MORE LESSONS … (from gerbil poems)
these beasts at the end of my desk,
these gerbils, my living phylacteries,
busy themselves in front of me, as if to say,
“what is there more than eat, work, sleep, and sex?
what is this talk of symbols in decay?”
midstream
I
we are suddenly
one that needs care.
germinating in a culture,
located within a history,
of lives living midstream,
even as we do
Can space travel – at least orbiting the Earth – cause cognitive shifts? Really be transformative – have lasting impact? [1]
Generally, studies note variability in the experience. And not all astronauts experience the overview effect.
(Wiki) Author [“space philosopher”] Frank White, who in the 1980s coined the term overview effect after interviewing many astronauts, …
Yaden et al. observed that cultural differences, including differences in religious and social identity, affect the ways in which the effect is experienced and interpreted. Expressions range from the religious, to the “vaguely spiritual”, to the naturalistic, to calls to social duty.
Wiki even notes that there’s some research on whether immersive virtual reality simulations might “induce the overview effect in earthbound participants.”
This Big Think article is a personal perspective by astronaut Ron Garan.
Continue reading The overview effect
I’ve read online articles about gaslighting. By publishers such as Psychology Today, Washington Post, Wired, Huffpost. Hopefully most everyone understands what this is about – in personal & social relationships, corporate PR, and politics. Misleading communications, misinformation, manipulation, abuse.
As Carl Sagan discussed regarding critical thinking skills, a good “baloney detection kit” protects against false narratives, especially in unequal power relationships.
This article includes some historical recap. As well as mentioning the rest of the year’s Top 10 words.
• AP News > “‘Gaslighting’ is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2022” by LEANNE ITALIE (November 28, 2022)
(quote) Merriam-Webster’s top definition for gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, that “causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”
“It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s unveiling.
Well, sort of …
• Matter
• It matters
• What matters
• Mattering – you matter
• YouTube > University of Queensland > Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial > FLICC – The Techniques of Science Denial Part 1 (Mar 9, 2020)
And then the worldly context of any discourse:
It was a time of hope, it was a time of fear,
it was an age of science, it was an age of ignorance,
it was an epoch of climate change, it was an epoch of disbelief,
it was a period of dreams, it was a period of politics,
it was a spring of recovery, it was a season of collapse (1)
The notion that the battles of prior generations are “won” for the next – just doesn’t happen. The battles over civil rights, women’s rights, … realizing the dream of the Constitution. A long slog, a forever journey. An evolution of minds, hearts, … and habits.
And sometimes conflicts are not so much won as just left behind by succeeding generations (without necessarily any linear progress either).
Continue reading Generational battles“If there are two sides to every argument – or, more to the point, if there are people willing to take up two sides to every argument – they both must be right or, at least, equally valid.” (1)
So, on any particular subject or topic, there may be two or more opinions. Today I’d trust that no one (hmm) believes that the earth is flat (2); so, let’s rule that out as subject to opinion.
Continue reading Two sides to every argument?“Religion is in the box where science used to be. Politics is on the shelf where you thought you left science the previous afternoon. Entertainment seems to have been knocked over and spilled on everything.” – Charles P. Pierce, Idiot America (2009). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
This 2012 episode of Moyers & Company is a useful take on the political culture of our times. Narratives “about fairness, capitalism, American history.” Moral foundations. Karma. Nuance. Why we’re all really good lawyers. The role of myths and fables. Fairness versus compassion. What the proper role of government is and is not.
And a call for two shared norms: ending demonization and cleaning up corruption.
Continue reading Up is down, down is up