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Stephanie Molchan's avatar

fascinating analysis as usual. I have objections to several of your generalizations. However, the overall message is spot on.

we know from the Bible that even the least influential person can make a huge difference in the world. your skill at writing can awaken the apathetic to regard seriously these big issues. you can have an impact, even if it is not the one that you pictured. A life well lived is inspiring. An intellect well developed matters. You matter.

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Gregg Wonderly's avatar

A large amount of what is wrong with America is the money game. Money has been a trade article for millennia, but has also been used for a form of bondage as well. The wealthy have the ability to hold resources out of reach and then ask you to pay them, to have access. At a grand scale, this controls food, housing and healthcare as basic needs. What we all do, is get consumed by the need for money and that, in the ends, requires us to be identifiable as "useful" or "needed" or even just present. Money has become the be all, end all solution to all problems, because most of us are consumed with the task of getting more money and having enough money to accomplish something due to someone else "owning" a resource that we have to square, from that someone. This is, of course, how consumerism is positioning us to participate by playing the money game.

There are enough people so wound up in the game, that they are not focused on what game they are playing, and escape vector they can control, or even how silly they are acting in their participation in the game. Because they've spent time, money or even thoughts on various details, they're invested, and will do anything to justify that, because they don't want to appear to "fail" at something. This is where all of this narcissism is driving people to go. They cannot accept that they don't know everything.

The Dunning/Kruger effect is the visible sign of people supposing they have enough information to believe they are right, but not near enough information to understand that they are wrong. This again is a problem with them accepting "failure" or "ignorance" as a natural event of learning.

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