Maintaining his unblemished record as the cruelest governor in the nation, Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting localities from having higher standards than the state in protecting workers from excessive heats. DeSantis has been vying for the title with Greg Abbott of Texas. When DeSantis signs a bill after business hours, you can bet he knows it’s a breach of human dignity. He signed Florida’s six-week abortion ban late at night, surrounded by supporters.
TALLAHASSEE — Without fanfare and after business hours, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that prevents local governments from requiring worker protections from heat exposure and forbidding them to impose minimum wage requirements on contractors.
The bill, backed by business groups, was fiercely debated and received final approval from the House and Senate on March 8, the final day of the session.
DeSantis’ office revealed that he had approved the measure (HB 433) in a news release without comment on Thursday night. For much of his administration, including the past few weeks, the governor has held news conferences to celebrate his signing of bills.
In a statement, Bill Herrle, Florida director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the new law would help “create a stable environment where owners can grow their businesses….”
But more than 90 organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, the League of Women Voters of Florida, the Farmworker Association of Florida and the NAACP Florida State Conference signed letters asking DeSantis to veto the bill.
“Floridians feel it getting hotter and understand how difficult and dangerous it is to labor in the sun and heat,” opponents said in an April 2 letter. “Preempting local governments’ ability to protect workers from climate-caused extreme heat is inhumane and will have enormous negative economic impacts when lost productivity is taken into account.”
The heat restrictions came after the Miami-Dade County Commission last year considered a proposal to require construction and agriculture companies to ensure that workers have access to water and to give them 10-minute breaks in the shade every two hours when the heat index is at least 95 degrees.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How do those running these “businesses” lobby for such dehumanizing laws and regulations without feeling any remorse?
They are Libertarian ideologues.
I’m just trying to imagine what exactly they could say if someone pressed them with the facts that people die in extreme heat and asked them how they can justify their stance. I’d really like to hear a journalist ask the question. Look them straight in the eye and take them to task.
LG,
Hypocrisy.
DeSantis says he cares about “life,” the life of an unborn child.
Why doesn’t he care about the lives of the living?
Yup. Or ask Trump, when he talks about Marxists, what central concepts of Marxism he opposes and how much of the work of Karl Marx he has read. “Uh, Mr. Trump, but what do you think of Marx’s ideas about worker alienation?”
It’s funny how Trump rails against “Marxists, socialists, leftists, radicals, Communists, fascists,” and every other label, none of which he can define.
Speaking of Trump, this is the latest Text message from Don Jr:
[JUST FILED] TO DEFEND PRESIDENT TRUMP
My father will ask the Supreme Court to rule that he is IMMUNE from Crooked Joe Biden’s legal warfare and attempts to imprison him for life as an innocent man.
But to take on the corrupt Biden Department of Justice and win, my father will need reinforcements.
That’s why the NRSC is taking unprecedented action to have his back in Court!
The NRSC just filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief with the Supreme Court to defend President Trump in his critical battle to declare his immunity from Joe Biden’s attacks.
Now, they need 10,000,000 Voters like YOU to add your name to their Supreme Court Petition to defend President Trump from Biden’s legal warfare.
Thank you,
Donald Trump Jr.
Avarice knows no bounds.
Some of the immigrant people doing the work on the lawns at the apartment complex where I live look to be kids. I mean 14, 15, 16 years old.
Sadly, Bob, at least some of them probably are kids. And they may well be missing school in order to make money for their families.
Even if one is an extremely stupid Repugnican troglodyte, a person could not sign this bill without knowing, without being completely aware of the fact, that innocent people will die because of it.
You can get heat stroke when working in 100-degree temperatures, which are common in Florida. And it takes at least 30 minutes of cooling measures to recover from it.
Under this law a pregnant sixteen year old, unable to get an abortion, could pick crops loaded with glycophytes in the summer without access to a break or water. This is DeSantis’ new vision for Florida, a society that only benefits the donor class.
Exactly. Cruel in the extreme. Utterly without regard to whether people die, literally die.
you are being silly. Don’t you trust our business leaders? They have a great track record. No American business has ever put profit above morality.
