Purely for the purposes of entertainment, let me submit the hypothesis that all common mental/emotional "dysfunctions" are pro-survival in some situations.
Further, let me submit that in a group of people, say a village, having some small percentage of the population exhibit those various dysfunctions is healthy for the village.
Consider "movie night" in our hypothetical, prehistory village. The Shaman is telling a story around the fire. Everybody is listening with rapt attention as he tells of Ogg eating the first oyster, ever, in the history of humanity.
Everybody but Johnny, Ralphie and Sven. They have ADHD. They are NOT listening to the Shaman.
The village without the equivalent of Johnny, Ralphie and Sven are not warned of the flash-flood, enemy village sneaking up on them, the embers that blew into the thatched roof of the communal hut or the stampeding wildebeests. The village with the sprinkling of boys with ADHD were advantaged relative to the village without that sprinkling.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the oldest and most striking examples of bipolar disorder. In the story, the change is effected by some, unknown chemical or drug.
How can being "bipolar" be appropriate or pro-survival?
Let me suggest that some of us do it all the time. We are gentle people with our family but wear ferocious, take-no-prisoners game-faces at work.
Taking Mr Hyde up a notch or two
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| I do not condone the violence David DePape is alleged to have perpetrated against Mr Pelosi |
If character is "what we do when we don't think anybody is watching" and if morality is guided by the possibility that we might be called-to-account for our actions, then knowing that there is a small percentage of Johnnies and Ralphies in the tribe who are predisposed to dispense with "normal channels" of accountability can be a good thing.
Now suppose we lived in a repressive, alternative reality where the oppressors believed a variety of counter-factual things:
- Police create crime
- CO2 from power-plants is a pollutant but CO2 from leaves decaying on a forest floor is not
- Regulations and taxes create goods and services and make people more productive
- Random rewards and punishments create an orderly society
- Everything old is irreparably toxic and must be annihilated
- Everything new is good
- Violent actions by people are either criminal or not-criminal based on the shade of their skin or their political affiliation
- The list could go on, and on, and on... Crazy talk, I know.
The Japanese have a saying "The nail that sticks up is the one that is hammered down"
Under those circumstances, activation of subroutine "BIPOLAR" is in order. By day we are Dr Jekyll, smooth, not confrontational, appearing to at least (perhaps grudgingly) accept the delusional paradigm being force-fed to all. Perhaps we vote even if we are unconvinced that it will make a difference.
By night we teach our children and grandchildren the old values, knowing that they might be pulled away for a while but hopefully not so far away that they escape the gravity well of deep-Truth.
We are productive and share what we produce outside of officially sanctioned (and monitored) channels.
By night we make metal castings and dry-fire our tools. We practice whatever crafts and skills God blessed us with.
We hone and strengthen our bodies, our minds and our spirit through careful feeding and intentional exercise.
As the Soviets said back in the day "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us". We say "We pretend to be docile, compliant subjects and they pretend to believe us".
ERJ, I would posit that this, in effect, is the practice of "Going Galt" in a real, actual way - not in the fictional way that Rand proposed in escaping to a hidden valley (although people do pull back from the world in this way for the same reason), but in practice.
ReplyDeleteWhat this "compliant face always forward" results in is a society that is atomized, disengaged, and fragile. Almost no-one will speak of their true interests, beliefs, or feelings or their off hours practices, but only at best the political/corporate/societal "line", or nothing at all. Every other person is potentially a risk or hazard in that they can report you.
The problem with things that are atomized and fragile is that it takes only good impact to shatter it beyond repair. There is no resiliency, no supportive connections to withstand blows.
Agreed, and well said. Reminds me of society the way Orwell and Huxley painted it... gee, whocouldaknowd?
Delete"Only one good impact". Sigh, mind working faster than fingers...
Delete"By day we are Dr Jekyll, smooth, not confrontational, appearing to at least (perhaps grudgingly) accept the delusional paradigm being force-fed to all. Perhaps we vote even if we are unconvinced that it will make a difference."
ReplyDeleteAnd, by day, we study, learn and remember Just How Things Work.
By night........
Ditto, TB and ANon. It's for the greater good.
ReplyDelete+1 here...
ReplyDeleteHaving a Public persona and private personas that you switch to when appropriate isn't what I would call Bipolar. That is normal behavior. A guy at work isn't the same guy at church isn't the same guy at the VFW.
ReplyDeleteNOT being able to control the shift is when it becomes an illness.
And thats the problem. We should be the same people IN and OUT of church.
DeleteWe should be Godly ALL the time. If you say stupid words and dont feel convicted afterwords(like being at work), be careful, i think the holy spirit may very well be not in you.
Scriptures pretty clear on being the SAME godly person ALL the time.
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You do pose the most interesting topics/exercises at times.
ReplyDeleteI can’t remember the study (I’d blame age, except I’ve always been this way) but research on how chimpanzee troupes reacted to “the novel” was ‘enlightening’.
In any group exposed to a novel event, something they had not encountered before and thus had no knowledge, experience or ‘normal accepted response’ to, the troupe members acted ‘randomly’ – some freezing, some panicking and fleeing, some ignoring, some attacking, some apparently observing then reacting, etc. What came next was most interesting though.
When either a large subsection, or specific high status individuals, responded in a specific way … that became the troupes de facto ‘accepted’ group response. Except … for certain few ‘outlier’ individuals who continued their random behaviours.
Survival (of the whole), when the threat or benefit is entirely unknown is thus best ensured by the random responses because … hopefully some individuals will hit on the best, and thus the troupe survives (but the species hedges its bets just in case).
Now do people. We like to pretend we’re unique, different, superior, yet when it comes down to it our basic responses (complicated by higher intelligence and the simple fact that has allowed an even wider, and weirder, set of social dynamics and effects) are identical.
I think the ADHD and bipolar aspect is … misleading. What are they? They are ‘extremes’ of a spectrum we are all on, we’re all ADHD and bipolar to one extent or other (speaking as someone who whilst a relatively normal, if somewhat eccentric, functioning member of society who ‘would’ have been defined as ADHD in subsequent generations).
The distribution? I’d suggest it is a proven, over aeons, method of ensuring the survival of the species (even if a majority succumb) in a dangerous environment.
I ‘believe’ the aspect you’re illustrating is part of the interplay between the ‘flock-like’ behaviour of some (predominantly women), the ‘pack-like’ behaviour of most (mainly men) and the conflict between individual, family, tribal, and societal precedence.
My point (eventually)? I believe the role you attribute only to the ADHD/bipolar outliers is in fact a role any, and almost all (with few exceptions), fulfil (i.e. it’s normal to be different, only the idiotic leftists think we’re identical widgets). It’s not the ‘weirdo's’ who TPTB should be worried about, it’s the ‘normals’ who decide someone has crossed a line. We’re ‘socialised’ to react in specific manners and patterns but … ‘everyone’ can, and will, act outside those if pushed far enough (“society” is a micron thin layer on top of much more important drives)
As your typical extreme introvert, academic, loner ‘bully target’, who (due to circumstances) ended up in the military, then ended up finding out he wasn’t ‘averse to violence’ but actually really, really good at it, I ‘know’ people are capable of things you wouldn’t believe.
Liver and onions. Woody
ReplyDeleteI think Johnnie, Ralphie, and Sven are just as likely to watch with morbid satisfaction the burning embers devour the efforts of society.
ReplyDelete