PRay TeLL, Dr. Hash

<p>As prosperity has increased, narcissism has along with it. Narcissists think they are the Center-Of-The-Universe, just like the rest of us, but they take it to the extremes. Narcissism used to be frowned upon, garnering social censure; in fact, “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” is still considered a mental illness and describes how the disorder negatively impacts the patient, but with t...

<p>A psychopath is unaware of the injury they inflict, or in the extreme case, their pleasure centers are triggered instead, motivating the psychopath to more heinous crimes. Psychopathy is corporeal in nature, meaning it's not due to a cognitive process; through some kind of maldevelopment or injury, the part of the brain, the Frontal lobe, that empathizes with the plights of others no long...

<p>Often when people describe sociopaths, they use the term “don't care,” as in "a sociopath doesn't care." Care about what? A sociopath is simply someone who makes a logical calculation of the benefit of their action versus the social penalty. A successful sociopath does not "care" whether they are shunned, scorned, or shamed, or any other kind of social ostracization, a...

<p>A masochist derives pleasure from their own pain, humiliation & mental anguish. Though it's commonly associated with sex, its biggest manifestation is among participants in the modern Victimhood culture; people who view their whole existence through a lens of mortification, and revel in guilt. In fact, a large portion of the population is shameful towards their own race, and are outra...

<p>Sadists are people who get pleasure from inflicting suffering & humiliation on others; passive aggression, spite & perversity are their calling cards. In the past, sadism was a psychiatric condition but has since become mainstream; now a significant portion of humanity is sadistic, fueled by Social Media, which is a sadistic paradise: Internet trolls, the call-out culture, and Twi...

<p>A delusion is believing things that aren't true, so obviously we're all living in a delusion because most naive optimism is unjustified. Religion is another prime example: are you a reincarnated grasshopper? Does a spirit listen to your whispering and grant wishes? Are we all part of a oneness where rocks and plants are sentient on a galactic level? What are the odds that your religion is...

<p>The concept of rational comes from from the word “ratio,” which means when in someone's opinion something has a more positive than negative outcome, it's a rational choice; irrational would be the opposite of that. Since rationality is subjective, what is rational for one person's self-interest is probably irrational for someone else; that's why socialism, the ideal of doing the most good...

<p>Logic is reasoning that produces a predictable outcome. Logic is the only practical means of predicting the future but logic requires facts, and if those are erroneous or not available, logic cannot be performed. To be illogical is to choose an answer other than what logic dictates. Socially, logic has a suspect reputation: Star Trek's Dr. Spock was logical which somehow conflicted with h...

<p>Feelings can always use review; let's do it:</p> <ol> <li> <p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">It's the chemical nature of feelings that motivates humans.</p> </li> <li> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Many interpersonal rel...

<p>Americans don't even have a word for the pleasure we derive from the misfortune of others, especially people we resent or otherwise identify as hypocrites. Luckily, the Germans are a more candid culture, not afraid to point out this opposite of altruism: “schadenfreude.” It just shows how reluctant people are to recognize their internal motivations, which is why self-awareness is such a r...

<p>Extortion is one of those words that immediately gets folk's attention. Extortion is coercion. When people first think of extortion, the legal definition comes to mind: price-gouging, black-mail, or to avoid negative consequences, such as euphemistic “protection,” which really means abeyance from harm, but extortion is often also part of receiving an essential service, such as a building...

<p><span lang="en"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Shame is an extremely powerful motivator, and a very effective means of control. </span></span>Creatures are not born with shame, even humans; it must be taught. <span lang="en"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If there is no taboo in a society against an action...

<p>Clinical Psychologist, Jordan Peterson, includes the concept of “agreeableness” in his explanation of human personality. It's an awkward term with a weak meaning, but seems to indicate that an agreeable person is willing to sacrifice personal gain and even truth in order to avoid conflict. These people therefore do better in environments that require supplication, like schooling and rote...

<p>There are two inheritable attributes that define a person's ideological outlook: conscientiousness & altruism. The two attributes do not correlate, meaning one does not depend on the other, instead everyone has a mixture, and whichever trait predominates tends the person to either individualism for conscientious people, or collectivism for the altruistic ones.</p> <p style=&q...

<p>Evolutionary, women ensured survival by bearing children, and in modern times they still have control over reproduction. This overarching biological advantage gives women purpose regardless of what is happening in their personal lives, and they take solace in that whether they are actually the ones having the children or not; it's their meaning of life. Men, on-the-other-hand, have no suc...

<p>Our personal relationships with other people are dictated by mostly unacknowledged motives that require self-awareness to recognize and comprehend. One glaring example that no one ever seems to notice is that the nuclear family is at its essence, Marxist: strong authoritarian leaders, from those according to their ability to those according to their need, equality. In fact, your family me...

<p>Feelings are nothing more than chemical reactions in your brain due to hormones & neuropeptides: serotonin is soothing, dopamine is a high, adrenalin is excitement, female lust and altruism comes from oxytocin; endorphins assuage pain; and BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor) magnifies them all. There's also the ever-important testosterone which brings ambition, aggression, anger a...

<p>Let's review the concepts around what makes you a person:</p> <ol> <li> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Fate is what happens to people who don't make decisions for themselves.</p> </li> <li> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Determinism is when intelligent people are sucked into fortune-telling.</p> </li> <li&g...

<p>What should be considered a weakness, not admitting when you are wrong, has been turned on its head by the penalty if you do so. The reason for the infallibility trap is the inability to admit an error without penalty: social or monetary. Anybody, anywhere, for anything, can claim they are offended and will take control by exploiting the leverage given to them by someone apologizing. No o...

<p>High-order creatures are subject to frustration, the thwarting of their desires by outside forces. Even the most sage & savvy individuals can be frustrated to distraction if the conditions are right; sometimes it even seems like a malevolent presence is working against you. Frustration can lead to rage; it's a common cause of brutality among chimpanzees, when frustrated members of a t...

<p>In the West, enlightenment is closely tied to self-awareness, comprehension of your own motivations. However, in Eastern religious doctrine, enlightenment is the casting off of indoctrination and conditioning, going so far as to discourage the acquisition of knowledge, as a way of escaping the propaganda that is ubiquitous in life. Their intent is an attempt to supersede the basic emotion...

<p>Contemplation and self-awareness are closely related, and may even be poetically the same thing. To contemplate life is to examine your place within it in relation to the places of others; and hopefully, to try and understand their motives and your own. Contemplation only works when you have a great deal of input to contemplate, the wider the better, that's why experience is important bec...

<p>There are whole swaths of human history where seemingly nothing happened, at least in what we can glean from archaeology and historical records, compared against times where empires flourished and pyramids were built. We can only look at examples of the two extremes today to determine why there is a difference, and the best word that describes it is ingenuity, the ability to propose solut...

<p>The natural ideology of man is akin to socialism; some elite decision-maker determines what is best for everyone: the head of the family, the king, a council of elders. The contrary ideology, one only found after civilization could satisfy its basic needs through working together, was personal autonomy, where people decide for themselves and reap the rewards or suffer the consequences of...

<p>Religious people believe that even if they are not rewarded now for their good works, they will be rewarded later in life, or in afterlife, by some divine power. This belief naturally extends to them thinking that financially successful people are benefiting for similar reasons, meaning they must have deserved it in some way, either them directly, or their parents did something reward-wor...