So, used photographic film has tiny amounts of silver in it. Some guy in Chicago, years ago, started a business in which he rented a warehouse and filled it with open drums of hydrochloric acid. Then he hired nondocumented workers to soak the film in the acid, and the silver would float to the top, where the workers would skim it off.
Workers got sick. Workers died.
And this turned out to be the first case in America where someone who ran a business that exposed people to conditions that would kill them was successfully tried for MURDER.
Bob: your story reminds me that Eastman-Kodak recycled all the silver in the film they used. Back in the film days, they employed 10,000 people in Kingsport, Tennessee. I have always wondered about how many were exposed to dangerous chemicals in the process.
when I wrote the above sarcasm, I was thinking of the breaker boys, sorting coal on top of the Nineteenth Century breakers, where chunks of coal were hand sorted by 6 year old boys, whose spines grew curved because of their constant bending.
DeSantis continues to consolidate power in the state. He can be counted on to vote on unpopular measures after most of the legislators have retired for the day. He tries to to avoid debate and resistance to his bills. This law in addition to the law that allows children as young as fourteen to work and sixteen year olds to work 30 hours per week are all part of DeSantis’ Floridian dystopia.
Under DeSantis, Florida needs teen workers because the migrants are banned. Who else will do the hard labor?
I’ve been to Florida once.
Never again, as long as that idiot is in charge.
I used to vacation in Florida. I won’t go back until DeSantis is gone. I’d like to add to that “and humane leadership in the legislature,” but I may not live that long.
Yeah, you might be aiming too high.
I would absolutely leave tomorrow if all of my grandkids were not here.
At least you have the right priorities.
Bob: You write: “I would absolutely leave tomorrow if all of my grandkids were not here.”
Nothing new under the sun:
It’s shades of “The Rape of the Sabine Women” all over again, only in a different context. CBK
In the 19th century, white Europeans used to go live somewhere else for a while and then come back and write a book called something like, Life among the Savages. That’s what I feel like.
Why You Should Move to Flor-uh-duh | Bob Shepherd | Praxis (wordpress.com)
Write it!
I thought the extreme MAGARINO right couldn’t get any more insane after what Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled about abortion, bringing back a law from 1860, to make abortion totally illegal so all pregnant women who end up with a health challenges during their pregnancies must die or suffer horribly for daring to get pregnant, Dangerously Deranged DeSantis and his Putin style puppet legislature does something like this.
Still, the MAGARINO controlled US Supreme Court already set the precedent for what the Arizona Supreme Court recently ruled when they got rid of Roe vs Wade.
“Draft Overturning Roe v. Wade Quotes Infamous Witch Trial Judge With Long-Discredited Ideas on Rape Justice Alito’s leaked opinion cites Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who conceived the notion that husbands can’t be prosecuted for raping their wives, who sentenced women to death as ‘witches,’ and whose misogyny stood out even in his time.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-roe-wade-alito-scotus-hale
If I wake up one morning to read that Dangerously Deranged DeSantis signed a bill into law that changes Florida’s state constitution making him governor for life, I will not be surprised.
This is what MAGA really means.
Returning the United States to the 17th century when women could be burned alive for witchcraft, or at least the pre Civil War era when women were still the property of men, could not vote, have a paying job, own property, go to school, and slavery was legal.
a very sad day for workers in Florida…
but then, Florida voted for DeSantis, so does that mean that most Floridians prefer no or low state taxes to a humane working environment?
I took a screen shot of this blog article and sent it to my brother. Here is his response, “Coming from you and your liberal nut jobs, I don’t believe it.”
He once texted me that he’d never vote for a Democrat.
This is why it is so hard to get voters to vote in their best interests. [My brother believes that Obama was the a anti-Christ that was killing Jews and Christians in FEMA camps. Remember that God controls the weather and bad weather comes because God is mad at us for all the sins that humans commit.]
Carol,
I don’t know why he wouldn’t believe the post about DeSantis. It states fact, not opinion.
