The importance of critical thinking - Andrew Doyle

#society #individualism

According to the National Institutes of Health, millennials are three times more likely to suffer from narcissistic personality disorder than those of the baby boomer generation. Writers such as Peter Whittle, Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett have traced the rise of hyper-individualism in Western culture. One particular study revealed that in 1950 only 12 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement ‘I am a very important person’. By 1990, this figure had risen to 80 per cent and the trajectory shows no signs of stopping

https://andrewdoyle.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-critical-thinking

The importance of critical thinking

An excerpt from my book “The New Puritans”.

https://odysee.com/@thelivingphilosophy:f/the-homelessness-crisis-%E2%80%94-where:b
#individualism #collectivism #philosophy #critique #bootstraps

The Homelessness Crisis — Where Individualism Breaks Down

"When all you have is a hammer every problem begins to look like a nail." Good philosophy is always trying to break up and recreate its map of the world. In this episode we are going to break up the I...

Capitalism Hits Home:

Individualism is a Capitalist Deception

https://youtu.be/vur1Yvj7WGo

#CapitalismHitsHome #capitalism #individualism

George Orwell on background music

The music-and if possible it should be the same music for everybody-is the most important ingredient. Its function is to prevent thought and conversation, and to shut out any natural sound, such as the song of birds or the whistling of the wind, that might otherwise intrude. The radio is already consciously used for this purpose by innumerable people. In very many English homes the radio is literally never turned off, though it is manipulated from time to time so as to make sure that only light music will come out of it. I know people who will keep the radio playing all through a meal and at the same time continue talking just loudly enough for the voices and the music to cancel out. This is done with a definite purpose. The music prevents the conversation from becoming serious or even coherent, while the chatter of voices stops one from listening attentively to the music and thus prevents the onset of that dreaded thing, thought. For

The lights must never go out.
The music must always play,
Lest we should see where we are;
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the dark
Who have never been happy or good.

George Orwell, Pleasure Spots (1946)

#george #orwell #music #thought #conversation #consciousness #collectivism #individualism

#Libertarianism doesn't work
#Individualism doesn't work.
more on the demise of sears from Beverly Dir
"Ayn Rand's - Sears Demise began much earlier.
Sears followed #Reagan's Union Busting and Lifetime Firing of 11,364 Experienced Professional Air Traffic Controllers who went on strike due to under staffing and wide spread fatigue which caused unsafe working conditions in the air traffic control system for in- flight plane accidents. There have been 22 near misses this year. Reagan's undermining of unions was also the Demise of the Middle Class.
1) In the late 1970s Sacramento, Sears "laid off" their BEST large appliance repairman & retained or hired young inexperienced cheaper repairmen.
2) In the 1990s, Raley's Supermarket, now with 129 Supermarkets worth $1.4 Billion did the same thing. Raley's grocery store CEO Mike Raley Teel is the wealthiest man in Sacramento according to Forbes, worth $ 940 Million. Despite the Corporate and Individual wealth, Teel with 92% ownership, cut the hours of all Senior staff with 10 years or more working for Raley's, from 40 hours weekly to 24 hours weekly, so that Raley's did NOT have to contribute as much to the employees retirement fund.
3) Our son worked for Raley's Bel Air Supermarkets for 26 years as the graveyard warehouse receiving and stocking crew manager, and he was also assigned to various stores to "clean up & reorganize" departments like the biggest money making liquor departments.
4) Raley's not only cut Workers' weekly hours and income, but workers consequently lost family medical benefits.
5) Our son had three kids to support, some older staff had kids in college who were forced to drop out, and some employees lost their homes through no fault of their own.
6) Our son and our grandkids were on the brink of homelessness were forced to move out of expensive California to a cheaper, but lower wage State on the East Coast.
7) Mike Teel's raw unrestrained capitalist greed ruined some workers and their family's' lives, contributed to the decline of the community and homelessness!
8.) Employers must have to hire employees for a full 40 hour work week before they can hire part time, underpaid, and under compensated workers who must work 3 jobs to barely pay for living expenses."

A quotation by Whitehead, Alfred North

No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) English mathematician and philosopher

“Harvard: The Future,” sec. 5, The Atlantic Monthly (Sep 1936)

#quote #quotation #cooperation #individualism #sports #team #teamwork

More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/whitehead-alfred-north/144/

WIST - Whitehead, Alfred North | "Harvard: The Future," sec. 5, The Atlantic Monthly (Sep 1936)

No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing. Reprinted in Essays in Science and Philosophy, Part 3 (1947). Often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Earth

How can we, #together as one #human #family, mend our severed ties to the #Earth? How can we reshape #society in a way that #balances #collectivism and #individualism? How can we, as #individuals, reclaim our #joy and #spirit in what often feels like a #broken #world?
#Separation breeds #violence. #Interconnectedness encourages #compassion.

#ChiefSeattle of the #Suquamish and #Duwamish #tribes reminds us: “We know the sap which courses through the #trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed #flowers are our #sisters. The #bear, the #deer, the great #eagle, these are our #brothers. The rocky crests, the #dew in the meadow, the body heat of the #pony, and #man, all belong to the same family.”
#quote

Our modern parenting is making monsters - UnHerd

#society #capitalism #individualism

It’s a big claim, I know. But it is worth reminding ourselves of an important aspect of our culture of choice: that it absolves people of a responsibility of care towards others. To put it another way, our culture of choice contains this message: I am not responsible for you because you are responsible for you. Are you fat? That’s your choice. Smoke? Your choice. In debt? Your decisions have got you into trouble. It’s all on you.

https://unherd.com/2019/12/our-modern-parenting-is-making-monsters-2/?=refinnar

Our modern parenting is making monsters

To make children constantly choose is to abdicate one’s responsibility for being a parent

I Am An Individualist

I am an #individualist.

Society is a figment devised by the #individual.

#Society is an abstraction.

The individual is a #unity.

I write in relation to the #anarchist. The #dogmatic, the #conventional, the #sectarian, etc., are not, nor can they be, #individualities, even if they would daub their “poses” in more or less deep shades of red.

#Individualism does not mean isolation. When an individualist isolates themselves from certain #groups at certain moments — groups which they could freely join — it is because the individuals who make up those groups do not satisfy their aspirations.

#Anarchy and individualism are synonyms of one another.

Society today prevents us from living in #harmony with our own #satisfactions.

That is why we are its enemies.

The men of the #future could see something useful in society. But they could never see in society an obstacle to their satisfactions, for they will understand that society cannot have a value that surpasses that of the individuals who give it existence.

- Aurora, L’En dehors 4 no. 51 (15 janvier 1925) : 1; reprinted L’en dehors 18 no. 329 (Avril 1939): 47. Working Translation by Shawn P. Wilbur

#anarchism

I Am an Individualist

Aurora I Am an Individualist 15 January 1925 L’En dehors 4 no. 51 (15 janvier 1925) : 1; reprinted L’en dehors 18 no. 329 (Avril 1939): 47. Working...