Yup, that's my context. Are therapists on public retainer in your country?
edit: haha yeah, 5 downvotes to 1 for this. definitely some emotions on display here.
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!QuestionsFromCatholics@askaprotestant.it
Just some background on this: America is prudish compared to Europe largely due to the influence of protestant morality, which takes quite a dim view of sexuality. Of course, Christianity in general has fucked up takes on sexuality and there isn´t anything in Protestant's sexphobia that can't be directly linked to a Catholic author, but it seems in the past few hundred years Catholics aren´t quite as drenched in shame and censorship.
Are their penises canonically barbed?
Here's my theory: therapist get paid to see clients and keeping old clients is easier than getting new ones.
It kind of depends if your negative emotions are grounded in reality or if they're grounded in past trauma/cognitive distortions.
The very strong tendency of therapy is to assume the latter despite evidence of the former.
Society has completely lost its ability to deal with any personal/spiritual/psychological/social issues outside the context of professional talk therapy.
Let me introduce you to toxic positivity:
I understand your sympathy for google (cool album name, btw), but the problem I have with sympathizing with them is: what is their motivation? They already have a monopoly and they make more money if you click on an ad. In fact, if the number one search result is consistently good, you're much more likely to skip the ads every time. Therefore, Google's financial incentive is to make search just good enough that you don´t go to a competitor in disgust.
I'm not being cynical, either. There have been various people representing the old guard at Google who've come out and said the mission of the company is ever expanding profit at the expense of usability.
We need to be having conversations in dark parking lots, away from cameras, with people who present AI slop decks at meetings.
The problem is pretty well pinned to the wall here: marketers can't effectively measure the success of most campaigns, so to preserve (and advance) their careers, they have master as much jargon and junk science as possible so people trust them as some kind of experts and continue to give them money.
This is happens is more professions than I like to think about.
pedestrian rating meter should be full--how many can you run over at once w/o noticing
I'm OP and didn't explicitly call out "evil capitalism" by name, I don't think. I don't think capitalism is particularly evil, it's just locus of propaganda that allows the system to parasitize everyone else. SInce everyone defends the system by saying, "capitalism is good!" people attack the system thinking "capitalism is bad!" But the problem is the system of aggregating power to a few that potentially exists in EVERY society.
Like, yeah, this idea that we just get rid of "capitalism" and welcome in a new Utopia is really silly. Most people won't state that theory outright, but it's clearly underlying their thoughts:
- Overthrow capitalism.
- ???
- Utopia!
People suck. Societies suck. And I think it always has been that way and I think it will always be that way--at least eventually. I think the best thing to do is fight for the PRESENT and forget about the future.
I love your song, btw. What's the title? I regret selling my bayan.
Edit: Ah, yes, I have more to say, just agreeing with you. I remember watching the Muppet Movie, the original one, as an adult--though they all have a common theme--and realizing how TOXIC it is. It firmly plants in everyone's head that they can literally be a star.
Several years later, Tyler Durden in Fight Club said it out loud: We we were all raised to think we could all be movie gods and rockstars; but we can't. We were lied to. And we're pissed off. {or something like that}
I think kids raised in the US today have been told: go to school and go to college MINIMUM. What they are finding when they graduate is the economic situation is horrible and now they are PERMANENTLY in debt. I think it's natural to be angry about that, to be put into a position of financial slavery by society...
But also you're right--expectations have a powerful effect on people.
Edit:
But I also want to talk about existential depression, which I have. Everyone believes in SOMETHING--which is why Maslow is full of shit. That is to say, at bedrock, EVERYONE has a purpose or a meaning, something they cling to so they have a role in the world and hope for the future. For a lot of people it used to be religion, for other people it might be their career, or their family, or politics (see the myth of progress above). It's extremely powerful and pervasive.
But at some point, you might lose your anchor. If you built your life and your children, they could die. If you built your life around your career, you might become disabled. If you built your life around faith, you might become an atheist (rare). And at that point, you have to ask yourself, what is the point of being alive?
That's the existential crisis.
