[onlooker]

And the country with the largest population in the world never bothered to check the state of the planet as they were busy growing their already massive economy and adopting the car culture. They also have no qualms about poising their own people for the sake of this growing economy. All this seems to me a neon bright sign shouting CRAZY.

[SeaGypsy]

China's insanity is modelled on the west. Pot meet kettle.
We are in an age where expecting sanity is insane. We find our niches & make the best of it, as sanity goes. Live & let live etc etc & etc.

[Timo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'Y')our injury sound dreadful. I have cold cocked myself a couple of times I. Recent years, once suffering delayed seizures as a result. Very minor by comparison but frightening. I can't imagine your situation.

We are curious, does closing one eye or wearing an eye patch help?

[SeaGypsy]

At least you didn't rip out the catheter fully inflated like a patient I had used to do regularly.

[Timo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'A')t least you didn't rip out the catheter fully inflated like a patient I had used to do regularly.

[SeaGypsy]

Lol! Do you know at the business end of the catheter is a golf ball sized inflated to stop it falling out? It doesn't pop. The guy I was working with had a form of dementia where most people thought there was nothing wrong, very coherent speech & brilliant long term memory, but every time he pulled out the catheter he would walk out with the whole thing, blood dripping from his nob, saying "I don't know what this is! Somebody left it in my room!"

[Timo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'L')ol! Do you know at the business end of the catheter is a golf ball sized inflated to stop it falling out? It doesn't pop.

[SeaGypsy]

Part of what I'm doing at University now. The fact you are recovering well & still making significant progress is an indication you are likely to have less long term implications than if you had come to a point in recovery & stopped. Meanwhile like the rest of us, all you can do is anything which supports neuroplasticity- regularly taking up new learning activities which include physical activity is the most important practice to engage in.

[Timo]

Indeed, SG. Keep up the good work, for all our sakes.

One of my hockey buddies, who is as politically opposite from me as can be, keeps me in the loop on all of the studies and advances in treating TBI by the US military, all due to the huge spike in these injuries stemming from the Afgan and Iraq wars. He's in the military, and has had served several limited tours in Iraq, and elsewhere in various parts of the world. After my fall, he and another hockey buddy came over to clean our rain gutters, since I was out of commission. He's a very good guy, even if he is atrociously wrong on everything political in the US. He sees the wars as beneficial because of the advances in medical technologies. Well, that's one way to look at it, I suppose. He plays goalie, and is therefore solely focused on the puck. I play left wing, and can easily see lots of holes all around his best defenses. There's gotta be some symbolism in that analogy, somewhere.

[SeaGypsy]

I think I know his type, having a bunch of ex military expats connections in the Philippines. I have wondered hearing the same argument re field medicine advances, if it's protagonists realize it's implications regarding the Nazis during WW2. Sounds to me like your mate got lucky, I know a few guys half so lucky, alive due to these advances & the bravery of their rescuers, but seriously damaged for life & not so happy about why they were where they were.

[onlooker]

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/2/11841554/gu ... heesburger
The tally keeps coming of people acting violently usually with guns and the problem is a wider social problem of mental instability and issues of people dealing with people that seem to reflect on a society that has deep rooted pathology in coexisting with each other.

[jedrider]

Keeping sane in an insane world: Good luck.

It takes a lot of will power.

[onlooker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jedrider', 'K')eeping sane in an insane world: Good luck.

It takes a lot of will power.

[Sixstrings]

Recent news item relevant to this topic:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Sebastian Junger Says PTSD Is Our Fault
"The vets aren’t messed up. We are. We as a society"

Your new book, Tribe, posits that modern American life is hard to re-enter because it’s alienating even to those not arriving from a war.

For me, PTSD is just one lens to look at a broader question of our society — the very common sense of loneliness, the lack of communal utility that people sense. Like, ‘What am I here for? Who am I helping? Who needs me?’ That’s a societal problem and not a personal problem.

So it’s not just a problem facing soldiers?

The assumption is that our wonderful society is good for our mental health. And the fact that it’s not is shocking and also a relief to find out. I mean, why would suicide rates go up with wealth? Why would depression go up with modernity? It’s counterintuitive, but once you think about it, once you think about our evolution as a species, it makes sense.

