Gary Farber ponders The Dark Side and says that's what we've been suffering from as a nation.
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Learned Helpless
16 Jul 2008 11:12 am
Comments (6)
Thanks most kindly for the link, Matt. Most appreciated!
Very small point: I wrote about "learned helplessness," Martin Seligman's psychological theory, as used by the CIA for torture practices.
"Learned helpless," your subject header, doesn't quite make sense.
But much appreciated, regardless! Hope you enjoy your conference.
It would seem that one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of our republic is about to unfold, in which either we come to terms with what we have done, and have allowed to be done in our name--and done to us as a republic of laws as well as to others--or we become a historically wounded and delusional nation like Japan, or like Russia, where Josef Stalin continues to make a comeback. Denial and helplessness and indulging in endless rationalization is so much easier--it really is how abused people keep on keeping on in the absence of utterly changing their lives.
It will take heroic efforts to break these resistances down. Fortunately, there are already heroes, in the government, in the military services, and throughout the legal system, and yes, even among the ink-stained scribblers of our benighted nation, who can make the crucial difference.
Gee, when the writers that Matt links to are taking the time to call him out on his utter sloppiness, you would think that would be a wake-up call...
Matt doesn't give a shit. Sloppiness is a virtue for him.
And now the "e1.addthis.com" goddamn ad server has crashed my Firefox 3.0 four times in ten minutes on this stupid site...
Umm, this is a gross misunderstanding of what learned helplessness is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
Comments closed July 30, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
The most dangerous time for a people is when evil becomes routine.
Posted by James F. Elliott | July 16, 2008 11:37 AM