Tom Storm

I thought you'd like it.

You are aggressive. I am going to move on.

That's one of my favorite maxims, Baker. But you can't teach the whole world.

You're right, Jack. It's very easy to select a world view that helps you to survive but may also destroy your ability to connect. I have often thought...

That's close to a key principle in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. The beliefs and responses you hold in relation to an event can do more to harm y...

No point clogging this thread with AA versus better models. 'Alcoholic' is a pejorative term that labels someone as one thing. It but It is also almos...

You say "modern" & "western" - modern Western secular humanism has brought many people of faith into the present time and changed the religious views ...

AA is a nice example of pessimism. It says you have a disease that can't be cured and that you will always be powerless. Even the world alcoholic (whi...

Not sure what that would look like but I would say that for many people it would not. Quality counselling might help. Not a big fan of AA based on wha...

Being clinically paranoid could also keep you from an untimely death. But the question for me isn't just whether you survive, it is what kind of life ...

:up:

Ok. So no hints for general approaches?

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Good point.

Yeah... I do pretty much the same. What you say is wise and useful TC. I like the present time too, but I have met very few people in my extended circ...

Yes, and many of the people I have met who claim to be pessimists are just dignifying hopelessness with a more classy term. I think hopelessness is of...

Out of interest, Jack - what do you think are a couple of useful insights post-modernism has given us?

Sure. There is also a difference between pessimism and hopelessness.

I didn't have a comment on the letter.

Pessimism or optimism? I think which one is best depends upon the toll your choice takes on your mental health. Talking of a blend. Cellist Pablo Casa...

Tips for resisting the recurrences of pre-modern atavisms.

That was a joke - about people turning the clock back to before the modernist project, hence pre-modern.

I thought light was a wave not a particle. This is not aimed at you Mad Fool but I am always fascinated how many qualified theoretical physicists ther...

I'm just describing what I see. If you don't see it, great. What do you see? No question but generally old farts. I am hearing this from people too yo...

Reading Kafka after the Holocaust gives it a different flavour and I can't unread that particular tragedy in the work.The Trial and Josef K's 'guilt' ...

I was taught that the motto of modernism was Ezra Pound's Make It New - this: It has struck me for several years now how many people in the West seem ...

:up: If you have any tips for the non academically inclined, let me know.

I agree. Josef K should just have lain down that morning and offered them a butcher's knife... :joke:

This is certainly a standard academic construct of the ideas. I wasn't sure the OP was wanting to explore this side of the street, although maybe. Mod...

Lots of Americans are surprised by this too. Michael Sandel is good on this.

You know what they say about Episcopals? It's the bland leading the bland....

I think I am largely indifferent to this. Many categories are ineffable. I have no idea what modern is meant to mean. Is postmodernism simply hard mod...

Doesn't God defy the laws of physics and can do what it pleases? I never quite get that God can be limited by the impossible.

No. I share that too. I really don't care.

True. But all the Christians I know see the Bible as allegory.

Human beings are behavior.

People being born doesn't really concern me. I am more interested in behavior once they are here.

I'm curious why this matters so much to you. Do you feel you were thrown into the world (apologies to Heidegger) and that this is unfair and has lead ...

Yes, I remember these points. This is obviously very important to you. The argument seems lacking in focus to me. I don't think the 'package', as you ...

I understand you think this but why is it a problem?

How do you know you know the right things? The idea that we 'choose the right thing when we know what it is' strikes me as problematic. I don't unders...

I'm not contradicting your point, I am contributing to your point, just not in full support. What do you think you are trying to achieve in general te...

For sure, but they may do more than play around on social media - they might work in politics, in unions, in activism, in medical care, in civil right...

I've known a number of parents who are hoping their child becomes an iconoclast who will help bring down the state's structure. Don't underestimate th...

Hmmm.... I can't think of examples of educators making learning fun. I know they try sometimes. For me there's an issue with people only being aware o...

Marketing creates... markets. Often for things of dubious quality. Hence the money spent on it. I learned early on with children that if they see it o...

I found this extremely interesting and intriguingly phrased. Thank you.

Yes, and I also think that marketing - which has infested everything, including religion and spirituality - plays an instrumental (no pun intended) ro...

It's beginning to sound like that Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em Know when to walk away This...

Thank you. Yes, I think this is a key point for me. I'm not sure I can even find a way to process this, it seems so... ineffable... I can only put it ...