Showing posts with label social psychology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social psychology. Show all posts

Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Horror, The Horror!

Political Conservatives Fear Chaos; Liberals Fear Emptiness

Mistah Kurtz died long ago so get over it. (With apologies to the wonderful Joseph Conrad)

Keep in mind that with these studies the results are statistical so don't go around thinking that because someone has liberal or conservative political beliefs ipso facto that particular person experiences what the study results suggest.

According to this study conservatives fear of social chaos and absence of order while liberals fear emptiness. The potential for social chaos and absence of order is always a problem for societies so these things need to be guarded against. As for feelings of emptiness just get over it. The universe is a cold heartless place and the sooner you realise that and go on living the better off you will be. Stuff the rubbish touted by Deepak Chopra, Gary Zukav, and even Anthony Robbins for that matter. These people are fools who delude others into thinking that life truly is meaningful. It isn't. This has long been known but few are willing to embrace it wholeheartedly. When people do truly accept the meaninglessness of existence they realise it was a stupid thing to worry about. Alas I fear that humanity will continue to generate all manner of Imaginary Friends to keep The Horror away. As that wonderful French writer Albert Camus noted, "Seeking the truth is not seeking what is desirable." More importantly, remember his words:

But it is bad to stop, hard to be satisfied with a single way of seeing, to go without contradiction, perhaps the most subtle of all spiritual forces. The preceding merely defines a way of thinking. But the point is to live.


The Myth of Sisyphus.

So if you are a conservative and fear emptiness the problem is that you fear nothingness. When you think about it, that's kinda stupid. At least conservatives aren't that silly.