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A Different Way of Being

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This doesn’t work with people who are not fighting for material considerations, and people almost never fight for material considerations.

We’ve seen the exact same problem with both the Biden and the Trump administrations being utterly unable to comprehend the nature of Russia’s war against Ukraine and Ukraine’s response. Both administrations have tried to explain the war in the terms that they understand, but those terms are completely alien to the people whose behavior they were trying to analyze. The two administrations were different in that they applied a different set of terms to explain the Russia-Ukraine war. But both were completely wrong, as we have seen time and again.

Now the Trump administration is doing the same regarding Iran. This is the “replaceable widget” theory of the mind that I keep talking about. People never manage to liberate themselves from the need to project their own way of being onto other cultures, nations, and historical eras. The biggest (and also the hardest to access) opportunity for personal development is to understand that the architecture of other people’s minds can be completely different from our own.

34 responses to “A Different Way of Being”

  1. PaulS Avatar
    PaulS

    Material considerations very much are important in conflicts. The point people are confused about in SA is that black people are far more likely to attack black immigrants who compete for their jobs rather than white people who provide employment.

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  2. Avi Avatar
    Avi

    “The biggest (and also the hardest to access) opportunity for personal development is to understand that the architecture of other people’s minds can be completely different from our own.”

    This.

    I’m thirstying for this type of insight in your book. Hope it comes out soon(ISH) enough.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. PaulS Avatar
    PaulS

    Trump, Biden, and Putin are all fighting the same thing. Old age. Which unfortunately comes to everyone.

    https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/Editorials/rw-johnson-one-south-africa-s-greatest-modern-thinkers-has

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      True, but so what? There are millions of young and very young people in Russia who feel exactly the same as Putin and worse. None of this is remotely caused by Putin. All Putin wants is not to become the next Gaddafi. The war is his only chance to do that. He’s not causing it. He didn’t cause Russia’s endless aggression during the Cold War. He didn’t cause Stalinism. He didn’t cause Stalin’s engineering of World War II. This is not about Putin. If only it were, that would be wonderful, but he is only a tiny symptom of a much, much larger problem.

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      1. PaulS Avatar
        PaulS

        I suspect a major issue is that they never developed sports teams to get behind. It’s interesting that communist countries despite their collectivist ideology mostly focused on individual sports and are hopeless at team sports.

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        1. cliff arroyo Avatar
          cliff arroyo

          “they never developed sports teams to get behind”

          Where on earth did you get that idea? It’s not true at all. At one point I could name a few teams in the soviet soccer leagues (dynamo, lokomotiv and spartak are the ones I remember). Hockey was also big. Basketball and handball as well…

          Team sports were a big deal in all Iron Curtain countries.

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. PaulS Avatar
            PaulS

            I got the idea by comparing their olympic vs world cup performance.

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          2. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            I spent my entire childhood going to soccer and hockey games with my dad. People used their support for sports teams as a way of expressing nationalist feelings without being persecuted by the authorities. When a Ukrainian team played against a Russian team, it was not remotely just about the sport. The intensity of the hatred for the Russian team was off the charts.

            It is not surprising then that it was precisely soccer fans who first repelled an attempted Russian invasion in 2014 in Kharkiv. And it was soccer fans who first created the nickname khuilo for Putin.

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        2. oldcowboy3 Avatar
          oldcowboy3

          LOL, Canucks can assure you that the USSR took their hockey teams seriously ;-D

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            VERY seriously.

            Liked by 1 person

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            1. oldcowboy3 Avatar
              oldcowboy3

              Yeah, and so did most of us. Cournoyer to Henderson scoring with less than a minute left ;-D

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              1. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                My father could recite every USSR Canada game, play by play, decades later. They were that vivid in his mind.

                Liked by 1 person

      2. ed Avatar
        ed

        I think he’s just completely and utterly stuck in Iran and is just trying to appear strong.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Yes, and the total lack of understanding of the opponent is why he is completely and utterly stuck.

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          1. ed Avatar
            ed

            He killed the current leader’s family, bombed a school full of school children. Blood has been spilled, and he expects the Iranians to just cut a deal?

            This goes well beyond misunderstanding your opponent, this is blissful ignorance.

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            1. cliff arroyo Avatar
              cliff arroyo

              “this is blissful ignorance”

              I’m not going to try to diagnose what’s wrong with him, but the symptom seems to be a fundamental inability to perceive other people… as people. That’s behind his terrible choices of advisors and emissaries (like the pathologically stupid Witkoff and grifting bungler Kushner) and chaotic mood swings.

              Lots of sources say he freaks out when anyone around him seems to know more about any subject than he does and he gets rid of them asap, so he ends up making decisions from a position of ignorance.

              He genuinely doesn’t understand why European countries don’t want to join a facultative war after he spent a good period of time threatening and insulting them and theatening to anex parts of them by force.

              That’s not going to change. I’m thinking the Iran conflict is the new normal and won’t be over by 2028.

              And it’s not like the democrats have anybody better on tap…

              End the nation state and end your last hope of competent governance.

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              1. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                I have no idea how this can be solved in a positive way at the moment. Even Israel seems to have lost interest and prefers that the U.S. muddle along by itself.

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              2. ed Avatar
                ed

                Very insightful as always Cliff. I agree there is something pathologically wrong with Trump where he can’t see anything beyond just a business deal, even in the extreme case where he has killed and spilled innocent blood.

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              3. ed Avatar
                ed

                “I have no idea how this can be solved in a positive way at the moment. Even Israel seems to have lost interest and prefers that the U.S. muddle along by itself.”

                Nothing good will come from this for the USA. Oil strategic reserves are at historical lows with gas prices increasing, this war is costing over 100 billion dollars, and our deficit has never been worse.

