WP, your commentary is very idealistic - but unfortunately, like most flavors of idealism, entirely unrealistic. I can understand the underlying point of you comments and, of course, a lot of the time, what you say is true. People aren't operating in groups because of their comfort levels with people that are unlike them - they are operating in groups because that's simply how it shakes out. And, certainly, there will always be groups of one sort or another in human interaction.

And like you point out, we are wired to operate this way.

However, this tendency towards grouping isn't something to be reinforced and encouraged, or accepted as inescapable, or even good. In-group morality is one of the biggest flaws of the modern human mind, despite being a great benefit of the ancient mind. And at it's core, the problem begins with forming alliances to groups of "like" humans, and excluding those who are different.

I don't think she was saying that all college students are racist or guilty of that form of in-group morality. Rather, she was challenging people to step back and really observe their behavior.

In the end, you can either decide to get offended and come up with rationalizations as to why her message was inappropriate, or you can get introspective and make yourself a better human being.

But for the purposes of this discussion... maybe you're right, maybe she's projecting her own insecurities to a certain degree. But to pretend that what she's talking about isn't valid, and happening within our country, takes a degree of rhetorical gymnastics that I simply can't abide.

God I miss the enveloping waves of introspection and self loathing on certain psychedelics. Although, is it still "self loathing" and "introspection" if you're in the throes of out of body/out of mind experience? Relativism becomes skewed on these levels. Thank you for the link

In reply to this comment by enoch:
if your gonna do drugs do:
http://www.videosift.com/video/DMT-a-documentary-on-the-spirit-molecule
thats all im saying.

Most agnostics claim that they don't think humans are capable of understanding the existence of a god on a higher dimension. I think this should make them default to atheist, as they can't believe if they themselves know they can't even fathom a god's existence. If you can't fathom it, you can't believe in it. Just like a baby doesn't believe in atoms or electrons.

Then there's the ones that don't really know, like it doesn't really make sense that there's a god, buuuuut, they don't want to really do any thinking nor do they want to piss off any potential god...as if the simple cop out of being "agnostic" or "unknowing" to his existence would pacify his narcissism. I say, shit or get off the pot. You can even say "hey, as of now, I have not seen any evidence, but I am continually looking". I'll even accept "hey, the idea of god has really been engraved into my psyche but I'm currently going through an introspective journey whereas I question my blind faith".

...but the one I'll respect the most is "pffffffff god? HAHAHAHAHA...dude, it's 2009"

This is just too rich.

First of all, politicians receive death threats frequently and it happens on both sides. Maddow acts as though this is a first. She is so appalled by this behavior. Yet, I don't remember her saying a word about the multiple Bush effigies we saw. Oh that's right. She's a complete partisan hack. She only gets upset when it's her guy or her agenda that is being attacked. The hypocrisy is blinding. But hey, that's MSNBC "journalism" for you.

And of course, the majority on the internet lack any type of introspection. You don't have to look very far to find someone saying we should hang Bush or shoot Cheney. But yeah, this is just the "right-wing" that does this type of stuff.

We should note that there are some animals of higher intelligence (like Dolphins) that are very difficult for us to fully understand, part of me feels that they may even cross the line of introspection/art.

Have you ever seen the ways that dolphins create intricate bubbles for no other purpose than play/amusement? One could argue they are artistic in a way...

The ability to comprehend one's mortality on more than just a instinctual level. We've devised religion to help ease that pain...

I think art and introspection are just a side effect of our intellect. I think art started out as just a simple past time. A way to tell stories. As we got our shit together, collectively, and didn't have to worry as much about the day-to-day because of agricultural advancements, individuals had more free time to create.

Introspection is another one of these personal past times. If you think about it, art and introspection are tightly woven together.

Good stuff from all sides here.

I voted "Pretty good." He's not McCain, and I don't see how he would have handled the economic crisis we're in any better. Granted, that's not saying a lot. But I have a feeling that Obama is treating this better than McCain treated the 8 planes he crashed over his military career. Things are hard, and we've been saying "the end has to be in sight, the bottom has to hit, and then it's only back up from there" for a while now. But I'm still optimistic that things can get fixed soon.

In other important, direction-changing news, Al Franken was finally confirmed his senate seat today. The Democrats finally control both houses with a 2/3rds majority. Unless a democrat decides to turn coat, the threat of filibuster that has prevented the president from taking quicker action is no longer a viable tactic. One can hope that the coalition will finally (and quickly) right the damage inflicted by 30 years of Fiscal Conservative Policy, but I have my reservations. The GOP is all but resigning themselves to the loony bin, and it sure is fun watching that elephant writhe in introspective agony. Even Cantor was saying that he misses Obama reaching out to him like he did earlier in the presidency (even though they gave him nothing for his efforts... priceless)

I don't see the GOP gaining many (if any) seats in either house in 2012. Ensign should resign now if he wants to help his party at all, but he won't because he's a hypocrite and a coward, just like Sanford, and that pride will cost the party his seat (and maybe more collateral damage) when the time comes for him to have to prove to Nevada that he isn't a total fuck-up. Here in California, the only serious contender I'm hearing to challenge Boxer is Carly Fiorina (the fuck-up former CEO of California-based Hewlett-Packard. I went to a school with a lot of HP employees, not one had any kind words for her.)

