This post by Thom Hartmann is a brilliant and present-day application of the practical truth's from Hartmann's "Cracking the Code" - probably the best book on communication I've read. Thom also touched on the core ideas of moving away from pain/ moving towards pleasure while on MSNBC with Ali Velshi on Saturday. This is good. More of us need to know what is truly motivating our thoughts and feelings, and having Thom on national TV is a good way to do just that.
Thom also mentioned a quote by perpetually-on--point Sabrina Haake in today's post (everyone should subscribe to her substack) which speaks to the unbreakable truth that trump's sole method for motivating people is to bludgeon them with a very ugly stick. It's true. There's no hope, and no hope for hope, in anything trump embodies - he is fear incarnate. And fear may burn the hottest, but it burns out the quickest.
Harris and Walz on the other hand, well, the joy we're witnessing and experiencing speaks for itself. It may take time to grow, but hope lives steady and stronger.
Brilliant was the exact word I was going to use, and as someone who went to med school 20+ years ago, it reminds me of the process of “pain accommodation.” We learn to live with it by necessity, and it loses power with time. I’ll quote a summary here, for anyone interested or who wants to think of pithy parallels to the current Trump/Vance constant pain strategy!
~
Pain accommodation refers to the physiological and psychological process by which the body and mind adapt to persistent or chronic pain over time. This process involves several key aspects:
1. Neuroplasticity: The nervous system can change and adapt its structure and function in response to ongoing pain signals. This can lead to:
a) Central sensitization: Increased sensitivity of the central nervous system to pain signals.
b) Descending modulation: Changes in how the brain regulates pain signals from the body.
2. Psychological adaptation: The mind develops coping mechanisms to deal with ongoing pain, which may include:
a) Cognitive reframing: Changing one's perspective on pain and its impact.
b) Acceptance: Learning to live with pain rather than constantly fighting against it.
c) Developing new routines or habits to manage pain.
3. Behavioral changes: People may alter their activities and lifestyle to accommodate pain, such as:
a) Avoiding certain movements or activities that exacerbate pain.
b) Adopting new postures or movement patterns.
c) Using assistive devices or modifying their environment.
4. Physiological changes: The body may undergo various changes in response to chronic pain:
a) Muscle tension or weakness in affected areas.
b) Changes in hormone levels and stress responses.
c) Alterations in sleep patterns and energy levels.
5. Social adjustments: Pain can affect relationships and social interactions, leading to:
a) Changes in social roles or responsibilities.
b) Seeking support from family, friends, or support groups.
c) Adjusting communication styles to express pain-related needs.
It's important to note that while pain accommodation can help individuals cope with chronic pain, it may also lead to maladaptive behaviors or beliefs that can hinder recovery or quality of life. Proper pain management often involves a multidisciplinary approach, including medical treatment, physical therapy, psychological support, and lifestyle modifications.
With their anti-birth control policy and their pro big family policy and their cut taxes for the rich policy, and their wanting a dictatorship, the right wing will be leading the charge into a hell on Earth while blaming the more evolved and Godly. Once again the lunatics are projecting, either that or covering their derriere. When the mob comes a looking, they'll be pointing their fingers at the rational thinkers.
The news media is owned by the money and power addicts. Most people are always looking inwards about what they want and need and seldom look up and around to see what the big picture is. They can't tell fact from fantasy, it's all about them! They are broken by hate and lies.
Body language speaks loudly. Harris’ smile and laugh exudes happiness and joy. While Trump’s constant grimace at exudes bitterness, anger, and fear.
The noise we are hearing from Trump is the Wizard of Oz feverishly cranking up his voice as Toto gently pulls back the curtain exposing the bloviator-in- chief for all to see.
Let Dinold be Donold. The more he speaks the more we see him for who he is: a malignant narcissist afraid that, like the wicked witch, he is melting.
Excellent article, as always. Trump has created divisions and civil unrest "the likes of which we've never seen before..." while Harris-Walz are helping Americans break a national addiction to Trump's negativity. I just wrote about the same theme, and couldn't be happier about it.
I like the politics of joy....which is what Harris is selling. Turn that frown upside down.
Target pleasure only to people who are persuadable. “Vote for me because I’ll expand Social Security — while the other guy will gut it,” is a variation on the same theme Democrats have been using since Reagan. It only works on certain people. MAGATs don't believe it. Gen Z don't identify with it.
MAGATs are visceral. Most vote contrary to their economic and even physical well being. It. the culture, stupid! 4 million active duty military members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members. The magic words "not suckers or losers" are flipping many who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqCoCRmNUuA
Likewise, "Trump hates dogs" or Trump stole from kids with cancer" hits them in the gut. https://rvat.org/
We want to register more Harris voters, get more volunteers. .. team building. Gen Z don't identify with Social Security. Old folks with elimination of student loans. Everyone wants sanity.
Peer pressure works. Those surrogates, (like me) do well with their own demographic. Gen X for Harris. Boomers (doo wop) for Harris. Etc.
Trump is a guy who is not fit to stand trial, let alone run an organization. It's therapeutic for everyone, especially his codependents, that he get adequate treatment. How about Thorazine?
As surrogates, terms like "Batshit crazy" constantly repeated works on some groups. I use "Nutsy koo koo" or "bonkers" depending on the audience.
We need about 13 wise elders to make the decisions that are non-partisan. They must have over at 135 IQ and be able to pass a lie detector test. Only agnostics could apply, they will treat all religions and non-religions, races and genders equally, the others have biases. The 13 could even run the Supreme Court?
You know, I could apply, and come to think of it, I think I'd do pretty well for the "general welfare!" If by "serious," you mean is it going to happen, well, women got to vote in 1920, and that was wildly unlikely 50 years prior when ex-slaves with penises got to vote. Female American citizens! Who could imagine!
Yes, the people can vote on what they want and it would be up to the 13 wise men to implement it if possible, instead of playing divide and conquer politics and going nowhere except backwards to the dark ages.
