The Politics of Well-Being

To Yeshe and gaki, Yes, Jules knew what he was ta...

2010-08-29T09:00:47.017-07:00

To Yeshe and gaki,

Yes, Jules knew what he was talking about. I was a devoted student of Trungpa and Osel Tendzin, the Vajra Regent, for four or five years in the 1980's. These kinds of things were no secret. They did not hide the harmful actions themselves, they just hid the teachings of the Buddha relating to these kinds of harmful actions (adultery, drinking alcohol, etc.)

Despite claims of compassion, Trungpa was also a meat-eater. Meat-eating is another uncompassionate action, rightly condemned in the Sarvastivadin Vinaya and the Mahayana Sutras, but irrationalized in the Vajrayana teachings.

(Incidentally, from what I have read, one of the two Karmapas, the one accepted by Trungpa's old students, is not only vegetarian but forbids the serving of meat in Karma Kagyu centers that accept him as the Karmapa.)

Gaki, you illustrate the mentality that was endemic in Vajradhutu (later transmogrified into Shambhala), i.e. the Vidhayadhara had a dozen fancy titles, several cool books, 10,000 devoted students and the power of presence, so everything he did must have been OK.

The lives and deaths of Chogyam Trungpa and the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin illustrated why the Buddha never taught devotion to a teacher (apart from Himself.)

Yes, quite right Steve - I should have said 'gave ...

2010-08-27T01:15:25.363-07:00

Yes, quite right Steve - I should have said 'gave his life defending'. I'll change it. thanks!

Small point, but wasn't Cicero proscribed and murd...

2010-08-26T18:13:04.571-07:00

Small point, but wasn't Cicero proscribed and murdered on the orders of Mark Anthony and Octavian?

Now that would be cool!!

2010-08-20T06:35:50.980-07:00

Now that would be cool!!

Hey Chris Nicely argued points. And yes, there is...

2010-08-16T13:12:52.355-07:00

Hey Chris

Nicely argued points. And yes, there is some money saving involved in the government's support for CBT - we give you CBT, then we stop giving you welfare benefits.

But I still think its really valuable to increase the access to CBT for people, and theres still ALOT of room for improvement there.

As for the state being paternalistic and authoritarian - thats what states are! if you have laws, then states are inevitably authoritarian. and if you have state education, and state-funded arts and culture, then states are also paternalistic. i dont think thats a bad thing. i think thats a good thing, particularly when youre talking about the state playing a role in the education of young people.

once people are adults, its a different matter. but i think there should still be access to higher learning, to adult education, to philosophy for adults.

Part of paternalism should be teaching a healthy scepticism, however - a 'fine disregard' for convention and a willingness to experiment.

Hey guys Well, fair enough Clutching. I personall...

2010-08-16T13:06:51.384-07:00

Hey guys

Well, fair enough Clutching. I personally think self-control is even more necessary for revolutionaries as it is for conformists.

If you have time, have a look at this post on Mandela's self-control and the role it played in his resistance to apartheid:

http://www.politicsofwellbeing.com/2010/04/mandelas-stoicism.html

All best

Jules

Very interesting article. Irrespective of debate c...

2010-08-16T10:34:35.483-07:00

Very interesting article. Irrespective of debate concerning the scientific basis for the 'moral muscle', from personal experience both physical and emotional abstinence takes great exertion. At times burnout will occur and one's behaviour will regress. But with perserverance in time significant gains are made and a new character forged - this has been my experience with Stoicism. The moral muscle needs exercising - our parents, peers, the State, can't be charged with instilling and strengthening every value we hold. As adults that's our own responsibility.

As usual a great article Jules...but on this one I...

2010-08-16T10:13:03.478-07:00

As usual a great article Jules...but on this one I side more with Isaiah Berlin that the governments of the modern liberal democracy are right to merely promote ‘negative’ liberalism because anything further risks a greater paternalism and at worst, an authoritarian State – both of which are inconsistent with classical liberalism. If the modern democracy was a direct democracy rather than a representative democracy, then I think there would be room for an ongoing collaboration between citizen and the State on ethics and morality in a way which is consistent with both liberal and democratic freedoms.

