Anger was a great motivating force in my life for a long time. It was all I had. I bitched for years to my family and was almost completly ignored. Violence would be the best protection for the inner child, but unfortunatly i'm an ectomorph. Strong but not coordinated. Power can also protect the inner child, which I don't have. I do not wish confrontation or violence on anyone. I am actually very tired but I think in reconstructing myself I will create a protective mental bubble around that child so it won't be affected. That is, I will know myself well enough that what is said won't matter. I still have to learn how to love that inner child too. I do not wish to delude myself to reality in any way to accomplish this.
Are you your own worst enemy? Self-sabotage
by zagor 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Narkissos
I also dispute the idea that every success requires a corresponding failure. In some areas, like sports, that may be true. But in many areas, like education, there is plenty of success to go around.
Perhaps one must resist the temptation to oversimplify the issue either way.
There are, in principle, non-concurrential fields like "pure" science or art. But as soon as economics step in (and it always happens) concurrence and at least difference in success (if not failure) will matter. True, economics don't work as a closed system either. Wealth can be created. But neither universally nor infinitely.
The current environmental and geopolitical problems we are facing can at least be read as consequences of the Western doctrines of economical growth and technical progress, combined with the ideal of democracy (especially in its "American dream" form), which are collective versions of "positive thinking". Modern western "faith" assumes that they will generate the solutions along with the problems. There is probably some truth to that, but it may also be that some of the solutions (which do not rule out disasters btw) will come from what "positive thinking" despises. After all, many political and economical "losers" became cultural "winners" in history (think of Hellenistic philosophy and Judaism in the Roman empire).
The ugly side of "lowly" or "negative thinking" is what Nietzsche (speaking of Christianity) described as a philosophy of resentment: hate for success, health and beauty, which is destructive if it is allowed to rule society (which is not its place). But that doesn't mean it doesn't play a very important role in its own place, which is not the "top". If there is something like the Freudian "death drive" (which is involved in much of "self-sabotage") it is probably equally necessary to the survival of society at large as the "principle of pleasure" and the appetite for success or power are. We need only step back from a narrow individualistic perspective to see it. Making "positive thinking" a universal duty for every individual is shortsighted imo.
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mrsjones5
I was just talking about this with my husband - how I tend to be so negative about myself. Thanks for the info.
Josie
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RunningMan
There are many areas where there is no cap on excessive growth - education, art, science, knowledge. Likewise, there are many areas where there is no cap on misery - crime, addiction, relationship failure.
In some areas, there is a partial cap. As you mentioned, wealth can be created, but there is also an absolute limit of some sort. In general, societies that strive for economic growth with acheive a higher sum total, and it doesn't have to be at the expense of someone else.
There are even areas where success automatically generates more success - such as medical breakthroughs.
In fact, there are limited areas where success of one necessarily means failure of another - with most of them being in the arena of games.
The bottom line is that we do not manage society as a whole. No one does. We manage ourselves. And positive thinking is the first step toward improving our individual lot.
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Narkissos
In general, societies that strive for economic growth with acheive a higher sum total, and it doesn't have to be at the expense of someone else.
Maybe it doesn't have to be but it often is. Even leaving aside inner inequalities, the economical, cultural and environmental cost of Western European and American growth to the rest of the world has been tremendous. Perhaps we can now bring in globalisation as a positive feedback, but what is lost is lost, as ever, and forever.
There are even areas where success automatically generates more success - such as medical breakthroughs.
The problem is that those "areas" are not separable from the rest of industrial and post-industrial breakthroughs (and its military and environmental consequences). Which can be reckoned as an external cost of its own.
We do not manage society as a whole. No one does. We manage ourselves.
Very true.
And for the same reason we have to allow others (and perhaps ourselves) different standards. Our "success" may be another's "failure" in more than one sense.
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Tyrone van leyen
I don't know how you guys come up with this stuff, but it's great. Looks like my high school education and my ever thinking mind, is just not enough to keep up. There's lots of work to be done, many things I do not yet understand. The depth and complexity of matters is something the society hopes most people will gloss over. Truth is, most people don't have the time to inform themselves nor the curiosity. People want simple answers and the watchtower delivers. The witnesses are starting to appear as a mind trap for the intelectually lazy. With this pattern of learning by rote and gradually accepting subservience and disonnance, freewill and creativity are destroyed, leading to mental illnesses. It's like involuntarily institutionalizing yourself. Not worth it.
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zagor
The depth and complexity of matters is something the society hopes most people will gloss over. Truth is, most people don't have the time to inform themselves nor the curiosity. People want simple answers and the watchtower delivers. The witnesses are starting to appear as a mind trap for the intelectually lazy. With this pattern of learning by rote and gradually accepting subservience and disonnance, freewill and creativity are destroyed, leading to mental illnesses. It's like involuntarily institutionalizing yourself. Not worth it.
Tyrone that was beautiful, never heard anyone putting it in such elegant way. Well done!
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rebelrider
Your post has really hit home with me. I am going to try and shed that anchor. Nor even knowing I had it or how to deal with it. thanks again !
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Abandoned
Great suggestions here. I especially like the journal idea. Putting your demons down on paper is a great way of standing up to and overcoming them.