Justifiably Paranoid

Especially now, with the United States presidential election at hand, we are assailed by a never-ending barrage of comments about misinformation and disinformation. So, I wonder, what is the difference between the two and what are the implications?  One way to differentiate is to say that misinformation is merely something objectively wrong.  Whereas disinformation is objectively wrong and vigorously, manipulatively propagandized. Both definitions lead to further questions.  First, how can we be sure that we know what is objectively wrong?  Second, what does the propaganda promote?  An in-depth discussion of these questions is far beyond the scope of a modest blog post such as this.  However, the fact that I’m writing about it means that I think I have something useful to contribute.  Let’s presume for the moment that you are confronted with information, and have access to the source (s) that will allow you to identify and determine relevant objective ...

Since Socrates lived from about 470-399 B.C., one reasonably can assume that many deep thinkers have valued and practiced what we presently call the Socratic Method for at least the last 2500 years.  You no doubt know that the method employs a questioning and answering format, frequently called dialog-based inquiry.  The process can be slow and even tedious.  Is it worth the effort?  Hopefully, yes. When conducted properly, the Socratic Method enables both questioner and answerer to learn. And that learning is not limited merely to acquiring objective information.  Both also learn about themselves, about each other, and about the way they think, as individuals and as a dyad.  Ideally, their ideas are critically examined, reflected upon, and refined.  It’s no secret that often the putative experts learn as much or more than the novices with whom they are dialoging.  So, those are some benefits to dialogic discourse.  Non-dialogic discourse, th...

This blog post is written on September 11, 2024, a day after the first Trump-Harris televised debate.  Private and public speculation has been frenzied and frantic.  Some have suggested or implied that the fate of America, even of the planet, will be determined by the presidential election—“the most important election in our history.”  Democrat and Republican partisans are employing every influence trick to nudge, scare, or bludgeon you to vote their way. I am not in that business.  Rather, I have a modest suggestion that is easier said than done: think, really think, for yourself.  Since neither you nor I have the time or expertise to parse every essential detail required to make the best voting decision, I limit myself to briefly discussing two related topics. First, let’s consider an often mentioned but rarely practiced mental activity – mindfulness.  Our simple working definition is mindfulness as your being aware of what is happening to you internally ...

  Clinical psychologists explicitly or implicitly communicate to patients the importance of their speaking as honestly and completely as possible, especially when asking and answering questions.  And, expecting honesty and completeness, non-clinical psychologists regularly use surveys of various sorts to conduct their research. Given that honest and complete communication often requires courage and resolve, Cory J. Clark and colleagues (2024) wondered whether psychologists had sufficient grit and conviction to follow their own advice.  Their study was important because the psychologist-participants were university professors-- meaning that they profoundly influence the current and future direction of psychologists, psychology majors, and students of all other majors enrolled in their classes. The candidate professors taught at “the top 100 universities and the top 100 psychology graduate programs in the United States according to U.S. News & World Report rankings...

Virtually everyone is familiar with homeostasis.  To refresh that concept: it refers to the fact that a healthful physical condition must be maintained within a narrow range regardless of the external environment  wherein we find ourselves.   Among  the many processes to be maintained are those such as temperature control, pH balance, and glucose levels.  Not so widely known,  however, is the allostasis concept—the process by which the body regains homeostasis when homeostasis is challenged or lost due to stress.  Some of the stressors are purely physical, such as frigid weather and some are less so, such as angry disputes.  Most stressors, of course, include an amalgam of physical and non-physical stress (e.g., mental) in various combinations.  Unlike homeostasis, allostasis operates by ANTICIPATING increased bodily demands and challenges.  For instance, allostasis begins to operate long before your body temperature has deteriora...

  In the not-too-distant past, there was a common perception of a young person’s transition from high school graduation to higher education. The newly liberated ex-high-schooler was believed to leave 12th grade with an excessively limbic, subcortical operating system dominated by raging hormones and rebellious mindsets. Then, learned implacably rational professors performed pedagogical brain interventions that stimulated the prefrontal cortex such that it eventually surged into prominence, resulting in higher education graduates who could and did employ independent rationality to reach critical life decisions.  Given the current 21 st  century state of higher education, however, I have transformed my higher education neurology-brain metaphor to an gastrological-alimentary one.  Contemporary higher education students are not stimulated to frontal lobe engagement by their universities.  Rather, the hapless victims are consumed by universities that extract student ...

Recently, on the Mediterranean island of Malta, I lay my left hand on a multi-thousand year old megalith while holding a 2024 mobile phone in my right. And I wondered about the people and lifestyles responsible for both.  The Megalith Builders of Malta lived approximately in 3000 BC—during the New Stone Age— on an island 17 miles long and 9 miles wide.  Since the island had no known volcanos, the air presumably was relatively pure.  The natural environment contained mammals, such as red deer, wild boar, rodents, and sea life, such as fish, dolphins, and seals. The fabricated environment was created through the efforts of small family- and kin-based groups.  Using stone tools, animal bones, and wood, the inhabitants  created what arguably are among the oldest megaliths on earth, consisting of a series of large stone blocks, some weighing several tons. They sustained themselves through farming, herding, and fishing. In short, the world of the neolithic Maltese req...