Millennial society and mental illness

Diagnosis rates for ADD in kids range from 5% in the US to 2% in UK/France and 3% in South Australia and 6% in Western Australia (note – best estimates put the actual occurrence of ADD in humankind at 5%). Reasons include psychiatric culture, health system differences, hereditary and evolutionary influences, climate, diet, levels of endocrinological damage from environmental pollutants eg pesticides, lead, additives, petrol, plastics, hormones, insides of cans, etc.
One factor we have to get a grip on is competitiveness and masculinization. Males are diagnosed with ADD 3x more often than females. Males die earlier – 1 factor could be stress levels since so many deaths are caused by strokes/cardiovascular disease. Testosterone causes stress by making adrenaline levels high etc. Testosterone seems to have a negative influence on some types of mental disorders. Our society’s arch-capitalism, supplemented by the influences of mass-broadcast male-oriented aggressive sport and quiz shows, is the foundation for a culture of competitiveness, individualism, aggression and lack of sympathy/empathy. Competitiveness etc raises testosterone levels. Bad 4 mental illness. Let’s all chill out!

Chemical sensitivity syndrome

I think one syndrome in the affective disorder spectrum is chemical sensitivity syndrome or whatever. Actually chronic fatigue and allergies too. When I used to come to Sydney for the holidays I used to have a blocked nose within 4 days of arriving that would clear after a week of being back in Dubbo. It was caused by pollution, fumes, dust, mould, humidity. I think I have a slight case of CSS. I need to get a huge allergy test done, stop smoking, quit pot, quit peanut butter, vacuum house, clean mould out, etc. My mental health will benefit.

Mechanics of short-hand symbolism in thought and language

In language, terms are symbols that condense a concept or image. This condensation allows complex ideas to be expressed in language. This is because we have a limited language attention capacity. The more effective and tight and numerous the symbol terms in the sentence are, the more complex the ideas expressed are. Ditto with symbols in thought. Cognitive symbols are piled into our limited cognitive attention capacity. The more compressed the symbols, the more symbols are squished in, the more complex the idea. We have to understand that these two systems exist independently, but effect each other somewhat. The words we have in the language we find ourselves in influence our thought. The thoughts we have (the language-less can think, stoopid!) independently of language influence what language we use. Some pictures:

[diagram]

The size of the symbols indicates the difficulty of the information contained in the symbols (ie the proportion of the attention capacity that the information takes up.) However, in the symbol itself, a great deal of expandable information can be compressed. The more compressed the symbol, the more detailed knowledge of the reasoning/imagery/ideas contained in the symbol is ignored by the attention. The concept is unitary; if too much is squished into it, the subjects lose the essence of the concept. Ideas contained in an attention capacity moment can in turn themselves become symbols. Eg

[diagram]

People have different attention capacities for language and thought. Within language itself, there are four measurable attention capacities:
1)Aurally received language
2)Text –delivered language
3) Verbally expressed language
4) Written language
People with wider attention capacities are often thought to have intelligence in the area it falls in. This is true in part. These people can deal in more complex ideas. They can make greater leaps of logic, they can make associations quicker, they can be creative, inspired and follow rational trains of logic for longer. However, they also lose touch with the ideas subsumed within each symbol. Because the ideas are simplified into a unitary concept represented by the symbol, accuracy is lost. These losses of accuracy, perspective and knowledge of detail are magnified with the number of concepts contained in the attention capacity. (Eg if an attention capacity holds three symbols in it, there is less scope for loss of knowledge than in an attention capacity that holds 10 symbols. The level of information loss is about x and x in each of the respective cases above, where x = average loss of information in symbols.) Taking drugs (including psychiatric ones) widens and shortens these attention capacities in different combinations in different people. People that spend more time in different combinations to different extremes develop a more holistic, integrated intellect. However, they are also prone to mental illness coz changing is disorienting and often painful (some combos are more painful). Also, mental illness itself makes you swing between different combos.
Note: there might be more than the 5 attention capacities I’ve mentioned here. Probable the best strategy is to keep yourself in happy combinations for the most part, and then to swing to moderately extreme different and various combos regularly but not too often. This way you can ensure sanity and comfort (which are ultimately supremely important) but still derive maturity and intellectual development from the changes. Some other attention capacities: musical, visual.
In propaganda (including advertising) you have to use the visual idea because it’s the most immediate to most people. You can use it by showing pictures or by describing concepts in visually evocative terms (eg turning boats back, protecting borders). You have to pitch the message at a complexity level that will match the attention capacity of the majority of the population. (Eg the maxi block system in roller blinds, tampax ads, jif ads with germs, washing powder action enzyme ads etc).
To make claims of massive scope, you can condense lots of subsidiary information into the symbols used. Also, if you’re using examples or analogies, try to use the most evocative/dramatic/stirring symbols possible. These take up more of the attention capacity, which lowers the listener’s ability to scrutinise leaps in logic. Actually, this drain on attention that evocative symbols represent, are probably the reason most people respond to visual symbols more readily. Visual symbols are more evocative.

