Sunday, June 07, 2009

Peak oil, sustainability and the problem of freedom

In lieu of my weekly posting, I'm linking to a guest post I wrote for The Oil Drum entitled "Peak Oil, Sustainability and the Problem of Freedom" which was posted today. Here is the lede:
In the film "A Beautiful Mind" the putative hero is John Nash, the Nobel prize-winning mathematician who struggles with paranoid schizophrenia and ultimately overcomes it. The same John Nash early in his career created a model of human behavior that lives on in our institutions and policies and which has significantly constricted our views of human freedom. So says a BBC documentary series entitled "The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom."....Read more
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4 comments:

Andrea Muhrrteyn said...

Kurt,

1. The issue of John's alleged 'paranoid schizophrenia'; ain't -- based upon my reading -- necessarily remotely 'true'; although of course there are many who at that time, and subsequent to their decisions, prefer not to say 'we misdiagnosed, partly as a result of 'national security related' issues' and Nash was 'sacrificed'.

2. Two concepts of liberty, and Nash's prisoners dillema. I do not allege that there aren't many whose worldview is motivated by the Nashian game theory rules, that no cooperation exists. Their psychological relations are predominantly motivated by their 'perceived self interest'.. I say 'perceived' because for many, many, many people -- the Sufi's allege 92% -- their 'perceived' interest is what they have been brainwshed to believe is 'their interest' and which they have without any serious enquiry adopted as 'my interest'; thinking they themselves made such deicsions, when they simply passively accepted the brainwashinig applied to them (see father of Public RElations propaganda - Bernays: The Century of the Self).

For more on the psyhcological root cuase issues, that are manipulated by corporate and goverment psychologists who not only use these psychological insecurities within the 92% 'debt slaves/proles' but actually incorporate educational principles to exploit and aggravate these insecurities, so as to make people more insecure, and accordingly then within the 'problem-reaction-solution' paradigm to sell them the 'fake solution' to their insecurities.... read:

** Obedience to Authority, by Stanley Milgram
** Escape from Freedom, by Erich Fromm

Personally, I think your hopes for a stable industrial society, are pretty much a pipe dream... considering principles above.....

Andrea Muhrrteyn said...

2. As for: changing how people think about freedom NOW....

I wish it were different, and perhaps one day it may be.. but my experience is that for about 92% of the population... their concepts of political 'freedom' are not remotely a priority to them; they are more than happy to give up freedoms, in eschange for 'security'; and like one man once said.. if you want 'security' go to prison.. so they will continue giving up freedoms, until they stand infront of their camp sign -- like many good insecure Jews did -- and read the sign: ARBEID MACHT FREI!

And perhaps, then.. they may ponder on the principles of exisential freedom; like Viktor Frankl did...

I personaly don't think ecoystem collapse can be forestalled; in my view, overshoot has occured, and the runaway train ain't got any breaks, and nothing could stop it; the only thing that can happen is that it can aggravated.. So my view is don't attempt to try and stop it, instead hope and work for it to come sooner than later...

Lets rather crash the runaway train, at 40 miles an hour, and hope we jump into a pond.. than at 80 miles an hour, and land on a cactus! If you get my meaning!

You can also try a few different forms of psychology; that are less 'passive aggressive manipulative'... even if you think they are dominated by 'reason' and 'logic'.. For some, such attempts to convince them to change hteir behaviour is simply passive aggressive manipulation...

Timothy Robbins has the following treatment for addicts. A man comes to him and says, I am addicted to chocolate, and I need your help to quit.

Kurt would chat to him, about the rational and logical reasons for how chocoate makes him fat, makes him feel ill, is not healthy etc... all based on reason and logic .. blah, blah...

Robbins says 'fuck that'. Robbins suggests he go to the store, and buy enough chocolate to overdose on. To then go home and eat chocolate non-stop, until he pukes, and then to eat some more, and to eat and eat chocolate, until he pukes so bad, and while he is puking and puking his stomach out, from the chocolate, to focus on the smell of the puke, the sensations in his body, how he feels and to remember those sensations....

Then next day, or weeks later, when he feels like a chocolate, to think about what that puke smelled like...!

Hope thats helpful! If not... put it in a memory bank, it will be oneday! ;-)

Lara

Kurt Cobb said...

I appreciate the thoughtful comments. While I'm rethinking things, I think I'm going to go out and buy some chocolate. :)

Andrea Muhrrteyn said...

Hey Kurt,

No worries, yeah not nice.. but some addictons are hard to break...

Anyway, here is my most recent effort to wake up the moron imbeciles to some in your face lateral thinking Patch Adams... reality... So if you find anything useful there.. run with it, and if not.. just ignore! ;-)

Letter to Nobel Institute: Norwegian Nobel Committee:

Notice of Legal and Political Request to:

(I) Withdraw Nobel Peace Prize’s from Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, for (a) Intellectual Dishonesty & Hypocrisy; (b) Moral, Political and Religious Prostitution; and (c) ‘TRC-RSA’ Fraud and Betrayal; and

(II) Accept Nobel Peace Prize Nominations for Dr. Albert Bartlett; Dr. Garret James Harden, and Dr. M. King Hubbert, for Intellectually Honest and Politically Honourable Ecologically Sustainable, Human Rights, Peace and Social Justice Advocacy.