There can be a tendency to ask "What have you done for me lately?", so it IS logical to have some items Democrats have accomplished during the Biden/Harris Administration as a ready response. I know Thom has posted the list, and it can be found online.
I just stopped by the Democratic campaign office for Harris/Walz they set up for our county. They were wise enough to post a list of "what we have done lately" on the window of the store front. They also had set up a white board with statistics concerning Gen Z folks. There are 41 million of them aged twenty-three and under eligible to vote with 8 million of those turning eighteen during this cycle.
That's a huge voting block, and the future is now in their hands. We have to let them know that politics affects everything in their lives, every day.
Trump's playing fast and loose with Americans' mental health.
He turns each campaign into a Skinner Box with a verbal electrical grid shocking citizens' into compliance.
Wiki - Psych. 101
"The law of effect, or Thorndike's law, is a psychology principle advanced by Edward Thorndike in 1898 on the matter of behavioral conditioning (not then formulated as such) which states that 'responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation.' "
King Lab-Rat Trump has learned that he can satisfy himself by wreaking havoc inside people's heads every 4 years, which will condition them to pull a lever, like 2020's 74,200,000 everyday-lab-rats, thereby gifting him (Trump) and his buddies, America and most of its wealth.
So he wrecks and fleeces America for a satisfying effect for himself. He'll never change.
Based on current American attitudes, actual surveys, what is the list, in descending order, of the foundational Democratic principles that are easily and broadly recognized as beneficial to the general good?
I am always provoked, stimulated and amazed at your Reports.. think I’m a pretty fit and smart 73-year old, but, man, if I tried to do your work I would croak in a week, and I have spent a lot of time the past two years renovating a cottage in Door County with 200 feet of frontage 25 feet above Green Bay, with today being one of my favorites. Whoa, was that a run-on sentence! ANYWAY, today I started red-cedar shingling the bayside wall, absolutely my most Zen-like construction tasks, the last 2 1/2 hours in a steady light rain…I loved it!
But I digress. Thom, in your piece from Monday, there was this excerpt about the opportunity it’s that LAY before us. Thom, with all due respect, both opportunities and risks LIE before us; chickens LAY eggs. I may have moved back to Wisconsin only 2 years ago, but I’m not giving up my grammar without a fight.
Harris/Walz are running a perfect campaign, one focusing on the positive.
But we are fools if we haven't learned from history, that negative campaigns, like Swift Boating, and taking down Max Cleland, a triple amputee war hero, as a coward work and are essential.
But not Kamala and Tim, I leave that to the Lincoln Project, the Bulwark, PAC's and hosts and guests on MSNBC. scratch CNN,CBS, ABC, all of them Fox lite, compromised,complicit or cowardly.
I agree, but the negative attack ads by the Democratic party better start coming down here to Arizona, real soon!
Let's say I watch the news for an hour and a half, I see about 15 anti-Harris and Walz ads, claiming that she let out a whole bunch of illegal immigrants who went on to murder and rape as an attorney general in the most radical liberal city in America, San Francisco! I don't know if that is true or not, I don't think district attorneys can release criminals? They are the same ads over and over and over again! I bet there's more than 50 in every 12 hour period, that is my best guess estimate anyway. We need more attack ads.While Kamala is trying to spread positiveness! This flower power BS is getting the democracy lovers blown out of the water!
I've said it before, I will say it again, These positive pollyanna ads are what loses elections.
We are in the honeymoon phase, Democratic enthusiasm abounds, but Republicans are marshalling forces for a huge counter attack, and they will overload the media with negative ads, they are already starting. JD Vance is lobbying serious attacks on Walz, questioning his service, inferring that he was a coward to avoid going to Iraq, and that he is guilty of stolen valor, the last a mispoke on Walz part, for some reason men have a need to overstate their military service.
Also William, I see them on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. That is about 200 ads a day that's what I've been trying to get the Democrats to be prepared for, but it looks like they're going to try and sweet talk their way in? I think it takes left and a right hooks to go toe to toe with these liars!
Towards freedom of economic issues of increasing the middle class and wages and away from the fee based monetized system of mudsill. This requires a tax policy of 50% or more on both the top tax rate and business tax of FDR that worked so well in the 50's 60's and 70's in creating a middle class that is growing as Europe did by copying it to make large middle classes. They do not have unearned millionaires as we do. The Repubs want and need most American's to be living in poverty which we now have by mudsill where poverty is growing. Time to end mudsill and grow the middle class.
The Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution are positive in themes. “We the people” is a can-do attitude. “More perfect union”, “consent of the governed”, all positive!
On target, and well supported by psychological research. Only on thing more might have been mentioned. The fear and loathing Thom describes heightens people's emotions which, in turn, tend to shut off people's reasoning processes. When that happens, people are less likely to question lies and exaggerations. After multiple exposures to lies in emotional states, as Joseph Goebbels, famous Nazi propagandist pointed out, people start to accept them as truths.
Seems the addressing to people's increasing problems reverts to quotes from and comparisons to FDR. This suggests a simple conclusion that we have been here before. I knew a man (a potential father-in-law) who told me he had a friend, a mentor, in the FDR circle who explained FDR's actual game plans. FDR notified many top bankers with a strong request that they come to the White House for a meeting. The message sent was cryptically/strongly worded, demanding prior confirmation. So they came. "Gentlemen, for the last fifty years, the banks have run the government. From today, the government is going to run the banks". This quote was exactly stated in his explanation to me. This was the famous 'bankers holiday'--holiday because he ordered close their banks for three days.
This powerful tactic by a president, which actually worked, reveals what a president is/was capable of. That tactic implemented today would seem just a dream of wishful thinking. Would Biden? Hardly. Any other Democrat? Somehow, I can easily imagine Trump doing so, true to his agenda. The move by FDR and and a contemplated repeated move by a Blue president today seems silly. Many could cite the established coordination of opposition--legal and those established by long calculated indoctrination. Was the power of opposition to FDR different then? We cannot ever know until we have a president who not only knows but moves with such merited audacity.
