Stefan's article about LiberatingMinds and me

Zebra Foal · Number of posts: 877 Registration date: 2007-08-16

Patience wrote:

Does Nexus appear anywhere else in the list?

There are 261 anagrams of SM that include the word nexus.... anything in particular that you'd care to see....?

ExyPhylo · Number of posts: 1180 Registration date: 2007-12-12

Lame Xenon Fusty
Nasty Flume Oxen
Anus Often Xylem

Patience · Number of posts: 367 Location: England Registration date: 2008-08-26

Oh no, much worse. Forget Nexus!

Stewart · Number of posts: 1186 Location: Boston, MA Registration date: 2008-04-03

Static4367 wrote:

So where does one find these women with healthy doses of skepticism scratch

Women's colleges! Smile

Stewart · Number of posts: 1186 Location: Boston, MA Registration date: 2008-04-03

Zebra Foal wrote:

What does/would your wife say about this self-description? Would she construe it the same way?

No, she would be far more charitable to me. But I think we marry people who see the best in us, even if that means that they sometimes don't see the worst.

Static4367

Stewart wrote:

Static4367 wrote:

So where does one find these women with healthy doses of skepticism scratch

Women's colleges! Smile

I have a coworker who went to a womens college, she said they were all lesbians pale

Stewart · Number of posts: 1186 Location: Boston, MA Registration date: 2008-04-03

Static4367 wrote:

I have a coworker who went to a womens college, she said they were all lesbians

OHHHHHH.... affraid

Static4367

Stewart wrote:

Static4367 wrote:

I have a coworker who went to a womens college, she said they were all lesbians

OHHHHHH.... affraid

Not that there's anything wrong with that Very Happy

Conrad

Stewart wrote:

Conrad wrote:

Stewart, I'm curious as to how much you are serious about this remark. You mentioned narcissism twice re yourself, but perhaps you did so jokingly. If not, can you say more?

I don't think there's a lot of merit to labels like 'narcissist', beyond their ability to neatly classify people in general terms. Since they are behaviorally diagnosed, and vaguely-defined, psychological disorders seem more like convenient narratives to me than the diseases that they are conventionally treated as.

quite true I think, though if the narrative is a name for a type of psychological structure that appears in many different people and in many different circumstances, then this constancy is enough reason to at least 'label'the damn thing, and then it is interesting to see whether regularities (qua physical cause, or qua other narrative) can be found in terms of causes and effects and contexts etc.

Quote:

Having said that, I guess I'm half serious about the self-application. I'm not sure that I'd be professionally diagnosed with NPD. I probably wouldn't. But I'm more than a little aware of my own tendencies toward self-importance and self-absorption.

I am very interested in this and it may be best to start a new thread about it.

How do these tendencies manifest themselves? Specifically, you mentioned before that if you had like the same amount of 'power'or influence or position as e.g. Stef has it might get to your head too: what kinds of things do you think you would do in such a situation that you would in your current situation find unhealthy or silly or bad?

Does your g/f think the same thing, that you have such tendencies? Does she have to deal with sort of the proto-tendencies?

Quote:

I tend towards a lack of empathy for people in pain, although I'm highly sympathetic to them in the abstract. I love rule-based and hypothetical systems. I have very little in the way of personal attachments. I rarely experience grief or other strong emotions.

in what kinds of situations do you or have you experienced grief?

Quote:

Apart from my wife, I have no close friends to speak of.

I sort of have the same feeling when I'm with Zeb: no real need for close friends or anything. Sure, it's nice to see people, laugh with them etc., but i don't feel a lot of need to see other people when I'm with Zeb

Quote:

That last paragraph makes it sounds like I have Asperger's (another label I see little use for), but it's not like that. I'm great at parties! I'm a sort of chameleon when it comes to interpersonal relationships. I find myself becoming whomever the other person seems to want me to be. I unconsciously pick up other people's mannerisms (and even accents) within a few hours. When people don't warm up to me, or don't seem interested in what I'm saying, I get pretty nasty.

in what way? becoming very direct about boredom etc.?
do you ever say things to intentionally hurt somebidy, or is it more that you don't bother to adhere to social niceties at moments like that, so not make an effort to be nice, but also no effort to hurt?

You might remember a few months ago, in another conversation about Molyneux, I mentioned that I was simultaneously jealous and disgusted by the adoration that he receives from his little band of followers. I'm conscious of how dangerous and wasteful his behavior is, but I'm pretty sure that I could be at least as bad as Molyneux if I found myself in a similar opportunity. I don't think that's likely to happen, because at least I have a level of self-awareness that he doesn't seem to possess. I'm also not nearly so convincing--or nearly so full of bullshit--as him. So at least I have that going for me Wink

[/quote]
ah, see above

SteveL · Number of posts: 220 Location: Toronto Registration date: 2008-06-04

David J. Heinrich wrote:

From what I can remember, Molyneux has never contributed any substantial discussion to the Libertarian Forum google group. I suppose the rough-and-tumble environment is too much for him, or the fact that there are serious luminaries posting there intimidates him. [...]

That's how I saw it, too.

Conrad

you know the forum of which we speak and of which we must not speak any further?

NadineLeBean

the purpose of medicine is not health. Could be quite the opposite. There is no such thing as a medicine without side effects. Medicine masks the pain and usually does not get to the root cause. Masking pain can be especially harmful.

Danny Shahar · Number of posts: 948 Registration date: 2007-12-30

Well but the purpose of medicine is to produce health. In the same way, medicine which masks useful pain and harms its users is failed medicine (to use Aristotle's terminology, it is homonymously medicine).

NadineLeBean

I don't think so.

ExyPhylo · Number of posts: 1180 Registration date: 2007-12-12

NadineLebean:
Are you speaking of medicine as in drugs or as in practice?