Diane: We’ve reached a new tribal low of mental acuity where, to extreme MAGA, WHAT someone says or does has no bearing on the matter.
The point is: WHO says or does it. In that scenario, Trump is already king.
So let’s get ahead of Trump and his present trial. Here’s Trump’s schtick:
The judge, jury, prosecutors, witnesses, and everyone who says I am guilty, are just using the law to serve their vindictive hate for Trump, and to put Trump in jail.
Here’s the response: I despise Trump and want to see him do jailtime, and certainly NOT to become president again. And prosecution and jail WOULD serve my sense of vindictiveness (and allot of other peoples’).
However, the law is about justice and accountability for one’s criminal acts, regardless of WHO and regardless of the vindictiveness it serves in anyone. In other words, it’s not about WHO but about WHAT. It doesn’t matter WHO did the crime or who wants to be vindicated. Justice demands and is served by accountability for laws broken that are already on the books.
It follows that, if Biden did those crimes, then the same law, the serving of justice, and its demand for accountability would apply.
Tribal MAGA consciousness, however, hasn’t a clue about those distinctions. And the tribal “Me or YOU” is what opens the door to the “justification” of violence. CBK
This morning I sent my brother, and a few other people, a copy of the full article posted on the Miami Herald. I included the link.
I did speak this morning to a friend of mine who had lived for years in Miami and now lives in Tampa. She told me that she was glad that I’d sent the article from the Miami Herald to my brother. She also told me that DeSantis likes to sign bills late in the day so that nobody can complain until the next morning. He also likes to sign bills late on Fridays so that nobody can complain until Monday morning.
I sent this information to my brother by text saying that I had talked to my friend. I wondered why he thought he would know more than someone who lived in Miami for many years and now lives in Tampa.
He replied back that he didn’t say that he knew more than someone who lives in Florida. He read the Miami Herald article and now says that, “If all of this is true, let the lawsuits begin. I’m sure the Supreme Court in Floria will shoot this down.”
So the cure for people like my brother is to know someone who lives in every major city in every state. [I doubt that the Supreme Court in Florida will do anything.]
Carol,
Don’t bother. Your brother won’t listen. You are wasting your time.
DeSantis appointed 5 of the 7 judges in the Florida Supreme Court.
Hi Carolmalaysia: If you are still up it, try giving your relative an acceptable “out.” That is, I’m sure he is proud of his being loyal to a prior president or even to a TV star and so to preserve his idea of himself as loyal, he keeps digging deeper and deeper in the same hole of what turns out to be loyalty as misdirected and unearned.
The “out” would be to say (and mean) that for many good people, loyalty is a high value in the field of personal morality; so that no one would blame him for being loyal–on the contrary.
And in this case, he is certainly not the first good person to spend his loyalty on what turns out to be a grifter and user who has betrayed his trust and does not deserve his loyalty. He can “stand corrected” and go on his way being the good person that you know he is.
As an aside, I grew up in an environment where, once you make a mistake that ONE PERSON gets hold of, you get mocked and put in a “don’t ever believe her” category, forever. It’s very childish and, at the very least indicates an absolutism that defies ANY admittance of error and humbly getting on with it. The idea of giving a person an “out” is to potentially get rid of erred thinking while keeping one’s love and acceptance for the person intact and expressed.
Just some thoughts. If I ever speak with my own MAGA relative again, which is questionable, I’ll try it myself–but probably share a skepticism with you. CBK
CBK, you hit the nail on the head about “Tribal MAGA Consciousness.”I found a video in my feed which is very telling with the title below. Luke Beasley is a new force in taking on MAGA County and his willingness to communicate with facts and not confrontation allows folks to reveal their cult brainwashing quite effectively.
The video URL is taking some time to load on here, so here is the title on YouTube:
”I Had Coffee with Trump Supporters | Mochas with MAGA Ep. 1”
It is riveting to see and hear how MAGA is so lockstep with hubris and conspiracy-think that they cannot even be shaken with logic and facts.
