Thursday, March 17, 2016

Personality Modifications

Can we change our personality, how much, and should we? Our personality is used to describe our thinking, feeling and behaviors, and then there is disorders. So then, personality disorders are unacceptable ways of thinking, feeling or behaving. How do we separate these from our beliefs, as our beliefs control our personalities?

I avoid interacting with other people because so many other people are concerned with what I consider trivial shit, or that are wastes of money, or are just not interesting, but all that make me self-centered. Other people cause me stress, it is just easier to stay away from them. Being alone is more comfortable that being around those who make me uncomfortable. Sad, but it is my survival I am concerned with. Why is it me that must change? Or is there any need of change?

If we can control our personality, what kind of personality should I pick and what should be the criteria? I have always been an analytical sort of person, quiet, not high sociable gadfly that is concerned with everybody, and knows nothing. That is not likely to change much. I value knowledge, understanding, not social interaction.

Who said we have physical needs for food, sex, exercise, and perhaps companionship? Schopenhauer perhaps, but it does not matter. Our relative need may vary widely for any of these items. A person who works alone, sometimes for days at a time, or does a insular analytical job but around people needs to function well with low human contact. As a technical expert, I need time to think, to meditate, to contemplate the issues, mostly alone. Now, that I am retired with no intention of doing any more consulting or unpopular work, that does not matter.

Back when I was young and the computer was just being talked about, many predicted that we would have all this free spare time, and would need thing to do. So  what did we end up doing? Working, having excess money compared to what we had before, and we spent it on things that freed more time to work harder and longer, but we have so much more, and no time to do anything like talk to the neighbors. It is this rush that has created the demand for more, and that is the result of this computer age. We spend more time but produce less. That which we produce has less value, and we have many more comforts. There was a back to the land movement in the 60 and 70, so what happened to it? We got old working, for the man or ourselves, to fill our desires.

Hedonistic adaptation takes many forms. Our needs expand to fill either the available or the available money and time. Either way, our needs change, unless we control our needs by controlling our desires. I did not need a new pickup often, the old one would do just fine. I wanted space so that I was not hearing the neighbors, as coming from a farm, I valued my space. I am now on a acreage, and due to trees, I cannot see the neighbors houses much. I can hear industry some of the time. We need to live in a suitable location for piece of mind. When the obvious problems of our nation are not being addressed by government, and are actually being made worse by the government, what should one do? Nobody is listening. Oh well, shit happens.

And for all this, I am trying to make myself into a better person? WTF. Honesty, truth, justice ok. What do I know anyway?

   

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