This is casually treated by a parade of comfortable white men. Camus basically just said to laugh it off. Isn't it absurd!? we're supposed to say. Easy enough when your life is full of material comfort and social belonging as a top professor in academe. But what if you're poor, what if you're alone, what if you have no purpose in the world, no accomplishments, no celebrations? What then? Existential philoosophy has very little to offer people who suffer.
One of the reasons religion is so powerfully felt among the poor and the struggling is that it offers JUSTICE. They suffer now, so they will be rewarded later. The wealthy have pleasure now, but will burn in hell later. To see that they live in an unjust world where what they want is denied them is emotionally unbearable for most people, so they fall into religion.
Thanks for the convo. I enjoy your perspective.
That's quite a simplified view of nature. Many cooperative species, from bees to elephants, build their societies on cooperation. And sometimes they get violent, too, whether internally or externally.
I'd really recommend you read anything about primates by Frans der Waal before basing your worldview on just-so stories.
An imaginary character made up by another imaginary character lied to me!
I mean, I watch the news to see how the world is CHANGING, not how it's staying the same.
And I see the world is getting worse, but it's steadily and predictably getting worse, so, again, not much reason to watch the news.
Thank you! This is a beautiful and thoughtfully presented list.
Oh, damn, yes, please! A "Violence IS the Answer" watchlist would give me a more balanced portrayal of how STNG looks at things.
Edit: Oops, misread you--I don´t think that's ever a case TNG makes even obliquely.
Yeah, it would be a bummer if the Enterprise just left behind systems in permanent war or genocide every third episode, or if a show had to turn into a seventeen-parter to get all the nuance right.
I don't really think we're disagreeing on anything.
You want me to understand that starving actually does suck, and I'm not disagreeing; I'm saying, "yes, and".
Yes, starving does suck, and so does not belonging to a community or having hope for the future or having no purpose in life. And if you want to play personal credibility, I've been in the hospital for wanting to kill myself more than once and I went in on a full belly each time.
People need a variety of things in a variety of combinations at different points of their lifes. There is not stable pyramid guiding human psychology the way their obviously is for human biology. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs has been criticized by smarter people than me on these points, and you can read their work if you're interested.
Yes, you've kind of highlighted my key philosophical and political with problem, of which TNG is the most egregious example.
The arc of history does NOT bend toward justice. Believing so lulls us into complacency and laziness. Eventually, if we just wait long enough, we will achieve utopia by default, no need to do much about it.
Of course, if TNG inspires you believe such a thing as possible, and thereby motivates you to WORK towards it, great! But I find more often it acts as a sedative.
The West Wing might be a good comparison for someone looking at how fictional narratives act as a social nepenthe. Like, yes, a good portion of those fans saw the discrepancy between the show and reality and worked to change it, but how many people were just happy to have the show? How many people saw the West Wing and didn't notice that it is absolutely not how America's politics operate and left every episode feeling happy that right always prevails.
And the whole aversion to violence is completely ahistorical fantasy, as far as I can tell, but very convenient for a class of people who have achieved everything they need materially but would like to maintain a sense of moral superiority while maintaining the status quo that they benefit from (see: New York Times editorial page).
Personally, I don't believe in progress. I think it's a myth. Technology is a glittering lure trapping us in a future that will never come, and that lure shines brightest in TNG. I believe societies rise and fall and there are mechanisms underneath it all that we can effectively do nothing about (including getting swept up in them). I don´t think humanity is groping towards perfection, but will continue to rise and fall until a catastrophe we foresaw and failed to prevent paves the way for the Age of Polydactyl Cats.
But I do love Star Trek because it is ABOUT this shit in a way many shows are not, even if I don't agree with their take; and often they'll at least RAISE objections to their own premise, sometimes answered, sometimes not. And, of course, weĺl always have DS9.
No one is worth skipping the bathroom for.
Nina Simone disagrees.
YouTube warning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=995S1v-yHE4&t=71s
Edit: also: feels warning. holy shit. hello to bojack horseman fans.
edit: but also youtube warning because they cut to commercial in the middle of this song. ugh.
edit: here you go, some kind of mirror so you can listen unmolested, but minus the interruption: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1YP4y1c72L/?uid=42563159503479316337324C
It infected TV, too, though I don't know if there was an official code. Famously, married couples were shown to sleep in separate beds.