Truer words were never spoken. All of this is in defense of our precious democracy.
For some of us it has been quite a surprise, I might even venture to say a shock, to learn of sizable numbers of supposedly respectable people who have revealed, in one way or another, a rejection of democracy. Who knew? The rest of us talk and pontificate a lot about our love for democracy. But sometimes it is necessary to look at it at the cellular level.
If one were looking for a perfect synonym for the word “democracy”, one could not find a better word than “autonomy”. Autonomy is having the ability (presence of mind or inner strength and confidence) to control and to self-direct one’s life and existence without undue external interference or control (my definition). Tim Walz personifies autonomy. I believe this is why Democrats are in love with him.
Autonomy for the individual is not significantly different from autonomy for the group. To be autonomous requires that the individual or group has an inner consciousness or awareness of things and conditions which are desired and necessary for survival and for satisfaction, as well as the opportunity and capacity to realize those things. It means that the individual or group is cognizant of real threats but is not paralyzed by irrational fear and intimidation from powerful people and forces.
Autonomy for individuals has been largely compromised in our culture and our country. Democracy (autonomy for the group) has likewise been largely compromised in our culture and our country. If government is ostensibly of, for, and by the people, and if too many of the citizens lack autonomy, then there can be no autonomy (democracy) in government.
Autonomy is an attribute or a feature of the personality for the individual. However, it is much more than just independence. It is the antidote to fear, helplessness, and the sensation of desperate aloneness. For a nation, it serves similar purposes.
Raymond Rogers says in his book, “Coming Into Existence: the struggle to become an individual”, (1967), “Inertia and passivity are the negation of life. An imposed passivity is a dam in the river of life.” Earlier he says, “Children must also be able to preserve the feeling of autonomy, of starting things, of being original causes of action, of searching for hidden possibilities beneath the messy rubble of unchanging facts, difficulties, and impossibilities that confronts them.”
Oppression for the individual, or autocracy, authoritarianism, dictatorship, etc., for the group is the inhibition, denial, frustration, unnecessary delay, or interference with those desirable and necessary things mentioned above. Autonomy requires a certain state of mind or mindset and develops over time in the individual or in the group (tribe, community, state, or nation) but only when conditions permit.
More basic than even freedom, liberty, justice, and brotherly love are trust and faith in humankind, a stable identity, and self-respect and self-love, or at the least an absence of self-loathing, self-contempt, or self-hatred. Autonomy cannot exist without trust, identity (an awareness of a self apart from but integrated with others), and self-respect and self-confidence.
The lack of autonomy both in individuals generally and in society more broadly can be attributed to two main factors or influences. One is that there is a widespread implicit belief at a mostly unconscious level, spread through myriad symbols, cues, and subtle messaging that humans are driven by specific innate fundamental needs, impulses, or proclivities which are bad, self-indulgent, destructive, or somehow antisocial or asocial (known as the “pleasure principle” or “original sin”). The other is the compelling need within a capitalist framework to perform, compete, produce, struggle constantly, and to function as a participant, willingly or unwillingly, in a mechanistic and unforgiving economic system.
The consensus in our society is that the “pleasure principle” or the base instinctual and universal drives must be held in check by the “reality principle”, according to Arno Gruen, in his book, “The Insanity of Normality”, subtitled, “ realism as sickness: toward understanding human destructiveness”(1987, Grove Weidenfeld, NY, NY). If we are not cognizant of reality (i.e., “the world is an evil place”, life is dangerous and brutal; you will be dismissed if you are not a good worker; without status, you are nothing, etc., etc.) we are failures and nobodies.
Therefore; parents must not over-indulge their children or allow them to misbehave in any way (love is conditional, even in infancy. Excessive crying is irritable, too demanding). They are under pressure 24/7 in many instances, trying to survive, over-worked and underpaid, and trying to keep up with ‘the Joneses’. Together these popular conceptions are the formulae for disaster.
Gruen says, “…the struggle for autonomy is the central issue in childhood development.” In another section, he writes that “…socialization will be viewed as a bulwark against “instinctual” drives rather than as a natural and self-generating process of growth.”
Elsewhere, Gruen notes that “…children come to experience their needs as troublesome.” Instead of seeing a child being a child and expressing needs or impulses in the moment, the tendency now is to always see good behavior or bad behavior. We see socialization as something we should orchestrate and manipulate, rather than a normal process better left alone..
In addition, Gruen posits that development toward autonomy is disrupted if the relationship between child and parents, and especially between child and mother, is negatively affected by factors which cause the parent to act in ways which signal that the behavior of that child is inappropriate and unacceptable as a manifestation of inborn defects or attitudes (as I interpret his writing).
The child’s inner world thereby may become chronically disorganized and distracted. Attention is directed inordinately toward the outer world as a matter of focus and habit, while the inner world is neglected and disappears altogether (e.g. Trump, Hitler, Reagan).
Gruen points out further that the outer world, “… involves the disassociation of the experience of helplessness and the denial of the inner world in favor of acquiescence in an externally imposed order in which one’s needs and perceptions are performed, first by parents, later by school, society, and state.” He is relying heavily on his psychoanalytical views and training, and at times one worries that he has engaged in psychobabble. But he provides a great deal of support for his thesis and there are legions of people who exhibit the behaviors in question. Certainly, his statement that “…acquiescence in an externally imposed order in which one’s needs and perceptions are performed…” describes much of our current existence and reality.
Do you truly believe in democracy, autonomy, self-direction? Or are those just buzz words and rhetoric for posturing in conversation? Or, how about freedom, liberty, equality, justice, and dignity for the individual? What? For adults only? Children are excepted? Then, you do not actually believe in those things, do you?
Little can be done on a compressed timescale to alter the thinking and childrearing habits of parents. However, the structure of our institutions, particularly our schools CAN be changed to prevent the destruction or the inhibition of autonomy.
