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"Cow farts did it." - Boehner |
Saving the whales and the polar bears?
Saving the environment?
Saving the climate?
In today's post let's explore the hypothesis that the proper statement to cover all of those is "saving civilization", and that misuse of those statements in place of the accurate statement of reality is evidence of a social disorder.
The misstatements and/or misunderstandings are signs of the psychological phenomenon encapsulated in whole or in part by the term dissociation:
Dissociation is a term in psychology describing a wide array of experiences from mild detachment from immediate surroundings to more severe detachment from physical and emotional experience. It is commonly displayed on a continuum. The major characteristic of all dissociative phenomena involves a detachment from reality – rather than a loss of reality as in psychosis. In mild cases, dissociation can be regarded as a coping mechanism or defense mechanisms in seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress – including boredom or conflict. At the nonpathological end of the continuum, dissociation describes common events such as daydreaming while driving a vehicle. Further along the continuum are non-pathological altered states of consciousness.(Wikipedia). I suppose it could also be seen as another word for the more commonly used term denial:
Dissociation is a psychological term used to describe a mental departure from reality.(Out of The Fog). Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has from time to time explored the notions of psychoanalysis for groups, even groups as large as nations, or even civilization itself:
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People who dissociate sometimes believe feelings over facts. What they feel at a particular time becomes reality for them. As their moods change, they may rearrange or rewrite facts to make them more consistent with the way they feel.
When confronted with “hard evidence” which contradicts the way we instinctively feel about something, most people feel a sense of discomfort (cognitive dissonance) However, if the information is compelling enough, most of us will learn to adjust our opinions or our feelings in order to maintain a consistent world view.
People who disassociate however, are able to reject or modify “hard evidence” if it does not support the way they feel or believe the world to be.
"I would not say that such an attempt to apply psychoanalysis to civilized society would be fanciful or doomed to fruitlessness." - Sigmund Freud(Social Dementia Causes Heated Misunderestimations). There is that phrase people use sometimes, "I don't feel like myself today", which comes to mind when thinking about civilization.
“Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Perhaps governments within what we call civilization should remember that phrase when they choose to destroy ecosystems.
There seems to be some form of dissociation at work when civilization, in the person of government, does not realize that the Earth and civilization are symbiotic in the sense that we cannot exist in any environment that does not support human life.
Destroying that which we must have in order to exist in our present physical form is suicide, ecocide, or Earthicide (or "all of the above").
It goes further, because civilization cannot exist even if it merely harms the Earth's environment beyond a certain point.
A point we are scientifically unaware of, but a point we are heading in the direction of, at full speed, at this moment.
Try to grasp the dissociation in one observable phenomenon:
There has been concern in the past ten years or so about the mysterious disappearing of entire groups or hives of bees.(Will We Destroy Food - The Bees?). It is less debatable now, because it is becoming politicized, like global warming, so the dissociation is likely to increase.
Bee keepers and scientists alike share the concern, and we who rely on the bees should too:It has been stated by several biologists that, if it were not for the honey bee pollinating plants, humans would only last 3 or 4 years as our food supply would disappear [but see here].(Space). How it got to this is debatable ,,,
But it is less debatable also because Oil-Qaeda has been implicated through its subversive subgroups that produce bee killing chemicals:
Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine. The development of this class of insecticides began with work in the 1980s by Shell and the 1990s by Bayer.(Wikipedia, emphasis added). A recent post on HuffPo indicates that segments of civilization are one bad winter away from another disaster (America Is One Bad Winter Away From A Food Disaster).
The government agencies that deal with these issues have been subverted from within by Oil-Qaeda money's corrupting influence.
Resist Oil-Qaeda.
The birds and bees came first ...