âThe researchers and trauma experts Bessel A. van der Kolk and Alexander C. McFarlane write, âReason and objectivity are not the primary determinants of societyâs reactions to traumatized people. Rather . . . societyâs reactions seem to be primarily conservative impulses in the service of maintaining the beliefs that the world is fundamentally just, that people can be in charge of their lives, and that bad things only happen to people who deserve them.â
Excerpt From âTrauma Stewardshipâ by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky & Connie Burk
To discuss the attitudes of society towards traumatized people..
this is a great topic to further research and discuss..
How society views people with disabilities, mental/physical health issues, caregiving needs, special needs of any kind, or just âothernessâ .. and how that contributes to various challenges and harmful consequences on various levels ..
And why the service to maintaining these faulty but convenient beliefs?
The cognitive biases and collective attitudes/stigmas that prevent society from recognizing truth, having capacity to perceive larger picture, developing/implementing compassionate and realistic views and responses towards certain groups of humans..
I have even found myself falling into these biases and standpoints/attitudes towards myself and others with disabilities, trauma, or obstacles/barriers to being ânormal contributing member of societyâ..
These prejudices and cognitive biases that seem to take place of reality in relation to âothersâ are so subtle, insidious and contagious..many donât realize they have picked them up like a virus from the larger environment..
Our brains are designed to save as much energy as possible by utilizing shortcuts so the reasons behind these cognitive distortions arenât necessarily insidious but the effects of them, without questioning or critical thinking do become so.
Itâs like the basic programming/default mode that the brain comes with is just good enough to survive and navigate the world somewhat successfully as a rough draft but if someone truly wants mastery in life and to exist as more than a default mode character (npc) then they need to utilize critical thinking, mindfulness, and contemplation. In order to get true accuracy, clarity, knowledge, and understanding about anything in reality there needs to be a desire and motivation to operate oneâs cognitive function in the upgraded version mode which most people donât care to do because it requires intentional work, energy, and focus. Humans are also designed to be lazy as long as they can get away with it and donât like anything to change because that requires extra effort and new ways of thinking and organizing oneself which disrupts the status quo of daily human functioning and affairs.
Point being that these cognitive biases are part of the societal conditioning because micro/macro system functions ..
in order for real change to occur to shift the general collective unconscious/subconscious there needs to be a tipping point in the number of individuals who are changing their minds proactively and therefore a/effecting their local ecosystem enough to shift what gets produced and perpetuated in the popular mass culture via our favorite human game, telephone (Chinese whispers).
It is the individuals who are willing to put in the work and exert that extra energy to become masters of reality that help to shape the larger culture in its overall evolution..
Society is a trance that one must actively work towards not falling prey to and correctly re-building in the direction of sanity that the majority will dismiss, criticize, ignore, or actively resist until the tipping point when they can no longer do so successfully and must then acquiesce to the new collective trance that they will probably then attach to and defend just as rigidly as they first resisted. And so it goes..
Another quote from Trauma Stewardship: (as I continue on in my course reading after disrupting myself through extensive contemplation and reflections that certainly isnât required and nobody but me will likely read/appreciateâŚBUT that I must express in order to continue on in my human existence and feel okay about doing so)
âOppression thrives on misunderstanding, alienation, and us/them binaries.â
Aka ignorance, aka operating with lazy cognitive default programs as previously discussedâŚyes indeedy..the main force behind majority of human evils is not pure psychopathic sadism but ordinary jack-and-jane-type convenience. Oppression can come from a variety of sources but I would argue that the most fundamental and impactful one is the lazy, unregulated operating of oneâs cognitive-perceptual system.
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