It is certainly an essential characteristic of human nature to use addiction as a tool. I'm wondering if the aptitude is universal and all it needs is the right target.
Certain forms of addiction are incapacitating, while others seem to be enabling instead.
You do manage to get 'the little grey cells' firing.
So many concepts, will put one to start.
Concept 3: Euthymia
With areté and eudaimonia we can get to our last idea of the Greek philosophers: euthymia. Seneca used this word to describe a feeling of calm confidence we have when we are living an authentic, meaningful life. We are in accordance with our deepest sense of who we are. Euthymia is the feeling you get when you follow your true path.
Since this 'called to me', euthymia, following your true path,
I put this forward.
Side point, or main point? Not the first time I've been 'shocked'
to learn the etymological path of a word?
Generally, I've seen it's 'down', into darkness.
I was surprised, maybe 'shocked', that ORIGINALLY, many years ago, that addiction might be considered 'a highest good' since
it embraced following, studying a worthy personage
(Or God, in my case). And it included the term 'assigned'
which in Christianity means 'called'.
Christianity is complex, and easy to get wrong, take the wrong way.
But for me, 2FollowHim is my highest path.
We all get impressed with this or that: for me, it was
the amazing, true adventures, if memory serves(long ago),
a lady who 'helped out' in a handicapped school, Mary McCracken(?) who was GIFTED. Her profound?, 'miraculous'?
events surely brought what SEEMED like happiness to me.
So simple. For example, she'd carefully watched this
non-verbal, barely moving little girl, I think noticing she
glanced (quickly, then away) at a CERTAIN magazine.
Mary put this magazine slightly up too high, (but not impossibly high), and went on with her teaching. Eventually, this girl
MADE the effort, GOT the magazine, and!! ..began to
SAY WORDS from it. It was breathtaking.
For me, then that 'high calling', is my magazine I intend to get and read.
We certainly can, through the original meaning, NOT the
dark, downward devolution,say I have been 'assigned'(addicted)
The Pursuit of Happiness is a natural right, achieving it not so much. Read another substack riff on the rat park study that claimed they eventually got bored, fat and addicted to electronic screens or mirrors or something.
Succumbing to peer pressure, as far as I can see, comes from insecurity, a weak sense of identity, which is what most American schools instill in their students. Those, who don't comply are, more often than not, put on drugs that irreversibly alter the brain...
In a small contributory way, the rat poison delivery system, ie ‘the needle’ is pitched as ‘sophisticated’, and works now as the successful historical marketing of cigarettes
🚬. An obvious point perhaps, but there is more than a touch of ‘the sophisticate’ in many ‘vaccinated’, hinting at identity persuasion, one that understands ‘the science’. Laughable totally, and successful. My 5 year old granddaughter in Victoria Au, just after commencing her schooling, was asked by her wee peer, ‘have you had the needle?’. Thanks to wised up parents, ‘no’ was the reply.
For me, I could never understand why the rich b-tards are NEVER happy! With all that money, clothing, cars, homes, plastic looks, food, alcohol/drugs one would think they have it all. More of us poor slobs are way more giving than anyone else I know! This same ideology applies to those who belong to a "church". Most hypocritical people in the world. I know - I was raised in a "Roman Catholic" family. Observing Mass on Sundays and Holy Days does not absolve one of "sins". They talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.
Actually, they seem to realize that they "own nothing." :)
Around here, we have a number of Bible thumpers who cannot even keep their words. Roman Catholics forced little children into muzzles. Synagogues did the same...
Who is with the people? "Health" workers preferred to kill patients over losing their jobs...
What gets me about Catholics is the massive cover-up on the child molestations and rape of nuns. My family (the two that attend services) claims ALL religions are guilty of rape, but the Catholics are much larger and spend parishioners $$$ to pay off victims while vacationing and purchasing mansions with the "boyfriends". Also, this BS of praying to "saints" doesn't fit in with what God has said about praying to Him alone and not anyone else. Absolutely mind numbing. I don't run with any herd, I pretty much to keep to myself with little family interaction. No, I am not on heroin. LOL
One point five percent of priests have been proven to perform child abuse, which is below the two percent among the general population. Lawsuits, however, real or unsubstantiated, have been bankrupting the Roman Catholic Church since 2001. At that point, I informed them how easy it would be to put kiddie port on heir computers, and by 2002, the lawsuits stopped.
