tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post5615431579972250998..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Neurotic Anxiety and the Fearful NationJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-26596230116608435702015-08-17T15:19:38.742-04:002015-08-17T15:19:38.742-04:00I am impressed by how many different political and...I am impressed by how many different political and psychological issues intersect in this one topic: bullying, racism, anxiety, safe playground design, sexism, dodgeball, university teaching, and so on. <br /><br />I suppose that because we are a social species, how we treat each other is central to everything.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-91931778934418861832015-08-17T14:56:53.420-04:002015-08-17T14:56:53.420-04:00Thinking further, of course one might say that thi...Thinking further, of course one might say that this whole to-do is a battle of different endocrinological natures. After all, some folks find self-policing easier than others, and I imagine that at least some of those complaining about our "over-safe" society are the ones who find self-policing difficult. But self-policing is what the anxious have been doing for a long time ("I'm really bothered by the way my professor/boss/etc. talks about X, but I'm probably just being over-sensitive/whimpy/uppity/rude/time-wasting/etc. I should just toughen up."). No matter what happens, someone's going to have to police themselves about the way they act. Our society is simply in flux about who has to do that--and our debate is more wide-open than it's probably been in most other societies.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-44676614013905277932015-08-17T13:36:34.948-04:002015-08-17T13:36:34.948-04:00As you know, I don't have much sympathy with t...As you know, I don't have much sympathy with the "toughen-up" crowd, for precisely the reason you give in another post: simply being told, and even agreeing with, an idea like "toughen up," I don't think, changes too many people. I suspect that you and others who respond to this idea simply find it easier to be tough than other people do. My suspicion is that this is largely a matter of endocrinology.<br /><br />I would repeat what I've said before: I think that our current safety-oriented culture is in large part a response to spreading egalitarianism: people who, say, eighty years ago might have repressed their miseries and let them come out in drinking, domestic violence, etc., now feel free to say what bothers them. Many of those who now complain about anxiety would have been no less anxious in the past; they simply wouldn't have talked about it, and gone on hating themselves without public acknowledgement.<br /><br />In any case, I would say bullying fits in with legitimate fears, and if the price of less bullying and suchlike is a culture where people feel free to crinkle their brows and wring their hands in worry in public, I'm eager to pay it.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.com