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Thought of the Week Archives
April 1998 This is why modern civilization is in almost every respect a vicious circle. It is insatiably hungry because its way of life condemns it to perpetual frustration. … the root of this frustration is that we live for the future, and the future is an abstraction, a rational inference from experience, which exists only for the brain…. …To pursue [the future] is to pursue a constantly retreating phantom, and the faster you chase it, the faster it runs ahead. This is why all the affairs of civilization are rushed, why hardly anyone enjoys what he has and is forever seeking more and more. Happiness, then, will consist, not of solid and substantial realities, but of such abstract and superficial things as promises, hopes and assurances.
~ Alan Watts ~
The Wisdom of Insecurity
(Vintage Books, 1951, pages 60-61)
“Education is what’s left over
after you have forgotten
everything that you have learned.”
~ B. F. Skinner ~
April 20
Addictions act as camouflage, a way of hiding from and protecting against our real needs, which remain unconscious. But as psychological dependency becomes physiological habituation and then abuse, the user becomes filled with guilt and shame for the self-destructive behavior. So instead of escaping shadowy feelings, addicts find themselves face-to-face with them, believing themselves once more to be bad, unworthy, and unlovable. In this way an addiction creates more shadow content by failing to address the shadow directly, allowing it to erupt indirectly and therefore to remain unconscious.”
~ Connie Zweig, Ph.D., and Steve Wolf, Ph.D. ~
Romancing the Shadow: Illuminating the Dark Side of the Soul
(Ballantine Books, 1977, page 51)
April 27
But girls today are much more oppressed. They are coming of age in a more dangerous, sexualized and media-saturated culture. They face incredible pressures to be beautiful and sophisticated, which in junior high means using chemicals and being sexual. As they navigate a more dangerous world, girls are less protected. As I looked at the culture that girls enter as they come of age, I was struck by what a girl-poisoning culture it was. The more I looked around, the more I listened to today’s music, watched television and movies and looked at sexist advertising, the more convinced I became that we are on the wrong path with our daughters. America today limits girls’ development, truncates their wholeness and leaves many of them traumatized.
~ Mary Pipher, Ph.D. ~
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
Balentine Books, 1994 |
The Hero's Journey: A resource for educators, teachers, and students
Thought of the Week Archives
April 1998 This is why modern civilization is in almost every respect a vicious circle. It is insatiably hungry because its way of life condemns it to perpetual frustration. … the root of this frustration is that we live for the future, and the future is an abstraction, a rational inference from experience, which exists only for the brain…. …To pursue [the future] is to pursue a constantly retreating phantom, and the faster you chase it, the faster it runs ahead. This is why all the affairs of civilization are rushed, why hardly anyone enjoys what he has and is forever seeking more and more. Happiness, then, will consist, not of solid and substantial realities, but of such abstract and superficial things as promises, hopes and assurances.
~ Alan Watts ~
The Wisdom of Insecurity
(Vintage Books, 1951, pages 60-61)
April 20
Addictions act as camouflage, a way of hiding from and protecting against our real needs, which remain unconscious. But as psychological dependency becomes physiological habituation and then abuse, the user becomes filled with guilt and shame for the self-destructive behavior. So instead of escaping shadowy feelings, addicts find themselves face-to-face with them, believing themselves once more to be bad, unworthy, and unlovable. In this way an addiction creates more shadow content by failing to address the shadow directly, allowing it to erupt indirectly and therefore to remain unconscious.”
~ Connie Zweig, Ph.D., and Steve Wolf, Ph.D. ~
Romancing the Shadow: Illuminating the Dark Side of the Soul
(Ballantine Books, 1977, page 51)
April 27
But girls today are much more oppressed. They are coming of age in a more dangerous, sexualized and media-saturated culture. They face incredible pressures to be beautiful and sophisticated, which in junior high means using chemicals and being sexual. As they navigate a more dangerous world, girls are less protected. As I looked at the culture that girls enter as they come of age, I was struck by what a girl-poisoning culture it was. The more I looked around, the more I listened to today’s music, watched television and movies and looked at sexist advertising, the more convinced I became that we are on the wrong path with our daughters. America today limits girls’ development, truncates their wholeness and leaves many of them traumatized.
~ Mary Pipher, Ph.D. ~
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
Balentine Books, 1994