Hip hop homophobia

Eminem is not a musician, just a wordsmith. Dr Dre does all the sampology, production etc. Rare is the hetero man that is good at language. And Eminem is really good. It would be near impossible to be that good at language and still be hetero. Then add in his homophobia and his Oedipal issues and you’ve got a good case for his non-heteroness. But I think it applies more broadly to hip hop. It’s very language-oriented. And to be able to rap well is an intense linguistic talent. Then you’ve got the commodification of women (eg they often find their identity in relation to the man eg “gangsta bitch”). Many homosexual/homophobic institutions glorify or centre their worlds around males and thus, in the discourse that takes place in these institutions, women are defined in functional terms in so far as they relate to the purposes of the institutions and their male glorification. Egs include the church, football teams, boys’ schools, even all-boy families). Then the rampant homophobia. Another good case for the hip hop world being put down as a homosexual/homophobic institution.

Search engine idea

Searches for pictures/photos. Pay people $10/hr to type in a list of words that apply to each picture.eg my toilet’s picture would have the terms “toilet, lavatory, pink, bathroom, flush” linked to it. The website would include a scroll-down dictionary of the terms we use. Eg we’d use “hot” rather than “cute” to describe pictures of hot people. This will give us power! Imagine that, controlling the visual space of the internet. It’s a new domain of media power. If you take an early foothold in that domain, you’ll

Testosterone and Male Homosexuality

It’s assumed that gay men’s higher testosterone levels help cause their actual gayness. But it could also be that those members of the actually gay population that have high testosterone levels (and thus higher sex drives) are far more likely to come out. They’re more likely to come out because sex is more important to them so they’re not inclined to deny themselves the sex they want, or are more likely to realise their own sexuality (unlike people with low sex drives who are often hetero by default). One small contributing factor to gay men’s high level of sexual activity cold be that they are compelled to engage in sex to affirm their identity (which is continually under threat from the heterosexist world) or to establish and maintain their contacts in the gay community (which is important when you’re in a segregated part of the population).

Multiple Causality, Sexuality

Even smart people have difficulty in dealing with the idea of multiple causality. They usually understand it, but just have trouble factoring it into their intuitive dealings. Eg in the above insight, the (probability) causality in the relationship between testosterone levels/actual homosexuality/outted homosexuality is represented like this:

[diagram]

Many more lines can be added to this graph to reflect other (probability) causality issues in homosexuality. Most people object, though. They want at least a dominant cause, even if they end up labelling it “free will” or “non-materially caused” or “uncaused”.

