Author Topic: Madness Theory  (Read 9948 times)

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Silenus

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #15 on: August 27, 2019, 07:22:56 pm »
Is "Big Mom" == "Mother Culture"?  (Daniel Quinn)

As long as you extend your hand to hers, she will surely lead you down the right path, no questions asked.  ::)

An aside: I think I should read Ishmael some day, given my environmental and overpopulation concerns. Not to mention, that is a really provocative idea as to how the oral story of the semites came to be.

Hasn't it really all just been about food and water, even as Mother Culture tries to force our hand along the road of myth? Aren't these stories just niceties we tell ourselves as we are gathering/hoarding/locking away resources?
« Last Edit: August 27, 2019, 07:31:33 pm by Silenus »

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #16 on: August 28, 2019, 11:45:09 am »
Yes, Silenus, Ishmeal is a provocative read.  I enjoyed The Story of B even more - and Beyond Civilization, while not a story, did enchant me during a year in a welfare motel between Freehold and Asbury Park, Not the Dirtiest Jersey.  I mean, back then, there were still some woods to walk around in (2003).

I went through a SpeciesTraitor stage, and, even just this morning, I seemed to be involved in some kind of telepathic communications with a crazy squirrel who propped him-or-herself down a few feet from my outdoor rocking chair to show off its "eating skills."   I felt somewhat inadequate and demasculated seeing as I only have this one chomper on the front-top-left side of my mouth.  I wouldn't be able to process such a nut into my guts without a sharp utensil.  Then my mind wandered to the collapse of civilization (cell towers down and no fuel in), and thought how I would be forced to sharpen a stick, or better still, throw a rock from a short distance on the down low just to fill my gut with a squirrle meat loaf, or squirrle stew/soup.  Would some be feeding off the seaweed and seagulls and fish?  Most definitely.   I imagine the food industry would be taken over by competeing gangs of pirates ...  :o

Since entering what I would call a Cosmic Pessimism phase, or Depressive Realism phase, I have been seriously leaning in the direction of suspecting that even life beyond civilization would still be absurd, horrific, and basically and fundamentally "disturbing and unpleasant."

One only need to reflect upon the possibility of a poisonous spider biting your nut sack while shiiting in the woods to know the horrendous potential for skull-crushing pain we are all vulnerable to experience at any given moment.   Awareness of our true predicament is anxiety-inducing, so, you see ... well, regardless, a shift in the direction Quinn is talking about would help the likes of you and me, those of us more than willing to "take what we need and leave the rest."   Maybe our communities could be redesigned; but I think all this would have to take place after some kind of major collapse involving massive die-off.

The brute facts of our nightmare world, which Raul brings attention to every time he says, "Drive safely," are a testament to the fact that this Way of Life is unsustainable.   

Bjourne Stroustrup says the world is getting better, pointing out that employees of Microsoft are working hand in hand with employees with Red Hat or CentOS ... Microsoft and Ubuntu working together with a "Microsoft Loves Linux" campaign, a total shift in attitude, where Microsoft is investing energy into enhancing the quality of experience for those working from the command line, interfacing between the various systems, and building cross-platform software.   This is all really great stuff, I agree.

But this does not imply that "the world is getting better" in general.

The command line will be preserved as the masses are breast-fed on mobile -gui-driven interfaces, voice-to-text communications, etc.

Without access to electricity and a plcae to store dry tobacco (not to mention computers and books), I would go from feeling like a "farily intelligent homo-sapien" to a "retarded chimpanzee" who will die of thirst while wandering around aimlessly in search of coffee fix and a cigarette.   

It is humilating to see ourselves as we are, but, I think, a healthy mental exercise.

I hate when my own biological mother says, "we sure do like to eat."

It just sounds so stupid.  I sometimes respond irritably with, "And just who or what doesn't like/need to eat?"

 ::)

food and water
tobacco and coffee
prunes
eggs
tomatoes, bacon ... WATER!
BREAD
garlic, salt, etc .... Wow, yes, all about the food.

In Asbury Park, on First Ave, there is a block where there is a church on every corner, more churches than liquor stores, and these churches look as though they were at one time the temples of the Gods, the wealthy aristocrats living in their own Walt Disney Land of the Jersey Shore by the Theatre.  That was before the riots and "race wars" of the 1960's and 1970's.

