Running Time: 01:14:16
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Science of the SpiritS
Running Time: 01:14:16
Download: MP3 — 102 MB
© Substack/The Good Citizen
These psychological managers have piles of research and data on what's effective in moving the masses. Sometimes this happens through intentionally coordinated lock-step political policies like lockdowns and social distancing, other times through intentional economic pain like high gas prices to alter consumer behavior (buy EVs), and the most obvious nudging, if one is capable of seeing it, occurs with intentional lies and propaganda to manipulate thoughts and feelings about events that are also often intentionally prepared in a way to affect our view of them.
The lesser known manipulation happens at the subconscious level.
Twenty years from now a retired British man will sit at a park bench next to a young couple he overhears talking about the great pandemic of 2020-2022 and how they had to wear masks in preschool. He will eventually interrupt them and say:
"I remember those years. I remember them very well. Those were the blue and yellow years." They will look at him suspiciously before he asks them, "What do you young lovers know about colors?" He will not offer them chocolates or ask about bus schedules.
This is a deception. We have all the power, government has none and we can change the world whenever we choose.
All we need to do is realise our collective agency and strength. The good news is that if we consistently work toward freedom, achieving it is a nailed-on certainty. The bad news is that very few of us are even aware of the need to change our behaviour and fewer still know how to do it.
Our broad lack of awareness leaves us at the mercy of those who do understand how to misuse behaviour change techniques and applied psychology for nefarious purposes. This mistreatment has led a sizeable minority to rail against applied behavioural psychology. Yet, should we decide to use these strategies ourselves, the potential for positive social change is immense.
This article is written in the hope that we can all learn how to use behaviour change techniques for our benefit. Behaviour change is a skill that can be learned and, with practice, become a powerful tool for personal development. We can use it to defeat the plans of those who would use it against us and construct a free society.
God as Imagination: the Image and the Imaginer in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabî
SOTT Focus: MindMatters: The New Unclean: How Our Psychology Was Hijacked to Make Us See Each Other as the Enemy
This week on MindMatters we look at an in-depth examination of these issues as they're explored in Norman Doidge's seminal essay "Needle Points". No stranger to the study of how people think, and why, Doidge, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author of The Brain That Changes Itself and The Brain's Way of Healing, examines the foundations of vaccine-hesitancy, and why, far from being "fringe" or "paranoid", they have a legitimacy that simply cannot, and shouldn't be, ignored by anyone taking a position on this highly contentious subject matter. He also discusses the "behavioral immune system" and what it can teach us about what is going on. Doidge so successfully outlines his needle points in his work that colleague Jordan Peterson encouraged him to produce a video narrating the text which may be watched here.
A PDF of the essay may be obtained here.
Running Time: 01:39:43
Download: MP3 — 137 MB
Researchers have revealed that dogs show key signs of grief after the death of another dog in the same household.
This includes an increase in attention seeking, eating less and whining, according to the team from the University of Milan.
While grief has previously been reported in other animals including birds and elephants, this is the first time it has been confirmed in dogs.
Key signs of grief in dogs
The study found that the dogs displayed many key signs of grief, including:
- More attention seeking (67%)
- Playing less (57%)
- Less active (46%)
- More fearful (35%)
- More sleep (35%)
- Eating less (32%)
- More barking and whining (30%)
© Sydney Shaffer Getty Images
This is not an isolated incident, and there is even a clinical term for it: Hybristophilia. On sites such as PrisonPenPals.com, WriteaPrisioner.com, ConvinctMailbag.com, and Meet-an-Inmate.com, there are thousands of dating ads from "prisoners who are waiting to hear from you!" Kyon in New York writes "Send a picture of yourself so I may be able to see the beautiful rose in your friendship garden." Joel in Wisconsin writes, "My favorite subject is revisionist history." Eugene from Oregon-- who is sentenced to jail for life-- writes, "I have a very good sense of humor." And there are plenty of women who respond.
What is the source of the attraction to dangerous people? There is no shortage of speculation, ranging from a drive to feel like a rebel, to a drive to become a celebrity or increase one's popularity, to a drive for a more exciting and adventurous life, to self-esteem issues typically resulting from past abuse, to the drive to be a caretaker, to the drive to control and have power over a person which can result from dating a person who needs you more than you need them.
Today on MindMatters we discus the "schizo-autistic" worldview - hyper-rational, cynical, detached, technocratic - its flaws, and how it has dominated the intellectual life of humanity for at least the past 200 years. From Descartes and Kant to Freud, Marx and Ryle, this style of thinking has its uses, but can never provide an adequate picture of reality and how to act within it. If that isn't enough to burst your bubble of illusions, we also discuss Machiavelli and what he may actually have achieved in bringing to light the true intentions, workings and dynamics of the political class.
Running Time: 01:22:39
Download: MP3 — 114 MB
© AP / Adrian Wyld / The Canadian PressProtesters walk past trucks parked in downtown Ottawa. February 2, 2022.
Now, it hasn't always been quite like that. As it happens, I wrote my doctoral thesis (for all the good it did me) on the Canadian populist movement of the early 20th century. In large measure beginning as a spillover event from the U.S. populist insurgency of the late 19th century. That was a movement fueled by farmers, rather than truckers. And when I pick up the occasional signal from the trucker protest suggesting that it may not be enough to simply have the mandates repealed; that the political system which allowed these draconian measures to be initiated must be reformed; I reflect fondly upon the agrarian populist movement of a hundred years ago. A sterner bunch than those joyously dancing for freedom at Parliament Hill in recent weeks, they were laser focused on the need to reform the very core of Canadian governance to create a more grassroots democracy.2 How that farmers populist movement eventually failed is an interesting and instructive story, which I will explore in a future post. For today, though, I want to reflect upon the lessons I've learned of value to contemporary populism, seen through the lens of more recent study on the circulation of elites and the dangers of pathocracy.
Comment: For more insightful analysis from the author, see:
- The Psychorium: A needed new analytical tool in the study of pathocracy
- Is the Surplus Elite's class coup possible without degenerating into pathocracy?
Running Time: 01:24:22
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Comment: See also: