> Yeah, I'm not convinced that this Je-Ru guy will ever > snap out of it and do any good in the world, and I'm > certainly not convinced that Ted Bundy will. But theo- > retically, I have to give them a chance. > > If I don't, what chance do I give myself?
If you are clinically a sociopath you don't have a chance! I'll let Dr. Pete field this if he cares to. My "expertise" in this area extends to reading one book: "The Psychopath Next Door." That auther didn't believe it was curable or that they ever change. It may be a brain defect. It is distinct from your garden variety asshole in capacity for change. But the older I get the less I see evidence of people really changing that much. Even people who appear to for short periods of time from a traumatic event eventually go back to their patterns before they got shifted temporarily from their MO. So where does that leave us? I think if you are practiced at reinventing yourself, as most of us have numerous times, you can shift your identity/belief cluster a bit. A non-exerciser can become the kind of person who exercises even though this was not a lifelong habit. But I don't give much hope for people changing in their sensitivity or desire to care about other people much. We might get better at noticing certain clues from other people as we grow in wisdom, but the desire to notice these things seems pretty hardwired. It has been hard to effect change in my own life but I always act as if it is possible. I don't really now how far I have come. I'm still working on it. the greatest change agent I have see so far is years of living. That is a slow road but it does seem to bring some fundamental changes in people. Not always good ones but sometime really beautiful ones! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" > <curtisdeltablues@> wrote: > > > > Rick said: > > > I think personalities are multifaceted. Je-Ru is both a nice > > > guy and a con man. We're all many things. > > > > That raises an interesting philosophical question Rick. Although > > I am usually a fan of the "see the best in people" philosophy, > > I practice that within a range of behaviors only. > > > > My "many things" doesn't includes willfully ruining people's > > lives. If you throw in the perspective of Pete's sociopath, > > then your analysis is not technically accurate be misapplied. > > Sociopaths don't have the human capacity to be "nice guys." > > They imitate human emotions they study around them to > > manipulate people. > > So do "normal" people. You and me and all of us > here. > > I'm going to pursue the "philosophical question" > because I do not buy into what appears to be an > assumption in your post -- that sociopaths 1) have > no capacity to do good, and 2) that they can't > change. I don't think that either is true. > > Sociopaths *can* do good; it's just that it's mixed > in with bad. I've seen some people who I sincerely > consider sociopaths do considerable good in the > world. Yeah, they turned around the next day and > did some bad in the world, but the day after that > they did good again. In this sense, I don't see > them as all that different than you and me. > > And, as someone who still believes to some extent > in the notion of enlightenment or realization, I > pretty much have to believe that *anyone* can change. > Look at Milarepa, one of the high-belt-rank saints > of Tibet. In his youth the dude definitely did some > bad -- he wasted an entire village using siddhis > because they dissed his mom. The dude had a short > fuse, and was a few cans short of a six-pack of > True Ethics. > > But he "got better." He did the work, and the rest > of his life seems to have been dedicated to doing > good. > > Yeah, I'm not convinced that this Je-Ru guy will ever > snap out of it and do any good in the world, and I'm > certainly not convinced that Ted Bundy will. But theo- > retically, I have to give them a chance. > > If I don't, what chance do I give myself? > > I don't know about you, but I definitely haven't done > "all good" in my life. And while I don't think that > I ever did anything to anyone that falls into the cat- > egory of "deliberate harm," I'm open to the possibility > that some in my life disagree with me. > > The Frederick Lenz - Rama version of "We're all bozos > on this bus" was "We're all assholes on this bus." He > included not only all of his students but himself in > this definition. And he was definitely, no question > about it, an asshole. No, strike that. He was an > Asshole, capital A. > > But he *also* did some things that in my opinion were > not only good, but were *damned* good, among the goodest > things that can be done on this blue-green ball in black > space. He occasionally *wailed* on doing good. > > It's just that sometimes the lesser side of him won out > and he wound up doing lesser things. And then other > times, the better side of him won out, and he wound > up doing better things. > > A lot like me. And, maybe, you. >