Judging from the frequency with which the word autonomy appears in school literature and research reports one would think it is being baked into the cookies or added to school lunch milk. In reality, however, if one visited 100 schools in any state or in all the states, you would have great difficulty identifying practices and policies in more than a tiny number of classrooms which are conducive to, or which foster, autonomy for either teachers or students.
You may fret endlessly about biased media, money in politics, the bribery of justices and officials, or privatization of everything for profit-making. Knock yourself out trying to fix those problems. However, getting arbitrary authority, hence authoritarian thinking OUT of schools, and getting autonomy (democracy) IN requires only changing how educators and officials regard and treat students. That requires only formally eliminating the attendance laws which give rise to oppressive conditions and other-directed training and instruction. A primary purpose of those laws, if not THE primary purpose is to strip students of any autonomy they may bring to school. The bad laws are insulting, paternalistic, and superfluous.
Autonomy is a choice to be made. It is long since past time to make that choice for the institutions which indoctrinate our youth for twelve very long years.
That was quite a discussion, Robert. I think that I followed it pretty well and if so agree with this line of reasoning. I used to wonder how people could follow a Hitler or a Stalin, then I was in a state government run by an authoritarian "leader" (he eventually went to jail for running over somebody). Most people in my section kept their heads down and quietly complained but we had one person who lived for her tiny bit of power, attached herself to those with a little more, and would ruthlessly attack anyone she considered a threat to her position, whether they were or not. (I did not enjoy getting hate mail). I later realized that she thought everybody else was just as vicious as she was. And I think that is part of the mentality of people like Trump--they imagine that everyone wants to win at any cost and if you don't then you are either a fool or a victim, or both.
Beyond that sickness there is, as I said a moment ago, a lot of people who just keep their heads down and try to get by, which isn't always a bad thing. Forget the "banality of evil" in the Third Reich, the little clerk doing the same office work for Vichy France's government that he had done before for the French Republic probably survived the war okay, hopefully doing no harm, except perhaps to his own self-respect. But then how many of us really risk our lives or freedom for our beliefs?
But aside from those who go along or are really mentally ill, when you have someone who is dead inside, that's different. I once met a recruiter for the Defense Mapping Agency and raised some qualms about joining the organization. His answer, "What do you care how your work is used, you're not the one dropping the bombs." That said to me that he didn't see himself as a monster, but he was. Such a person would follow anyone and probably do anything just because they were told to.
Incidentally, just to finish up on Thom's discussion. That pleasure/pain dichotomy has to be used carefully. As my mother once pointed out with Mao's revolution, people can't be whipped up forever, they get older and settled and want things quieter. (Hence you have his attempt to reignite excitement with the Cultural Revolution.) You must promise them something, but it has to be realistic too. Some years ago a Soviet pilot defected and explained that all his life he had been told the U.S.S.R. was surrounded by serious enemies and they had to be strong to fight them off (pain). But at the same time their enemies were steadily weakening and would soon fail, leading to victory for the world Communist revolution (pleasure). One day he realized that both statements could not be true at the same time. After that he was ready to chuck the whole system.
I hate to apologize for my verbosity and I know that almost no one is willing to slog through such a lengthy comment, but I believe that some things are too important for superficial treatment. Most of my comment was an early draft of an upcoming Substack article.
I will start with the pleasure/pain dichotomy. I agree with Thom but your mother was probably also correct in that everything has its limit. While the topics were the campaign and communication techniques or recommendations for those of us who deal with families, friends, and people on social media, and I hope to make some use of the ideas and insights, the problems remain of how we got here, the handicaps we have and resistance we face, and what happens after we have a new administration with a more positive attitude. The “people” will not be changing in any significant way and the authoritarians may or may not go back under their rocks, while a new latent group of authoritarians and followers will bide their time waiting for another chaotic moment. As I wrote in my comment, when so many people have failed to develop autonomy, democracy, which is autonomy writ large is on the skids and must ultimately fail. At that point it will be all pain and pleasure will be a thing of the past for all but a few. Those who are autonomous may not always choose to be leaders but they are never good followers.
Keeping one’s head down is wise if one is in a situation where one’s head might be chopped off. I am all about survival. But timing is the issue. The time to speak out and act up as one person with minimal power and influence is before a tyrant has so much power that he or she is able to wreak destruction on anyone who dissents. With Trump, few have had the gumption to challenge him. I’ve never been able to keep my head down, however. I quit the best job I ever had in the mid-1960’s when my boss spoke to me disrespectfully and have regretted it ever since. I was a bit hot-headed in my 20’s. But I’ve gotten fired a couple of times since and was a major thorn in the side of management and a powerful hotel president (named Horst) acting as a spokesperson and repeat petition writer when even our union was cow-towed. I would probably do things much the same if I had the chance. The “banality of evil” is in the failure to protest and fight when those things are still possible and when one refuses to recognize a threat or to take a stand for rights (and for one’s beliefs) before an autocrat or would-be dictator accrues total power.
I didn’t have time to get into the rage felt by dictators when their autonomy is destroyed as children. You will have to read the book. Gruen explains it all quite well. Suffice it to say that democracy is autonomy and vice versa, and we are not fostering autonomy in schools which are not democratic, which means that citizens are ill prepared to self-govern, authoritarians are being mass produced, and it is only a matter of time before the battle is lost. The only way to make schools democratic is to remove compulsory attendance laws. We’ve tried everything else and failed miserably. Tell your grandkids.
This post by Thom Hartmann is a brilliant and present-day application of the practical truth's from Hartmann's "Cracking the Code" - probably the best book on communication I've read. Thom also touched on the core ideas of moving away from pain/ moving towards pleasure while on MSNBC with Ali Velshi on Saturday. This is good. More of us need to know what is truly motivating our thoughts and feelings, and having Thom on national TV is a good way to do just that.
