Today's lunch conversation was about the physics of consciousness. That's become the field. I've questioned the priorities there, as a kind of psychologist, as what we need help with, as a faculty, is the unconscious. Everyday dream time awareness, so-called consciousness, is something I tend to scoff at (just kidding).
Anyway, what kind of "psychologist" do I suppose I might be? Do I hang out a shingle somewhere? In the 1980s I think it was, the philosophers thought they might do this, making the claim that what ails people is more metaphysical than merely psychological.
I could see the appeal. Philosophy has been on the self help shelves in the past. Stoicism and so on.
No, the psychology of individuals was my focus in the past, as a reader of Freud and like that. Adler. But mass psychology, whatever that means, is more my focus today, and that means marketing and advertising, lobbying and propaganda i.e. changing the collective psyche i.e. politics.
Yes, I've called myself a lobbyist. Once I realized the political process had a hand in determining curriculum, somewhat shocking to realize at first, I jumped into the business of pushing discrete math. This had to do with high school level topics, and whether delta calculus would maintain its same level of dominance. I posted tons to Math Forum about it, before the public forums were canceled.
But then of course Oregon Curriculum Network is more niche market than that. Under cover, I've been an agent for Python Nation, not that our legals at PSF think there is such a thing.
Guido's term as benevolent dictator was more tongue in cheek, somewhat mocking actual dictators. That's true of Python Nation as well, similar to Rogue Nation (a brewery in Oregon) in taking the claptrap, the pomp, of nation-states, and using it for branding.
What's a nation-state, or a religion for that matter, beyond a brand? One could say the difference is immeasurable as a brand is nothing without a substantial subculture to back it up. Betty Crocker. McDonald's.
Exactly. Ethnicity matters. You need those subcultures. The US had its deep believers in democracy. The flag decals wouldn't mean anything without those old timers. Other ideologies would adopt them.
Advertisers who believe in the Holy Ghost (a Zeitgeist) have an edge, one might believe, as a matter of faith. Or call them propagandists, as the Catholics do, or did, when everyone important spoke Latin.
Hollywood will tell you it's all show business. I'm not saying that I disagree. The show must go on.
If physicists want to be the next priesthood, or maybe that dream has come true already, we should get them involved in the treatments. Help us with the mental health issues, war a chief pathology.
That means curriculum development. That means programming, as in television programming.
But then television doesn't mean what it used to mean, either. The internet (tcp/ip) has created the new groundwork.
I work at being a nationalist, a patriot, but for Python Nation, a science fiction virtual nation the PSF doesn't necessarily believe in. That doesn't mean I've abandoned USA OS (my idea of a democracy, based on the one that died in darkness).
I think we need practice in re-basing our nationalism in the cloud, more like the religions have done (the more successful ones).
Cloud-based nationalism helps take the stress off the planetary ecosystem, freeing it from service as a mere backdrop for our nationalist fantasies.
