IF SO, WHAT KIND?

Dumb question, I guess

But it’s difficult for me to imagine

anyone’s Muse composing

vitriolic verse.

I just learned of the passing of the scientist whose writing first introduced me to the encompassing field of evolution: Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard professor for 46 years, who died on December 26, 2021, at the age of 92.   After he stepped down from his position at Harvard, the intellectually energized scientist published twelve additional books.

Wilson became increasingly concerned about mass extinctions and the effect on biological diversity, and ended his 1998 book Consilience  with the following words: “To  the extent that we depend on prosthetic devices to keep ourselves and the biopsphere alive, we will render everything fragile.  To the extent that we banish the rest of life, we will impoverish our own species for all time.  And if we should surrender our genetic nature to machine-aided ratiocination, and our ethics and art and our very meaning to a habit of care;less discursion  in the name of progress, imagining ourselves godlike and absolved from our ancient heritage, we will become nothing.” (Knopf, New York, 1998, p.298)

He recognized the seriousness of opposing forces to be reckoned with–“The time has come for economists and business leaders…to acknowledge the existence of the real  real world.  New indicators of progress are needed to monitor the economy , wherein the natural world and human well-being, not just economic production,  are awarded full measure.” (Ibid, p 292)

I just realized that if you disagree with someone’s post (don’t “like,”)  you can’t respond to it.  I had just tried when I realized that, and therefore couldn’t respond to a creative  but questionable post.  I had thought to respond:  “Sorry, I can’t help populate your blog’s readership. My Likes go to those blogs which are marginally enriching.  I do encourage you to kick at restraints, but don’t want a hand in negatively affecting others. So sorry about your mother.”  (Maybe I just don’t realize how much I may be enjoying that policy also. being protected from negative feedback).

LGBTQ students are omitted from the list of protected categories that includes Nazism– in a new bill concerning re-structuring educational criteria in the schools, co-authored by Indiana State Senator Scott Baldwin. The bill drew attention when one of its co-authors said that teachers should be impartial in teaching about Nazism.  Nazism is recommended to be protected from criticism, but not LGBTQ.   There used to be a teacher shortage and I predict another one is on the horizon.  Daily Kos’s reporting on the proposed bill contains the concern that “Baldwin’s bill doesn’t just ban teachers from teaching that Nazism is bad. It also allows parents “to opt into or out of certain educational activities and curricular materials under certain conditions,” potentially forcing teachers to constantly adjust the curriculum for multiple individual students based not on legitimate educational needs but on the particular prejudices of their parents.  (Italics mine).

Moral Dilemma:  I’ve been struggling with the notion whether or not we have the right–or moral mandate–to interfere with other countries’ cultural practices, even if they are against humanity, such as clitorectomy or Sharia law any more than other countries have the right to interfere in any of our human rights violations.  It seems we may limit ourselves to providing aid to the victims of other cultures, but what have we done in the area of aiding one potential leader over another in other countries’ elections, possibly secretively?  It seems to be a murky area.  “One World Government” appears to be an anathema idea to many, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could all share amicable peace agreements?  The almost paralyzing prospect of a space war (see my earlier post “Who Was Eric Blair”) spotlights our vulnerability as a planet from ourselves.  A few have welcomed the notion of extraterrestrial “flying saucers” as a motivator to band together on Earth in a  truly united front … let’s say “bond together”.  And then I think of sharia law, and wonder.  Sigh, we’d have to get past our evolutionary limits and our insistence on the prioritizing of our own religious biases, and past the psychological need to compete, and think well of oneself by winning or excelling or amassing wealth, feeling ashamed if we do not measure up to how we think others judge us.  Undoing the class war is one gargantuan obstacle.  Will climate change or our own innate tendencies do us in first?

Are you kidding?

(I know–I’ve been 86 for two years now.  Still have trouble counting.)

Since there may still be some disagreement between the definition of victims and survivors, and how enduring the effects of poor parenting are–including incest–I thought I’d speak on the topic from my vantage point.  After years of excellent therapy–and becoming a therapist myself–I can testify that all the fertilizer in the world can never make a tree that’s bent in youth absolutely straight again.  (I’m speaking metaphorically here).

All children seek validation for their value as an individual–that their humanity is respected, and that their thoughts and feelings matter.  Lacking this, they too often accept the valuation of their earliest caregivers, known as parents.  When this is followed by manipulation of the child’s body for a parent’s  own gratification, the child too often accepts his or her value as only a commodity in life, to placate others.  Strangely, only the child feels guilt, since her body  responds without understanding,  not the adult abusers.

Feelings of having basic worth and value–and likeability–are  shaped early in life.  All attempts in later life to feel essentially valuable in oneself  are doomed.  But  there are many possibilities to lessen the effects and to make the best of a harmful childhood including psychotherapy, support groups, readings, excelling at something, etc.  One of humanity’s psychological defenses is “Undoing,”  defined in the  DSM IV-TR  by the American  Psychiatric Association as “dealing with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by words or behavior designed to negate or make amends symbolically for unacceptable thoughts, feelings or actions.”

I won’t list all my other defense mechanisms, except my more functional one:  Humor–The individual deals with emotional conflict or external  stressors by emphasizing the amusing or ironic aspects of the conflict or stressor.