Thom also mentioned a quote by perpetually-on--point Sabrina Haake in today's post (everyone should subscribe to her substack) which speaks to the unbreakable truth that trump's sole method for motivating people is to bludgeon them with a very ugly stick. It's true. There's no hope, and no hope for hope, in anything trump embodies - he is fear incarnate. And fear may burn the hottest, but it burns out the quickest.
Harris and Walz on the other hand, well, the joy we're witnessing and experiencing speaks for itself. It may take time to grow, but hope lives steady and stronger.
Brilliant was the exact word I was going to use, and as someone who went to med school 20+ years ago, it reminds me of the process of “pain accommodation.” We learn to live with it by necessity, and it loses power with time. I’ll quote a summary here, for anyone interested or who wants to think of pithy parallels to the current Trump/Vance constant pain strategy!
~
Pain accommodation refers to the physiological and psychological process by which the body and mind adapt to persistent or chronic pain over time. This process involves several key aspects:
1. Neuroplasticity: The nervous system can change and adapt its structure and function in response to ongoing pain signals. This can lead to:
a) Central sensitization: Increased sensitivity of the central nervous system to pain signals.
b) Descending modulation: Changes in how the brain regulates pain signals from the body.
2. Psychological adaptation: The mind develops coping mechanisms to deal with ongoing pain, which may include:
a) Cognitive reframing: Changing one's perspective on pain and its impact.
b) Acceptance: Learning to live with pain rather than constantly fighting against it.
c) Developing new routines or habits to manage pain.
3. Behavioral changes: People may alter their activities and lifestyle to accommodate pain, such as:
a) Avoiding certain movements or activities that exacerbate pain.
b) Adopting new postures or movement patterns.
c) Using assistive devices or modifying their environment.
4. Physiological changes: The body may undergo various changes in response to chronic pain:
a) Muscle tension or weakness in affected areas.
b) Changes in hormone levels and stress responses.
c) Alterations in sleep patterns and energy levels.
5. Social adjustments: Pain can affect relationships and social interactions, leading to:
a) Changes in social roles or responsibilities.
b) Seeking support from family, friends, or support groups.
c) Adjusting communication styles to express pain-related needs.
It's important to note that while pain accommodation can help individuals cope with chronic pain, it may also lead to maladaptive behaviors or beliefs that can hinder recovery or quality of life. Proper pain management often involves a multidisciplinary approach, including medical treatment, physical therapy, psychological support, and lifestyle modifications.
With their anti-birth control policy and their pro big family policy and their cut taxes for the rich policy, and their wanting a dictatorship, the right wing will be leading the charge into a hell on Earth while blaming the more evolved and Godly. Once again the lunatics are projecting, either that or covering their derriere. When the mob comes a looking, they'll be pointing their fingers at the rational thinkers.
The news media is owned by the money and power addicts. Most people are always looking inwards about what they want and need and seldom look up and around to see what the big picture is. They can't tell fact from fantasy, it's all about them! They are broken by hate and lies.
>>broken by hate and lies<<
Heavy. Brutal. True.
In summary the Democrats are hopeful about changes we can make to make the world a more welcoming place.
The Maga monster is ramming pain and and it's necessary role in ruining certain groups of people into its chronic stultifying view of life .
`Be White , be wealthy , be a man .
Shun anyone who isn't. Dont give financial support to anyone who's not male , wealthy and white.
Food for hungry kids, No
Money for Education, No
Care for Seniors, No
Care for the mentally ill, No
Help for the Homeless , No
Easing the hefty interest rates of college loans .......No
Following the Constitution, No
TELLING THE TRUTH, NO,NO, NO!
Body language speaks loudly. Harris’ smile and laugh exudes happiness and joy. While Trump’s constant grimace at exudes bitterness, anger, and fear.
The noise we are hearing from Trump is the Wizard of Oz feverishly cranking up his voice as Toto gently pulls back the curtain exposing the bloviator-in- chief for all to see.
Let Dinold be Donold. The more he speaks the more we see him for who he is: a malignant narcissist afraid that, like the wicked witch, he is melting.
Excellent article, as always. Trump has created divisions and civil unrest "the likes of which we've never seen before..." while Harris-Walz are helping Americans break a national addiction to Trump's negativity. I just wrote about the same theme, and couldn't be happier about it.
I like the politics of joy....which is what Harris is selling. Turn that frown upside down.
Target pleasure only to people who are persuadable. “Vote for me because I’ll expand Social Security — while the other guy will gut it,” is a variation on the same theme Democrats have been using since Reagan. It only works on certain people. MAGATs don't believe it. Gen Z don't identify with it.
MAGATs are visceral. Most vote contrary to their economic and even physical well being. It. the culture, stupid! 4 million active duty military members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members. The magic words "not suckers or losers" are flipping many who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqCoCRmNUuA
Likewise, "Trump hates dogs" or Trump stole from kids with cancer" hits them in the gut. https://rvat.org/
We want to register more Harris voters, get more volunteers. .. team building. Gen Z don't identify with Social Security. Old folks with elimination of student loans. Everyone wants sanity.
Peer pressure works. Those surrogates, (like me) do well with their own demographic. Gen X for Harris. Boomers (doo wop) for Harris. Etc.
Trump is a guy who is not fit to stand trial, let alone run an organization. It's therapeutic for everyone, especially his codependents, that he get adequate treatment. How about Thorazine?
As surrogates, terms like "Batshit crazy" constantly repeated works on some groups. I use "Nutsy koo koo" or "bonkers" depending on the audience.
We need about 13 wise elders to make the decisions that are non-partisan. They must have over at 135 IQ and be able to pass a lie detector test. Only agnostics could apply, they will treat all religions and non-religions, races and genders equally, the others have biases. The 13 could even run the Supreme Court?
Is this serious?
You know, I could apply, and come to think of it, I think I'd do pretty well for the "general welfare!" If by "serious," you mean is it going to happen, well, women got to vote in 1920, and that was wildly unlikely 50 years prior when ex-slaves with penises got to vote. Female American citizens! Who could imagine!