So we'll have a few years at the very least to see what Obama can do for the country without the GOP being as much of an obstacle, for better or for worse. I'm pretty positive that he can do a lot of good, and that things will happen a little more quickly now that the playing field has change so drastically recently. There's still a lot for him to do for me to want to vote "awesome" in a future poll, but I'm very happy with how he's handling the crisis in Iran (hands-off is the only way to handle the hot-potato. The Iranian people have to make change on their own, but the damage done to the legitimacy of their theocracy is already permanent).

So.. introspective football, eh?

Actually when you hear the longer version as Penn states, where he says that the transcendental feeling is something which religion provides and atheists lack, there's an excellent rebuttal using his own logic. I feel exceptionally transcendental when I see all those shows about the real nature of the universe. For example the recent videos about the black hole at the center of the universe fill me with a feeling which I can only describe as transcendental: a feeling of amazing wonder at the idea that I exist next to these marvels, so gigantic and violent and yet here I am comfortable and introspective as a result...

... but yeah, I guess "fuck you" also captures part of what I'd say to that asshole if I actually met him.

Lol, indeed! And I admit I have a few man-crushes.
Zach would be one of 'em for sure, although it's usually musicians I gravitate towards. But I appreciate his humour, it's often subtle.. introspective, and he's a bit of an enigma. Kaufman-ish, but not to an extreme degree. I'm always looking forward to his newest stuff.. recently I've been hearing and seeing a lot about this new movie he's in - 'Hangover.' Looks pretty good.

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
The beard makes him look like an ewok. So damn cute! You got any random crushes eh? Tell me it's not just me

In reply to this comment by EndAll:
Haha, right on. And you can't forget that beard.

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
His snese of humour totally appeals to me, it's not obvious and he's all mock angry and shit. He looks adorable and when he goes into one of his rants you just wanna pull him to one side and give him a big old hug. Umm, I dunno I do get the most random of crushes

In reply to this comment by EndAll:
What about Mr. Galifianakis entices you so?

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
I am indeed

In reply to this comment by EndAll:
Are you a female?

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
He will be mine, oh yes...

Doc_M, there is absolutely no hard evidence that psychedelic drugs leave holes in one's brain, that's just an anti-drug propaganda myth. They work by altering the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain leading to all kinds of changes in perception and introspection.

>> ^Doc_M:
the fact is that they biologically work by damaging the brain's cognitive functions.


All we have is AN understanding of how the brain works. It may not be definitive, we never made it to claim that we know exactly how it is intended to work.

Therefore how can we know that something damages it rather than enhances it? Perhaps we were supposed to take these drugs in order to develop our brain correctly?

We don't and perhaps can't! Everything we know thanks to science is an interpretation of what we observe that is convenient to us to identify a pattern in nature. That doesn't mean we know how it works. It means we've identified a pattern and a system in place that seems to accurately describe and predict how the thing works. And we accept that theory until it fails us and we adopt a better one that doesn't fail us. How long ago did we think that we KNEW that the earth was the centre of the universe? Is anyone so arrogant as to claim that we know better NOW? We have to hope that we know better (else why try?), but accept that we might not

I know i'm getting a little bit philosophical, but i think that's the underlying point of the video. How do we know that what we think is true is true? Maybe bipolar is just an alternate state of being, or maybe an evolutionary step. And the same for many other things which we percieve. Or maybe not.

I will say that i think people with bipolar (and in fact depression) are more prone to the kind of introspection that might lead to the belief that they're not broken, they're just different.

I hated this fucking movie and I'll tell you why: the advertising campaign.

It was TOTAL bait and switch. The ads made this seem like it was some sort of slap-stick comedy and it turns out to be some depressing, introspective bullshit.

Mind you, I might have liked it if I had known what it was REALLY like, but man did that trailer piss me off in retrospect.

Until pot is legal, we don't live in a free society. That's my litmus test. There is no good reason it should be illegal to consume it or sell it.

It seems obvious to me it's all about supporting the legal system as well as catering to the alcohol and tobacco lobby. Because if people could grow their own pot plants without worrying they'd be arrested for it, people would spend a LOT less money on booze.

It's a plant. It grows like a weed. It gets you high, which means different things to different people at different times, but mostly means "you become more introspective, open-minded, sensitive, everything is more interesting, and then you want a snack." If that's a horrible scourge that needs to be eliminated, well fuck me I must have been born in Bizarro world. Compare this to alcohol which causes people to lose their motor skills, drop their inhibitions, and surrender to their id.

People who say things like "if you smoke pot you are immature" or "well it's stupid to smoke something that rots your brain cells" can suck my fucking cock.

>> ^chilaxe:
Knowledge is just a humanistic term for data... data points organized into patterns at a level of summary that's useful to the conscious mind.
Philosophy and introspection is fine, just so long as it's not claimed to trump science. Legislating its trumping of science is particularly going too far.


No, knowledge is word which we use to denote "state of mind" a psychological and mental faculty, which we do not fully understand.
I know that I exist, bu I don't knoew exactly how it is that this knowledge occurs
Data is something utterly different. YOu can say a magazine article has data but it doesn't have "knowledge"
Only when conscious (or semi-conscious) beings apply their mental faculties to "data" do we have knowledge.