Well, now, these days, there are very few "services," but mostly "Third World" style attempts to hand out food and clothing to the People - the disparity between the Haves and Have Nots is glaring, even though, all the while, just a couple blocks away, the "Hipster" lifestyle is presented for the "young urban professionals" ... the music scene and local color.

I think it's Hell, but, well, I was among the losers, the growing army of "mental health" consumers subjected to daily psychological abuse in the guise of court-mandated "psychiatric treatment".

Fuuckin' Hell.

« Last Edit: August 28, 2019, 12:38:51 pm by Gorticide »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

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Silenus

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #17 on: August 28, 2019, 07:04:41 pm »
You're absolutely right in that it is a healthy mental exercise. I think we've noth mentioned fantasizing about living hunter-gatherer lifestyles but have come to the conclusion that we'd be no better off. With less necessities in life, but with greater uncertainty as to the resources. And could you imagine fending off any one of the 7.5 billion apes just as distraught and hungry as you??? Yikes...

A reshaping of civilization after the massive die-off (end result of (farmed) lives essentially produced by techno-chemical agriculture)? Well, let's just start with less ffucking pavement. :)

Have you or anyone else on the forum ever had the thought of the fact that one is simply alive is a detriment to Gaia? The feeding, the dissipation of energy? Nature is such a cannibal!

I try to eat very little now, enough for sustenance. I'm a twig now at around 140 pounds and 6'3"; if I turn to the side I may just disappear from perception altogether. :)

May I ask what tobacco you purchase? I've recently bought a 6 oz. bag of "Largo" brand, as it's the only bagged tobacco sold by the convenience store. Cheap and tastes fine.

 

"And the strict master Death bids them dance."

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What I enjoyed most about The Story of B is the assertion that B is the Antichrist, and that this Antichrist will NOT live the "lifestyle" of an evil-clown emperor, but a lifestyle more reminiscent of a certain Jesus of Nazareth or, more radically and fundamentally like some psychadelic-mushroom-eating John the Baptist.

Very, very interesting.   

From the above link:

Quote
The Antichrist:  a central figure in our culture since ancient times.  Historically, since Christ came to lead all humanity to God, Antichrist will come to lead all humanity to Satan.  And historically, the Antichrist will not fail, any more than Christ failed.  The Antichrist will be loved and followed as fervently as Christ - but only for a time, of course.  Ultimately, after a cataclysmic battle, the forces of God will triumph, bringing history to its conclusion.  Historically, if Jesus came for the salvation of our souls, then the Antichrist would come for the damnation of souls.  Today, it’s changed to the Antichrist will come to lead people away from personal salvation and towards saving the world.

 

When Jesus departed, he left no one behind who was the message.  In fact, it was St. Paul - a man who had never even seen Jesus - who ended up saying “This is what’s what” with more authority than anyone else could muster.  More than John or Peter or James, Paul was the message.  It still took 300 years of Christian thought to reconstitute Christ’s message.  When St. Paul brought Christianity into the Roman world, very fundamental ideas were already in place there.  The idea of gods as “higher beings”, the idea of personal salvation, of an afterlife.  The idea that the gods are involved in our lives and that their help can be invoked.  Notions of sacrifice and redemption.  People had been believing this in our culture already.  That’s why they jumped on the Christianity message.  It was easy. 
------------------------------------------- <snip>-----------------------------------------------------------
The origin and cause of human suffering - and the means of ending it - became the first great intellectual and spiritual preoccupation of our culture, beginning about 4,000 years ago.  The next three mellennia would see the development of all those religions that were destined to become the major religions of our culture - Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - and each had its own theory about the cause of human suffering and its own approach to ending it, transcending it, or putting up with it.  But all were united in a single, central vision:  salvation is the highest goal of human life.

 

All our salvationist religions have feared the appearance of one who would lead the righteous from the paths of salvation.  The Antichrist isn’t just the antithesis of Jesus, he’s equally the antithesis of Buddha, of Elijah, of Moses, of Mohammed, of Nanak, of Joseph Smith - of all saviors and purveyors of salvation in the world.  He is in fact the Antisavior.

