Once upon a time, I had to work with an affable young woman I'll call "Deena". It seems she was having trouble using a particular piece of electronic equipment, so I began questioning her closely.
Suddenly, as I was jogging her memory, I observed that she appeared to be in pain, although there was no obvious physical reason for such a reaction....... and then it hit me like a thunderbolt:
I was forcing her to think deeply about something and her facial expression was no different from having a toothache. It never occured to me previously that thinking was unpleasant and painful for some people. I felt like an 'anthropologist on Mars'!
After this, the world made a lot more sense to me as I saw that it was heavily populated with people who suffer from thinking. You can avoid this painful experience by handing over your thinking ability to someone else. Your Pastor, Priest, or President said it was OK, so don't let it cause you any further discomfort. Do whatever your cult, religion, government, political party or tribe says. Thinking hurts.
Along the same rationale, I recently came to suspect that all the "explanations' of why the world's economy is at the edge of a possible abyss fail to observe the huge number of people on psychoactive drugs, legal and otherwise. Since thinking often hurts, aren't we glad pharmacology has a 'solution'? Don't worry, everything will be OK, somehow........ Sure, I wonder why that CEO gets millions in bonuses but I also wonder if extreme risks follow his medicated state of mind. How would the world be different if the Woodstock nation ran our banks and economy? Or would it really be different at all?
And notice how the process feeds on itself - did your boss fall off his meds and nearly get violent with you? It's unpleasant but meds will help you feel better, too. You're the odd man out but they can help you......
Maybe if nearly a whole religion was on drugs, it would intensify their isolated thinking in not noticing that the world has passed them by and their worldview is approaching psychosis. It might become like an old Bill Cosby joke: he asked a friend why he did Cocaine. His friend replied that "it intensifies my personality". Bill replied "But what if you're an a$$hole?"
I like to think about things and admit I've done Prozac to get thru some bad patches but I accept that my thinking will sometimes make me sad -it just goes with the territory, the price of clearheaded (I hope) rationality. I wish "Deena" the best, whatever she's doing. Thinking isn't a hobby for everyone....
metatron
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