It is great that numerous lobby groups have influenced the UK government into funding for, as you so accurately describe, Stage One emotional intelligence; but in this neo-liberal age do you think that the economic investment in wellbeing stems from a genuine interest in fostering a virtuous society? I suspect the investment into CBT and positive psychology alike are merely a pragmatic exercise in preventative health care... clued on to how great an expense mental illness has on its economy, the investment in emotional intelligence is akin to giving free milk to school age children in order to fend off rickets.

Hi CBTISH OK, you have a blog all about CBT. It l...

2010-08-16T06:34:30.651-07:00

Hi CBTISH

OK, you have a blog all about CBT. It looks like a good blog. So you must be into CBT, right? You must know that both Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis have said they were directly inspired by their reading of Stoicism in the formulation of CBT.

So, being such a fan of CBT, I'd assume you've explored the connection with ancient philosophy, haven't you? What Stoic books have you read? What Plato or Aristotle have you read?

Are you so intellectually uncurious, or threatened, as simply to dismiss CBT's debt to ancient philosophy with the phrase 'vaguely resembles'. It doesn't vaguely resemble - it was directly inspired by it.

Go and read some. You might even enjoy it.

The trouble with "honest moral debate" is that it ...

2010-08-16T05:58:51.137-07:00

The trouble with "honest moral debate" is that it is so often an excuse for dispensing with facts, legitimizing ignorance. Seligman actually rejects the idea that wellbeing is a useful concept. He has, however, proposed that wellbeing has useful component parts, which can be measured to create knowledge (knowledge that was not available in ancient Greece). Debating wellbeing without reference to that knowledge no longer seems so honest.

CBT was not designed as a lifestyle, but as a treatment for mental illness, which is how it is used in this psychotherapy practice. Yes, some of its methods vaguely resemble some ancient philosophies, but that vague resemblance does not mean they are one and the same thing. If philosophy were more widely taught in schools, perhaps such glaring errors of logic would be less common in public discourse.

Promoting 'emotional literacy' on the basis that it is 'based on CBT' is no more sensible than promoting a patent medicine on the basis that it 'contains atomic energy'. I think it curious that people are so willing to administer 'emotional literacy' to children when they would not so readily administer, say, Prozac. I suspect the unintended consequences will provide much work for psychotherapists in years to come.

Thanks Jane! Apologise for the divinity at the en...

2010-08-15T08:07:01.808-07:00

Thanks Jane!

Apologise for the divinity at the end...I do live in a church, and it IS Sunday after all.

Nice piece, Jules - wasn't too keen on the divinit...

2010-08-15T06:04:40.680-07:00

Nice piece, Jules - wasn't too keen on the divinity casually thrown in at the end but that aside, a really informative and well-explained read - thanks.

You should read the chapter on Samaya in the book ...

2010-08-13T14:21:32.300-07:00

You should read the chapter on Samaya in the book called 'Rainbow Painting' by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Furthermore, the photo in the book contains some kind of energy signature. I felt a strong energy blast. I started crying and tears run down my face. Pretty embarassing in public.
I once found a photo of an alien creature and felt an even stroger blast of energy. Non of my friend could feel that one but all of them gotten sick after looking at the photo. I had real problems with my teeth afterwards and only the teachings found on the website azuritepress.com were able to free myself of the tooth-ache.

Furthermore, in the book 'Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod' by Sarah Harding is written that practitioners of Chöd are not allowed to use wrathful practices for themselves. It is said that it would make spirits grumpy and they would harm, or even kill friends, and family members of the practitioner as revenge.

I know that Sogyal Rinpoche has recommended, on his 'Guru Rinpoche' DVD, the usage wrathful practices for healing of the practitioners themselves. In addition Chögyal Namkhai Norbu has in the past recommended the 'Guru Dragphur' practice to be used by the practitioner as Gyalpo protection. This practice is considered to be one of the most powerful wrathful practices and is said to heal cancer. Unfortunately, I used it before reading Sarah Harding's book and many of my friends' parants have been diagnosed with cancer ever since :(

I heavely recommend reading the two books before attending any Tibetan Buddhism empowerments or even teachings.

I hope others have had better experiences than myself with Tibetan Buddhism.

Just in case somebody would like an alternative to Tibetan Buddhism I can recommend the following websites:
- divinecosmos.com
- azuritepress.com

love it, love it, love it. Putting it on C&C now.

2010-08-12T07:48:13.434-07:00

love it, love it, love it. Putting it on C&C now.

sorry, forgot to say that i also think that the bi...