KDH April Oppo DTC – Fundraising Ad – 16×9 Banner (youtube.com)
Thank you, Diane. I’ll pass the link/video along to others also . . . but if I show it to my own MAGA relative, she’ll automatically go into her defensive/denial mode. CBK
Clearly, the people in that video are simply too stupid to be able to follow any logical argument. I wonder if there is ANY WAY to get through to such people. I doubt it, alas.
Bob: This is why the early years (the first 20 years) of education, IN A DEMOCRACY especially, are so important. My view is this:
In the first 20 years after WWII, everyone understood the dangers of totalitarianism (in all its forms); it was just “in the air,” in Europe, probably even more so. After that, the political realisms of the war needed to be TAUGHT (not as propaganda, but as factual), and not just absorbed in a culture of people who understood already, but certainly not ignored in public education.
When that experiential kind of education began to wash out, and when those who had little or no political understanding grew up, there arose a new kind of (absence in) consciousness. And with all of the other intrusions into culture and public education (you, Bob, can name them, I know), and over six decades of ignorance (planned or not), voila! a YouTube video like that. Education is not always THE cure, but in many case, IT IS.
How to change such consciousness . . . probably social ostracization by everyone else, and keep battering people with the facts of the matter. I do have some faith left over . . . in the power of truth.
BTW, Morning Joe Scarborough said he went to bed the other night in a MAGA world, and woke up back in a Reagan world–speaking of Speaker Mike’s seemingly (Joe called it a conversion, like in Scrooge) change of heart about the responsibilities of his job and his oath. <–what a concept. CBK
I really do not know what the answer is. I listen to these people and think that educating them might be like trying to teach calculus to a bullfrog.
Bob: To your note: ”I really do not know what the answer is. I listen to these people and think that educating them might be like trying to teach calculus to a bullfrog.”
I think you are right about the bullfrog thing, and didn’t mean to imply otherwise. One wonders if such an early absence/loss can ever really be recovered (though in some sense, I think so, considering how people can and do change over time.)
But the point at least should be a cautionary tale for those who give a hoot about the future, should democracy actually have one. CBK
I have wondered, CBK, what lessons we should learn from the fact that 40 percent of the students who went through a K-12 U.S. education emerged as folks ready to join the cult with the other Trumpanzees. Difficult to wrap one’s head around. But clearly, whatever we did there did not work.
Oh, and CBK, much love to you and yours.
To Bob: Awe, shucks . . . the same to you. CBK.
My brother believes that anything I send is fake news. Facts don’t matter because they are ‘made up facts’.
I’m not sure where he gets his ‘news’.
He is now sending me text messages about how I have to believe in Jesus who died on the cross for everyone’s sins, even mine. He has lost friends and I’m sure his children don’t even want to be around him because of his constant lecturing. He believes it is his duty to spread the word about Jesus.
Carol, sometimes you have to admit defeat.
I texted my brother that I’m really good at deleting messages.
DELETE!!😩
Carol, you have more patience than I.
I am from a large family.
A brother and sister are Trumpers but not Evangelicals.
We agree never to talk politics.
Hi Diane: On “agreeing not to talk politics,” . . . I’m glad that works for you.
However, the last time I talked with my family member, and after having suggested that idea over and over again, (about religion also), she whined back at me . . . “but I don’t understand why I cannot even mention Jesus” (translation: evangelize you).
And then this: ”You need to get over being hurt when you were a child.”
It’s so over. CBK
Thanks for the assistance with the link, Bob.
The lengths they will go to in order to justify their devotion to a false cause is astounding. Given the attack on women’s rights in this country, I found it odd that a good number of those interviewed were women. The attempted to dominate the conversation with ever-condescending tones as if Luke Beasley was intimidating them.
CBK and Bob, I read an article on a study several years back that examined the mindset of both conservatives and liberals with actual brain-mapping. The results showed a correlation in the cultural norms in which each type of “brain” grew up. There was the implication that there is an actual physical conservative mind and a physical liberal mind. If I remember correctly, conservatives tended to be exposed from birth to young adulthood to authoritarian/patriarchal dynamics in their family so that their brains develop a mindset that champions that ideology while liberal family-life tended to be more democratic and maternalistic in nature thus mapping a more sympathetic, global-minded brain. I’ll see if I could find it.
