you ought to be ashamed of yourself

[noteris]

if people aren't ashamed of themselves how are they going to do what they are told by people who aren't?

some thoughts on ego and psychology.fear of rejection is the basis not only for sexual shame, guilt etc but also for many other social pathologies like not challenging each other's ideas, submitting to arbitrary authority and so forth. lots of

Comments

[moomlyn]

It is a fine line that must be walked. When to push, when to yield, how much can you get away with? how much risk (of ex-communication from the group) are you willing to take?

I am convinced that the primary purpose of the human brain is to percieve these all-but-invisible lines which define the boundary of what is and is not acceptable behaviour. Its not dangerous outside natural forces that have compelled the evolution of our minds, but the complexities of interacting with each other.

[moomlyn]

I remember in primary school learning that the Australian Aboriginals had, as their highest form of punishment for an unforgivable crime what they called "pointing the bone". The tribal elder would point a bone at the guilty party who was then effectively ex-communicated from the tribe. He or she would wonder off into the bush and die within the next couple of days, not from hunger or thirst or wild animals, but simply from having had the bone pointed at him or her.

beware the good and the just

[noteris]

yes, not much doubt that human intelligence and psychology evolved to handle the complexities of social interactions with other human minds (with sexual selection arms race refining machiavellian intelligence comparable to evolution of peacock feathers

Re: beware the good and the just

[noteris]

just noticed that both links for ego and psychology pointed to the same page for ego.

no doubt both freud and jung would have something to say about that. but only douglas adams would actually analyse it correctly.

here's the intended link to psychology.

so now i'm going to do a new post on kinky pink robots and link back here. anybody who is not thinking about me more than is pleasant and finds themselves here should click on both the above link and that new topic to navigate another full turn of the spiral on both sides of a klein bottle.