tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post1077521807342685675..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Links 18 March 2022Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-87787971913600903442022-03-19T07:44:11.256-04:002022-03-19T07:44:11.256-04:00In the article about magpies, the researcher says ...In the article about magpies, the researcher says this is an example of helping others without tangible benefits to individuals. I disagree. The tangible benefit to the individual is perpetuation of the social group/order.Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-42908940875019787202022-03-18T14:28:15.148-04:002022-03-18T14:28:15.148-04:00Burnout isn't new, it's just most people w...Burnout isn't new, it's just most people who feel burned out complain about it these days, rather than just abusing drugs (or family members) in response.<br /><br />It used to be standard practice to push people to the breaking point, and they were just expected to stop at the bar on their way home from a fourteen hour shift at work, so they could drink until the pain went away, go home, and pass out in preparation to do it all over again the next day.<br /><br />Leo Tolstoy wrote about how Russian workers at the turn of the century were given company-provided alcohol to keep them going and cramped bunkhouses to sleep in between shifts. You can find similar (albeit usually less extreme) accounts in America and Europe which demonstrate the exact same institutional awareness of, and disregard for, burnout among workers. Or you can just look at old photographs of young working men in their 20s or 30s whose faces and bodies look like they're in their 40s or 50s. People lived hard in the past, and they suffered awfully for it, but they weren't allowed to complain - they were just expected to drug themselves into a stupor.<br /><br />...or alternatively, drug themselves into a frenzy, as was often more popular in the 20th century. Rather than alcohol and other depressants, people abused stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine to keep themselves going, with equally awful results.<br /><br />I'll take people complaining about burnout over a systemic expectation of silent drug abuse any day.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-61477110182311568302022-03-18T13:26:25.177-04:002022-03-18T13:26:25.177-04:00Well, gout is a real disease, but it was also tren...Well, gout is a real disease, but it was also trendy for a while. So both could be true about burnout. It is indeed true that in the US a medical diagnosis can help you fight a lot of bureaucracies.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-28597776892166408522022-03-18T09:49:48.746-04:002022-03-18T09:49:48.746-04:00On a serious note, I wonder if there isn't som...On a serious note, I wonder if there isn't something to the class-struggle argument. The medicalization of complaints does have the effect of turning one organized, bureaucratic power--the medical establishment--against whatever organized bureaucratic power (school or employer, mostly) is dominating the sufferer's life at the moment. And, as anyone involved in a conflict knows, allies are one key to victory.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14456987412710878404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-90928984274321019282022-03-18T09:37:36.710-04:002022-03-18T09:37:36.710-04:00I realize your link blurbs aren't really serio...I realize your link blurbs aren't really serious, but it's notable that the one possibility that you don't list for burnout is that it might be real. After a skim, the essay you linked to seems to take a very different track. It's got of a bit of that Laschian-Bedellian impatience with entitled complainers, but it basically takes the concept of burnout seriously--more seriously even than pop psychology does, since it describes burnout firstly as a spiritual disease (via a review a recent book by a theologian) and then as a weapon-of-the-weak in the class struggle.<br /><br />Indeed, perhaps it's time the "entitled whiner" trope was subjected to a little scientific analysis of its own. Is there such a thing? Could you identify an entitled whiner objectively? E. g., is an entitled whiner someone who complains while having no glucocorticoids in their system, or when complaining itself releases dopamine for them? How about measuring impatience with other people's complaining? Could we detect, in some portion of the population, a measurable rise in glucocorticoids when listening to someone else complaining? Does complaining about complaining then lower those levels, or release dopamine? Oh, the dissertations that will be written!Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14456987412710878404noreply@blogger.com