People are humans, no matter where one goes. The question is, where one can belong these days...
Our parish priest was an alcoholic, petty gambler consorting with his secretary, but didn't like children at all. So even the altar boys weren't molested.
Yes they are humans, then let them get married. Jesus didn't tell them marriage was a sin. Kiddie porn should be banned across the Internet, including the Deep Web. Another addiction. One of the worst.
You see, the problem is that as soon as you empower "authorities" to step up against anyone, the same power is going to be used against you... And you won't need kiddie porn for that, only a to be a defraction.
Only a community can defend itself, if such a thing is still possible.
Eric Berne's book, Games People Play, lists three behaviorist principles for what humans need:
1. stimulation
2. structure
3. recognition
I personally can't stand behavorist psychology, because it treats humans as animals that need conditioning (when I volunteered for the Mental Ward at the VA, in the mid 1990s, patients were treated as such). The terrible truth is that it usually works...
Outstanding commentary Ray, as was the reference to Mozart's Requiem.
Thank you.
It is my honor to serve people like you.
I agree with this wholeheartedly “it’s not your brain; it’s your cage. Addiction is largely an adaptation to your environment”
It is certainly an essential characteristic of human nature to use addiction as a tool. I'm wondering if the aptitude is universal and all it needs is the right target.
Certain forms of addiction are incapacitating, while others seem to be enabling instead.
Uh, oh!! Fascinate means 'a spell', 'witchcraft', 'allure.
I WITHDRAW this interest.
You do manage to get 'the little grey cells' firing.
So many concepts, will put one to start.
Concept 3: Euthymia
With areté and eudaimonia we can get to our last idea of the Greek philosophers: euthymia. Seneca used this word to describe a feeling of calm confidence we have when we are living an authentic, meaningful life. We are in accordance with our deepest sense of who we are. Euthymia is the feeling you get when you follow your true path.
Since this 'called to me', euthymia, following your true path,
I put this forward.
Side point, or main point? Not the first time I've been 'shocked'
to learn the etymological path of a word?
Generally, I've seen it's 'down', into darkness.
I was surprised, maybe 'shocked', that ORIGINALLY, many years ago, that addiction might be considered 'a highest good' since
it embraced following, studying a worthy personage
(Or God, in my case). And it included the term 'assigned'
which in Christianity means 'called'.
Christianity is complex, and easy to get wrong, take the wrong way.
But for me, 2FollowHim is my highest path.
We all get impressed with this or that: for me, it was
the amazing, true adventures, if memory serves(long ago),
a lady who 'helped out' in a handicapped school, Mary McCracken(?) who was GIFTED. Her profound?, 'miraculous'?
events surely brought what SEEMED like happiness to me.
So simple. For example, she'd carefully watched this
non-verbal, barely moving little girl, I think noticing she
glanced (quickly, then away) at a CERTAIN magazine.
Mary put this magazine slightly up too high, (but not impossibly high), and went on with her teaching. Eventually, this girl
MADE the effort, GOT the magazine, and!! ..began to
SAY WORDS from it. It was breathtaking.
For me, then that 'high calling', is my magazine I intend to get and read.
We certainly can, through the original meaning, NOT the
dark, downward devolution,say I have been 'assigned'(addicted)
to this.
Ah, now, look what you did?
Now, I must study the etymology of 'fascinate'.
Thank you, 'fascinating', (I hope).
The Pursuit of Happiness is a natural right, achieving it not so much. Read another substack riff on the rat park study that claimed they eventually got bored, fat and addicted to electronic screens or mirrors or something.
It would be nice find a link.
I read so many, can't even track them all, but if I find it will share. It was funny, though. Or at least I laughed.
And one never knows how much of a "research" result is true; after all, "research" is mostly about grant money.