 

Who is B?  After reading The Story of B, you’ll understand why salvationists say “B is the Antichrist”.  And when they do, we respond “yes, B is the Antichrist.  B means to steal the hearts of the people away from you so that the world may live.  We are only one species among billions.  The gods don’t love us more that they love spiders or bears or whales.  The age of the Great Forgetting has ended, and all its lies and delusions have been dispelled.  We no longer imagine that man was ill-made and needs to be saved.  We can no longer live as though nothing matters but us.  We can no longer believe that suffering is the lot the gods had in mind for us.  We no longer believe that death is sweet release to our true destiny.”

 

We are straying from the path of salvation not for the love of vice and wickedness, but for the love of the world, as previously our culture never once dreamed in a thousand years of dreaming.  The evangelist John wrote, “You must not love the world or the things of the world, for those who love the world are strangers to the love of the Father...Children, the final hour is at hand!  He’s not one but many, and when the many of him are among us, you’ll know the final hour has come”.  John knew what he was talking about.  He was right to warn his followers against those who love the world.  We are the ones he was talking about, and this is the final hour - but it’s their final hour, not ours.  They’ve had their day, and this is indeed the final hour of that day.  Now our day begins.

 

Vision is the river, and we who have been changed are the flood.  The world will not be saved by old minds with new programs.  If the world is saved, it will be saved by new minds - with no programs.

If our culture is undone, it will be undone by a whole new generation of authors and teachers.  Those who cannot be put back to what they were.  Are you one of them?  If so, you are B.

If you discovered that we could sustain our animal bodies on seaweed and shell-fish, and that we might be able to design floating tent-shelters that could be set on blocks with solar power, I would still wonder where we would poop, and all that.   But the ape chewing on the leaf while communicating telepathically (in Ishmael) was also telling the story B is telling.  That's my theory, anyway - and I don't know much.  I aint no expert on Quinn.  It blows my might that it is being incorporated into some schools.

It's that bad.  I mean, the urgency.  Suicide rates among the youth is climbing.  There is not much actual stimulation, and so many human animals can't muster up enough will to live.   Some wish to take some people with them.   Don't they see they allowing your enemies to live is a far worse punishment?   :)
« Last Edit: August 31, 2019, 10:03:00 pm by Gorticide »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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Holden

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #19 on: August 31, 2019, 01:46:41 pm »
I was thinking about the two penetrations. First, that of the pen-is into the vag-ina.This represents maximal Will to Life. And that of the nail into the palm.This represents the maximal Denial of Life.One must triumph over the other. They just cannot live side by side. I am sleepy again.
La Tristesse Durera Toujours                                  (The Sadness Lasts Forever ...)
-van Gogh.

Nation of One

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #20 on: August 31, 2019, 03:19:46 pm »
As for Christs and Antichrists, in the bottom of my heart I find it all kind of "silly."

I do respect that the idea of the Antichrist is far older than story of the Christian Messiah.  That is, the Antichrist would also be the antithesis of the Buddha as well.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid I may not love the world very much at all ... the insects, snakes, slugs, etc ...

This is why I placed a reference to Daniel Quinn's ideas in our Madness Theory thread:   My feelings have changed since reading his works in 2003.    That is, I am not sure where I stand.   While it is clear to me that the Industrial World Mother Culture is a nightmare scenario, I am not so sure the alternatives are all that great either.

I am leaning in the direction Silenus mentioned, where I can't really pin myself down on any opinions or tastes.  Just last night I found myself considering the possibility that I may, deep down inside, not really like computers and computing all that much.  Maybe I don't like mathematics too much either.    I just happen to tinker ...

More often than not, I'm just disgusted.   At least I am more interested in understanding things than in being "productive."   Our world is obsessed with productivity and efficiency.    There is not much to motivate people to seek understanding.   People want to get the money flowing into their bank accounts.   Who has time to understand anything?   

The power-brokers don't need to understand computer science, mathematics, nor how their automobile functions in order to purchase Mercedes or own a company that manufactures computers.

Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #21 on: August 31, 2019, 04:44:41 pm »
Quote from: Silenus
I try to eat very little now, enough for sustenance. I'm a twig now at around 140 pounds and 6'3"; if I turn to the side I may just disappear from perception altogether. :)

May I ask what tobacco you purchase? I've recently bought a 6 oz. bag of "Largo" brand, as it's the only bagged tobacco sold by the convenience store. Cheap and tastes fine.

