Assuming an institutional recapture on the part of the forces of Those Trying to Live in Reality (disparate and eccentric as we may be) is a long-term generational project, are there practical ways as individuals we can begin to push against the critical consciousness bs? Or is an action plan the subject of a future essay?
Sounds awesome. Until then I’ll continue to eat up the essays as they come. Thank you to you both for putting into words what a lot of us are trying to figure out
Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023Liked by Lorenzo Warby
What I don't understand is why those who well-and-truly believe that reality is socially constructed aren't working very hard at constructing a much nicer one -- one where people aren't all walking around full of shame, guilt, anger and grievance? I get why those who are only in it for the power like this outcome, but what about everybody else? This Utopia they are aiming for -- putting aside the problem that it is impossible -- I don't find it very likeable on its own terms. Why go there?
Upfront and personal, I can say psychiatry is somewhat lacking an evidence base to say the least and I think I've had only one psych bod you could say was operating with a full deck. They wisely decamped to General Practice.
I've read about a 1/4 of the linked paper: having to be au fait by neccessity, I think I'm a fair enough judge, and so far there is a lot of dense verbiage; but Chomsky's "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" probably has more semantic range. If I didn't know its' origin I'd suspect it was a Boghossian; Lindsay; and Pluckrose wheeze. Before I'd heard of Peter & Co. I'd have said it was written by a schizophrenic in a particularly florid psychotic episode. I've listened to and read a lot of that in my time, (and written some too!)
I can empathise; but these fools are just making the case for the null hypothesis and then some. Yet more evidence for what happens when you close the institutions without having set up robust 'Care in the Community' first. :-)
A 'Woke', schizophrenic, psychiatrist & ECE. What could possibly go wrong? Its Canadian, so it might be worth seeing if there is something in the melt-waters from the receding ice cap contributing. What a poor benighted nation that is atm.
A (very-politically-incorrect) joke from my Engineering school days went something like this: A psychologist, wanting to learn the difference between engineers and scientists, placed a mechanical engineer and a mathematician at one end of a long hallway and a beautiful woman at the other. He told the two men that they could walk toward her, but they could cover only half the distance at a time. The mathematician left in disgust because he realized that he could never get there. The engineer started walking because he figured he could get close enough.
We live in a world of close enough. And close enough got us to the moon and back. Science is a process for discovering successively better approximations of yet-to-be-discovered, capital “T” truths - truths that exist, but that always seem to be just beyond our grasp. Maybe we'll never learn any absolute capital "T" truths (and if we do, how will we know?), but we'll get close enough to do amazing things.
Assuming an institutional recapture on the part of the forces of Those Trying to Live in Reality (disparate and eccentric as we may be) is a long-term generational project, are there practical ways as individuals we can begin to push against the critical consciousness bs? Or is an action plan the subject of a future essay?
Sounds awesome. Until then I’ll continue to eat up the essays as they come. Thank you to you both for putting into words what a lot of us are trying to figure out
Trapped in theory, or trapped in dogma?
What I don't understand is why those who well-and-truly believe that reality is socially constructed aren't working very hard at constructing a much nicer one -- one where people aren't all walking around full of shame, guilt, anger and grievance? I get why those who are only in it for the power like this outcome, but what about everybody else? This Utopia they are aiming for -- putting aside the problem that it is impossible -- I don't find it very likeable on its own terms. Why go there?
Brilliant analysis as always
Sanist? I can empathise.
Upfront and personal, I can say psychiatry is somewhat lacking an evidence base to say the least and I think I've had only one psych bod you could say was operating with a full deck. They wisely decamped to General Practice.
I've read about a 1/4 of the linked paper: having to be au fait by neccessity, I think I'm a fair enough judge, and so far there is a lot of dense verbiage; but Chomsky's "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" probably has more semantic range. If I didn't know its' origin I'd suspect it was a Boghossian; Lindsay; and Pluckrose wheeze. Before I'd heard of Peter & Co. I'd have said it was written by a schizophrenic in a particularly florid psychotic episode. I've listened to and read a lot of that in my time, (and written some too!)
I can empathise; but these fools are just making the case for the null hypothesis and then some. Yet more evidence for what happens when you close the institutions without having set up robust 'Care in the Community' first. :-)
A 'Woke', schizophrenic, psychiatrist & ECE. What could possibly go wrong? Its Canadian, so it might be worth seeing if there is something in the melt-waters from the receding ice cap contributing. What a poor benighted nation that is atm.
Re: Pernicious perfectionism
A (very-politically-incorrect) joke from my Engineering school days went something like this: A psychologist, wanting to learn the difference between engineers and scientists, placed a mechanical engineer and a mathematician at one end of a long hallway and a beautiful woman at the other. He told the two men that they could walk toward her, but they could cover only half the distance at a time. The mathematician left in disgust because he realized that he could never get there. The engineer started walking because he figured he could get close enough.
We live in a world of close enough. And close enough got us to the moon and back. Science is a process for discovering successively better approximations of yet-to-be-discovered, capital “T” truths - truths that exist, but that always seem to be just beyond our grasp. Maybe we'll never learn any absolute capital "T" truths (and if we do, how will we know?), but we'll get close enough to do amazing things.