Musings of an apathetic pinko libertarian

[firecat]

I tend to think that any *concept* -- including "mental illness" -- exists mainly in the mind of the society that created it and teaches it to its members. From that point of view, I can see a society that says that mental illness doesn't exist.

What can't be gotten away from, whether one believes in the concept of mental illness or not, is that there are a lot of suffering people in the world. Some of those people are suffering because their mental/emotional workings make it very difficult for them to succeed in their society. Sure, one might put it another way: their society is terribly narrowminded and only allows a narrow range of behaviors to lead to success -- far narrower than the full range of human behavior.

An ultimate solution would be to create a society that is able to fulfill the needs and wants of all people without any people being mistreated.

But I think to approach the ultimate solution is going to take decades, if not centuries, and is going to take the talents of some very particular kinds of people. Not everyone in this society is capable of being a culture-changer, a revolutionary, or even a political educator of the kind that will be needed to achieve that society.

In the meantime, there are people suffering. Sometimes they need to choose to reduce their suffering. Sometimes those choices end up not challenging the exploitative classes/industries, or even helping them.

I don't think individuals should be negatively judged by others for making such choices.

I do prefer it when people are educated on the potential negative results of their choices. That means I make an effort to express my opinions about such results sometimes, and I like it when people are willing to listen to and think about such opinions.

I also prefer it when people are willing to take into account the potential negative increase in societal ills when they make their choices. But I don't think those negatives should be the *only* criteria they use.

(Slight tangent) I'm not Jewish but I have always been interested in interpretations ofJewish law and how some Jewish law incorporates exceptions for unusual situations. For example, my understanding is that the law says that you shouldn't work on the Sabbath, but if your cow falls into a ditch on the Sabbath, it's OK to drag it out even though normally that would be considered work. Also, someone once told me that the law says you shouldn't eat or drink on Yom Kippur, but it also says that if fasting makes you very sick, you *should* eat or drink. (Not just that you can, but that you are obligated, as part of the law, to avoid fasting if it makes you very sick.)

That's got something to do with how, intellectually, I approach the issue of individual choices that end up contributing to overall societal oppression, corporate profit, and so on. Avoid it if you can, but you also have an obligation to your own wholeness.

Emotionally, I am sometimes upset when I hear about certain individual choices. For example, I am upset when I hear about women getting cosmetic surgery. I know that in some careers having a surgically altered body is all but a requirement, but it bothers me. I know that some people would rather risk a lifetime of ill health than be fat and they get their stomachs stapled. I am upset about that too.

I'm personally not terribly upset by people who take antidepressants or seek other institutional help because they feel very unhappy with life. But I can see how that might upset some people for the same sorts of reasons I'm upset by body alterations for the sake of conforming.

Comments

[robinbanks.livejournal.com]

Well, there are mental illnesses that actually result from chemical imbalances or damage to the brain, and then there are just unusual or ill-fitting behaviors that we label "mental illness." And I'm not too sure that chemical imbalances are a cause, rather than a symptom.

But -- to respond to your point about negatively judging people who participate in the industrial/exploitative society -- I think it's a bad idea, too. UNLESS those people have been exposed to rational, comprehensible information about why they ought not to participate in or support exploitation, but they choose to continue to do so anyway. Then I think you can start making judgements about their motivations for doing so. Laziness, apathy, basic mean-spiritedness, etc.

I'm talking about the kind of people who say "yeah the world is fucked, but there's nothing I can do about it (not true), so let's just do whatever we want and damn the consequences." Bleah, I hate that kind of cheap nihilism.

[firecat]

If I have a good sense for someone's motivations, I sometimes judge them. (I agree about cheap nihilism.) I do try to be careful not to assume that I know more about their motivations than I actually do. And I also try to stay aware that my motivations aren't exactly pure all the time, either.

[xp85goblin.livejournal.com]

I define mental illness as a lack of synchronization between the outer world and the inner model of it that produces an inablility to successfully predict and manipulate the outer world. Of course by this definition, we are all somewhat menatally ill at various times in our lives. But then, it is the chronic extremities of this definition that seperate the true nutcases from the merely mildly disturbed.
As to participation vs non-participation in the system. Well, choosing not to participate is very difficult. Perhaps homesteading in Alaska might be one way to do it (I saw a TV show on this). I don't even call homelessness true non-particpation, as the homeless are usually urban and live off of the handouts and leavings of "the system". Perhaps from the point of view of the Buddhist tradition it is, but to me "leaving the system" involves restoring one's relationship with Nature to that of before civilization. But then, given my condition, that relationship would quickly involve becoming food for Nature's creatures as soon as my medicine ran out. So, I have no choice but to participate.
And as to working a more humble job than a more exhaulted one so that I remain "pure", well, finding my peace with "The System" involves having enough money that I can have food and medicine and pursue Art and the Greater Good without the moral compromises that commerce brings.