Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Eric Cadesky writes about the psychology behind adherence to – and deviation from – the social distancing rules needed to keep us all safe. – Nora Loreto discusses how COVID-19 has exposed the lethal problems with Canada’s long-term care system. Karl Belanger points
Continue readingTag: Psychology
Writings of J. Todd Ring: Distance Yourself From Evil, Not People
The Boycott Big Tech Movement Begins Here First rule: Question everything, and think for yourself. Second rule: Don’t support your slavers. (Gandhi, MLK and Thoreau would understand. It’s time for mass civil disobedience.) Nothing is free. If you want to say no to Big Brother, you have to pay for
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Plague: Then & Now
Europe did not respond well to the biggest plague in its history, in 1347-1351, to put it mildly – with anti-semitism, pogroms, scapegoating, witch trials, burning heretics at the stake, torture, self-flagellation, misanthropy, self-loathing, death cults, cultural morbidity and dark obsessions, paranoia, highly dubious medical practices, xenophobia, soaring cultural and
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Moral bankruptcy in a time of “plague”
20,000 children die a day of hunger, and nobody notices, nobody makes a peep: outcry is basically zero. But a new strain of the flu (statistically less dangerous than the typical annual flu) scares people into thinking THEY themselves are in danger, and everyone loses their mind. Clearly, we
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Bad-Asses Wanted
Sometimes you have to be a little bit bad-ass – just to be a decent person, and do what must be done to help and protect others. Gandhi was right: cowards can never be moral. Moreover, it is true: the world is a dangerous place, not because a few
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: “Unprecedented” – Reality vs Delusion
Every year a tragic event happens. 300,000 to 500,000 people die globally of the flu. Most are very old, very ill, or immune compromised. In 2020 fewer people have died of a novel coronavirus (a new form within the cold and flu family of viruses) than from previous years typical
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Work and Workaholism: Puritanism, and A Day Off
This morning when I got up, feeling exhausted again from the on-going 30-year stint of sleeplessness and insomnia, I thought, I should take a day off – considering I pretty much never take a day off. (Some people imagine that writers and philosophers sit around all day staring at their
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Nostalgia For Simpler Times
I generally am not one for nostalgia, having a strong preference for living in the present, and looking to the future. Further, I rarely write in conversational colloquialisms. But I must say this, as a short note: Holy shit do I miss the ’70’s! Things were fucked up and crazy
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: “It Depends Who You Talk To” – Relativism, Nihilism & Mass Insanity
Let’s get some things out of the way, right from the start. Our society is insane. Fromm was right, and there is no doubt about it. Illusions, delusion, lies and half-truths, distortions of the truth, avoidance of reality, denial, psychological numbness, narcissism and disociation are all epidemic. That is in
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Dangers Of Denial
When someone fails to realize that China is a deeply authoritarian state, or actively denies it, or likewise does not realize that the US, Canada, the UK and Europe have been taken over by an equally authoritarian corporate oligarchy, I think, have you been living under a rock? Wow. Almost
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Model Of Elite Control?
Someone prescient once said, “Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither, and will lose both.” We would do well to remember those words now. And we are most definitely in the process of losing both, as we speak. But maybe we aspire to be
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Fantasy and Indoctrination: Rough notes on a few fantasy novels: part two
Here are two more fantasy books that I could not get through. That makes three in a row. And to think, I had a love affair with Terry Brookes’ Shannara series! (I read something like 20 Shannara novels in a row, and loved all of them, other than the last
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Reflections On Stillness & Action
We need stillness and action – both, and urgently so. This should be becoming perfectly clear. I’ve travelled through 20 countries, but still I find stillness the greatest adventure, and most rewarding, enriching journey of all. Going to the mountain top is exceedingly worthwhile, but going deep within is what
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: On Experiencing Grief – Time does not necessarily heal all wounds…
We are a social species, seeking qualified help from another person, professional or otherwise, is almost always a good plan. Mary Lundorff says this about grief: “People experiencing complicated grief often avoid people, situations or objects that remind them of the permanence of their loss, so some version of exposure
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Psychopaths, Society, and Morality
Heidi Maibom in her essay at Aeon Magazine explores some the psychological and philosophical insights into morality gained by observing the behaviour of psychopathic individuals. I recommend going to Aeon and reading the entire article, its quite insightful. “The psychopath’s response to people who suffer indicates that what we
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Infection Nature of Beliefs – Excerpt from Bence Nanay’s Essay
I do love readinng Aeon Magazine. This essay by Bence Nanay questions how much control we have over our desires in society. It is a fascinating question as I think the commonly held belief we all have is that we, as individuals, are ever-present and mostly unchanging over time as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jonathan Aldred calls out the combination of handouts to the rich, cultivated attitudes of self-reliance and antisocial assumptions which have exacerbated inequality over the past few decades: European countries have, on average, more redistributive tax systems and more welfare benefits for the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Stanford Prison Experiment Revisited – Mindfields
A video by Vsauce that challenges some of the narrative around the Stanford Prison Experiment. Some further reading on the SPE. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-04417-001 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167206292689 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0098628314549703
Continue readingThings Are Good: Good Self Improvement Involves Psychic Suffering
The self improvement industry is worth $10 billion dollars and rising. Greedy vultures flock to the industry to try to seperate people who are looking to better their lives from their money. Too many people are trying to make money rather than help others. Such a realization led one author
Continue reading