Published on 12, July, 2020
Since graduating from college I've been strugglign to adapt to society, I've been unable to hold down a job and have been dealing with depression, mood swings and a whole host of mood swings. My wife pointed out to me a while back that I showed a lot of signs of autism, and rethinking about my childhood (I was always paranoid that people weren't telling me that there was something wrong with me. I wasn't like the other kids, I did well in school, but I didn't act like them, I didn't talk like them, and I didn't think like them), I couldn't read until I was in 4th grade, and the only solice outside of learning I ever took was video games. It was the world I understood best. My psychiatrist agrees that I might have autism but is telling me that a diagnosis would do nothing for me, and that kaiser, at least the one I go to, will only diagnos children and that they don't see a point to diagnosing adults because we should already have coping mechanisms. School was the only thing I ever understood. It made sense. I have a schedule, I attend, I learn at my own pace, I can leave and return, I gain knowledge, I grow in power, I move onto the next adventure. It was even easier to be social, I felt safe. It was an environment I knew. Anyways, I forgot what my point was. I guess I just wanted to be heard, realize I'm not crazy, that I do have this problem and that I can finally start finding resources to help me succeed.
I am not pleased that you were wrong but I think it is good to know that everyone makes mistakes. Making mistakes is inevitable and educational and understanding our own fallibility makes us more human.
How would I persuade them to take a different view?
They perhaps have to be allowed to fail. But, even if they fail, they may not realise their mistakes. Some might say that Blair failed but he won't see it like that.
Trump is a capitalist but he is also other things. He is a unique blend of intelligence, cunning, compassion, integrity, insightfulness etc etc and capitalism is a thing that he does. It does not define him, or his policies, and neither does his example define capitalism. There are much more acceptable exemplars of capitalism than him. Deciding that capitalism is bad based on him would be like deciding that all dogs are bad because one dog attacked a baby. Equally, not all socialists are good and you cannot allow one person's example to decide that the whole idea is sound or not. In practice I think that we need a healthy mix of both because there are people who work well when they are in social establishments (e.g. staff in the NHS) and there are those who are better managed and motivated by living and working within private enterprise (farmers, car makers etc). The state should not pretend that it can run car factories and the private sector should not take over our hospitals.
Population and energy are the big challenges of our time. The population cannot grow for ever. We need to understand that we can live sustianably from solar (pv, wind, etc) - I like to think of the sun as our local (at a safe distance!) fusion powered power station. Population control means that we have to engender self control within countries that can see the benefits and then use that to set an example to other countries.