The Double Bind - a podcast by Ryder Richards

https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-62-the-double-bind/

PART 1

Ryder discusses Alan Watt's interpretation of the "tough-minded" and "tender-hearted" as "prickles and goos" that need each other, yet are confused by each other and lash out. 

Of course, like Alice in Wonderland, we can refuse to play the game: the competitive rules laid out by another in a grid, but Watts says to remember that life is a game... when our ego gets involved we tend to forget and become serious and demand "off with their heads." 

Using Buddhist insights may not help. It tends to be a meta-move, like a kid trying out some Marxism to attack their dad. It may be true, but will likely not change anything. Yet, what the kid is doing is practicing the utility of ideology: now a Pawn can check a King. It is local practice for the global revolution. 

PART 2

The double bind is being told to "act natural": a paradox forcing performative conformity. Thus our identity is shaped by society. 

Slavoj Zizek cites the Paris riots of 2005 as a double blackmail, where the ghettoized citizens are called animals and treated as animals, thus in rage, they burn cars and part of their homes. To some this reinforces their barbarism (they can never be integrated into Paris society)  while to others it is an anguished cry or rage that is all too human. 

Capitalism and Bureaucracy tend to these double binds: where to be famous like Elvis, you sell out your rebellious rage. Capitalism utilizes and capital-izes on energy, converting any attack into sustenance for itself and punishment for you. 

It is claimed to be a hydra, but more accurately - as Foucault has said of power and its dispersal - it is amoeba-like slime with no head to lop off. 

PART 3

Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" has many examples of contradictory, nonsensical paradoxes in the military making it into a dark farcical comedy. 

The primary paradox is you cannot escape the military: if you want to save yourself you are sane (it is sane not to want to fight or die) so to be declared insane you must want to stay and fight... in which case you would never claim you are insane. Eventually, the main character does go insane, and the military rewards his bravery. 

Insanity is the preferred outcome. 

In Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cockoo's nest" Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) trades prison for the mental ward, only to find by declaring insanity his welfare has been turned over to Nurse Ratchet, a petty tyrant who works to break this spirited man.  Her target: his head. 

As Foucault has stated, the body can be imprisoned in circumstances, but the goal now is to have you internalize the contradictions until our shared insanity seems sane. 

the escape: off with your own head

 

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