I thought this was very interesting. I see a lot of right/Republican/conservative responses to the realities of today explained by these disorder descriptions. The descriptors may sound jokey, but if you read down the linked page you'll see it is based on real psychology.


Panglossian Disorder: “The neurotic tendency toward extreme optimism in the face of likely cultural and planetary collapse.”


Temporal Subtypes:
Scarlet O’Hara-ism- “I’ll just have to think about that tomorrow.” A strategy of denial that allows the person to temporally compartmentalize the feared event(s).

Futurism: “Sure, that will happen, but it will occur after all of us are long dead.” A belief that something that might happen in the distant future is no concern in the present. (This sounds just like Bush!)

Y2K features : “They said everything would collapse with 2000, and it didn’t.” A belief that any prior concern about societal problems that didn’t occur demonstrates the impossibility of any others happening in the future.


Angry Subtypes:
Rhett-Butlerist Features - “Peak Oil? Planetary Collapse? Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Aggressive denial of information not in keeping with one’s world view.

Kill the Messenger Redirection : “Why are you telling me this? What kind of sicko focuses on these kinds of facts? You need help!” The belief that those who bring bad news are doing it for malevolent reasons.


Narcissistic Subtypes:
Rigid Cheney-ism: “The American Way of Life is non-negotiable.” The belief that any undesirable change can be avoided by a sheer act of will.

Survivalistic features : “Hey, if the rest of the world is doomed, I don’t worry about it, because I’ve got mine.” A belief that personal preparation is adequate.


Religious Subtypes:
Religiousity : “God/The Planet/Mother Nature loves humans. He/She/It would never permit massive die-off.” Or “If that happens, I just put my faith in my Savior.”

Neoliberal Econo-manic Tendencies : “The market will sort it out.” A belief that market forces control all--- including geological realities.

Nascarian Features : “People love their automobiles. A solution will have to be found to keep us driving.”


More at http://www.energybulletin.net/37091.html

Great stuff Edselehr, it's a laugher and a thinker all at once. I know different folks who fit every one of the archetypes. Spooky.

Excellent!

I've been doing a fair amount of reading on compartmentalization. It's a dangerous tool, being used WAY too often.

So far, I've gotten here: (sorry for another mind bender, but IMHO important)

Each of us has a self. That self, initially, is one body, aware, pure, ready to absorb experience.

That pure self can reason and can know truth largely through modeling, comparison of said internal models, deduction and just inconsistencies in general. The scientific method is a general manifestation, externalized, of this innate part of ourselves. It's formal and permits review and a greater body of truth than would otherwise be possible by any of us alone.

When we lie, to ourselves or others, we force a schism in our internal self, thus making it more than one body, and diminished also. Reason then becomes COMPARTMENTALIZED such that ones ability to discern truth is impaired and no longer generally applicable.

A split self consumes more energy than would otherwise be required to exist, process and just be. This extra energy costs the being it's ability to be happy, reach potential, feel, love, etc...

Healing then is either acceptance of the lies, either internal or external, but somehow accepted as truth, or fact

,or

simple realization a schism has occurred.

The former requires one to revisit lies, reach the root of them, then build forward again with no lies. This seals the schism, making the self more whole and potent.

With this comes change and is difficult to bear.

The latter also brings change, but does not heal the schisms. Instead, ones effort to change perspective allows one to see ones fractured self for what it is, then build a greater whole over time, thus keeping the damage to a minimum.

Both consume considerable effort. Again, in the former case, one exerts a lot of focused effort on short-term change, then benefits over time from the healing that has happened.

The latter, takes less energy at any one time, but does require a more sustained level over the longer term.

Really a choice of will, circumstance, etc...

Ok, so that's the general KSKD theory of self-mind.

Now, applying it!

It is my opinion that dogma, combined with intense experiences is actually harmful! Ones brain literally is changed by repeated exercises of this type.

The younger one is of mind, the more easily this is accomplished, and the effects can take far longer to heal than would be the case for an older, thus stronger self.

Experience --good, true, experiences help to define the self and provide a body of "truth" (for lack of another word) that can serve to prevent deep schisms from happening.

Younger minds, have less of this, thus accept these kinds of things more easily.

I spent a good portion of my 20's an some of my 30's sorting through dogma presented to me in my teens! (bastards) Most of my healing was of the first kind. Take something all the way back, revisit it, then consider damn near everything it impacted until it's all sorted out. Was a bitch, but what else is there to do on a long commute!

Ed: You might find this bit interesting as well.

Some of us believe man is "bad" and in need of redemption for our "sins" and "evil" nature. If you apply the above, it's easy to conclude that being bad actually hurts!

Lies cost us, theft, violence, etc... all fragment the self. Experience or do too much of it, and one gets diminished, maybe suppressing a lot of things just to exist.

Our core nature, given we are not taught to enjoy, cultivate, or become convinced we can benefit from these things (all of which require a compartmentalization of reason to justify, BTW), is then good, because it is the condition where our selves can most fully manifest!

One interesting artifact of having done this exercise is my general life experience is one thread all the way back to earliest memories. I've done a bunch of crap, been told a bunch of crap. Today, I've nailed as much of it as I find possible.

Most adults I know, (myself included) wall off their early experience, finding it difficult to remember. IMHO, this is learned behavior --a schism that is far too common. This ties into the fear post I put up earlier.

We literally become somebody others want us to be, forgetting who we are, rather than taking who we are and building on that to become something greater and something we completely and totally own.

Y2K was very real, many computer systems would have died, just out of couriosity, one of the systems I maintain wasn't Y2K, and it was replaced rather than ugraded, replacing was cheaper. I let it run over Dec 31 1999, and just as advertised it chocked about a minute after midnight on Jan 1 2000.
The reason there wasn't world wide chaos, is because everyone recognized the problem and put time and money into the effort to keep it from being a nightmare.

Y2K was way overblown.

Yeah it was.

The majority of problems had very simple work arounds. I think the financial guys, running all that old COBOL code, had some serious issues, but most of the world would not have stopped.

Like New Years Eve, Y2K was overrated. Then again I'm a Mac guy and one of the things they knew was gonna happen was the year 2000. They might have gotten other things wrong but they knew 2000 was a coming.

Didn't have a glitch. Although some of the best TV and radio commercials came out during that time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6HyPJpzaHg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU6IKFNY7OM

One of my computers has been stuck in 1980 ever since Y2K.

Great stuff Chris! Here is one of my favorites from that time period:

Y2K Test

http://www.jibjab.com/view/122053

The Y2K Test and many other silly SportsCenter spots are here as well:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/thisissportscenter/archive

(Yes, that is Mark McGwire in a rage.)