I'm sorry I missed this post.  I've been somewhat rattled, irritated, and braindead from troubleshooting wireless network in new installation of Funtoo (1.3) Linux with OpenRC init system (NON-SYSTEMD).   The installation took a week as each piece of software, right down to the kernel is compiled on the machine itself.    I really wonder why I even bother sometimes.    I guess I'm just one curious string-bean of an ape-man.

I certainly do consider our species a sort of disease to the earth, and yet we came out of the primal soup like everything else.   It's hard to feel too responsible.

As for the tobacco, the brand of pipe tobacco I purchase is only good when fluffy.   "The GOOD STUFF Pipe Tobacco" RED.  One pound bag for $21 from a kind store-owner from India.   It sells elswhere (just down the road) for $30, and I used to get it in the Asbury Park area (Belmar, to be exact) for $35 per pound.    I get 2 pounds per month.   When it gets stale, I don't mind spilling some on the ground.   :-[

It's good when fresh (fluffy).  It helps to mix all the tobacco together and then store in sealed containers.

I don't skimp so much on the rolling papers, as I prefer using RAW classics.  So I order a few 500-packs of those every few months or so.   I used to get 2 pounds of tobacco every other month, but lately I have been smoking more (or smoking less of whole rollies) and having to get 2 bags per month.   Maybe I ought to discover a way to conserve or recycle half smoked rollies; or one day invest in a pipe.   I daydream of some Native American style longish pipe ... Maybe I'm a "stupid white man" who was never taught how to smoke properly, never exposed to any Sacred Pipes, the likes known by Black Elk's ilk.

When the tobacco gets a little stale, no matter how I roll, it's just not that enjoyable.   When fresh, and I roll calmly, not too tight, not too loose, then I smoke as happily as a jailbird who just got a bag of Bugler from the commissary.    I would prefer Buglar or, better still, Natural American Spirit, but those are close to $50 per can (far less than a pound).  It's not even close to funny.    I buy one pack of Natural American Spirit [black pack = Perique] per month, the same day I pick up my 2 pounds of "GOOD STUFF Pipe Tobacco".

I don't mind smoking cheap tobacco.  The money people spend on class A cigarettes is scary.  After paying a few of my mom's bills and stocking up on some groceries, I get coffee beans, tobacco, pencils or notebooks, etc .... I wish I could grow some herbs.   There has to be a way to medicate ourselves without having to live in a tent.

I don't blame the guy who lives in a yurt in the mountains smoking his homegrown, letting his teeth fall out.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one deciding that I can get by without breakfast.   I've grown to like prunes from the time I wake up until after noon when I break "fast".    I'm down to about 122 pounds when I've been closer to 135 most of my life (5'7").    I don't care anymore.  I've never been into lifting weights or doing push-ups.    It is good not to care about such things.  If I make homemade pizza and eat it daily for one week, I can get close to 130 pounds, but, goddamn, I can't eat like that all the time as my mom has to eat to, and she can't eat the pizza ... Plus, there's no way I'm putting the oven up beyond 400 F in the summer.   Steel Cut Oats of any variety are a Life Saver.  They revive the Will to Live, especially when the colder weather returns.

I agree with you and Holden that we probably do not have to eat as much as we think, especially if we are not doing a great deal of labor.

I'll keep this post short as I am feeling distracted by technical annoyances.    I'm tracking down a technical problem, and feeling "obsessed."    Nothing is fun anymore.   I'm not having "fun" with funtoo, but it my choice to explore this.  I won't go into details as it is quite boring stuff.   

I think of Marvin the depressed robot from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Universe, whatever it is.
____________________________________
UPDATE:  It turns out, that while the official Funtoo documentation strongly suggests using NetworkManager, and while this has worked smoothly for Artix [Arch Linux - OpenRC initialization system] and Slackware 14.2 current [Linux - using BSD style files rc init system] and even Funtoo 1.2, for this present Funtoo 1.3 (with experimental concepts of "kits" with "flavors" and "mix-ins"), I used a combination of command line tools: wpa_supplicant, iw, ip, and good ole' ping.

