tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post9144781631768763574..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Called Into BeingAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-75604721992045042852018-11-22T23:34:05.552-05:002018-11-22T23:34:05.552-05:00In one sense, we actually _do_ something like this...In one sense, we actually _do_ something like this. When I make some decision and act on it, there is something new in the world that I have created--a turn to the left out my driveway, perhaps. That didn't exist before; now it does.<br /><br />Magic promises shortcuts. So does a careless take on Jesus' words (faith as a mustard seed...). So, I take it, does extreme nominalism.<br /><br />From Hill of Dreams:<br />"Here, he thought, he had discovered one of the secrets of true magic; this was the key to the symbolic transmutations of the Eastern tales. The adept could, in truth, change those who were obnoxious to him into harmless and unimportant shapes, not as in the letter of the old stories, by transforming the enemy, but by transforming himself. The magician puts men below him by going up higher, as one looks down on a mountain city from a loftier crag."jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-32018004498604122462018-11-22T14:10:40.267-05:002018-11-22T14:10:40.267-05:00Hmm. Perhaps I should declare myself 70 so that I ...Hmm. Perhaps I should declare myself 70 so that I can begin receiving Social Security, while there’s still any left. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-2178845267638700792018-11-22T13:27:21.261-05:002018-11-22T13:27:21.261-05:00Jordan Petersen points out that the new thinking g...Jordan Petersen points out that the new thinking goes like this: if you're a man who thinks he's a woman, that's biologically determined, but if you're a woman who thinks she's a woman, that's a social construct.<br /><br />The funny thing, of course, is that you really can will crazy social conventions into being by the abstract power of magical thinking, as long as you can persuade enough people to go along with you--and we know that persuasion, at most times and with most people, is only tangentially related to reality, especially when consequences are personally remote.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-34008386634420795972018-11-22T10:48:18.802-05:002018-11-22T10:48:18.802-05:00On the flip side, there's been some interestin...On the flip side, there's been some interesting results with placebo research that seem to indicate the old 'people believe the illusion' theory of how it works is not accurate. You can get the same results even if people know they are getting an inert pill, and your body will eact as if you drank a lo-fat drink even if what you actually got wasn't.<br /><br />69 to 49 guy is Dutch, and it appears that allowing gender-bending is his argument for letting him change his age. Since people have lied about their ages forever, it's interesting that now we also seem obsessed with making these things official.Christopher Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00396671757183163171noreply@blogger.com