Mother: I have strawberries or blueberries for dessert. Do you want strawberries?
Child: No.
Mother: So, you don't want any then?
Child: [child gets upset] B-but y-you didn't ask if I w-wanted blueberries.
When offered strawberries or blueberries for dessert, and her child says no to strawberries, how does a mother assume her child does not want any?
Can someone tell me what's wrong with a person's cognitive faculty when she acts like this?
One answer is, the child didn't state her preference for blueberries until after she got upset.
The child is upset that her mother did not logically conclude that she wanted blueberries.
This is not expectation of the child for her mother to read her mind. Rather, it's a case of her mother conveniently forgetting that she also offered her child blueberries. The either-or dilemma is not conducive to successful upbringing because it may lead to conflict in adulthood between parent and child.
It may also cause potential conflict between adults. Take the example of Jim and his friend John who debate the current US election:
Jim: If you are offered a choice between Clinton and Trump, would you vote for Trump?
John: No.
Jim: Then you wouldn't vote at all?
John: (patiently) I'm still voting. Which candidate is left?
Jim: (still stuck on the assumption of John not voting) ...
[At this point, an argument might ensue to pass the time before both friends make peace]
John: (finally) I'm voting for Clinton.
Taken to an absurd level, let's imagine a scenario in which a death row inmate is offered the choice between lethal injection and electrocution.
Warden: so Prisoner 124342, the judge has offered you the choice between electrocution and lethal injection. Would you prefer electrocution?
Prisoner 124342: no.
Warden: so that means you don't want to be executed?
Prisoner 124342: No, I don't want electrocution.
[There might be a moment for the warden to realize what the prisoner wants but only obtuse gentlemen conveniently forget that they offered a choice and don't make great wardens.]
Prisoner 14243: [regains composure] I want lethal injection.
When an authority figure offers the either-or dilemma to his subject, who refuses the first offer, and takes away both offers, is not "playing fair".
To excuse this behavior by saying life is sometimes unfair is to condone authoritarianism.
Showing posts with label authoritarianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authoritarianism. Show all posts
20131113
Political Correctness: Symptom of Authoritarianism or Fear of Freedom? (satire)
Political correctness may be a symptom of living in a subtly authoritarian State.
It begins in public schools.
In the end, few people realize they gave away their right to be totally free, mainly because all the kids who exercised their freedom openly were branded "bad" out of fear that they could be a "bad influence" on their socially compliant peers.
Since the exercise of freedom often conflicts with social order, the State is empowered by laws to check the freedom of those people who challenge the status quo.
In a subtly authoritarian State, compliance is still demanded to maintain public order. Those people who fight with the State over this are often maligned and sometimes given too much notoriety by the press. Consequently, some of them may become social outcasts.
While they feel they are entitled to their place in society, such people remain non-compliant with the rules of society, and may develop conduct disorders as a result of their anti-authoritarian behavior.
In a real democracy, there cannot be any distinction between people who do good and people who do evil just because the latter experience delayed character development due to their unwillingness to comply.
People with character defects may be narcissistic, and treat family and loved ones as extensions of their personality.
However, the only help which will deflate the ego of a narcissist is humility. For the character of people who believe the world should revolve around them is defective.
It is important for therapists, teachers and social workers to help the person with character defects to develop in character to face the challenge of a world where the importance of serving the greater good outweighs our potential for great evil.
IMO political correctness is a form of subtle authoritarianism that few of us recognize. It may misdirect people with character defects inclined to follow a path of narcissism but does not cause them to become social outcasts.
Indeed, it is mass media in the form of the press — along with other media such as the Internet and the film, radio and TV industries — that actually "manufactures" the stigma against social outcasts and brands any anti-authoritarian figure as outcast.
In doing so, mass media portrays the socially compliant people as serving the greater good and the social outcasts, as being "up to no good". This portrayal of the People places them in an Us versus Them scenario that is often simplistic and makes it easier to stigmatize the social outcast.
However, I refuse to maintain an Us versus Them mentality regarding compliant people who serve the greater good and people who are self-serving.
Although people have the potential for great evil, they also have the potential for great good.
When their acts are exceedingly self-serving and egocentric, their narcissism leads to them becoming social outcasts when they challenge authority and suffer the consequences without learning humility.
When their acts serve the greater good without fanfare, their service brings them acclaim because of their humility and compliance to social order.
Each person is unique in their qualities such as intelligence, physical health and attractiveness, yet these qualities are accidents of birth. Together the People represent a society that is a blend of distinctive ethnic cultures working together for the greater good.
While we may assume political correctness is always done for the greater good, sometimes our assumptions blind us to its misuse by the State.
This misuse of political correctness by the State is done to "divide and conquer" the People. By dividing society into the socially compliant and the social outcasts, the State does not serve the greater good of the People but only serves the lesser good of the elites.
Thus, the first three words of the US Constitution — "We the People" — refers all Americans, be they the rich and the poor, those of us with homes and the homeless, the mentally healthy and the mentally ill, the able-bodied and the disabled...
Yet "the State" also refers to the servants of the People, duly elected by the People to provide for the People the rights and freedoms that the Bill of Rights guarantees through laws which serve the greater good.