There are also interesting studies suggesting that Conservatives are more fearful, generally, than Liberals are, which explains why they are so intolerant. They are cowards. They are afraid of the Other in its, to them, many forms.
That’s why the Bernie Sanders “Socialism, Boo!” meme is so funny.
Bob and LG: I had not heard the Bernie Sanders quote (“Socialism, Boo!”) That’s a true “down in history” refrigerator piece.
Also, such studies (if you can find the reference, do post it, LG?) reveal a social sciences reality . . . about child development and education . . . in this case, it purveys that children are involved with political orders long before anyone says “political” or, later, “political science.” It’s the same thing with ALL of the social sciences including and especially philosophy.
If you find the reference, LG, do post it. And btw, such studies, though rooted in the brain and, bluntly put, brain science, and though certainly related to the mind, are more about the human mind than the brain. I am working on a paper presently, actually, about the brain-mind relationship and will add in my research hunt word cues from your notes. (The online magazine “Nature Briefing” is also an excellent resource for this kind of research, as is AEON.)
Finally, and again, according to Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe, speakers of the house (namely, in this case, Mike Johnson) get national defense intel briefings that Congressional others do not get. Apparently, that, and rubbing shoulders with other Congresspeople who actually don’t have snakes growing out of their heads, and who understand how important Ukraine is to that little thing called world history and democracy in it, has been at least one source of Johnson showing signs of becoming human again. CBK
Bob and LG: As a relevant aside, and loose but suggestive connection to political power and child development, check out this link from Noema Magazine:
newsletter@noemamag.com
Go to Weekend Update:
The World Is Assuming A Pre-War Posture
“Ironclad” and “no limits” battle lines are being drawn across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. NATHAN GARDELS/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
CBK
Socialism Bernie Sanders GIF – Socialism Bernie Sanders Boo – Discover & Share GIFs (tenor.com)
Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits | Science
This is your brain on politics: Neuroscience reveals brain differences between Republicans and Democrats | ScienceDaily
The political left rolls with the good and the political right confronts the bad: connecting physiology and cognition to preferences | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (royalsocietypublishing.org)
Political attitudes vary with physiological traits – PubMed (nih.gov)
Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults: Current Biology (cell.com)
Hello Bob: Thanks for all of the exceedingly helpful and wonderful references–. If I had a payroll (ha!), I’d put you on it. CBK
The topic of whether conservatives are more fearful than liberals has been explored in various studies, and the findings suggest a complex relationship between political beliefs and fear responses. Here’s a summary of the key points from the research:
However, it’s important to note that other research challenges the notion that conservatives are more fearful overall. A study highlighted by Live Science suggests that conservatives and liberals both respond to threats, but they may be sensitive to different types of threats. This study also points out that the relationship between fear and political ideology is not straightforward and can vary depending on the context, such as the type of threat, the political beliefs measured, and the country of study2.
These findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of how fear might influence political attitudes, but they also underscore the complexity of human psychology and the variety of factors that shape our political views.
Bob, is the study below the one in which you found that analysis?
“Conservatives respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals [1] and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions [5]. This heightened sensitivity to emotional faces suggests that individuals with conservative orientation might exhibit differences in brain structures associated with emotional processing such as the amygdala. Indeed, voting behavior is reflected in amygdala responses across cultures [6]. We therefore further investigated our structural MRI data to evaluate whether there was any relationship between gray matter volume of the amygdala and political attitudes. We found that increased gray matter volume in the right amygdala was significantly associated with conservatism (Figure 1B) (R = 0.23, T(88) = −2.22, p < 0.029 corrected). No significant correlation was found in the left amygdala (R = 0.15, T(88) = −1.43, p = 0.15 corrected; see Figure S1available online for the individual gray matter volumes of the ACC and amygdala).”
