🫤

I understand why people dislike AI and the backlash against it.

And I wish AI had only been developed and offered as a tool that enhances people’s efforts instead of being offered as a way to generate shoddy replacements.

AI was always going to happen because it’s a part of computing. But it’s too often offered as a shortcut that takes away people’s motivation to think and create from their own mind and their own efforts.

I’m old enough to remember the good old days of having to walk to a library and flip through a card catalog, then pick up the physical book. It took effort to find information and maybe because of that, the end result was more rewarding.

The came the digitized system which I liked because then I could find books at libraries around the country and the world. That was cool, and when I was in grad school, I found this helpful for writing papers and locating German-language books.

I’m also old enough to remember the good old days when I wrote these term papers by hand. (Cue dramatic music.)

My handwriting sucks and the old typewriters were clunky, so I was relieved to move over to computers and then phones.

But tools that are supposed to be helpful too often end up enabling the human tendency to be lazy. Instead of learning, we get convenience and shortcuts. Combine that with a decades-long campaign to dumb down a population and denigrating education and… people no longer value learning and demand quick and easy answers to complex problems.

In the long run, not helpful.

know thyself

We’re told from the get go what we should be. But how many of us think over what we could be?

Because if we don’t think about who we really are as individuals, we grow up performing for and living for others while becoming further and further estranged from ourselves.

Some, if they lucky, and if they encounter people who present different points of view, and if they are open minded enough to listen to other, may begin to find their estranged self in the form of a quarter or mid life crisis.

I was one of the “lucky” ones to go through a quarter life crisis. And I qualify lucky, because while I’m thankful it happened, it was a rough time in my life. Nonetheless, I was fortunate to meet people who challenged my the belief system I had then and introduced me to new ways of looking at life. And I had a lot to unlearn! Because I was still open minded enough to receive new information, I could go through something of a Hegelian thesis-antithesis-synthesis process. After that, I started on a more authentic path of life for the second act of my life.

And I still work on learning, as I contemplate the third act. Personal growth is never done, it continues, but again, only if someone is willing to keep growing.

For others, this process happens in their 40s. The midlife crisis if recognized for what it is can yield rewards and a more authentic way of life.

I recall an acquaintance who went down this path. When I first met her, she had attained a certain level of success and wealth. Then we lost contact for a while. When we coincidentally (synchronistically?) ran into each other at a store, I asked her if she was still at the old job. She paused, laughed, and said, “No, I went back to school and now work as a physical therapist.”

That’s a classic midlife crisis with a positive resolution. She used the money and leverage she had to create a more rewarding and heart-centered life.

But unfortunately, not everyone is lucky or willing enough to go through that process. They don’t want to hear other points of view, don’t want to learn, and remain the same person who performs a role for others. They become more and more estranged from their authentic selves.

And where does the repressed energy go? Sometimes it folds back on the person in the form of mental illness and addictions. I know of cases of people who have passed because of illness and self neglect due to addictions. The people in their lives are shocked, but if you look at the details, it becomes clear: that person was living out a role, a script for someone else, and used an addiction to cover up the negative feelings of depression, anger, resentment, etc. until their body couldn’t take it anymore. It’s tragic.

Another type will go in the opposite direction and project their frustration and anger onto an another person or group, turning the targeted group into a scapegoat.

Now, as a historian of World War II and the Holocaust, I know how that story turns out.

And the thing is, no matter how many millions of people the repressed-turned-oppressors target and even kill, that action still will not and never will, soothe or heal the rage. That action will only result in death and destruction and more destruction down the line all the way to a dead end.

Because those who project onto others and live for external answers are vulnerable to all kinds of bad ideas and snake oil cures. They will rush over and pay out money or their dignity for solutions that in the long run, only serve the oppressors.

The better way to heal the split self and to find a more authentic way is to be willing to look within, think critically, and ask, Who am I really? Who am I beyond the role I play? Who am I beyond the family I was born into it? Who am I beyond my school, my job? and Is the information I’m receiving from this source valid? Is it really helpful? Or is it a grift or scam?

I wish more people would value self-knowledge. We’d be a happier and healthier society overall.