On complexity and (over)simplification

From ShrinkWrapped:

One of the things that turns liberals into conservatives, or libertarians, is the collision of liberalism with reality. It is easy to believe that the rich should pay higher taxes in order to help raise th poor out of poverty (and that it only requires money to lift someone out of poverty) when you are young and have few responsibilities or expenses. Once you begin to actually work for a living and pay taxes you begin to realize that there is a trade-off between your ability to do some of the things you want to do and your tax liabilities. Then, all of a sudden, you are one of the rich (the 49% of tax payers) and your sense of what is fair to pay becomes more finely honed. As well, you note that the decisions you make with your income become heavily influenced by the taxes you pay. Your simple theory (higher taxes equals less poverty) becomes a casualty of your increased appreciation for complexity.

Another way of describing the transition form liberalism to libertarianism or conservatism, is that liberalism operates in a data poor environment, in which feelings are equivalent and of equal valence to facts. As your information increases, you usually must increase the complexity of your understanding if you want to continually hone your sense of reality. ...

Read it here.

For a kid, waiting can be torture

Tonight's child behavioral psychology experiment - the Marshmallow Test:

From the video's description:

The marshmallow experiment is a famous test of this concept conducted by Walter Mischel at Stanford University and discussed by Daniel Goleman in his popular work. In the 1960s, a group of four-year olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children could wait and others could not. The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (determined via surveys of their parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

The trauma of Obama

From a psychotherapist in Berkeley, CA, writing in the American Thinker:

A new, conservative friend cracks up when she hears my phone message. As a therapist, I'm required to state, "If this is a psychiatric emergency, please call 911."

Roaring with laughter, she says, "Robin, the whole country is having a psychiatric emergency!"

And she's right, because people running this country are off: off balance, off-world, off-putting, off their meds.

Gallows humor, a knot in your stomach when Obama speaks, poor sleep. Your body is telling you that something is wrong.

Even out here, things are starting to feel spooky. While it's always weird central in Berkeley, now there's a malaise in the air.

Yes, there are plenty of people so far into the communist schtick, they would gladly sacrifice their children, their granny, and their life savings for the Left.

But most liberals still want their houses, jobs, Hondas and iPods. When they voted for Obama, they weren't giving a thumbs up for the country to go the way of Ché.

So there's a strange, foreboding vibe in these parts; that creepy feeling you get when you know there's bad news ahead. ...

Read it here. And The Anchoress asks: Does Obama know who we are?

Whittle: The power and danger of iconography

Today's branding lesson, courtesy of Pajama TV's Bill Whittle:




[Via The Anchoress]

Borderline Personality Politics

ShrinkWrapped writes on the increasing resemblance of our politics to that of a patient with Borderline Personality Disorder:

... The explicit failure to add one and one and get two perfuses our societal discourse. We demand energy independence and CO2 neutral, green power, which does not yet exist and can not be scaled in the foreseeable future. Those most vocal about the need for minimizing our Carbon footprints are often the most profligate in their use of energy. At the same time the experience of the last 100 years should tell us that the best way to clean up the environment is to increase the level of wealth. There is a clear arc of development that stars with cheap energy, wealth creation, and the formation of a threshold level of Middle Class which then demands that attention be paid to the environment and can afford to pay the cost of safe guarding the environment. For that great majority of Americans who have no historical memory, the air and water is many times cleaner today than in the 1960s when the environmental movement began as a mass movement. China today, while still an authoritarian country, is already in the early stages of the transition. As the Chinese become wealthier (in part because they have had access to inexpensive energy) they initially sought development at the expense of the environment but are now beginning to make the turn toward more environmental consciousness. Such a turn is inevitable and can only be truncated if we decide to impoverish us all by refusing to develop our own energy and imposing additional costs while empowering our enemies as a bonus.

Just as there is no ability to add one and one in regards to energy, the Health Care debate (what there is of it) suffers from the same shortcoming. There is simply no way we can extend health care insurance coverage to everyone (including illegal aliens), while ignoring personal responsibility for one's health, and maintain high quality care for all without massive increases in costs. There are not enough rich people to pay for everyone's health care and the outcome must be to cause us all to become poorer, which will cause all of the worst case scenarios that have already occurred in other nations that have tried to institute universal (free) health care. We will have less Doctors, less good Doctors (as the best find other ways to make a living that is freer of bureaucratic interference and third party fee setting), more expenses, and rationing. This is as sure as one plus one equals two, yet our political elite refuses to do the math and our MSM apparently cannot even recognize numbers anymore. ...

Read it here. An interesting read.

Liar, liar

From Dr. Sanity, on the narcissism and pathological lying that envelops our political class (including, I might add, our Dear Leader):

... Pathological lying is one of the hallmark characteristics of a narcissist. a need to manipulate in order to control. For the immature narcissist there is an essential emotional truth: lying is an expression of his (or her) mistrust of others; and his (or her) need to maintain a fragile sense of self at all costs.

Being honest (and therefore vulnerable) terrifies the narcissist. Since his primary goal is to control other, through projection he constantly fears that others will try to control him. Thus, lying become the modus operandi through which he can maintin his superficial presentation of himself and keeps people from learning the truth of who he really is. He never allows himself to be "pinned down", or accountable. More lies are always necessary to cover up a previous lie. And typically, he even begins to believe his own lies and become outraged at any suggestion that he may be lying. Thus he become sincere in his lying and others may actually believe the lies because of the sincerity. This is why truly pathological liars (such as sociopaths) are so hard to detect in the population. In general, the lack of an ability to feel guilty about the lies, and the perverse sense that he is "entitled to lie" are standard for the political narcissist.

Having said all this, it is important to remember that lying, no matter how pathological it may be is not in itself a disease. EVERYONE LIES. Most psychological tests have built in scales that detect this tendency to make one's self look better to others.

When you combine an overwhelmning need to make one's self look better (i.e., superior) with a grandiose sense of self-worth; throw in glibness and a superficial charm that easily convinces others of your sincerity; then there is little to stand in the way of easily manipulating others to your will. Of course, it behooves you to also throw into the mix that whatever you do, you do it for the sake of others. Children are a good standby (as in, "do it for the children!"). [emphasis added]

Let me refresh your memory about some basic psychological defense mechanisms. ...

Read the rest here. Does Dr. Sanity's description remind you of any politicians?