2010-08-09T05:07:24.020-07:00

sorry, forgot to say that i also think that the bit about motivation being undervalued in comparison to cognition and ability is interesting.

i'm sorry i think most of this is rubbish. Mr Ba...

2010-08-09T04:54:48.885-07:00

i'm sorry i think most of this is rubbish.

Mr Baumeister says culture has worked for us. what are the criteria that have been met to enable us to say this? to say that culture has worked for us may suggest that our wellbeing has improved. and how do you measure this?

morality - RB defines this as a 'set of rules to enable people to live together' - however, he does not state these rules categorically. i think he downplays the ambiguity of morality ... More specifically, he leaves out the huge influence of politics on morality eg 'morals' can be a means of social control eg the control of the ruling class over the proletariat. Also, in a multi-cultural world, the actual nature of morality varies vastly.

later he says that culture depends on co-operating and trust and shared assumptions. this doesn't sound like the UK to me. perhaps it applies better to the US. i would say that the system in the UK works through coercion, rather.

as for 'moral reputation' this is so open to abuse. people can 'act' moral whilst secretly being immoral. we can never know really how moral a person is. also, the cynical side of me believes that for any very obvious external moral act, the individual will commit a covert immoral one because of the self-deprivation. Eg, there are repercussions to appearing the perfect, respectable, upstanding family - whether they are psychological or physical. It's just not humanly possible to aspire to too much virtue - it's counter- productive in the end.

Also, the tabloid media cynically abuse the idea of 'moral reputation'. they can easily make or break a person's reputation at whim, regardless of the person's real behaviour. thus the concept of 'reputation' is perhaps nebulous.

And in the modern world, apparently we shouldn't care what others think - it's how we evaluate our behaviour that's important - and it is here that the concepts of culture, morality and reputation break down.

Mr Baumeister does not talk about what happens when people do not agree with the prevailing morality. what happens then?

for those who practise self-control - there is a danger that they will simply be exploited by those who get what they want through more aggressive/intimidating means. in these instances it might be better for the individual to practise self-assertion rather than self-control. Moreover, if self-control is so hard, perhaps we should abandon it and look at other ways to elicit the desired behaviours. (eg through environmental means or changing the system).

however, i agree that the bit about glucose levels affecting, say, free will, is interesting. i would suggest intuitively that any mental effort demands a lot of glucose and energy (and often pain!). that's why, for most of the time, people are sheep. personally id be interested to know if rest after exerting freewill also improves subsequent behaviour. the implications could be huge - more tea breaks, more rest times ...

forgive the 'draft' nature of these thoughts ...

Jules, here's something else to consider in the e...

2010-08-04T08:03:55.368-07:00

Jules,

here's something else to consider in the equation. Flow only comes when one is engaged in tasks in which one has a high level of competence. Flow therefore = bang in comfort zone. But should we stay in it?

To better ourselves as human beings, we occasionally have to embark on new activities at which, being a novice, we are useless. No chance of flow. High chance of frustration. To make these decisions we have to renounce flow and embrace struggling with automatising the basic processes of the new skill (I have been doing a martial art for 3 years now and still feel like a plonker when doing it - no flow yet).

I guess this is another part of the balance concern - mixing up flow and looking/feeling good, with strugglesome, feeling-like-a-wolly-learning and working on one's weaknesses.

Olly

Thanks for another thought provoking post. I am su...

2010-08-03T07:42:42.856-07:00

Thanks for another thought provoking post. I am sure that the following has already occurred to you, but I wanted to bring up my 2 pennies.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&&suggest&note_id=415475686547#!/notes/michel-daw/is-positive-psychology-the-new-stoicism-not-really/415475686547

Seldon writing in The Indepdent: 'students sit i...

2010-08-03T06:39:30.415-07:00

Seldon writing in The Indepdent:

'students sit inert in large school and university classrooms, passively absorbing material dictated to them by grey men and women, which they repeat in their essays and dissertations, straining every sinew to produce the "right" answer.'

Quite!

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/anthony-seldon-our-education-system-is-collapsing-into-a-form-of-mass-indoctrination-2028709.html

Intersting about the single kid on the charity let...

2010-08-01T09:09:15.071-07:00

Intersting about the single kid on the charity letters. His research seems to be really on how to maximise return and consumer demand. Consumer psychology really. But his burning-man-libertarian philosophical position makes things more interesting. It would seem to me that the latter shapes the direction of the former, hence looking at approaches and requests for charitable behaviour. Its always been my view that science sits on philosophical foundations that are not within the purview of empirical enquiry.

