The Exigent Duality
Roles Models and Motivations - 09:12 CST, 7/02/22 (Sniper)
Psychology is a wonderful thing. To start, read this article and ask yourself, "If I found out that a medical treatment not only didn't work and was in fact actively harmful, what would need to be going through my head for me to not only continue to push people to undergo it, but in a violent way, with intense rhetoric and measures to destroy the lives of the reticent?"

My best guess: people are frightened, and lashing out.

It's like buyer's remorse times one thousand, because it involves their health: the shots have turned out to be scarier than anyone could have imagined, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, and even more instances of paralysis, chronic illness, AIDS, miscarriages, birth deformities, and you-name-it. I once heard that "misery enjoys company": one hysterically pushing others to get the shots is a way of simultaneously living in a delusion that the shots were beneficial for that person, while also putting everyone else in the same boat.

Another psychological intrigue: the Left worships mediocrity. Why?

Gymnasts train their entire lives to reach the Olympics. It's the culmination of everything of which they've ever dreamed. There was a woman-- their star athlete, apparently-- who made an early mistake, couldn't handle the pressure, and literally abandoned her teammates during the competition. This is akin to a cowardly solider going AWOL in combat when he's supposed to be providing cover fire, and letting his squad mates get slaughtered.

Instead of acknowledging the obvious, this woman-- "Simone Biles"-- is being given a medal by Beijing Biden, and being put on the front of Wheaties boxes! It's very similar to how they erected murals and statues honoring "George Floyd", the violent multi-times felon who died of a Fentanyl overdose while resisting arrest after having passed counterfeit money at a store. Or "Megan Rapinoe", the purple-haired Lesbian who quite literally hates America, and doesn't hesitate to say so at every opportunity. Guess what? She gets a medal too! And who can forget the Left drooling over "Michael Avenatti", declaring the always-obvious fraud as Presidential material, and who is now sitting in prison?

These are some bizarre role models, to put it mildly. What's going on?

From the people on top, they are going for a Neo-Liberal "revolution"-- but first they need to weaken the existing societal edifice. Promoting hedonism and violence is a good way of destroying a culture's foundations. It's like Hitler's "strong individuals, strong families, strong society", in reverse. As for the every day Leftist, I have personal experience with this one: many Lefties who I have personally known, sometimes on a pretty intimate level-- close friends, family members, and so on-- have made poor life decisions, and can't deal with the guilt. Idolizing the lowest-of-the-low serves a dual-purpose: it lifts them up by comparison, while also providing an "escape hatch" for future poor decisions.

Changing gears again, my final psychological topic for the day: there is a fellow with whom I've been working on a project outside of work. He's phenomenal to collaborate with, and does top-drawer work-- but oftentimes it seems like we are communicating "past each other". After a full year of cooperation, I finally figured out what's going on: He's a Myers-Briggs "P", not a "J". All along I had misunderstood his personality, which was causing the often off-kilter interactions!

When I am studying some concept, imagine the body of knowledge as a cubed chunk of clay. New to the subject, I deal with the full width at one end first, as I haven't yet identified what's true or not, what's relevant and what isn't. As I progress in my learning, I whittle away the chunks along the sides-- driving in triangular fashion towards a fine point at the end, which is my ultimate conclusion regarding the subject. Imagine the "final state" looking like a triangle, versus the square with which I'd begun.

My inclination is to drive towards conclusions. As I hew chunks away, I don't need to continually re-evaluate them: I already did it. If things go on for too long and I sense I'm not making rapid-enough progress, or that I'm "spinning my wheels", I get antsy. My goal is to strive for finality.

I once had a friend and co-worker who was my first up-close exposure to a pretty serious "P". He could never make up his mind about anything! Infamously, he spent eighteen months trying to pick out an Android phone, and in the end wound up not even getting one. He was that way with everything. He was the complete opposite of me: his inclination was to drive away from conclusions! Every time he would sense that he was hewing away and approaching the fine decision point, he would throw all of his work overboard, and re-evaluate everything from the wide end of the cube again.

A "J" will get anxious if a conclusion is not being reached, and will want to accelerate the hewing process. A "P" will get anxious when a conclusion is being reached, and will want to blow everything wide open again.

I'd assumed the fellow with whom I've been working was a "J", in part due to his profession, and also in part because he's found the supply chain disruptions to be very stressful: "He's schedule-oriented, and when it gets messed up, he becomes upset." Instead, I had it all wrong: he gets stressed because he doesn't like planning much at all, and the supply chain stuff is forcing him to do so! And when he needs a decision from me but is constantly bringing options we'd already discarded back into the conversation right as things are close to being decided, it's simply another example of my former co-worker and the Android phone.

None of this is a criticism, it's simply me now understanding things better, so that I can manage the relationship in a smoother way. Psychology!