Population Feedback July 21, 2008
Posted by Mark T. Market in Feedback.Tags: catholic church, Feedback, population
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Great feedback from a reader today on our recent discussion on Population.
I am quoting from a book that I am currently reading:
“In framing an earthly context for contemporary politics, it makes sense to start with population – if only because so many politicians go to such lenghts to avoid discussing it. Its obviously a problem, so obviously something’s got to be done; but exactly what, by whom and it what way are emotive and controversial area. So it remains a taboo area.
The great myth, of course, is that overpopulation is exclusively the fault and concern of the Third World. On a planet as interdependent as ours, this would be questionable ; given the excesses of affluence and profligate use of resources that characterize the developed world’s standard of living, it becomes a transparent lie.
The other great myth is that the problem of overpopulation is greatly exagerated and that it is inappropriate topush the Third World too hard in this respect. Those who hold to this myth are a strange bunch, made up of extreme left, extreme right and the rump of reactionary Catholicism. Those on the left correctly point out that the reason why tere is world hunger is not because there’s any real shortage of food, but because its unfairly distributed. But such analysis is dangerously limited, inasmuch as it implies that a more equitable distribution would alone solve the problem of overpopulation. The irony is that so unfortunate a lack of clarity leads to a position not so dissimilar to that of extreme right-wing mavericks where we hear a passionate plea for more rather than fewer people.
Of a different order is the position of the Catholic church. A belief in the ’sanctity of life’ is often raised in this conext.
Even if we’re optimistic in projecting population levels, its clear that the path we are on is inconsistent with the evolution of a sustainable society. We must realize that that the current proportion of aid spent on family planning is quite inadequate and completely fails to meet the demands of Third World countries themselves.There are many things that can and should be done, but a combination of national commitment and international support is essential for all of them.”
Jonathon Porritt,”The Politics of Ecology”
NPD Feedback May 18, 2008
Posted by Mark T. Market in Feedback.Tags: disorder, Feedback, life, narcissist, NPD
2 comments
I wrote about Narcissistic Personality Disorder a while back, and some feedback came in today:
always jan writes:
I’m in the process of setting up my own blog, planetjan. One of the topics I’d like to blog on is NPD. Your site provides lots of great information. I worked with and was close to someone who has NPD at my school. I’m curious if you’ve had any “fallout.” You don’t mention the person by name or gender, but it’s clear that people who know you, will know who you’re talking about.
First I’d like to wish alwaysjan the best on her upcoming blog. NPD is such a rich and fascinating topic, because it’s a disorder that goes undiagnosed and untreated but we are surrounded by many such individuals exhibiting these signs on various intensities, but we don’t realise this early enough and we find ourselves troubled grappling with our relationship to such people.
For me, having read about NPD was such an eye-opener since upon hindsight, there have been many people in my life who have shown symptoms of NPD. But as the original website clarifies, most of us will have NPD tendencies however it is the extreme cases which we should be wary about.
For me, now that you mentioned falling out with someone, in reality it wouldn’t be giving anything away for me to say that I was actually writing about two people in my life who upon later reflection I would brand as textbook cases of NPD.
I met both of them at different periods in my life, the first at a much younger era (before and early in my working life) and the second much later.
To share a brief history on both of them: the first person I remember distinctly started very insecure but later due to an assumption of a key responsibility became very arrogant and bossy–during which time the other characteristics of NPD manifested. The person became a whiner on everything and I found myself in those days having a lot of difficulty managing my relationship with this person because of numerous conflicts.
The second person was also insecure but what I remember most was the person’s penchant for gossip and double-talk. The person had a colorful family history and would share things to get you to become a confidant, while sharing your own secrets to other people. The person as a result would later alienate a lot of people with this habit but is somehow able to manipulate more and more people and gain their trust.
This might be giving some detail away, but is key to my response: although I claim to never having any sort of romantic relationship with these persons, both have on different occasions, admitted to other people that they had feelings for me–which I would later learn from other people, and complicated my understanding of them for some time. Now I can wager that those “feelings” they had for me were more a manifestation of their NPD than any real affection.
The acid tests were the results: if these people had any real love for me, how come I cannot think of any benefit I had from my dealings with them. If anything these people had cost me dearly in terms of reputation, finances, trust, and emotions.
Also I wondered myself how come I never entertained any reciprocal affection or even attraction to them. It now makes sense that it could never happen–because the love they claimed were just an expression of their fantasy. The persons they were really in love with, were themselves.
I don’t regret not having anything to do with these people nowadays. It saddened me for a while to realise this, but as you get older you come to accept that some bridges have to remain burned for good–because they lead absolutely nowhere.