The thing is, Funtoo has made it possible for me to install 2 desktop managers, both Gnome and KDE Plasma ... so it was suggested to let them use their GUI-applets via NetworkManager.  There's a wpa_gui applet that runs in Plasma, where I just choose wlan0 and the router (connection to access point): Schopenhauer.    That's the name of the router access point which is reached by the wireless network interface card on the actual machine.  They call it a freakin' SSID.  Am I man'splainin'?  It is most likely all quite boring to most people, but, well, working around it and finding I can do it in a slightly more direct way removing NetworkManager from the "default run-level", and adding wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd).   It's kind of fun too, I suppose for, at least a second or two.

Thank goodness, after several days and nights searching frantically through important systems directories for configuration files I may have tweaked or even created, I came across a very clear and well-explained method, which is quite a rare find.   The internet access is like a connection to a Great Oracle, but finding the guidance you seek requires very generic questions not too specific.  I was searching for a specific Funtoo solution, but found a far more generic solution (from way back in 2013) with the query, "How to connect to a WPA/WPA2 WiFi network using Linux command line?" (not exactly ... but close enough for government work)   ;)

- Stay Dry, but not too dry.

Yet another UPDATE:   While the above method worked, for a more permanent solution, I do not use wpa_passphrase to generate the file /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf but create it manually where I replace my "secret key" with "******":

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wheel
update_config=1
country=us

network={
   ssid="Schopenhauer"
   scan_ssid=1
   psk="*******"
   proto=RSN
   key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

__________________________________________
I just have to be sure my "user" - mwh - is in group "wheel"

usermod -aG wheel mwh
Be sure that you did as root:
rc-update add wpa_supplicant default
rc-update add dhcpcd default
rc-update delete NetworkManager
_________________________________________________
Of course, neither network-manager-applets in Gnome nor in Plasma (KDE) will show up in task bar, but as root you can ping external 8.8.8.8, and as regular user you can connect to the internet, using web-browsers, wget, etc. upon boot/login.   
« Last Edit: September 01, 2019, 07:25:09 pm by Gorticide »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #22 on: September 04, 2019, 08:41:11 am »
Quote from: Gorticide
I don't skimp so much on the rolling papers, as I prefer using RAW classics.  So I order a few 500-packs of those every few months or so.

Actually, I've switched to 300-packs of RAW organic.  The 300-per-pack boxes make for handy dispenseries when I have a few 500-pack boxes.  You can spontaneously rig up a ghetto-set of pre-rolled rollies which fit perfectly snug in the smushed 300-pack box.   It fits about 5 or 6 depending on the girth of your roll.

Such are the vulgar details of the delicate yet wise caffeine addicted smoking ape.
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #23 on: December 03, 2019, 05:53:39 pm »
If I should croak, I have to give full credit for the poem, Madness Theory, to the work of Shoshana Felman, Writing & Madness

also, a recap [understatement]: 

One only need to reflect upon the possibility of a poisonous spider biting your nut sack while shiiting in the woods to know the horrendous potential for skull-crushing pain we are all vulnerable to experience at any given moment.   Awareness of our true predicament is anxiety-inducing
« Last Edit: December 03, 2019, 06:37:50 pm by Kaspar Heinrich »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #24 on: March 22, 2020, 10:23:45 am »
Should any slaves out there find themselves involuntary isolated, fed, and healthy, you might find this paper written by an English/Literature student (PhD thesis) relevant to Madness Theory.  This has an "economic twist" ---- quite timely ...

 Financial obligations cannot bind the madman any more than social convention. Worse yet, as the play continues it demonstrates that madness can have a ripple effect throughout the entire socioeconomic community.

from:  Madmen and Mad Money: Psychological Disability and Economics in Medieval and Early Modern Literature

(by Tara Juliette Corinna Leverton)

Here's a woman who might be an interesting conversationalist, huh?   :)

Quote from: Tara Juliette Corinna Leverton
Despite the progress made in expanding our understanding of the role of madness in culture, and culture in madness, there are still some gaps in the scholarship. Literary critics have not yet offered an in-depth examination of the way the specific economic concerns of the medieval and early modern period affect how mad people are represented in literature and art. Historical accounts of what Thomas Szasz refers to as the ‘manufacture of madness’ in the West have not focused on the relationship between mad characters and the medieval and early modern economy, despite the importance of this period to the development of contemporary capitalism.