Gullibility; Manipulation

One thing I have to be more conscious of on my journey back from gullibility: motherfuckers always preface their comments with qualifications indicating that their opinion may actually be the opposite, or that this one opinion on the particular subject goes against the grain of their opinion on the subject in general. Sometimes they’ll even have the audacity to preface their comments with a qualification that they’re not making a comment at all! What an insult to the intelligence of their interlocutor! Trying to sneak their comments in without having to account for them
eg “I’m not bitching about…, but…” (negation of existence of comment)
“I have plenty of aboriginal friends…” (particular comment indicated as opposite in direction to general opinion.).
And yet these tactics are effective. Especially when the interlocutor is willing to be complicit in the deception because they are trusting, sympathetic to the listener, generous, or inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt because they are sensitive to being doubted/misinterpreted themselves.

The drive to work

People do things like sew, mow the lawn, cook, carve wooden figures etc as therapy, as ways to calm down. This is because we’ve evolved to have an impulse to work/be productive. When this drive is satisfied, we feel good. In some people the other drives are so repressed and/or unsatisfied that they channel these drives into work and become workaholics. And this is a socially acceptable drive to fulfil. Which causes us to lean towards capitalism. But maybe capitalism was also sly enough to make sure that this was just about the only socially acceptable drive to fulfil. Maybe the reason so many lefties are such lazy-ass potheads is that they are more in touch with their other drives. This makes them lean away form capitalism. Also, people who are less in touch with their whole range of drives are less likely to have high levels of self-esteem/security. This fits in with my idea of ambitious people/workaholics as having insecurities which they try to pave over with their success. And usually these people do not have the self-esteem to be able to have the courage to fulfil non-socially accepted drives…

Argument and emotion

Lately I’ve become much more aware of the fact that, if you’re smart enough, you can think up rational, compelling arguments for any conclusion you’re emotionally attached to. So smart people can be sucked into patterns of denial by referring to rationality as justification for their delusions. You have to be careful and explore any ulterior motives/emotional compulsion you have for reaching certain conclusions. Then you have to construct rational arguments for other conclusions and see how compelling you can make them. And, when weighing up other people’s opinions/arguments, you have to be conscious of their emotional circumstances. Hunches/intuitions are often just emotional imperatives coming into the decision-making process. But hunches are insights into what events have happened/will happen. Events – or what is the case – are things we recored/talk about/think about in terms of a rational/linear/historical/language-based discourse. So we disguise our emotions as hunches, which are meant to be rational insights into real events.

Corporations and the cyranoid effect

The reason corporations fuck everyone over so badly is that they are effectively cyranoids. The shareholders appoint the board members on the basis of these members’ ability to extract profits. But they dissociate themselves from the fact that this ability is effectively a willingness to fuck people over. All the members know is that, by hook or by crook, they have to make money for the shareholders. The shareholders want them to do whatever is necessary. Ditto member-managers, managers-employees, employees-rest of public. Ok, so not the last one. Voila! A chain of cyranoids, which, when the camera zooms out, is revealed, Voltron-like, to constitute a giant cyranoid. It has to fight the socialist cyranoid. But the socialist cyranoid is rickety. Most socialists realise they have to shelve a sense of responsibility for what they have to do to achieve their ends. SO they are drawn into cyranoid-like relationships. However, they also have a dislike for hierarchy, which makes their cyranoid fighter quite short.

Telephone numbers and the deregulation of the telephony industry

Have you noticed that Telstra is fucking around with phone numbers? I’ll list the ways they’ve fucked with phone numbers in chronological order:

1) Put a number in front of the numbers we used to have. This removes the impact that the formerly initial digits would have on our brain (called Initial Digit Impact). So we have less attachment to these 2nd digits as geographical indicators.

2) They collapsed all area codes nationwide into about 7 all up. We don’t have those as geographical indicators anymore. Of course, the area codes have been whacked on the front of the old numbers, but they have less prominence. In any case it frees up these digits for Geographical Indicator Digit Dispersion (GIDD)

3) They’ve engaged in GIDD, which is what happens when they take an interval of phone numbers, eg 97260-9, and divide this interval amongst five or six disparate areas across Sydney. This makes us hesitant to rely on the phone numbers as geographical indicators.