Yes, the people can vote on what they want and it would be up to the 13 wise men to implement it if possible, instead of playing divide and conquer politics and going nowhere except backwards to the dark ages.
Yeah, I’m a hard no on that.
There can be a tendency to ask "What have you done for me lately?", so it IS logical to have some items Democrats have accomplished during the Biden/Harris Administration as a ready response. I know Thom has posted the list, and it can be found online.
I just stopped by the Democratic campaign office for Harris/Walz they set up for our county. They were wise enough to post a list of "what we have done lately" on the window of the store front. They also had set up a white board with statistics concerning Gen Z folks. There are 41 million of them aged twenty-three and under eligible to vote with 8 million of those turning eighteen during this cycle.
That's a huge voting block, and the future is now in their hands. We have to let them know that politics affects everything in their lives, every day.
Trump's playing fast and loose with Americans' mental health.
He turns each campaign into a Skinner Box with a verbal electrical grid shocking citizens' into compliance.
Wiki - Psych. 101
"The law of effect, or Thorndike's law, is a psychology principle advanced by Edward Thorndike in 1898 on the matter of behavioral conditioning (not then formulated as such) which states that 'responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation.' "
King Lab-Rat Trump has learned that he can satisfy himself by wreaking havoc inside people's heads every 4 years, which will condition them to pull a lever, like 2020's 74,200,000 everyday-lab-rats, thereby gifting him (Trump) and his buddies, America and most of its wealth.
So he wrecks and fleeces America for a satisfying effect for himself. He'll never change.
Based on current American attitudes, actual surveys, what is the list, in descending order, of the foundational Democratic principles that are easily and broadly recognized as beneficial to the general good?
Hi Thom,
I am always provoked, stimulated and amazed at your Reports.. think I’m a pretty fit and smart 73-year old, but, man, if I tried to do your work I would croak in a week, and I have spent a lot of time the past two years renovating a cottage in Door County with 200 feet of frontage 25 feet above Green Bay, with today being one of my favorites. Whoa, was that a run-on sentence! ANYWAY, today I started red-cedar shingling the bayside wall, absolutely my most Zen-like construction tasks, the last 2 1/2 hours in a steady light rain…I loved it!
But I digress. Thom, in your piece from Monday, there was this excerpt about the opportunity it’s that LAY before us. Thom, with all due respect, both opportunities and risks LIE before us; chickens LAY eggs. I may have moved back to Wisconsin only 2 years ago, but I’m not giving up my grammar without a fight.
…or, for that matter, my grammar🤣🤣🤣
Harris/Walz are running a perfect campaign, one focusing on the positive.
But we are fools if we haven't learned from history, that negative campaigns, like Swift Boating, and taking down Max Cleland, a triple amputee war hero, as a coward work and are essential.
But not Kamala and Tim, I leave that to the Lincoln Project, the Bulwark, PAC's and hosts and guests on MSNBC. scratch CNN,CBS, ABC, all of them Fox lite, compromised,complicit or cowardly.
I agree, but the negative attack ads by the Democratic party better start coming down here to Arizona, real soon!
Let's say I watch the news for an hour and a half, I see about 15 anti-Harris and Walz ads, claiming that she let out a whole bunch of illegal immigrants who went on to murder and rape as an attorney general in the most radical liberal city in America, San Francisco! I don't know if that is true or not, I don't think district attorneys can release criminals? They are the same ads over and over and over again! I bet there's more than 50 in every 12 hour period, that is my best guess estimate anyway. We need more attack ads.While Kamala is trying to spread positiveness! This flower power BS is getting the democracy lovers blown out of the water!
I've said it before, I will say it again, These positive pollyanna ads are what loses elections.
We are in the honeymoon phase, Democratic enthusiasm abounds, but Republicans are marshalling forces for a huge counter attack, and they will overload the media with negative ads, they are already starting. JD Vance is lobbying serious attacks on Walz, questioning his service, inferring that he was a coward to avoid going to Iraq, and that he is guilty of stolen valor, the last a mispoke on Walz part, for some reason men have a need to overstate their military service.
Also William, I see them on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. That is about 200 ads a day that's what I've been trying to get the Democrats to be prepared for, but it looks like they're going to try and sweet talk their way in? I think it takes left and a right hooks to go toe to toe with these liars!
Towards freedom of economic issues of increasing the middle class and wages and away from the fee based monetized system of mudsill. This requires a tax policy of 50% or more on both the top tax rate and business tax of FDR that worked so well in the 50's 60's and 70's in creating a middle class that is growing as Europe did by copying it to make large middle classes. They do not have unearned millionaires as we do. The Repubs want and need most American's to be living in poverty which we now have by mudsill where poverty is growing. Time to end mudsill and grow the middle class.
The Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution are positive in themes. “We the people” is a can-do attitude. “More perfect union”, “consent of the governed”, all positive!
(like) You left out "general welfare" : https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C1-2-7/ALDE_00013362/ I reflect on a quote of Jimmy Hightower of his Daddy: "When everybody does better, everybody does better." Could you find anything more the opposite of the Trump/Project 2025 philosophy?
On target, and well supported by psychological research. Only on thing more might have been mentioned. The fear and loathing Thom describes heightens people's emotions which, in turn, tend to shut off people's reasoning processes. When that happens, people are less likely to question lies and exaggerations. After multiple exposures to lies in emotional states, as Joseph Goebbels, famous Nazi propagandist pointed out, people start to accept them as truths.
Seems the addressing to people's increasing problems reverts to quotes from and comparisons to FDR. This suggests a simple conclusion that we have been here before. I knew a man (a potential father-in-law) who told me he had a friend, a mentor, in the FDR circle who explained FDR's actual game plans. FDR notified many top bankers with a strong request that they come to the White House for a meeting. The message sent was cryptically/strongly worded, demanding prior confirmation. So they came. "Gentlemen, for the last fifty years, the banks have run the government. From today, the government is going to run the banks". This quote was exactly stated in his explanation to me. This was the famous 'bankers holiday'--holiday because he ordered close their banks for three days.