Never thought of it like that. But it does mirror the delusions of addiction. Easy to see that the masses are addicted to Peer Pressure...
Succumbing to peer pressure, as far as I can see, comes from insecurity, a weak sense of identity, which is what most American schools instill in their students. Those, who don't comply are, more often than not, put on drugs that irreversibly alter the brain...
Excellent, on 🎯, timely, thanks . Vaccine belief, clearly, has powerful ‘identity’ dimensions, now being used to full effect.
That's interesting. I remember that in August, 2020, I still fell for the mRNA crap,
but even that was enough not to accept any injections, especially because by then, I had realized that viruses are most likely exosomes.
Of course, mRNA is only a red herring:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/why-not-mrna
In a small contributory way, the rat poison delivery system, ie ‘the needle’ is pitched as ‘sophisticated’, and works now as the successful historical marketing of cigarettes
🚬. An obvious point perhaps, but there is more than a touch of ‘the sophisticate’ in many ‘vaccinated’, hinting at identity persuasion, one that understands ‘the science’. Laughable totally, and successful. My 5 year old granddaughter in Victoria Au, just after commencing her schooling, was asked by her wee peer, ‘have you had the needle?’. Thanks to wised up parents, ‘no’ was the reply.
For me, I could never understand why the rich b-tards are NEVER happy! With all that money, clothing, cars, homes, plastic looks, food, alcohol/drugs one would think they have it all. More of us poor slobs are way more giving than anyone else I know! This same ideology applies to those who belong to a "church". Most hypocritical people in the world. I know - I was raised in a "Roman Catholic" family. Observing Mass on Sundays and Holy Days does not absolve one of "sins". They talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.
Actually, they seem to realize that they "own nothing." :)
Around here, we have a number of Bible thumpers who cannot even keep their words. Roman Catholics forced little children into muzzles. Synagogues did the same...
Who is with the people? "Health" workers preferred to kill patients over losing their jobs...
What gets me about Catholics is the massive cover-up on the child molestations and rape of nuns. My family (the two that attend services) claims ALL religions are guilty of rape, but the Catholics are much larger and spend parishioners $$$ to pay off victims while vacationing and purchasing mansions with the "boyfriends". Also, this BS of praying to "saints" doesn't fit in with what God has said about praying to Him alone and not anyone else. Absolutely mind numbing. I don't run with any herd, I pretty much to keep to myself with little family interaction. No, I am not on heroin. LOL
One point five percent of priests have been proven to perform child abuse, which is below the two percent among the general population. Lawsuits, however, real or unsubstantiated, have been bankrupting the Roman Catholic Church since 2001. At that point, I informed them how easy it would be to put kiddie port on heir computers, and by 2002, the lawsuits stopped.
People are humans, no matter where one goes. The question is, where one can belong these days...
Our parish priest was an alcoholic, petty gambler consorting with his secretary, but didn't like children at all. So even the altar boys weren't molested.
Yes they are humans, then let them get married. Jesus didn't tell them marriage was a sin. Kiddie porn should be banned across the Internet, including the Deep Web. Another addiction. One of the worst.
You see, the problem is that as soon as you empower "authorities" to step up against anyone, the same power is going to be used against you... And you won't need kiddie porn for that, only a to be a defraction.
Only a community can defend itself, if such a thing is still possible.
Interesting
I always wondered why filthy rich celebrities were getting so screwed up on drugs rather than renting a race track and taking driving lessons.
Must be another factor compared to Rat Paradise.
The Mfs are in their own "Paradise," wouldn't you say? I wouldn't mind that, except they want you and me dead.
Right, like David Lee Roth said, "Money may not buy happiness, but it will let you choose your favorite kind of misery"
Eric Berne's book, Games People Play, lists three behaviorist principles for what humans need:
1. stimulation
2. structure
3. recognition
I personally can't stand behavorist psychology, because it treats humans as animals that need conditioning (when I volunteered for the Mental Ward at the VA, in the mid 1990s, patients were treated as such). The terrible truth is that it usually works...