“We speculate that the association of gray matter volume of the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex with political attitudes that we observed may reflect emotional and cognitive traits of individuals that influence their inclination to certain political orientations. For example, our findings are consistent with the proposal that political orientation is associated with psychological processes for managing fear and uncertainty [1, 10]. The amygdala has many functions, including fear processing [11]. Individuals with a large amygdala are more sensitive to fear [12], which, taken together with our findings, might suggest the testable hypothesis that individuals with larger amygdala are more inclined to integrate conservative views into their belief system. Similarly, it is striking that conservatives are more sensitive to disgust [13, 14], and the insula is involved in the feeling of disgust [15]. On the other hand, our finding of an association between anterior cingulate cortex volume and political attitudes may be linked with tolerance to uncertainty. One of the functions of the anterior cingulate cortex is to monitor uncertainty [16, 17] and conflicts [18]. Thus, it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views. Such speculations provide a basis for theorizing about the psychological constructs (and their neural substrates) underlying political attitudes. However, it should be noted that every brain region, including those identified here, invariably participates in multiple psychological processes. It is therefore not possible to unambiguously infer from involvement of a particular brain area that a particular psychological process must be involved.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092984
One of them. I’ve seen many of these over the years, as this is a topic that fascinates me. I find it really funny that the tough-talking conservatives are motivated by fear. Bunch of cowards. Like their leader, Donnie. There are less polite appellations for such people, but I will not use them on Diane’s blog.
Wow, lots of references! Here is one I remember reading a few years back:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/
Diane: Yes, it’s a firehose of excellent references. I’ve saved them all and will take them one at a time.
My field, btw, is philosophy and so the philosophical foundations of the sciences, in part scientifically understood.
But when one gets to the intersection between particular sciences and their philosophical foundations, OR when one ventures into cross field study, as in the brain-mind “consciousness wars,” then one’s field of study, which is burgeoning enough for most of us as one field, becomes increased exponentially, and so a bit overwhelming.
Nevertheless, it is fascinating and, if it’s to be done, then let’s do it. CBK
CBK—Definitely nurture plays a role in brain development, but how do we explain those who “get out” of the cult they were raised in? Education and critical thinking is very important. There may be a window in the brain where this closes which explains how the uber-educated can still push for anti-democratic libertarian economic policies in government. Lewis Powell, anyone?
CBK—thanks for the Noema article. Is it time in humanity’s cycle for another world war? We’ve all but lost the generation that lived through WWII as adults. The factions for the next war seem to be aligning, however trade with China is throwing a monkey-wrench into these alliances. Chilling and riveting analysis.
Oh, for heaven’s sake—I hate the little tiny window on my phone sometimes.
Education and critical thinking ARE very important…
(…along with editing.)
CBK, good luck with your paper.
LG: Thank you for your good wishes re/my paper. And “copy that” about editing and phone windows. CBK
Florida and Texas exemplify the horrors of a forced “Christian” nation. Who really wants to live in or visit a place where people don’t matter?
What will Major League Baseball and their half the leagues spring training camps, the minor leagues, the NFL, and their beloved can’t win a game Marlins have to say about this?
That was tongue in cheek – – but seriously, MLB, NFL, MLS and the private colleges should be leading the pack in speaking out.
And, what about all the privatization to get rid of unions and promote competition – are the privatizers and private factories and others going to want to incentive recruiting … “Work for us. We’ll let you get a drink of water!”
Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck over drinkwater… (youtube.com)
LG: Sorry . . . I thought Diane sent the video link. Thank you! CBK
Do you remember the documentary someone ran about the Jim Jones survivors telling about their own thinking before the mass suicide occurred, and then after? “They” ” should plaster that documentary on every outlet in the land. It’s a must see for the MAGA group. CBK
LG: You write: “Definitely nurture plays a role in brain development, but how do we explain those who ‘get out’ of the cult they were raised in?”
Let’s have some coffee, but a quick response.
The hook into a general theoretical answer to that question (which means that the “weeds” of anyone’s experience differ according to massive particularities and details) concerns tensions and “flights from understanding,” mental blocking mechanisms rooted in fears and desires, and comfortable but flawed (siloed/limiting) philosophical and other horizons; and so one can talk about the prior conditioning for inviting insights-to-understanding to occur that, apparently when one is ready for them, then propel (sometimes forcefully) one into and through an interior transformation, beyond those blocks, etc. (This insight movement is, of course, a part of what anyone means by “education” whether one knows it or not.)