Political correctness not only occurs when the State censures the People, it also occurs when a group of people objects to a person who presents a position which different from theirs and refuses to listen to him lest it compromise their status quo.
In a real democracy, those servants of the People actually serve the greater good. In reality, a great many politicians appear to be self-serving but the few politicians who truly act as servants of the People deserve to represent the State.
This is why the Occupy movement arose, to provide direct democracy in action without a leader to mislead them. For direct democracy is why the Sudbury Valley School produced students who used their experience to innovate creative methods to succeed in college.
Yet mass media propaganda misled the public, predicting the Occupy movement was doomed to failure because it had no leadership. Very little time was given by the talking heads and even less column-inches was given by the press regarding direct democracy.
By omitting that fact mass media has done its version of political correctness by consistently omitting facts to serve the agenda of elites
Commentary from Down Under about the US health care system and American authoritarianism within the political system: http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2009/07/31/authoritarianism-its-bad-for-your-health/
Example of political correctness in the public school system: http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/school-orders-child-to-remove-god-from-poem.html
The Powers that be (phrase): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_powers_that_be_(phrase)
It begins in public schools.
In the end, few people realize they gave away their right to be totally free, mainly because all the kids who exercised their freedom openly were branded "bad" out of fear that they could be a "bad influence" on their socially compliant peers.
Since the exercise of freedom often conflicts with social order, the State is empowered by laws to check the freedom of those people who challenge the status quo.
In a subtly authoritarian State, compliance is still demanded to maintain public order. Those people who fight with the State over this are often maligned and sometimes given too much notoriety by the press. Consequently, some of them may become social outcasts.
While they feel they are entitled to their place in society, such people remain non-compliant with the rules of society, and may develop conduct disorders as a result of their anti-authoritarian behavior.
In a real democracy, there cannot be any distinction between people who do good and people who do evil just because the latter experience delayed character development due to their unwillingness to comply.
People with character defects may be narcissistic, and treat family and loved ones as extensions of their personality.
However, the only help which will deflate the ego of a narcissist is humility. For the character of people who believe the world should revolve around them is defective.
It is important for therapists, teachers and social workers to help the person with character defects to develop in character to face the challenge of a world where the importance of serving the greater good outweighs our potential for great evil.
IMO political correctness is a form of subtle authoritarianism that few of us recognize. It may misdirect people with character defects inclined to follow a path of narcissism but does not cause them to become social outcasts.
Indeed, it is mass media in the form of the press — along with other media such as the Internet and the film, radio and TV industries — that actually "manufactures" the stigma against social outcasts and brands any anti-authoritarian figure as outcast.
In doing so, mass media portrays the socially compliant people as serving the greater good and the social outcasts, as being "up to no good". This portrayal of the People places them in an Us versus Them scenario that is often simplistic and makes it easier to stigmatize the social outcast.
However, I refuse to maintain an Us versus Them mentality regarding compliant people who serve the greater good and people who are self-serving.
Although people have the potential for great evil, they also have the potential for great good.
When their acts are exceedingly self-serving and egocentric, their narcissism leads to them becoming social outcasts when they challenge authority and suffer the consequences without learning humility.
When their acts serve the greater good without fanfare, their service brings them acclaim because of their humility and compliance to social order.
Each person is unique in their qualities such as intelligence, physical health and attractiveness, yet these qualities are accidents of birth. Together the People represent a society that is a blend of distinctive ethnic cultures working together for the greater good.
While we may assume political correctness is always done for the greater good, sometimes our assumptions blind us to its misuse by the State.
This misuse of political correctness by the State is done to "divide and conquer" the People. By dividing society into the socially compliant and the social outcasts, the State does not serve the greater good of the People but only serves the lesser good of the elites.
Thus, the first three words of the US Constitution — "We the People" — refers all Americans, be they the rich and the poor, those of us with homes and the homeless, the mentally healthy and the mentally ill, the able-bodied and the disabled...
Yet "the State" also refers to the servants of the People, duly elected by the People to provide for the People the rights and freedoms that the Bill of Rights guarantees through laws which serve the greater good.
Political correctness not only occurs when the State censures the People, it also occurs when a group of people objects to a person who presents a position which different from theirs and refuses to listen to him lest it compromise their status quo.
In a real democracy, those servants of the People actually serve the greater good. In reality, a great many politicians appear to be self-serving but the few politicians who truly act as servants of the People deserve to represent the State.
This is why the Occupy movement arose, to provide direct democracy in action without a leader to mislead them. For direct democracy is why the Sudbury Valley School produced students who used their experience to innovate creative methods to succeed in college.
Yet mass media propaganda misled the public, predicting the Occupy movement was doomed to failure because it had no leadership. Very little time was given by the talking heads and even less column-inches was given by the press regarding direct democracy.
By omitting that fact mass media has done its version of political correctness by consistently omitting facts to serve the agenda of elites
Commentary from Down Under about the US health care system and American authoritarianism within the political system: http://dansdata.blogsome.com/2009/07/31/authoritarianism-its-bad-for-your-health/
Example of political correctness in the public school system: http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/school-orders-child-to-remove-god-from-poem.html
The Powers that be (phrase): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_powers_that_be_(phrase)
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