I just rode the elevator with a confused man.
So we’re on the 3rd floor of Haley Center, in front of the elevators. I push the “up” call button and he pushes the “down.” An elevator arrives; it indicates it’s going up. We both get on. I push the button for the 6th floor; he says, “oh, is this going up? well, then I’ll ride up and then go back and get one that’s going down.”
As I exit at the 6th floor, he pushes a button – for the 3rd floor.
(And he wasn’t even a philosopher!)
Rate each of the following questions from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree):
- For the most part, government serves the interests of a few organized groups, such as business, and isn’t very concerned about the needs of people like myself.
- I have trouble doing what I want to do in the world today.
- It is difficult for people such as myself to have much influence in public affairs.
- We seem to live in a pretty irrational and disordered world.
- I don’t trust that my closest friends would not lie to me.
According to this Psychology Today article (CHT LRC), your answers determine your degree of susceptibility to paranoid delusions about nonexistent conspiracies. Scores of 5-11 indicate weak susceptibility, 12-18 moderate, and 19-25 strong.
Apart from (5), I doubt that most people could honesty give a low score to these questions unless they just haven’t been paying attention – though (2) seems hopelessly vague. (What do I want to do in the world today? Have lunch? Fly to Venus?) (4) strikes me as a bit odd, since I thought paranoia was supposed to involve seeing more order in the world than is actually there. (It would be a more cheerful thought if a comma were inserted after “pretty.”)
If I were prone to paranoid delusions, which according to this test I am, I might think its chief purpose was to plant in people’s minds the idea that anyone who thinks that “for the most part, government serves the interests of a few organized groups, such as business, and isn’t very concerned about the needs of people like myself” is delusional.
Everyone’s pointing out that this ad – created to be pitched to, but never approved by, the World Wildlife Fund – is tasteless and offensive. (Click the pic below to enlarge it, or click here to seriously supersize it.)
Well, duh. But what I’ve yet to see anyone point out is how counterproductive the ad’s caption is:
THE TSUNAMI KILLED 100 TIMES MORE PEOPLE THAN 9/11.
The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it. www.wwf.org
(a.k.a. “Kneel before Zod!”) When you hear that “the planet” has killed 100 times more people than 9/11, is your natural response to respect and preserve it, let alone to donate money to its support? I’d think the natural response would be “I guess the planet is our enemy! We’d better declare war upon it!”
Or maybe Kafka. Here’s the Weather Channel’s description of this hiking path in Yellowstone:
Length: 15.3 Feet
Difficulty: Moderate
Beginning Elevation: 6,400 Feet (Approximately)
Elevation Gain: Minimal
USGS Map(s): Bechler Falls and Cave FallsOverview:
This loop trail is a great overnighter or long Day trip.
Yes, I can see how the elevation gain would be minimal. But if it takes a whole day to traverse a 15.3 foot long path of moderate difficulty, I wonder what severe difficulty would look like ….
Here’s a picture (click to enlarge) of cops arresting some protestors; note the possibly suspicious similarity between the protestors’ bootsoles and those of the cops. This is apparently a famous picture but I hadn’t seen it before; see the discussion here.
Cops and victims wearing same boots
Disney has just acquired Marvel Comics. On the downside, two massive stocks of incredibly lucrative IP monopoly have now merged. On the upside, Quesada apparently thinks this will give Marvel more freedom, though I don’t exactly see why.
(But hey, now if there’s ever a merger between Disney and Time-Warner, then DC and Marvel would be owned by the same company. On the downside – still more massive IP-sustained monopoly. On the upside: more crossovers, or even a fusion of universes. FWIW.)