Western society has this narrative that we’re moving steadily toward a kind of societal perfection. And in some ways we are. The improvements are amazing.

But there’s this massive unseen cost which is our sense of connectedness to the group, and that connectedness to the group has been at the core of our definition of what it means to be human for 2 million years. And for the first time in history it’s being challenged, it’s being corroded.

Then when soldiers experience life in the platoon, or when earthquake survivors experience a brief communal survival effort, everyone’s shocked by how good it feels even though the circumstances are horrible. When really it’s people re-experiencing their evolutionary origins of being in this small inter-reliant life. And it feels good. It feels really good. ...

Isn’t community the word you’re looking for?

Oh, imagine how the book would do if I called it Community! Community is not an interesting word because it’s been bled of any kind of rawness and human intensity. The cool thing about tribe is that the word feels sort of ancient and potent. It suggests connections between people that go beyond just being in proximity to each other.
http://time.com/4351069/memorial-day-2016-veterans-ptsd-sebastian-junger-tribe-book/

[onlooker]

And the alienation is not just about a sense of community or tribe it is also about economic alienation. All of this alienation leading to a sense of desperation and hopelessness which then can easily lead to narcotic or alcohol abuse. Here is a great article I was reading about all this, the disenfranchisement of many Americans in places like the Midwest. How whole regions lacking in economic opportunities turn to some way to escape it all. All the managers of society can give as an answer is tougher crime/drug sentences or debtors prisons. So amid this environment normal human emotions like depression and anxiety leave people vulnerable to the seductions of some narcotic or alcohol. https://morecrows.wordpress.com/2016/05 ... cessariat/

[Newfie]

I heard an NPR interview with Junger about Tribe. It's on my reading list. Long with Door to Door about modern logistics.

Junger also commented on how humanity is now engaged in a huge social experiment by having so many of us living in such proximity.

I think he is onto something and look forward to reading his book.

Frankly so many comments come to mind relative to this thread I don't know where to start. Maybe I'll just throw out a few unsubstantiated bits and see reactions.

I think that Tribalism and Life Boat Ethics are strongly related.

Referring to Azimovs Bathroom Metaphor it is easy to see how excess population drives us nuts. We are not genetically constructed to exist as we do. Now living in the boat in relative quite and solitude we find the city stressful, I moreso than my wife.

Our ideas of "normality" and mental health are simply subjective expressions of where the center of the crowd is mentally. Mental health is largely a fiction. As long as you can exist within society without becoming a pariah you are good.

From my personal subjective standpoint I find humanity to be, in aggregate, bat shit crazy. Irrational lunatics. A failed species. But hey, that's just me!

[onlooker]

Didn't they do at one point experiments with rats and found that if you crowd them too much they become quite aggressive and hostile. I think humans can function effectively to meet their needs and wants as long as they are not under too much pressure. Now this pressure may just be perceived pressure rather than something objectively measurable by others. But perception in anybodies mind for that person is reality. I think a key at least in my humble personal experience is too find times to just be in a simple state of Peace. Also, too not let yourself ever feel like something is overwhelming. Nothing really is if you realize that all tribulations end.

[Loki]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('onlooker', 'D')idn't they do at one point experiments with rats and found that if you crowd them too much they become quite aggressive and hostile.

[onlooker]

Thanks Loki for confirming that. Now add to this congestion, an economic system that is extremely competitive and that tends to separate us from each other and the natural world. Add also the traditional authoritarian modes of social development most societies have adopted and mix it with the group dynamics that pit one group against another as per our evolution from primates ie. the Maximum power principle. Our main institutions reflecting this group identification and rivalry. Politics, Religion, Countries, even races and gender all having separate identities and allegiances. Well no wonder we humans have created this oh so messed up world. And no wonder that in this world, people "act up" and potentially can become suicidal or homicidal. Oh forgot to add to the mix here in the US the plague of drug, alcohol and mental health problems.

[vox_mundi]

Calhouns's experiment ...

Mouse Utopia Experiment Video

Well worth 8 minutes of your time.