[FRIAM] OFFLINE:Today's Sermon:: a minor awokening

Sun Sep 6 13:24:46 EDT 2020

Eric,

The truth he tells is that he sees elephants.  There are no elephants.  But there are a lot of people who see elephants, and they are weary unto death of pretending that they don’t see them.   When Trump speaks, they get to say, “Oh, you see elephants, too!  I am not the only one!” 

Nick 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

 <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Eric Charles
Sent: Saturday, September 5, 2020 11:01 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] OFFLINE:Today's Sermon:: a minor awokening

"Perhaps I should have said, early on, “Look, I’m sorry, I keep seeing you  as Uncle Remus.  I am sure, as I get to know you better, I will get over it.  Please be patient with me, and please call me out whenever you feel confined by it. ” 

A Liberalism that does not free me is not worth the name."

It will probably not surprise you to know that I find this narration baffling. You definitely could say that to him, at any time. There is nothing "liberal" about feeling trapped to not discuss something like that. If you felt trapped for a bit, not saying anything seems wise. However, at some point, you just say it, or give up on the idea that you actually have a problem with it. Personally, I'd stay away from an Uncle Remus reference, but the whole point here is that the two of you are old, so it might make sense in your world. At any rate, the worst case result will be that you have been honest with him, and he never spoke to you again. Which is, IMHO, a better outcome than your not being honest with him, and he never spoke to you again, which seems to be where you are now. Sometimes, certainly not always, but sometimes, when I make moves like that in a conversation, you later express admiration and/or envy. 

I think this relates to the larger question of what some people see in Trump. They see him as constantly pointing out what they (his fans) see as the "elephant in the room." Sure, he says a boat load of other things, and lots of those things are not true, but those aren't the important things. "Why do we want all these people from shithole countries coming here?" is a great example of a perceived elephant. "There are good people on both sides" is another, as is the recent dust-up about "anti-racist" workshops. When Trump gets hammered for saying such things, they take away 1) See I was right not to risk saying that myself, because my supposedly friendly, supposedly open-minded neighbors would have attacked me just for saying it, and maybe even tried to get me fired, because apparently they think my kids should go hungry if I think something they don't like. 2) Thank God someone had the guts to ask the question! 3) What kind of crazy country do these libs want to turn us into, with all these elephants wandering all around the room, and it's not even enough to not say anything, because now you gotta be worried about getting fired if they think you might even have looked at one? 4) If I could be me, but also have the guts to talk about the elephants, I would be A Better Person. He talks about the elephants, so he is A Better Person. 

Did that comparison hold together? It felt like it did.

P.S. Add on top of that that a huge chunk of the "lies" are puffery, which amounts to telling his supporters that it is ok to feel good about themselves and good about their country. This started in earnest with the claims about inauguration attendance and continues, for example, with any suggestion that we might be doing anything half-decent with our Covid response. When Trump gets hammered for saying such things, they take away 1) I guess the libs really do want us to feel bad about our country. 2) They really think it would be horrible if I felt good about myself for even a minute. 3) They are ok judging me when they know nothing about me. 

On Sat, Sep 5, 2020 at 11:19 PM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com <mailto:sasmyth at swcp.com> > wrote:

My solution is to elect Biden and to use Trump as an example of the kind of person to never elect again.  But that's just me.

Sounds like a partial lobotomy.   I'm game for this... but not sure it is more than "a good start", which of course is, in fact, a good start.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Sat, Sep 5, 2020, 8:15 PM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com <mailto:sasmyth at swcp.com> > wrote:

> Yes, you could say that government in general and especially lawmakers
> are our superego.  The best common word synonym for superego is
> conscience.  Since a lot of people have lacunae of their own superego
> we need laws and law enforcers.

So right now we are in the midst of a collective id/ego/superego that is
experiencing a dissociative episode, both governmental and social?

to the extent the analogy holds, what is an exit/recovery strategy?

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