                The solution is we cut our losses and run. But same as Putin, these egomaniacs just can’t seem to do that when that’s the right thing to do.

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              4. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                I don’t think that that’s possible anymore. Things have shifted in the direction from which you cannot go back to the status quo. Iran will now hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage. They have been strengthened by this whole thing and want to enjoy the consequences of that strengthening.

                Putin also can’t stop because that simply means he will die.

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              5. ed Avatar
                ed

                “I don’t think that that’s possible anymore. Things have shifted in the direction from which you cannot go back to the status quo. Iran will now hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage. They have been strengthened by this whole thing and want to enjoy the consequences of that strengthening.

                Putin also can’t stop because that simply means he will die.”

                It is definitely possible, but it will mean the end of American hegemony and involvement in the middle east. What’s so bad about that? I initially cheered Trump’s America first foreign policy, it made sense. Cutting and running and letting Israel and the rest of the middle east handle their problems is not only possible, it’s the right thing for America.

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              6. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Because it won’t bring the gas prices down, and if it’s not going to bring the gas prices down, then what’s the point of accepting the L?

                The U.S. hasn’t been involved in the Middle East for fun this whole time. It was done to avoid the repeat of the oil crisis of the 1970s. Removing the U.S. control over the region means we will permanently be in the state of the 1970s oil crisis. That crisis is what brought us neoliberalism. It completely reshaped the world. Agreeing to make it permanent is insanity.

                Middle East’s problems are our problems because of that.

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              7. ed Avatar
                ed

                “Because it won’t bring the gas prices down, and if it’s not going to bring the gas prices down, then what’s the point of accepting the L?

                The U.S. hasn’t been involved in the Middle East for fun this whole time. It was done to avoid the repeat of the oil crisis of the 1970s. Removing the U.S. control over the region means we will permanently be in the state of the 1970s oil crisis. That crisis is what brought us neoliberalism. It completely reshaped the world. Agreeing to make it permanent is insanity.

                Middle East’s problems are our problems because of that.”

                You’re glossing over the entire thing that’s different than the 1970s: we’re now fully energy independent and are the top exporter in the world right now. We don’t need the middle east for our energy needs.

                Also, why isn’t China and other countries that get most of their oil from the middle east not doing anything if that’s so critical to oil prices? It really isn’t critical the USA be involved there at all.

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              8. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Sadly, we are not energy independent. This is a fake stat that glosses over the fact that we import vast amounts of crude oil. When we are told that we are energy-independent, the conclusion is arrived at by adding together all of the different types of energy-related materials. The problem is they’re not interchangeable. Brent can’t be replaced with bitumen. So it’s all one big talking point that is not grounded in reality.

                Another issue is that unless the US government fully nationalizes the oil industry, there is no way of preventing domestic producers from selling to foreign buyers. If the global prices are better than the domestic

                As for China’s utter incapacity to be anything but a follower, I don’t know enough about the culture to explain why that happens, but the fact that it does happen is very clear.

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              9. ed Avatar
                ed

                “Sadly, we are not energy independent. This is a fake stat that glosses over the fact that we import vast amounts of crude oil. When we are told that we are energy-independent, the conclusion is arrived at by adding together all of the different types of energy-related materials. The problem is they’re not interchangeable. Brent can’t be replaced with bitumen. So it’s all one big talking point that is not grounded in reality.”

                Over 80% of the oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz goes to Asia, not America. If Hormuz is an existential threat to the global economy, it’s time for the countries actually buying that oil to build the fleets and spend the blood and treasure to secure it. The U.S. should not be subsidizing the Middle East’s security just to keep China’s lights on. This is NOT America first.

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              10. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Or China can simply buy the oil that is in the market at higher prices. It’s a totalitarian regime. The population will eat the higher cost and stay silent. In America, exploiting the dramatically higher gas prices to the voters will be a lot harder.

                We live in a globalized economy. There is no such thing as a national oil market. It’s all completely internationalized.

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              11. oldcowboy3 Avatar
                oldcowboy3

                “…so he ends up making decisions from a position of ignorance.”

                Yes, in the areas where I know for certain on Canadian/American trade matters, he seems either ridiculously ignorant or deliberately nasty. Canadian lefty politicians certainly do not help the situation, but his tariff bullshit is seriously harming both nations economically.

                Liked by 1 person

              12. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                Absolutely, that’s another great example. And it’s a darn shame.

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            2. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              It all started with the ridiculous idea that the Iranians hated their leadership and wanted to be liberated from the current regime. I said from the beginning that this was deeply moronic. Ignorance, cultural incompetence, stupid hiring decisions, and here we are.

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          2. ed Avatar
            ed

            The Iranians want their pound of flesh and blood:

            “The war has taken a personal toll on the president and some of his senior advisers. Some top aides have been advised by intelligence agencies that the Iranians are seeking to kill them and have been told to stop taking car services, according to people familiar with the matter. “

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  4. PaulS Avatar
    PaulS

    China has massive oil reserves. They’ve cut back on imports which is why the oil price hasn’t gone as high as expected, but if the current situation persists and they are forced to buy more the price could go much higher.

    https://www.ft.com/content/ef6f00c5-4f2d-4fd3-a6cc-f65081bb1248?syn-25a6b1a6=1

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      True. If that happens and the global price goes up, what is to prevent the US producers from selling their oil overseas at a higher price? The only way to prevent them from doing that is to nationalize the American oil industry. That means America turns into Venezuela.

      That nobody took all of these painfully obvious issues into consideration before starting the war against Iran is not unexpected but still disappointing.

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      1. PaulS Avatar
        PaulS

        If US oil was nationalised it would never have produced enough to have anything to export so another solution would be needed anyway.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Of course. That’s precisely why nobody in their right mind will do it.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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