This powerful tactic by a president, which actually worked, reveals what a president is/was capable of. That tactic implemented today would seem just a dream of wishful thinking. Would Biden? Hardly. Any other Democrat? Somehow, I can easily imagine Trump doing so, true to his agenda. The move by FDR and and a contemplated repeated move by a Blue president today seems silly. Many could cite the established coordination of opposition--legal and those established by long calculated indoctrination. Was the power of opposition to FDR different then? We cannot ever know until we have a president who not only knows but moves with such merited audacity.
Truer words were never spoken. All of this is in defense of our precious democracy.
For some of us it has been quite a surprise, I might even venture to say a shock, to learn of sizable numbers of supposedly respectable people who have revealed, in one way or another, a rejection of democracy. Who knew? The rest of us talk and pontificate a lot about our love for democracy. But sometimes it is necessary to look at it at the cellular level.
If one were looking for a perfect synonym for the word “democracy”, one could not find a better word than “autonomy”. Autonomy is having the ability (presence of mind or inner strength and confidence) to control and to self-direct one’s life and existence without undue external interference or control (my definition). Tim Walz personifies autonomy. I believe this is why Democrats are in love with him.
Autonomy for the individual is not significantly different from autonomy for the group. To be autonomous requires that the individual or group has an inner consciousness or awareness of things and conditions which are desired and necessary for survival and for satisfaction, as well as the opportunity and capacity to realize those things. It means that the individual or group is cognizant of real threats but is not paralyzed by irrational fear and intimidation from powerful people and forces.
Autonomy for individuals has been largely compromised in our culture and our country. Democracy (autonomy for the group) has likewise been largely compromised in our culture and our country. If government is ostensibly of, for, and by the people, and if too many of the citizens lack autonomy, then there can be no autonomy (democracy) in government.
Autonomy is an attribute or a feature of the personality for the individual. However, it is much more than just independence. It is the antidote to fear, helplessness, and the sensation of desperate aloneness. For a nation, it serves similar purposes.
Raymond Rogers says in his book, “Coming Into Existence: the struggle to become an individual”, (1967), “Inertia and passivity are the negation of life. An imposed passivity is a dam in the river of life.” Earlier he says, “Children must also be able to preserve the feeling of autonomy, of starting things, of being original causes of action, of searching for hidden possibilities beneath the messy rubble of unchanging facts, difficulties, and impossibilities that confronts them.”
Oppression for the individual, or autocracy, authoritarianism, dictatorship, etc., for the group is the inhibition, denial, frustration, unnecessary delay, or interference with those desirable and necessary things mentioned above. Autonomy requires a certain state of mind or mindset and develops over time in the individual or in the group (tribe, community, state, or nation) but only when conditions permit.
More basic than even freedom, liberty, justice, and brotherly love are trust and faith in humankind, a stable identity, and self-respect and self-love, or at the least an absence of self-loathing, self-contempt, or self-hatred. Autonomy cannot exist without trust, identity (an awareness of a self apart from but integrated with others), and self-respect and self-confidence.
The lack of autonomy both in individuals generally and in society more broadly can be attributed to two main factors or influences. One is that there is a widespread implicit belief at a mostly unconscious level, spread through myriad symbols, cues, and subtle messaging that humans are driven by specific innate fundamental needs, impulses, or proclivities which are bad, self-indulgent, destructive, or somehow antisocial or asocial (known as the “pleasure principle” or “original sin”). The other is the compelling need within a capitalist framework to perform, compete, produce, struggle constantly, and to function as a participant, willingly or unwillingly, in a mechanistic and unforgiving economic system.
The consensus in our society is that the “pleasure principle” or the base instinctual and universal drives must be held in check by the “reality principle”, according to Arno Gruen, in his book, “The Insanity of Normality”, subtitled, “ realism as sickness: toward understanding human destructiveness”(1987, Grove Weidenfeld, NY, NY). If we are not cognizant of reality (i.e., “the world is an evil place”, life is dangerous and brutal; you will be dismissed if you are not a good worker; without status, you are nothing, etc., etc.) we are failures and nobodies.
Therefore; parents must not over-indulge their children or allow them to misbehave in any way (love is conditional, even in infancy. Excessive crying is irritable, too demanding). They are under pressure 24/7 in many instances, trying to survive, over-worked and underpaid, and trying to keep up with ‘the Joneses’. Together these popular conceptions are the formulae for disaster.
Gruen says, “…the struggle for autonomy is the central issue in childhood development.” In another section, he writes that “…socialization will be viewed as a bulwark against “instinctual” drives rather than as a natural and self-generating process of growth.”
Elsewhere, Gruen notes that “…children come to experience their needs as troublesome.” Instead of seeing a child being a child and expressing needs or impulses in the moment, the tendency now is to always see good behavior or bad behavior. We see socialization as something we should orchestrate and manipulate, rather than a normal process better left alone..
In addition, Gruen posits that development toward autonomy is disrupted if the relationship between child and parents, and especially between child and mother, is negatively affected by factors which cause the parent to act in ways which signal that the behavior of that child is inappropriate and unacceptable as a manifestation of inborn defects or attitudes (as I interpret his writing).
The child’s inner world thereby may become chronically disorganized and distracted. Attention is directed inordinately toward the outer world as a matter of focus and habit, while the inner world is neglected and disappears altogether (e.g. Trump, Hitler, Reagan).
Gruen points out further that the outer world, “… involves the disassociation of the experience of helplessness and the denial of the inner world in favor of acquiescence in an externally imposed order in which one’s needs and perceptions are performed, first by parents, later by school, society, and state.” He is relying heavily on his psychoanalytical views and training, and at times one worries that he has engaged in psychobabble. But he provides a great deal of support for his thesis and there are legions of people who exhibit the behaviors in question. Certainly, his statement that “…acquiescence in an externally imposed order in which one’s needs and perceptions are performed…” describes much of our current existence and reality.