4) Then the fuckers put the info about what numbers are at which places in a really confusing list at the back of the whitepages.

Obviously something is afoot. They’re trying to disorient us! The 1st reason for this is that everyone has caller ID. It’s weird if everyone you call knows where you’re calling from. The 2nd reason is that there is a conspiracy being played out before our very eyes. The conspiracy is to divvy up the numbers between the phone companies. This will allow each company to own their own cables or to broadcast the call signals from their own towers or satellites. By geographically disorienting us they are forestalling future resistance to distributing phone numbers by phone company rather than location.

Gay priests

The whole spectacle, style and ethos surrounding the Catholic priesthood is one of high camp. The crucifixes! No wonder Madonna was adopted as the queen of fags post-Like a Prayer. The 12 apostles running around in the desert with Jesus! Obviously nothing other than a jack-off club. The robes and cups and tassles and flourishes and jewellery and naked statues of Jesus to masturbate over. The endless supply of compliant altar boys.

Australia's tolerance and liberalness

Australia is among the five most tolerant and liberal societies on Earth. The 1st reason for this is our wealth. The 2nd reason for it is our multiculturalism. We’ve assimilated/been exposed to so many views/methods that we are better equipped to make lifestyle/opinion choices, and to criticise these choices. (There is a slight backward-drag to conservatism caused by importing people from more conservative societies, but this is ironed out after a generation or so.) The 3rd reason for our tolerance/liberalness is the massive proportion of our population that descends from groups that are socially rebellious. Convicts were the part of the underclass that refused to be subdued by religion or externally-inspired moral compunction. They were criminals and political antagonists (often with Marxist leanings, and often with Irish- or Scottish- nationalist views). Lots of refugees were successful business people, people who were persecuted because they were prominent political or community leaders, etc, or common people who just had the good sense, wiliness and sense of daring to rort their way in as refugees. Having socially rebellious ancestors means that we’ve probably inherited their brain chemical makeup

Leg hallucinations

The reason people hallucinate about their legs all the time is because they feel less like they’re under the immediate and absolute control of the will than other parts of your body. This is because we locate our will within our heads, and more specifically, in the eye region.

The reason blackhawk helicopters keep crashing in the Southern Hemisphere is because the designers didn’t take account of the opposite swirl-direction we have down here. This interferes with the blades, thus causing the crashes.

Insanity and genius

It’s not clear whether genius causes insanity or insanity causes genius. Sometimes insanity takes the form of an over-exposure of the conscious mind to the subconscious mind. This over-exposure itself can manifest itself as a reversion to animalistic or primal behaviour, access to lightning-speed insights, etc. When it takes the form of access to insights, genius results. Sometimes genius can be the source of moments of profound insight. These insights can be so profound that the subject experiences a kind of vertigo (or speed-fear), or emotional revulsion. These two types of experiences can sometimes launch the subject into periods of insanity. Obviously there is also the possibility that these two lines of causation operate in a cycle like a bicycle pedal mechanism.

Why potsmoking is linked to triggering latent cases of schizophrenia

Your brain glimpses into the dark recesses of ignorance that are counterposed to every storehouse of knowledge you have. This is a dangerous double-knowledge that can threaten sanity itself. This double-capability coincides with the double-capability that is ambidextrousness, which is rife in the schizophrenic community.

Treatise on totalitarianism

The gravest danger to humanity in the 21st century is totalitarianism. The depth with which information can now penetrate, the absoluteness of change that technology can now effect! Any concentration in the hands of one power clustering of a form of technology that can alter individual vertices in the matrix of interdependent facts will result in civilisation’s downfall. Beware!

Disco Ball Creativity!

Put a disco ball in the middle of the room, and each person’s creativity can be a light shining on the disco ball, and beaming around the room in a melded, unitary swirl. It can symbolise the collective gush of creativity flowing from each and every person in a democracy! For what is democracy but a structure facilitating the collective gush of creativity? What would be the point of democracy if not that?