metonymy4u

The problem with our approach to racial violence is that we have misunderstood the problem. Saying that black lives matter is completely, self-evidently, irrefutably, 100% true and indisputable. It is, unfortunately, also completely irrelevant. It is an attempt to logic people out of their emotional behavior. It is attempting to change a behavior with logic that has absolutely nothing to do with logic and everything to do with emotions that, evolutionarily, have had all logic bred out of them. Also unfortunately we in the western world have all been lied to for nearly 2000 years. The truth will not set us free. My hypothesis is that we need science, not truth. Fortunately a science of emotional change has already been well validated in individual and small group contexts. What we need  is a global version of this science. And we need it now.

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Recently I recalled a memory of attending a conference on mental illness led by two prominent members of the local mental health community. One of the speakers asked a question about the classical Greek mythology of Asclepius, the god of medicine. I raised my hand and answered the question based on my memories of reading (when I was 17) Plato’s Phaedo, in which Socrates mentions his debt to Asclepius just before drinking the hemlock. After my comment, the other conference leader responded by observing “Wow, you really have to get out more.” The memory to me is a token emblem of what I think we daily face: an environment that immediately punishes exactly what it previously evoked. Invites followed by un-invites. In group seduction and out group derogation. Baits and switch, teases and feints. Ridicule, the normal reward for the curious. Invalidation upon invalidation upon invalidation, creeping along its persistent pace to some final bastion of double binds and a limit of infinite dismay. Is it any wonder then that we are all completely insane?

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