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You misunderstood. I was not arguing that we need to get rid of all the individualism. I was simply providing those as examples of what I mean by individualist vs. collectivist thinking (since these terms have a lot of related but distinct meanings). I specifically said individualism is fine when it comes to issues like moving out of your parents' home or buying a car. But the point I'm trying to make is that it has become dogmatic, which is to say, the belief is treated as such an unquestionable pillar of belief that it has spilled over into realms where it is not reasonable, such as how to handle a pandemic. There is a difference between practical or pragmatic individualism (of the kind you seem to favor) on the one hand vs. dogmatic, unchangeable, ideologically-absolutist individualism on the other. It is about the willingness to consider the circumstances.
Right now, a lot of people are unwilling to take this crisis seriously, it is very different from World War II. Back in March and April, we cooperated for a period of time, air travel dropped by 95% and we had enhanced unemployment. But patience only seemed to last 2 or 3 months at most, and then people just decided to ignore the emergency. Now we have 10X as many cases as we did in the spring and air travel is now almost 50% of normal. The sense of urgency and crisis seems to have been lost and the individualist belief system has been re-instated. The complaint I have is that the individualism has become such an unquestionable ideology that people only tolerated suspending it for 2 or 3 months, rather than until the crisis is actually over or at least under control.
Sadly, many current "individualists" have been indoctrinated by groupthink and have no idea they are dominated and subservient. All they do is play Follow The Leader and wouldn't know an independent idea if it bit them in the a$$.
Don't hang the Covid deaths on individualists. Many more people are ignorant and have no idea what they are doing. They believe wild rumors that it is overblown, or a hoax. Many more have no sense of consequences. Think the fools who run their credit cards to the limit because they "have" to buy whatever catches their attention. Young people desperately seek group interaction, and isolating runs contrary to their most basic genetic programming.
What do you care? Besides, he's paying twice the price, and if he was locked up, you'd have to contribute to the cost of his stupidity. Don't tell me I'm wrong because you live in another state. I'd never live it down!
I just like criminals being locked up and out of my way. It makes me happy.
Many of the incarcerated are the mentally ill. Nationwide, an estimated 2,000,000 mentally ill are locked up. They are locked up for schizophrenia, bipolar episodes and other major psychotic episodes. Adding more people to an already overwhelmed system makes the tax payer pay more, the ill sicker and overwhelms law enforcement. Today, with Covid, it is an extra burden with the additional treatment needed for Covid.
By law, VA does report the number of mentally ill in the jail system; in some regions, the number is over 40%.
Virginia requires an annual report on the subject. Below is a link to the most recent.
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Rugged individualism will be systematically removed as big government/big corporations tell them what to think, act and say. It's already happening!
Fortunately friends half my age, in their 20's; aren't buying into the propaganda just yet. This at least tells me they still opt for individualism, and possess enough deductive reasoning/common sense to question the system.
Hopefully totalitarianism will be avoided for at least another generation, ala George Orwell 1984.
Fortunately friends half my age, in their 20's; aren't buying into the propaganda just yet. This at least tells me they still opt for individualism, and possess enough deductive reasoning/common sense to question the system.
Hopefully totalitarianism will be avoided for at least another generation, ala George Orwell 1984.
I'm starting to think deductive reasoning and critical thinking is a lost art form. I was having this exact same discussion with a friend of mine the other day. He is a computer programmer and I minored in C.S. in college although I didn't go into this line of work. Now granted I'm in my 50s and computer science may be taught entirely differently today than it was back then but flow charting was HUGE in our teachings. Looking back, it was one of the most important things that I learned in school. It taught me how to think in a systematic and deductive manner.
We'd start with an assignment and we'd have to flow chart it out. It forces you to expand your mind and think of all variables and outcomes. What a life lesson that was, I'll tell you that! But the corporations want sheep but not a society of thinkers!
I think George Carlin said it best. "Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dump enough to passively accept their situation."
The above quote, in flowcharting terms, is just a straight line of boxes. Nobody is thinking of alternative outcomes and just agreeing with what is presented to you. The problem with this is the ones that are laying out the data have an agenda that may not be good for America or the general populace of the world in the long run. Yet, most kids go to school, sign on to their social platforms and just drink the cool aide without question. This is the danger zone, and we are waist up in it!
Many of the incarcerated are the mentally ill. Nationwide, an estimated 2,000,000 mentally ill are locked up. They are locked up for schizophrenia, bipolar episodes and other major psychotic episodes. Adding more people to an already overwhelmed system makes the tax payer pay more, the ill sicker and overwhelms law enforcement. Today, with Covid, it is an extra burden with the additional treatment needed for Covid.