Do you truly believe in democracy, autonomy, self-direction? Or are those just buzz words and rhetoric for posturing in conversation? Or, how about freedom, liberty, equality, justice, and dignity for the individual? What? For adults only? Children are excepted? Then, you do not actually believe in those things, do you?
Little can be done on a compressed timescale to alter the thinking and childrearing habits of parents. However, the structure of our institutions, particularly our schools CAN be changed to prevent the destruction or the inhibition of autonomy.
Judging from the frequency with which the word autonomy appears in school literature and research reports one would think it is being baked into the cookies or added to school lunch milk. In reality, however, if one visited 100 schools in any state or in all the states, you would have great difficulty identifying practices and policies in more than a tiny number of classrooms which are conducive to, or which foster, autonomy for either teachers or students.
You may fret endlessly about biased media, money in politics, the bribery of justices and officials, or privatization of everything for profit-making. Knock yourself out trying to fix those problems. However, getting arbitrary authority, hence authoritarian thinking OUT of schools, and getting autonomy (democracy) IN requires only changing how educators and officials regard and treat students. That requires only formally eliminating the attendance laws which give rise to oppressive conditions and other-directed training and instruction. A primary purpose of those laws, if not THE primary purpose is to strip students of any autonomy they may bring to school. The bad laws are insulting, paternalistic, and superfluous.
Autonomy is a choice to be made. It is long since past time to make that choice for the institutions which indoctrinate our youth for twelve very long years.
That was quite a discussion, Robert. I think that I followed it pretty well and if so agree with this line of reasoning. I used to wonder how people could follow a Hitler or a Stalin, then I was in a state government run by an authoritarian "leader" (he eventually went to jail for running over somebody). Most people in my section kept their heads down and quietly complained but we had one person who lived for her tiny bit of power, attached herself to those with a little more, and would ruthlessly attack anyone she considered a threat to her position, whether they were or not. (I did not enjoy getting hate mail). I later realized that she thought everybody else was just as vicious as she was. And I think that is part of the mentality of people like Trump--they imagine that everyone wants to win at any cost and if you don't then you are either a fool or a victim, or both.
Beyond that sickness there is, as I said a moment ago, a lot of people who just keep their heads down and try to get by, which isn't always a bad thing. Forget the "banality of evil" in the Third Reich, the little clerk doing the same office work for Vichy France's government that he had done before for the French Republic probably survived the war okay, hopefully doing no harm, except perhaps to his own self-respect. But then how many of us really risk our lives or freedom for our beliefs?
But aside from those who go along or are really mentally ill, when you have someone who is dead inside, that's different. I once met a recruiter for the Defense Mapping Agency and raised some qualms about joining the organization. His answer, "What do you care how your work is used, you're not the one dropping the bombs." That said to me that he didn't see himself as a monster, but he was. Such a person would follow anyone and probably do anything just because they were told to.
Incidentally, just to finish up on Thom's discussion. That pleasure/pain dichotomy has to be used carefully. As my mother once pointed out with Mao's revolution, people can't be whipped up forever, they get older and settled and want things quieter. (Hence you have his attempt to reignite excitement with the Cultural Revolution.) You must promise them something, but it has to be realistic too. Some years ago a Soviet pilot defected and explained that all his life he had been told the U.S.S.R. was surrounded by serious enemies and they had to be strong to fight them off (pain). But at the same time their enemies were steadily weakening and would soon fail, leading to victory for the world Communist revolution (pleasure). One day he realized that both statements could not be true at the same time. After that he was ready to chuck the whole system.
Dear Doc Weil,
I hate to apologize for my verbosity and I know that almost no one is willing to slog through such a lengthy comment, but I believe that some things are too important for superficial treatment. Most of my comment was an early draft of an upcoming Substack article.
I will start with the pleasure/pain dichotomy. I agree with Thom but your mother was probably also correct in that everything has its limit. While the topics were the campaign and communication techniques or recommendations for those of us who deal with families, friends, and people on social media, and I hope to make some use of the ideas and insights, the problems remain of how we got here, the handicaps we have and resistance we face, and what happens after we have a new administration with a more positive attitude. The “people” will not be changing in any significant way and the authoritarians may or may not go back under their rocks, while a new latent group of authoritarians and followers will bide their time waiting for another chaotic moment. As I wrote in my comment, when so many people have failed to develop autonomy, democracy, which is autonomy writ large is on the skids and must ultimately fail. At that point it will be all pain and pleasure will be a thing of the past for all but a few. Those who are autonomous may not always choose to be leaders but they are never good followers.
Keeping one’s head down is wise if one is in a situation where one’s head might be chopped off. I am all about survival. But timing is the issue. The time to speak out and act up as one person with minimal power and influence is before a tyrant has so much power that he or she is able to wreak destruction on anyone who dissents. With Trump, few have had the gumption to challenge him. I’ve never been able to keep my head down, however. I quit the best job I ever had in the mid-1960’s when my boss spoke to me disrespectfully and have regretted it ever since. I was a bit hot-headed in my 20’s. But I’ve gotten fired a couple of times since and was a major thorn in the side of management and a powerful hotel president (named Horst) acting as a spokesperson and repeat petition writer when even our union was cow-towed. I would probably do things much the same if I had the chance. The “banality of evil” is in the failure to protest and fight when those things are still possible and when one refuses to recognize a threat or to take a stand for rights (and for one’s beliefs) before an autocrat or would-be dictator accrues total power.
I didn’t have time to get into the rage felt by dictators when their autonomy is destroyed as children. You will have to read the book. Gruen explains it all quite well. Suffice it to say that democracy is autonomy and vice versa, and we are not fostering autonomy in schools which are not democratic, which means that citizens are ill prepared to self-govern, authoritarians are being mass produced, and it is only a matter of time before the battle is lost. The only way to make schools democratic is to remove compulsory attendance laws. We’ve tried everything else and failed miserably. Tell your grandkids.