Psychology
Why people do things they don't like.
It baffles me to this day. Why do people do things they don't benefit from? More so, things that hurt them? I mean, I know we are supposed to give to other people, but we should never give if it will hurt ourselves (well, mostly...an old person dying for a young person is often worth it imo). So, why do people do things they don't want to? That they gain very little from.
My theory.
Like most human beings, there are certain things that I fear/do not look forward to. However, when those occurances happen, I end up wondering why I was scared/not looking forward to the event in the first place. My theory, in uncomfortable situations, is that the anticipation of the event is more uncomfortable than the actual event.
Why parents give lots of gifts to children who dislike them
If I somehow felt that I could tell them what I wanted, I would tell my parents that I couldn't think of much that they could actively do to make me like them. I would say that I wanted to move away from them (Ignore whether I would go to school in the place I moved to; if my parents suddenly changed like this, they would also get me out of school or put me in one that I wanted to go to.) and stop communicating with them. This would make me much happier, but it alone wouldn't really make me like them.
Jung/Briggs-Meyers Test
About two years ago, there was a thread here that had people's results for a personality test. The results were somewhat surprising to me, but suggested that people on this site are somewhat unusual compared to a general population. I don't want to be too specific here, because I'd like to see if the results can be replicated, or if it was just a weird coincidence.
Flow
flow sounds somewhat similar to the state of gnosis. It's very interesting. It's the feeling I get whenever I'm totally immersed in a ritual I'm performing or I'm really in deep to a sigil. Just total focus on the activity at hand. Very freeing.
Autoterrorism
Why do we do things? I beleive it is because of fear. Why do Christains worship God? For fear of going to Hell. Why do we work so hard? We fear failure. I don't call it fear, though - I think Autoterrorism would be a better term. Auto, meaning "self". Terrorism, using fear to get what you want. Applying fear on yourself to get what you want.
Needs to be said.
I've learned to ignore it, but really, why do people insist on reminding people of bad things we do? It forces the person into a defensive stance. They either must choose to admit that it's wrong, or defend it. If they are willing to admit it's wrong, they will do it anyway and feel no shame or guilt. It they defend it, they will feel it is part of their identity, and keep doing it, as to not feel the loss of losing part of their identity. Telling someone what they are doing is bad, does nothing but make them keep doing it.
Stop doing painful things
Apparently, some people need to exercise to the point of pain in order to be healthy. Should we stop doing things when they become painful? Should these people keep exercising?
I am a hypocrite
I always talked about not caring what others think. Yet I still have. I may reject negative criticism, but I've thrived for praise. All I can think about is being the best. showing everyone that I am good has driven my ambitions for a while now. I may have stopped conforming to the preps and the jocks, but I've conformed to you guys. I know have to deal with the confusion of not knowing what I like, cause the only reasons I can find for my hobbies is being good at them. Hell I don't even know why I'm saying this to you, I have no reason to.
Conventional Wisdom about Stepping out of your Comfort Zone
I've had many people tell me that you need to do things that are uncomfortable in order to grow or whatever, but I've recently been thinking that you don't actually need to. Either that, or the degree to which you have to be uncomfortable is so little that it seems insignificant but adds up over time.
So, like, you have to go without things that make you comfortable or you have to fill roles that you don't totally find comfortable at first, and then you find them comfortable later.
Mid-life crisis
I think a lot of it is due to a person realizing that they spent all that time on stuff that didn't really matter after all, and they feel a strong urge to change their way of life. However, due to being conditioned for so many years, they can't even put their feelings into words, and thus, a term "mid-life crisis" was born, and is now used as a convenient "phase" with which to explain away those very legitimate feelings.
Punishment vs. Incentive
I've just been thinking about this topic and figured it'd make for a good discussion here...
Which do you think would be best for motivating individuals, punishment for not doing the task or incentive for completion?
Brainwashing
I wasn't actually set out to call this brainwashing, but now that I think about it that pretty much is a basis for all of it.
Why is the oppressive school system allowed to continue to begin with? Is it because we're stupid? No, we're not stupid. Is it because it's really, REALLY enforced?
Partially, but this only somewhat explains it.
Only one-third of adults can reason formally
I was reading this wikipedia article, and it had a link to this page, stating that 2 thirds of adults don't properly complete the developmental stage before puberty, and therefore can't actually reason logically. As in, they are not physically capable. That's a scary thought.
"Depression"
Some of my friends have parents rich enough to give them psychiatrists. What I find funny is they're all being treated for "depression". Everyone I know who gets any kind of mental help at all has been diagnosed with "depression". This is kinda funny, but also sorta sick if you ask me. I know that if my folks had the money for that kind of thing I'd be popping pills like nobodies business. It seems like anyone who isn't completely complacent is mentaly damaged nowadays. Any imput?
"good habits" and other worthlessness
another thing which needs to be abolished is this concept of being polite. unless you've experienced truly terrible things, you're likely to be polite anyway. but if somebody is doing things to you which the teacher doesn't notice, and you respond with 'fuck off', they reprimand you and even punish you. you have the right to be human, it's only because they don't like it
emotion control
a few weeks ago i was reading some pages on empathy, and since a few days ago i've been noticing a lot of things i never paid attention to before. like how restaurants, cellphone shops, and many, many ads have photos of people smiling for no apparent reason. why is that? they're not showing off the products that way. those photos are there to subconsciously make the viewer feel the same emotion that it looks like the person in the photo is feeling. so when you look at the ad, or the large posters in the restaraunt, it "makes" you "feel" happy - even if you weren't happy before.
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