The end of the world doesn't scare me, but it does make me sad

I've been thinking about the end of the world a lot (unsurprisingly). Scientists keep moving the date of ecological devastation from climate change closer and closer. The possibility that all the beautiful life on this planet could be destroyed is such a tragedy. Every once in a while it just hits you, how close to the edge we are.

This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. It really captures this feeling. The video destroys me every time I watch it, without fail.

Sai, by Acidman


We're Now Even Closer to the Point of No Return (Esquire)
Indulge Your Existential Dread 24/7 With This Real-Time Global Warming Clock (Earther)

The 4 ways of being playful

Here's yet another quaternity in human life. An interesting article popped up in my FaceBook feed; psychologists have apparently identified 4 different type of playfulness in adults.

The psychologist has identified four basic types of playful adults: "There are people who like to fool around with friends and acquaintances. We describe this as other-directed playfulness. By contrast, light-heartedly playful people regard their whole life as a type of game," says Proyer. Another category includes people who like to play with thoughts and ideas -- this describes intellectual playfulness. These people are able to turn monotonous tasks into something interesting. The psychologist describes the final group as being whimsically playful. "These people tend to be interested in strange and unusual things and are amused by small day-to-day observations."

Psychology: Playful people are at an advantage (ScienceDaily)


It's important to remember that the four functions aren't some kind of Platonic template that everything in our lives fits. A more accurate way to look at it is that there is a Platonic template for fourness in human psychology, and Jung's four psychological functions fit into that framework. However, while it's generally a bad idea to try to force every quaternity into the four functions, it seems to hold water in this instance.

The people who like to play with people are clearly primarily or secondarily feeling types, and those who like to play with ideas are clearly thinking types. I'm not sure about the other two; the people who regard their whole life as a game, and those who are interested in strange, unusual, and day to day things. My feeling is that the second is the sensation type (especially since sensation types tend to become fascinated by strange and spooky things, as their inferior function is intuition.) Intuitives, especially extroverted intuitives, seem to fit the final category; that of those who see their whole lives as a game. So, in this case it does seem to map onto the four functions!

It's pretty cool how Jung's ideas constantly pop up in our lives. Now if we could only get some researchers to see if there are any correlations between these things and Jung's functions!

The perversion of love

This is kind of off topic but unfortunately very much on topic in light of current events. Trump's (still) in the White House and Republicans are doing their damndest to pass a health care bill that will basically lead to the deaths of many poorer people in this country, a kind of social Darwinism not seen since the era of the robber barons... Or maybe it does have something to do with the topic of the four functions. Why don't you decide?



White people (or men, or people of any other dominant group) simply don't get group dynamics unless it's brought up by a person of a dominated group.  It may be perfectly clear to everyone else, including people who don't belong to either group. When you're in a dominating group there's some sort defense mechanism that tries to prevent you from seeing reality. The same doesn't happen to a dominated group; they have no reason to distort reality, they haven't done anything wrong, i.e. anything in violation of the laws of basic human dignity. So, members of the dominating group refuse to even see it... unless it's an attempt to balance the inequities that inevitably result from such relations. In that case, they take the “best defense is an offense” tactic and try to use sleight of hand to turn the accusation on their victims. This is because people's identity is actually very deeply tied with their group identity (this is the similarity between American and Japanese cultures that leads both to attack the loners).

There is a difference between white and black peoples because in this culture white people are on top... and they want to stay there. The masculine way is to look at the law itself, completely without any reference to the relationship. The reality is that to truly understand the situation, we must admit to the truth of the unequal relationship which is baked into the system, upon which the system is dependent to maintain itself. This is because the true motivator is the drive for power; because love is not there, because there is no consciousness in the feeling side, it comes up in its unconscious form, the desire for power.

The desire for power is love perverted. It's an attempt to get the good feelings of love without sacrificing anything of yourself. We want love but the only way to get it is to allow a part of yourself to die. This is why I've had to live a life of failure. Any part of life can be can be a time we got it right, but especially when your Self is pushing you away from the things of this world. This is why spiritual people down the ages have spoken about giving up this world in order to gain the other one, the eternal one, the real one. But the truth is, both worlds are real; the real is something beyond them, that unites them but also transcends them. Each must be accorded its respect and treated with all the dignity due them. Only then does one achieve the goal.


- "Object Anyway?", More Perfect

Listen to this podcast; it's awesome. Actually, you should listen to the entire series. It was created by the gifted and passionate folks over at RadioLab (and if you haven't listened to them, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR????)

The thin thread

As I was watching a video about Jung this particular section hit me hard. Trump is America's screaming Id in human form. Now more than ever we need to do everything in our power to prevent catastrophe in our own time.

When you observe the world you see people, you see houses, you see the sky, you see tangible objects. But when you observe yourself within you see moving images, a world of images, generally known as fantasies. Yet these fantasies are fact. It is a fact that a man has such and such fantasy, and it is such a tangible fact that when a man has a certain fantasy another man may lose his life. Or a bridge is built. These houses were all fantasies. Everything you do here, all of it was fantasy to begin with, and fantasy has a proper reality that is not to be forgotten. Fantasy is not nothing! It is of course not a tangible object but it is a fact nevertheless. It is, say, a form of energy, despite the fact we can’t measure it. It is a manifestation of something. And that is a reality that is just a reality as, for instance, the peace treaty of Versailles or something like that. It is no more… you can’t show it, but it has been a fact! And so psychical events are facts, are realities, and when you observe the stream of images within you observe an aspect of the world, the world within.

… The man who is going by the external world, by the influences of the external world - say, society or sense perceptions - thinks that he is more valid because this is valid, this is real, and the man who goes by the subjective factor is is not valid because the subjective factor is “nothing.” No, that man is just as well based because he bases himself upon the world from within, and so he is quite right even if he says “Oh, it’s nothing but my fantasy.” Of course that is the introvert, the introvert is always afraid of the external world. He will tell you when you ask him… he will be apologetic about it. “Of course, yes I know, it’s only my fantasy.” And he has always a resentment, against the world in general. Particularly America is extroverted like hell. The introvert has no place. Because he doesn’t know that he beholds the world from within. And that gives him dignity, and that gives him certainty because (nowadays particularly) the world hangs on a thin thread, and that is the psyche of man. Assume that certain fellows in Moscow lose their nerve, or their common sense, and the whole world is in fire and flames!

Nowadays we are not threatened by elemental catastrophes. There’s no such thing as an H-bomb [in nature]. That is all man’s doing. We are the great danger, psyche is the great danger. What if something goes wrong with the psyche? So you see it is demonstrated to us in our days, what power the psyche is, how important it is to know something about it, but we know nothing about it.

From: "The World Within: C.G. Jung In His Own Words" (go to 10:00)