I need your help with a course I am designing for the autumn for young people exploring big philosophical questions. Would be nice to meet up and talk.

Olly

Hey Olly Rational behaviour in the context of inv...

2010-08-01T06:18:32.466-07:00

Hey Olly

Rational behaviour in the context of investing would presumably mean, for him, market choices that led to the best returns.

Yes, I think he is a utilitarian. He does talk about altruistic behaviour, from the point of view of how to engineer it.

For example, he did an experiment to see what makes people give to charities: send a letter seeking donations with pictures of ten children on it, and a letter with a picture of one child on it, and the second letter will get more money, because people get more emotionally aroused by one story than several.

As Stalin put it: 'The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.'

Ariely also found that if you asked lawyers to provide their services to pensioners at a deep discount rate, they refused. But if you asked them to do it for free, they accepted - there's something in our brains which wires us to do things for free, to give the gift of our services to others.

He's a big fan of the Burning Man festival, by the way, and its hippy economy of free gifts and mutual nurturing.

From an NYT review of Predictably Irrational:

Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., tells us that “life with fewer market norms and more social norms would be more satisfying, creative, fulfilling and fun.” By the way, the conference where he had this insight wasn’t sponsored by the Federal Reserve, where he is a researcher. It came to him at Burning Man, the annual anarchist conclave where clothes are optional and money is banned. Ariely calls it “the most accepting, social and caring place I had ever been.”

Hi Jules, Did Dan Ariely say what he thought rati...

2010-08-01T06:05:01.921-07:00

Hi Jules,

Did Dan Ariely say what he thought rational behaviour comprised? I guess he would say something along the lines of maximising capital, assets and income. Or would he? Really not sure. Perhaps he would buy the utilitarian ethos of maximising happiness. But would altruistic behaviour be considered rational? Is behaviour based on empathy rational? It certainly is full of emotion. I got the sense of emotions being pitted against rationality in what he was saying. Don't buy that either.

In his final comment about engineering life choices to maximise happiness and minimise depression (showing his utiliterianism), this sounds from a purely morality=minimising suffering position an ethical ideal. However you rightly pointed out that the choice to undertake certain professions brings stress and the rest.

Another key one is having children. Research shows that children lessen happiness. Is that a reason not to have them? Of course not. But if we can't gauge what we should and should not do by the happiness our actions bring, how do we? Should we revert back to the more materialist economic idea of aiming to increase our capital?

Perhaps in banks the ideal is a cool, dispassionate analyst making choices based on the application of cost-benefit formulae. But as an ideal for human beings more generally? Heaven forbid.

Not to hand. I'll try and find.

2010-07-29T13:11:29.588-07:00

Not to hand. I'll try and find.

Do you have these?

2010-07-29T08:41:14.454-07:00

Do you have these?

'The World Book of Happiness' Well, obviously thi...

2010-07-02T04:59:08.543-07:00

'The World Book of Happiness'

Well, obviously this is a coffee table book, isn't it?

i think this book is assuming that the most basic needs of most people who read it have already been met - ie those of shelter, food etc - which is quite a big assumption, no? (considering Maslow particularly here.)

But, funnily enough, believe that even having such basic needs met can support feelings of 'happiness' - even if they are, arguably, in the 'lower happiness' scale of emotions such as intimations of security.

Think that the emotion of 'feeling good' probably is adaptive but perhaps, as you suggest, needs to be unpacked.

Agree with you about questionnaires. But the irony is that questionnaires were never meant to be sole arbiters of 'evidence': a valid and reliable test is broad, with 'scientific' data from such a measure being only one prong in a range of observations that need to be garnered to harvest what are considered 'valid and reliable' results.

Also concur that having 'happiness' as aim of life is possibly fatuous. Personally, believe it is better for human beings to seek quality of life - although to me, thinking about it, that sounds a bit boring.

We sort of do know what makes animals healthy in a zoo, no? Ultimately, we all belong to the same species, so i guess there are likely to be denominators that make us all 'tick' (in a 'happier' manner) to a greater or lesser degree.

Reportedly, we are social creatures. Thus, theorists advise that we benefit from 'community participation'. But, being that we are also diverse, perhaps it would be wrong to suggest this as a 'blanket' solution to 'happiness'.