From Chapter 2:

Quote from: Tara Juliette Corinna Leverton
There is a consistent connection between madness and economic instability in medieval and early modern literature. However, the nature and the intensity of the specific economic anxieties mad characters evoke are less consistent. Medieval depictions of mad people display subtextual concerns over price volatility and food availability – both contemporaneously pressing economic issues. Early modern literature uses mad people to explore early modern economic concerns such as rising poverty, new systems of charity and their effectiveness, and the social alienation that comes from being unable to participate in the evermore important urban marketplace.

Quote from: Tara Juliette Corinna Leverton
Beth Allison Barr outlines the expansive nature of medieval ‘madness’ and describes the lack of consensus among scholars today as to how mad people are treated in medieval society and culture: Madness is an inclusive term used to describe a variety of conditions in medieval Europe, from mental disorders (such as melancholy and mania, often referred as ‘woodness’) to hysteria, demonic possession, extreme religious zeal (manifested in visions and erratic behavior) and even conditions of the heart and soul – such as lovesickness, severe depression and despair caused by excessive grief...as well as insanity triggered by anger and fear.

Spoken:  We're Lost

LOST:

« Last Edit: March 23, 2020, 09:11:59 am by mike »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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Silenus

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The Philosophy of Madness with Wouter Kusters
« Reply #25 on: July 22, 2020, 12:29:20 pm »


"Wouter Kusters is a Dutch philosopher and linguist, he is best known for his books in which he describes his own experiences with psychoses. He is the author of *Pure Madness, A Quest for the Psychotic Experience*. In this episode we discuss his latest book *The Philosophy of Madness: The Experience of Psychotic Thinking*, alongside discussions on mysticism, transcendental philosophy and the line between reality and insanity."

"And the strict master Death bids them dance."

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #26 on: July 22, 2020, 02:27:26 pm »
(in my Dr. Spock voice):  Fascinating, Captain.

I am genuinely interested in this!    Time does not fit in with reality.

At about 25 minutes,  it gets very interesting ... removing the veil of Maya!

Transcendental authoritarian oppression!

Are psychiatrists constraining truth?   Psychosis as Truth?

I rather enjoy lurking here ...  ;)

Around 36 minutes into the podcast, the interviewer asks if the entire medical profession is constraining truth because it does not fit into their idea of normalcy.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2020, 12:19:09 am by mic check »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

Silenus

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #27 on: July 22, 2020, 04:52:56 pm »
I was honestly shocked when the idea of psychology/psychiatry being a mass conspiracy (simply by controlling narrative, controlling the language, and hence establishing itself and justifying itself through itself) was tossed around.

I'm glad you enjoyed. Not much else to say at the moment; a lot to process and I will have to have another listen or two.

Hope you & yours are rested.


"And the strict master Death bids them dance."

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #28 on: July 23, 2020, 01:38:24 am »
Yes, as a matter of fact, I was able to take a very long POWER NAP this afternoon which lasted well into the evening.  I woke at 9PM wondering why it was still dark at 9AM.   :P   I picked up copies of x-rays from Emergency Care today (yesterday, actually), and in the afternoon I will be transporting "The Mother" to a "professional doctor" to see what the next step in the healing process will be.   All in all, the poor old girl is holding tough ... even becoming wiser and more sympathetic to the sacrifices I make on her behalf.   So, there is a growing sense of peace, kindness, and good old fashioned tenderness, which is not easy to pull off in the hate-filled atmosphere that plagues this world of covert psychological operations involving god-knows-who, where one never really knows who is who or what is what.   :-\

I am so rested that I am enjoying strong black coffee throughout this Light Night of the Soul.   No tobacco but for a little pipe tobacco, but I feel an inner strength.   Thanks for breathing new life into the Madness Theory thread.

I will hit send and let the "server not found" message appear.   I sent Holden an email about my suspicions of being fucked with by the "Spies in the Sky" ...
« Last Edit: July 23, 2020, 01:51:37 am by mic check »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

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Re: Madness Theory
« Reply #29 on: September 13, 2020, 08:29:53 am »
From Trees With Knots Do Not Make Good Lumber:

Quote from: David Cooper:
Those admitted into psychiatric hospitals are admitted not so much because they are sick, as because they are protesting in a more or less adequate way against the social order.

    The so-called “mentally ill” are recruited in our contemporary society.  The massive manpower mobilization in the Mental Health Movement is best understood as an attempt to increase the number of mental patients “found” in society.  Those who do not submit to wage-slavery will be forced to accept a psychiatric diagnosis if they want to receive social services.


