From: ogorman@unix1.tcd.ie (Lucifuge)
Subject: Re: a cheap holiday in other people's misery
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 17:58:25 GMT

In <92285.154029U56503@uicvm.uic.edu> U56503@uicvm.uic.edu writes:

I was tired.

>Well, here's what I think:

>(As per our previous discussons on this topic in this group last year.
>We've also discussed whether some of this negativistic thinking is
>due to lowered light-availability.  I recall mentioning Columbus Day
>weekend as the usual starting point of the descent for those sensitive
>to lowered light availability and intensity.  Hmmmm.)

You're fond of that idea aren't you?  

>Many group members ascribe to the following compelling, but falacious, line of
>reasoning:  It is too anxiety-producing and scary to change.  I have an
>identity as victimized/hopeless/negative/cynical.  My identity is my friend!
>I don't want to lose my only and best friend; a friend that is with me always.

So how many of the group members do you know personally. Lots obviously
since you can state so definitively what we all believe.

Our Brady who art in Chicago
Hallowed be thy flame....

>If I try to change my identity, I get scared/feel alone. So, to feel "familiar"
>I have to keep my negative identity.  It is comfortable and safe.  I am
>afraid of the unfamiliar.  It makes me anxious.

Thy B.A. come thy posts be done
In ash as they are in thy dreams....

>Reality might cause me to feel hopeful.  So, I don't want to know that
>a guy didn't kill himself.  Then I would have to feel a happy emotion perhaps.
>I might find myself feeling a touch of relief or a moment of gratitude. Horror!
>This would cause a great disturbance in my cynical, mopey view of me and
>life.  I would rather surmise that he died.  This fits with my identity.
>Then I don't have to feel scared and do the work of change.

Give us this day thy Humble Opinion
And forgive us our lapses...

>I have to ignore reality many times to keep my dour identity in full operation.
>That's the price I pay to feel safe and surrounded by the familiar:
>I make myself miserable in order to avoid anxiety of change.  Pretty sad huh?
>Anxiety is a mighty powerful force I guess.  Self-awareness is plenty scary.
>Change is even more terror-filled.  I avoid it all like the plague.
>I feel safer when held close by gloom and decay.

For I am sorely pissed off by wankers
Who think they know it *all*...

>So, I couldn't do that reality check.  It might have given me hope and
>then I would get anxious and filled with panic if I had to feel something non-
>sullen.  So, I decided to not know reality; then I could think that the guy had
>maybe killed himself and I could stay in my safe, warm moribund mature,
>getting my dose of hopeless-thinking reinforcment to keep me soothed.

Get a Life...while you're at it apply for some sensitivity. Maybe a
smidgen of intelligence? Nah....

>(All of the above done in a whiney, pathetic wail)

Fuck you.

>Those needing to maintain their sullen nature will no doubt flame.
>Denial of the necessity for change is paramount to them.  Attacking what scares
>them is their modus operandi.  They will fight well to stay as they are.
>They will find ways to debunk anything that gives them cause to look
>inside and see that they need to change:  That the fault is not in the stars,
>but in themselves. . . .

Ah! Reverse psychology! I'd better not flame 'cause then everyone will
see that I am merely denying the great truth of Brady's worldview and am
merely the pathetic whiney creature that he so clearly debunks in his
incredible and godlike article, nay prophecy, quoted above...

>From a Chicago Flame!

Thank you Brady. Target practise is always fun...

Ollie/Lucifuge...

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The Lord is my Shepherd..........................but I'm not a Sheep
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