Hey, You [View all]

[H2O Man]

Our society is “at risk.” The reasons a legion. The chances that what has been known as the United States of America will remain much as it has -- say, for the past 50 years -- for the next 50 years is slim. There are relatively few people 50 or older who believe that this is the same country that they grew up in. Fewer yet believe that things are better today for the average citizen, or that we are, as a people, advancing in a positive direction.

There is, in psychology, a personality dynamic known as depersonalization. One can read the DSM-IV-TR for a description. The symptoms and experiences are, I suspect, not limited to individuals who identify enough of the cluster to be deemed to suffer from the condition. Further, I suspect that if enough bees in a hive experience some range of those symptoms and experiences, it might be worth considering depersonalization as a condition of that hive, rather than something unique to a limited number of bees.

If indeed depersonalization is a societal condition, we can and should look for biopsychosocial dynamics involved. These will tend to be similar to those in individual cases, but not necessarily limited to the exact same types of conditioning.

What will be “limited,” for the sake of this discussion, will be the biological factors. For example, many people use legal and/or illegal substances that are mood-alerting. That, of course, includes prescription medications, over-the-counter medicines, alcohol, pot, and many more. Prescription medications are, when prescribed and taken correctly, a good thing. But there are enough individuals who are either prescribed medications they do not need, or who access those drugs illegally, that it certainly has an impact upon the beehive of American society.

Thus, “drugs” in general often serve as social novocaine. To borrow a saying from Minister Malcolm X, people numb the pain of their everyday existence. Just as novocaine allows a person to sit still while a dentist rips a tooth out of their mouth, social novocaine keeps people sitting quietly while a corrupt system steals the value of their being.

Two closely related psychological factors also play a role. These are self-efficacy, and locus of control. The first involves a person’s belief that they are capable of completing a given task. It is human nature for individuals to prefer to attempt tasks that they believe they can complete successfully. Success tends to be far more pleasant than failure.

The second involves if an individual believes that they have a significant degree of control over the important factors in their life. A person with an internal locus of control believes that they are primarily responsible for how they respond to various things – including those involving other people’s actions. Those with an external locus of control feel that they have little control over their lives, and take little responsibility for how they respond to others. In other words, some people deal with life with a positive attitude, while others believe they are mere victims of circumstances beyond their control.

Few of us are at either extreme in the locus of control bit. We tend to be somewhere in the middle. Likewise, few of us are so delusional as to believe that our level of self-efficacy would allow our individual efforts will change the course our nation is on. However, many people are hoping that a “leader” (or leaders) will come forth and bring forth answers to guide us safely into the future. This type of social/group external locus of control prevents “the masses” (or 99%) from realizing that it can only be by way of the combined efforts of all of us – including you and me – that can possibly result in the progress that we so desperately need to survive.

It’s late January, 2014. What do you, as an individual, plan to do? What groups, large or small, are you going to invest your time and energy in?

Peace,
H2O Man