By law, VA does report the number of mentally ill in the jail system; in some regions, the number is over 40%.
Virginia requires an annual report on the subject. Below is a link to the most recent.
They are locked up for committing crimes and hurting the lives of good people. I don’t care why they did it or what their alleged “illness” is. I want criminals off the streets and locked up regardless of reason. They aren’t the concern. Good people are the concern.
We tend to call everything a disease and look for deterministic mitigating factors for all manner of low character and evil conduct. Do the crime, do the time. Regardless of reason. Just be off the streets because the innocent good people who don’t do crimes come first and foremost.
In 2015, Jamycheal Mitchell walked into a store and was arrested for stealing $5.05 worth of snacks in a 7-Eleven. He was mentally ill and thought he was in a relative's store. He was arrested, put in jail and found incompetent to stand trial. There was no bed available to restore his competency to stand trail and and he waited and waited in jail where he died of a heart attack after refusing to eat and by all accounts not aware of what was going on.
Natasha McKenna died in VA jail in 2015. A diagnosed schizophrenic, she was arrested for assaulting a police officer. There were no psychiatric beds and hence when deputies in the jail where she was being held tried to restrain her in a psychotic episode, she was suffocated as she lay screaming nude by people totally untrained for this.
Damaris Rodriguez a severely mentally ill person died in jail in Washington state where she was denied medical care.
But perhaps most poignant since it is on tape is the beating death of Marvin Booker since its on tape. In Denver, in 2014, a street preacher, Marvin Booker was arrested for a minor infraction. After waiting for a time, he went up to the counter to ask about his shoes. What resulted was him being beaten to death by officers and carted out like a piece of meat. Denver Health is literarily around the corner from where this happened, but no medical care was called for. I had posted the video of the beating death, but I deleted it since it is graphic, but folks can google it.
We put the mentally ill in jail because we have no beds for them. These are not people who are faking it.
The Founders established free mental health care in VA with what is now Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg. In this area, despite both the Crown and Burgess in VA careening into conflict, they found agreement.
In the aftermath of the death of Marcus-David Peters in VA, VA has established a new system for dealing with the severely mentally ill and their interactions with the police during a crisis. Law enforcement strongly supported the measure. The new system will be up and running in 2022. We will see how it works.
In 2015, Jamycheal Mitchell walked into a store and was arrested for stealing $5.05 worth of snacks in a 7-Eleven. He was mentally ill and thought he was in a relative's store. He was arrested, put in jail and found incompetent to stand trial. There was no bed available to restore his competency to stand trail and and he waited and waited in jail where he died of a heart attack after refusing to eat and by all accounts not aware of what was going on.
Natasha McKenna died in VA jail in 2015. A diagnosed schizophrenic, she was arrested for assaulting a police officer. There were no psychiatric beds and hence when deputies in the jail where she was being held tried to restrain her in a psychotic episode, she was suffocated as she lay screaming nude by people totally untrained for this.
Damaris Rodriguez a severely mentally ill person died in jail in Washington state where she was denied medical care.
But perhaps most poignant since it is on tape is the beating death of Marvin Booker since its on tape. In Denver, in 2014, a street preacher, Marvin Booker was arrested for a minor infraction. After waiting for a time, he went up to the counter to ask about his shoes. What resulted was him being beaten to death by officers and carted out like a piece of meat. Denver Health is literarily around the corner from where this happened, but no medical care was called for. The video is below and some might find it disturbing.
We put the mentally ill in jail because we have no beds for them. These are not people who are faking it.
The Founders established free mental health care in VA with what is now Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg. In this area, despite both the Crown and Burgess in VA careening into conflict, they found agreement.
In the aftermath of the death of Marcus-David Peters in VA, VA has established a new system for dealing with the severely mentally ill and their interactions with the police. The new system will be up and running in 2022. We will see how it works.
This is the anecdotal fallacy in action. Take a few extreme cases and generalize to the big picture. We have created illnesses to describe virtually every form of character fault. Alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction. None of these should be classified as illnesses. They are all character issues. And now you want make mental illness a mitigating factor for violent crime. What’s next, criminal addiction? Enough. People who assault other people and take away their rights through violent force need to be locked up regardless of excuse or reason. If legitimately mentally ill then warehoused in a separate section of the prison. But locked up nevertheless so that they cannot initiate violence and mayhem on the good people of society.
We need to emphasize the importance of keeping the environment safe for free and good people to live their lives productively and enjoyably. They come first, not criminals, not alcoholics, not drunk drivers, not looters, not shoplifters, not thieves, not carjackers, not drug dealers, not drug users.
And implying that great numbers of incarcerated criminals are just poor unfortunate mentally ill people who were ignored by the “system“? Forget that nonsense.
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