The key, however, is the occurrences of insights, . . . small, or huge ones, and series of them, that turn us and our thinking “upside-down” and that we cannot make occur, and yet we can set the conditions for them (e.g., good teachers), and they often do occur (more often than most realize, my experience tells me.
Also, old learning (or relevant absences of it), and so by definition childhood experience, is commonly existential, which, in this context means, by the time one matures in other arenas of living, that old learning it’s all woven in with one’s developmental patterns (subconsciously now) and history of fears and desires; but also with deeper “core” movements (the mind’s inborn structured activities and functions) and its normative movements towards healthy interior development and reconciliation (hence, a good amount of conflict and usually more shallow efforts redirect or control it). <–that’s one reason why, the closer one gets to cure, the more tension one feels–potentially an illuminating breakthrough is coming.
In our time, and since such conditioning is hardly a merely intellectual endeavor, I see a heavy responsibility placed smack-dab on the shoulders of the arts community. We know that people do emerge from cults, often with a reformed-smoker attitude; and so, unless it’s just an arbitrary movement (it’s not), there is an ordered intelligibility to it. . . .to find and push it for all it’s worth, not only psychologically but politically, which is allot as we are finding out.
(I’ll post the references to this and other related work later, if you want.) CBK
The emergence seems to have a similarity to the emergence from alcoholism. No amount of attempted persuasion from the outside will do it. The person has to crack in some way. It’s often something very personal that happens that is the trigger. Laura Bush told Shrub, quit the booze and the blow, or I’m outta here. It’s not argument that sways extremists, I think, but something like that. The prospect of losing something they care about.
That’s why we shouldn’t be nice-nice with racists and misogynists and homophobes and book banners and Trumpanzees. They need to feel the sting of social sanction, to understand that they stand to lose something–respect in other people’s eyes.
Bob and LG: FYI: Here is a clip from a paper I’m working on that contains a quote from the philosopher Bernard Lonergan from his book: Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (2000). The first paragraph is my brief introduction to that quotation:
“In that section in his Insight, Lonergan also refers to how understanding on an intellectual and conceptual plane (he refers to the intellectual pattern of experience as distinct from other patterns, e.g., dramatic) is not enough for those insights to create the exigence for foundational change, or for meaningful insight events to do their corrective, transformative work and to become woven-in with one’s developmental patterns, or to integrate insights as existentially influential and so as spontaneous to one’s ongoing thinking . . . Lonergan writes:
“‘These insights must occur, not in the detached and disinterested intellectual pattern of experience, but in the dramatic pattern in which images are tinged with affects. Otherwise the insights will occur but they will not undo (the problem) . . . There will result a development of theoretical intelligence without a change in the sensitive spontaneity.’ (2000, 224-25) (my emphases)” CBK
We intuit so much more than we know, and there is certainly a great gulf between what is simply known and what is experienced. “You wouldn’t know because you weren’t there, man!” the Vietnam vets used to say. The “know” part should have been something like “understand” or, better yet, Heinlein’s “grok.”
Love it, CBK
Bob: One of the essential aspects of good theory in the human sciences, in this example, of understanding different kinds of political consciousness, is that it sets the conditions for avoiding one of the worst problem of the last 200 years of cultural history, which is projection of one’s own views and states of mind onto others’ understanding.
I’ve seen teachers also do this, even with younger students . . . as if the teacher expected the student to understand dimensions of an issue that took years longer for the teacher to understand. Each of the social sciences concern a dimension of each person’s consciousness, and each one is in their own state of development with regard to each level/dimension, and this is even before one gets to the details of one’s history, which are always different.
The theoretical work in the social sciences, history, and philosophy helps one to sort out the complexities without naively assuming everyone understands the different aspects of human development in the same way as the next person.
And thanks again for the references . . . very helpful at this point in my research. CBK