[newsletter]
The 'self' is a greedy bastard
5 Dec 2020
Hello,
New articles:
States of Consciousness: We all seem to recognise the fact that some states of consciousness are clearly preferable and others clearly aren’t. Yet, the conventional wisdom usually stops short of actually illuminating a benefit or describing how to get there and our therapeutic interventions are slow, difficult, or both. More interesting still are those states of mind that are at once taboo and alluring—the infamous ‘altered states of consciousness’. These states we feel most ambivalent about appear to sometimes have the most profound effects on our perception and behaviour, beyond anything the traditional therapies and popular wisdom might have to offer. I have some ideas about why.
Full article at bottom of email
It’s a bit of a monster.
New article on how unimportant the self really is.
Recently updated:
Updates to Female Zealots: more cultures, and more political subjugation.
Links worth checking out:
Welcome to the new Middle Ages: “Rising inequality, lower mobility, contempt for the poor and widespread celibacy — we’re returning to the past”.
Elite overproduction: “Graduates have multiplied faster than the room at the top… The result is a stock of nearly-men and women whose relationship with their own class sours from peripheral membership to vicious resentment. If this coincides with a bad time for the general standard of living, there is an alliance to be formed between these snubbed insiders and the more legitimately aggrieved masses.” Professor Turchin notes that this marginalisation of certain segments of the elite class has a heavy hand in many of our modern problems, from Brexit to far-right populism to the most problematic aspects of ‘woke culture’. This article is behind a paywall, so I’ll also link Turchin’s website—he has a bunch of articles on his popular posts page that relate to his theory of elite overproduction.
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You can find links to all my previous emails to you here.
That’s all from me! Enjoy.
Warm regards,
Dorian
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This week’s article selection: States of Mind
You’re reading this on the site, so you can just go to the article.