand. The facts of the matter are that the continuing quarter-century has been even grander.
Ignorance Leads to Archation by “Law”
In general, the more knowledgeable you are about a given topic, the more you will see the “laws” written concerning that topic as harmful nonsense. In fact, I think that is how you can tell someone knows a particular subject really well, as opposed to faking it.
Know Thyself, Sell Thyself
It takes a lot of work to discover these things about yourself, and it’s never really done. You can’t do it just with books or thinking either. You’ve gotta try stuff and put yourself in contexts that provide feedback. You keep trying anything that you don’t absolutely hate, and then seeing how much it pays in knowledge, growth, fun, or money.