Quote from: Thomas Szasz
Like mine owners hiring more and more laborers to tear more copper out of the bowels of the earth, the state and federal governments, their subdivisions, and private and philanthropic organizations are hiring more and more psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers to tear more madmen out of the bowels of society.

Quote from: Silenus
I was honestly shocked when the idea of psychology/psychiatry being a mass conspiracy (simply by controlling narrative, controlling the language, and hence establishing itself and justifying itself through itself) was tossed around.

Do you find it creepy if not fascinating to find solace in coming around full circle over and over again?  (Psychoanalysis may be an instrument of control that doctors and professionals use to make people conform to the repressive rules of modern society.)

It's as though one becomes the receiver of one's own transmissions.

Quote from: This Creaturely Presence Itself
The goal of sexual repression is that of producing individuals who are adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all the misery and degradation.

The masses are enslaved.  The structures of civilization that nurture us with the food we need from the grocery stores simultaneously threaten us by keeping such items under lock and key to be exchanged for money.

We live in an age of anxiety in an insane world where we witness the vulgar, wealth-warped values of the mall-rats.  Have we been trained to repress our desire to see the malls and their rats (consumers) destroyed because we have been brainwashed into identifying ourselves as consumers, even if we suck a very minimal amount of milk from Mother Culture’s teat?  Do we repress our hatred of the gorts because we have been guilted (or shamed) into believing we are also gorts?

Are we so easily bought and sold?  Those who do not buy into the consumerist materialism may be shunned, mocked, and eventually totally marginalized by way of criminal prosecution or psychiatric diagnosis.  Freud’s enthusiastic endorsement and use of psychiatric vocabulary for denigrating people place him in the mainstream of psychiatric thought:  invalidating human beings by psychiatric methods.

Whereas man’s inhumanity to man was once legitimized by appeals to God, now it is legitimized by appeals to Health.  The psychoanalytic description of hypomania and hysteria is but a semantic revision of a demonological one.

“The states of possession correspond to our neuroses … In our eyes, the demons are the bad and reprehensible wishes, derivatives of instinctual impulses that have been repudiated and repressed.”
~ Freud

I am seeking a broader cultural-historical-economic perspective of the psychiatric industry.  What is called “mental illness” (or “psychopathology”) emerges as the name of the PRODUCT of a particular kind of relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. (Szasz 1970)

There can be no doubt that the business-as-usual work ethic of most jobs and careers have detrimental effects on our mental health.  The only way to minimize the damaging consequences of living by the wealth-warped values of the mainstream corporate mind-fuck is to rebel.  The art of rebelling in a consumerist culture is to consume as little as possible, from fashionable clothes to automobiles to alcohol to psychiatric medication to organized religion.

From early childhood on, we are bombarded with meta-narratives which try to explain just about everything that happens in the world.  Being incredulous toward meta-narratives means you doubt them, you disbelieve them.

What are the meta-narratives of our age?  Marxism is a meta-narrative that attempts to explain and describe reality in terms of economics and class struggle.  Psychoanalysis is a meta-narrative which tries to explain and describe reality in terms of internal psychological conflicts.  Rational Science in general is a meta-narrative which believes all phenomena can be understood objectively.

All meta-narratives are rational.  They are reductive in that they try to explain everything.   Are we to resent the masses for being so manipulable?

In Fydor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, Prince Myshkin is considered an “idiot” only because he does not hold any grudges.  Made ridiculous, insulted, jeered at, even threatened with death by Rogozhin, “the prince” forgives.   As if he had an inkling of the suffering that underlies aggressions, he ignores them, withdraws, and even gives solace to those who have abused him.

I want to be done, once and for all, with any perspective (like Marxism, Psychoanalysis, or Rational Science) claiming that history is moving in some preordained direction, or that all events can be understood as part of some causal chain of events.  Psychoanalysis may be an instrument of control that doctors and professionals use to make people conform to the repressive rules of modern society.

My insights put me at odds with the masses who are driven by semi-conscious fears and mass hypnosis (television, standard education, church).

Could you imagine the contributors on this old school message board landing in the same wing in a psychiatric hospital?

« Last Edit: September 13, 2020, 10:59:00 am by Sticks and Stones »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~