You can measure the mental health of a person by their distance from the natural (taoist) viewpoint. From “child” to “intellectual”, you climb the stairs of perception all the way to a crushing, recursive self-referential meta-awareness. 1: Describe the world as it appears to you → Describe the world as it is → describe the world as social reality dictates it is → describe the world in a manner which signals that which social reality deems to be valuable. 2: Animalistic → Aware of others → Aware of self → Judging oneself from others perspective.
Climbing up any such stairs is psychologically unhealthy. The sheer distance between the map and the territory is dangerous, the movement from “concrete” to “abstract” is unhealthy. One descends into idealism because one forgets the bounds of reality. (I think one might solve problems on the map and then force them on the territory, which doesn’t work). Communism is an example, it only works in theory, and this theory is not bound to reality. It’s a disconnect with reality, with the self, and with the moment. You can argue it’s the best for scientific advancement, but I will draw a rather extreme conclusion here: “Progressives have poor mental health and a dangerously detached worldview compared to conservatives because they climb up these hierarchies of thought, awareness and metas/self-reference”. Know about “ironic” memes? “shitposting”? “deepfried memes”? Look at the sort of people who posts them. Look how nihilistic they are. Look how they mock everything, themselves included. Notice how people like this post about politics more often than other people you know. Notice how they’re less optimistic about the future, notice that they’re vulgar because of pathological desensitization. The Youtube channel “JREG” takes it further. He teaches people that this way of thinking is bad for you by engaging in this thinking in a way which is bad for him and showing you how it harms him. This is the only way he can communicate it. I’m not quoting his videos here, I don’t even need to watch them, I can tell by the thumbnail alone. I don’t know if he even realizes all this by himself. Philosophy itself is filled with unhealthy people. They reflect, they reflect even on their reflections. They think they are learning more about life, but they are further away from life than any of us. At best, these pitiful types end up writing books, and these books are the interpretation of the Rorschach inkblot that is life. In other words, philosophical works are a kind of unintentional journaling or self-diagnosis. Of course, reflection is caused by suffering, so it’s not only that reflection results in a viewpoint which brings suffering. But you’re in trouble when this reflection doesn’t decrease by itself once your suffering is over, as you get a general increase over time which is sooner or later too much. Two other signs of bad mental health are: 1: Labeling oneself or defining oneself by one or a few things, identifying with one or a few things. (Healthy viewpoints are holistic) 2: Seeking or optimizing for surface-level metrics. Max(Happiness), max(morality), min(suffering), max(equality), or worse of them all, min(negative emotion) (also, blaming other people for your own emotions).
“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” ″A person of knowledge and self-opinion will be hindered from the enlightenment of Tao”
So what’s going on? It seems that the psychological effects of the fruit from the tree of knowledge can be superimposed on itself. Awareness, Meta-awareness, Meta-meta-awareness. It may also be that “good and evil” itself is changing, going further up the simulacra-hierarchy. People living simpler lives, and just simple people in general, seem less burdened/affected by this.
Psychological observations:
You can measure the mental health of a person by their distance from the natural (taoist) viewpoint. From “child” to “intellectual”, you climb the stairs of perception all the way to a crushing, recursive self-referential meta-awareness.
1: Describe the world as it appears to you → Describe the world as it is → describe the world as social reality dictates it is → describe the world in a manner which signals that which social reality deems to be valuable.
2: Animalistic → Aware of others → Aware of self → Judging oneself from others perspective.
Climbing up any such stairs is psychologically unhealthy. The sheer distance between the map and the territory is dangerous, the movement from “concrete” to “abstract” is unhealthy. One descends into idealism because one forgets the bounds of reality. (I think one might solve problems on the map and then force them on the territory, which doesn’t work). Communism is an example, it only works in theory, and this theory is not bound to reality.
It’s a disconnect with reality, with the self, and with the moment. You can argue it’s the best for scientific advancement, but I will draw a rather extreme conclusion here: “Progressives have poor mental health and a dangerously detached worldview compared to conservatives because they climb up these hierarchies of thought, awareness and metas/self-reference”.
Know about “ironic” memes? “shitposting”? “deepfried memes”? Look at the sort of people who posts them. Look how nihilistic they are. Look how they mock everything, themselves included. Notice how people like this post about politics more often than other people you know. Notice how they’re less optimistic about the future, notice that they’re vulgar because of pathological desensitization.
The Youtube channel “JREG” takes it further. He teaches people that this way of thinking is bad for you by engaging in this thinking in a way which is bad for him and showing you how it harms him. This is the only way he can communicate it. I’m not quoting his videos here, I don’t even need to watch them, I can tell by the thumbnail alone. I don’t know if he even realizes all this by himself.
Philosophy itself is filled with unhealthy people. They reflect, they reflect even on their reflections. They think they are learning more about life, but they are further away from life than any of us. At best, these pitiful types end up writing books, and these books are the interpretation of the Rorschach inkblot that is life. In other words, philosophical works are a kind of unintentional journaling or self-diagnosis.
Of course, reflection is caused by suffering, so it’s not only that reflection results in a viewpoint which brings suffering. But you’re in trouble when this reflection doesn’t decrease by itself once your suffering is over, as you get a general increase over time which is sooner or later too much.
Two other signs of bad mental health are:
1: Labeling oneself or defining oneself by one or a few things, identifying with one or a few things. (Healthy viewpoints are holistic)
2: Seeking or optimizing for surface-level metrics. Max(Happiness), max(morality), min(suffering), max(equality), or worse of them all, min(negative emotion) (also, blaming other people for your own emotions).
“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”
″A person of knowledge and self-opinion will be hindered from the enlightenment of Tao”
So what’s going on? It seems that the psychological effects of the fruit from the tree of knowledge can be superimposed on itself. Awareness, Meta-awareness, Meta-meta-awareness. It may also be that “good and evil” itself is changing, going further up the simulacra-hierarchy. People living simpler lives, and just simple people in general, seem less burdened/affected by this.