Archeologists said yesterday that they had unearthed the oldest musical instruments ever found – several flutes that inhabitants of southwestern Germany laboriously carved from bone and ivory at least 35,000 years ago. Just a few feet away from a bone flute, researchers discovered one of the oldest examples of figurative art – the sculpture of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘self-deception’
It’s all in our heads
Philosophers have often said that much of what we take for granted as reality is illusion, and much of what we consider as illusion is actually more real. If we inverted our logic for some reason, for example to please others with offerings of politeness, that could cause us to have such an inverted sense [...]
The mob hates the smart
If people are unstable, they will probably form large groups based on mutual non-noticing of their instability. So everyone gets together, no one points out the neurosis that’s the elephant in the room, and oddly, this bonds them together. Eventually, they decide to go kill the people who are smart and take their stuff. That’s [...]
Absolute political ideals are manipulations
Over the last 30 years human rights have triumphed. They unite left and right, north and south, church and state. The cosmopolitan world order promises the fulfilment of Enlightenment principles and an end to strife. Yet human rights have only paradoxes to offer. Despite the statements about a universal right to life, every day brings [...]
What is “morality”?
PARENTS should avoid trying to convince their teenage children of the difference between right and wrong when talking to them about sex, a new government leaflet is to advise. Instead, any discussion of values should be kept “light” to encourage teenagers to form their own views, according to the brochure, which one critic has called [...]
The death of civilizations
When I was a kid, I often worried that my lifespan would not include any epic or cool events. Life punished me for that thought. I’m rewarded with a front-row seat to the collapse of one of the most powerful empires in history. Unfortunately, this also means that much of what I do is doomed [...]
How another Revolution will destroy Europe
Crypto-leaders, or oligarchs, love the current riots spreading from Greece across Europe: The unrest that has gripped Greece is spilling over into the rest of Europe, raising concerns the clashes could be a trigger for opponents of globalization, disaffected youth and others outraged by the continent’s economic turmoil and soaring unemployment. “What’s happening in Greece [...]
Are we big chemical reactions?
The unpoetic explanation is that love mostly can be understood through brain images, hormones and genetics. In humans, there are four tiny areas of the brain that some researchers think form a circuit of love. Acevedo, who works at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, is part of a team that has [...]
What is passive aggression?
This definition has fallen out of favor because the behavior is so common now, but recognizing it helps you not take it seriously: Passive-aggressives are literally aggressive in a passive way. They aren’t hostile one moment and then kind the next. Instead, they perform the maddening trick of being both at the same time. Essentially, [...]
Psychology of the Crowd: a sticky interdependency
Because of technology, we never have to be alone anymore. And that’s the problem. The late British pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott popularized the phrase “the capacity to be alone” in the 1950s, to describe a pivotal stage of emotional development. Winnicott argued that an adult’s capacity to be alone had its roots in his [...]
