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The Poison We Pick

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Re: The Poison We Pick

#161

Post by newnewpdro »

majormajor wrote: post #155
noahdesu wrote: post #48

The first thing I did when I opened this article was search for "rat", and was happy to see it there. From the comments I saw I had a hunch it might be: I recently finished a really powerful chapter in the book "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs" which describes an experiment involving rats that ostensibly shows that addiction isn't about the chemical, but rather it's about the environme…

It definitely seems like a mix. I've been addicted (to the point of losing thousands and thousands) to gambling in the past - looking for a way out, something to change things financially - but alcohol or narcotic drugs did nothing for me. But I knew other people in the same situation whose relief came - more destructively, more difficult to recover from - from the drugs.

Did you try psychedelic drugs?

Ibogaine [1] has been found to be particularly effective in helping those suffering from addiction. Psilocybin has also seen research in this area with some positive results. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine#Addiction_treatment

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin#Research

Re: The Poison We Pick

#163

Post by Qub3d »

foxbarrington wrote: post #94
noahdesu wrote: post #48

The first thing I did when I opened this article was search for "rat", and was happy to see it there. From the comments I saw I had a hunch it might be: I recently finished a really powerful chapter in the book "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs" which describes an experiment involving rats that ostensibly shows that addiction isn't about the chemical, but rather it's about the environme…

In addition to rat park[0], there's also been an amazing study wrt to Viet Nam vets[1]. Only 5% of soldiers relapsed to heroin use in the first year of returning home. Compared to a traditional 90% relapse rate when addicts treated in the US return to their homes. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/05/3718949...

Fair warning, this video is pop science and therefore prone to many of its pitfalls, but when viewed in context I find Kurzgesagt[0] did an nice summary of this addiction theory.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg

Re: The Poison We Pick

#164

Post by grzm »

platz wrote: post #162
grzm wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jordan B Peterson

downvoters; i am not endorsing his views, just explaining why he someone like him is resonating at this point in time.

FWIW, your comment is nearly content free: I suspect people may be down voting because there's little substance there pointing out the similarities and reasoning, particularly as a top-level comment.

Re: The Poison We Pick

#165

Post by platz »

grzm wrote: post #164
platz wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

downvoters; i am not endorsing his views, just explaining why he someone like him is resonating at this point in time.

FWIW, your comment is nearly content free: I suspect people may be down voting because there's little substance there pointing out the similarities and reasoning, particularly as a top-level comment.

thats a good point.

Re: The Poison We Pick

#166

Post by ryandrake »

andrewjl wrote: post #139
panarky wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The global economy already produces enough for every man, woman and child. The surplus increases every year. Every year, fewer and fewer people need to work full-time in mind-numbingly boring jobs to produce what the population needs. So why do we keep up the fiction that everyone needs to waste their lives doing unnecessary work? It's time to imagine how we could achieve a post-work society where more people could r…

Easy answer, the narrative embedded into our worldview (and in the worldview of many if not most decision makers) is that without work and the kind of structure it brings, people cannot be functional members of society. It plays itself out both externally and internally.

I’m reminded of Ursula Le Guin: “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.“

Re: The Poison We Pick

#167

Post by smogcutter »

calt wrote: post #142
smogcutter wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enter UBI: an allowance from our masters, so that people can continue to consume when there's nothing left for people to produce.

Or perhaps UBI can set people free to live as they see fit, cultivate themselves spiritually, artistically, and communally without needing to consume nearly as useless garbage.

Maybe! Or maybe it creates an enormous, permanent underclass living hand to mouth on what are effectively ration cards, lacking even the power to deny the machine their labor. Then, is that actually as bad as it sounds? A walk around LA's skid row is a strong case it's not. For me, it's eyebrow raising that a lot of the momentum behind UBI seems (anecdotally) to come from people who don't expect to have to rely on it.

It's clear that if automation continues apace something will have to give. UBI might be the answer, but I suspect it's actually not radical enough: that trying to bring money with us into a post scarcity economy is not going to go the way we want, no matter how good our intentions.

Re: The Poison We Pick

#168

Post by majormajor »

newnewpdro wrote: post #161
majormajor wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It definitely seems like a mix. I've been addicted (to the point of losing thousands and thousands) to gambling in the past - looking for a way out, something to change things financially - but alcohol or narcotic drugs did nothing for me. But I knew other people in the same situation whose relief came - more destructively, more difficult to recover from - from the drugs.

Did you try psychedelic drugs? Ibogaine [1] has been found to be particularly effective in helping those suffering from addiction. Psilocybin has also seen research in this area with some positive results. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine#Addiction_treatment [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin#Research

For me it was adderall to bootstrap getting started at finishing a college degree, eventually discontinued after building enough positive habits and getting into a position where my actions were having positive results.

Re: The Poison We Pick

#169

Post by nemo44x »

meuk wrote: post #72
refurb wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their effective tax rate is lower too, since once you don't need to pay as much for education and healthcare, your take-home pay is higher. Based on what I've seen this is certainly not true baring a few exceptions.

I think the pay is more equal in Europe. I have finished multiple studies and work as a software developer, but I only make about 15% more than a friend who did not finish an academic study and works in logistics. If you're a bartender, Europe is a better place to be ;)

As someone who has to figure out what rates to pay people doing the same jobs across Europe and the USA I can say you're probably right. Our European employees make considerably less base salaries in general except for the Swiss employees who make on average typical base salaries as our USA employees.

Re: The Poison We Pick

#170

Post by gph »

panarky wrote: post #135
sgentle wrote: post #120

Rather than place the blame on a lack of structure, community or spirituality, I see this as just a natural consequence of a system optimised at every turn for economic output. I've heard a lot about a singularity doomsday scenario where a paperclip-maximising AI realises people are much less useful as paperclip constructors than they are as paperclip ingredients. Surely it can't be so hard to see that the productivi…

The global economy already produces enough for every man, woman and child. The surplus increases every year. Every year, fewer and fewer people need to work full-time in mind-numbingly boring jobs to produce what the population needs. So why do we keep up the fiction that everyone needs to waste their lives doing unnecessary work? It's time to imagine how we could achieve a post-work society where more people could r…

>The global economy already produces enough for every man, woman and child.

But does it produce enough for every man, woman and child in a sustainable manner, and will it be able to keep up with the Malthusian population growth that would continue unabated if every person on earth was perpetually guaranteed to get "enough"?

The answer to both of those is no. While there is certainly a lot of inefficient busy work amongst the workforce of developed nations, to say that most people on earth waste their lives doing unnecessary work is an extraordinarily myopic claim that's been bandied about since that one guy wrote an article about BS jobs. Everyone latches onto that meme and assumes the majority of work being done is absolutely worthless, but they really have nothing to back that up except their own personal experience as a middle class corporate drone.

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