A "Sick" Society Produces "Sick" Citizens

[bobby1933]

To make matters worse, research shows that exclusively biological theories of mental illness contribute to the stigma experienced by mental health patients, which I know you want to reduce [27]. The more that ordinary people think of mental illness as a genetically determined brain condition, and the less they recognise it to be a reaction to

Comments

[amaebi]

I'm betting you're less sympathetic to perps of public sanctioned robbery-from-the-poor-to-give-to-the-rich, in its many usually-glorified forms.

Have you read Jessica Mitford's Kind and Usual Punishment: The American Prison Business? I think you'd like the book, though not of course what it described. And while it's old, things are still much the same.

I suggest that you friend andrewducker, who posts amazing links daily-or-so.

And i am so delighted to be your friend. :)

[bobby1933]

You are right. And i am increasingly angry at people who suggest solutions to the wealth gap that do not emphasize extensive sacrifices on the part of the wealthy. (education, teaching the poor the virtue of saving, etc.) Education is ok, but as long as it is "locally controlled*" it will do nothing to close the gap. I am also tired of hearing about how vast global structural forces are making the problem unsolvable

[amaebi]

I don't know what gives anger rights. :D But I dislike being angry, so mostly I'm not, even about things I dislike and find frustrating. Though I've been struggling rather acutely for a year now with the urge to yell at people, "You're only being so [adjectivally] dumb because it supports your convenience and comfort

[bobby1933]

Our stupidity certainly does support somebody's comfort and convenience. I'm not sure it is our own.

Worse are those who use the ignorance of others to maintain a system that advantages them at the expense of those others. I'm sure you have heard the theory (and studies) suggesting that leaders and followers of right wing authoritarian organizations (including the Republican Party) are very different from their followers. The followers believe what they say they believe; the leaders believe in power, their own superiority, their own self aggrandizement. They are machievellian and have contempt for ordinary people.