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"People are stupid"?

ThatsWhatHeSaid

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
7,263
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
xNTP and KDude, laughing to avoid social friction is a social mammal thing, right? Like chimps do, or wolves -- a submissive thing in the presence of an alpha. Or at least it's possible to look at what you described that way, that the people at the party were doing what comes naturally, doing the social appeasement work necessary to hang on to or uphold their place in the pack.

Yes. And looking back, it's not a great example of stupidity, but more of fear, which brings us to your next point:

People like Gandhi will spend time around an 'alpha' and not do the submissive thing, which shocks the alpha and the people watching. The same thing happens when someone stands up for an ideal in a workplace. Someone 'thinking for themselves' and taking a stand on an issue usually shocks people.

It's hard to think of Gandhi as an alpha himself, and it's hard to think of the one standing for a principal in a workplace as an alpha. Their behavior isn't a domination thing -- or is it? It certainly is a refusal to be dominated.

I've been reading about dominance and submission a lot lately because I think it informs a lot of what you see. If you accept that hierarchies are driven by aggression or power, then a person who is fearless and self-sufficient would be indomitable. He might not look like an alpha until he himself has amassed power--in Ghandi's case, an ability to direct and organize people.
 

Shimmy

New member
Joined
Jun 9, 2009
Messages
1,867
MBTI Type
SEXY
People are awesome and they have achieved so much. They do need the occasional wake up call though.
 

LeafAndSky

New member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
307
MBTI Type
ISFP
I've been reading about dominance and submission a lot lately because I think it informs a lot of what you see. If you accept that hierarchies are driven by aggression or power, then a person who is fearless and self-sufficient would be indomitable. He might not look like an alpha until he himself has amassed power--in Ghandi's case, an ability to direct and organize people.


I found this book at a 'dollar store' last year. It caught my eye because I was planning to return to the corporate world as an executive assistant after a long absence and felt like I needed a psychology refresher on how to handle the interpersonal 'stuff' (there can be a lot of it). Turned out it was a great read. (Although, I'm now pursuing a different work direction.)

The Ape in the Corner Office
Amazon.com: The Ape in the Corner Office: Understanding the Workplace Beast in All of Us (9781400052196): Richard Conniff: Books

You said "indomitable." Yes, that seems like the right word. I'm interested in what causes the indomitability (indomitableness?) of someone like Gandhi.

Fearlessness, I get that, and it fits.

Self-sufficiency <----- What did you mean by that? Not trying to dominate?
 

Snuggletron

Reptilian
Joined
Sep 25, 2009
Messages
2,224
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
10
I hear people say this way too often, what a useless statement.
 

ThatsWhatHeSaid

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
7,263
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
I found this book at a 'dollar store' last year. It caught my eye because I was planning to return to the corporate world as an executive assistant after a long absence and felt like I needed a psychology refresher on how to handle the interpersonal 'stuff' (there can be a lot of it). Turned out it was a great read. (Although, I'm now pursuing a different work direction.)

The Ape in the Corner Office
Amazon.com: The Ape in the Corner Office: Understanding the Workplace Beast in All of Us (9781400052196): Richard Conniff: Books

You said "indomitable." Yes, that seems like the right word. I'm interested in what causes the indomitability (indomitableness?) of someone like Gandhi.

Fearlessness, I get that, and it fits.

Self-sufficiency <----- What did you mean by that? Not trying to dominate?

I think dominance plays on fears and needs. The person who can control your needs and fears commands respect and authority.

There are dominant males who are not physically or emotionally scary, but they possess power in the form of access: access to resources, to women, to money, to people, to fame and glory, to liberty, etc. A boss, for example, usually attains dominion by his ability to control your job. In that sense, he controls something you need -- money.

A person who is self-sufficient doesn't need anything another persona can control because he already has everything he needs inside him. Approval is a good example. A competitor might try to control a person's public approval. He can say things that attempt to malign him in the public's eye, but if he approves of himself, he won't need to know that others approve or disapprove of him. That gap has already been filled.
 

Eckhart

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
1,090
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
???
I remember having thought in that way often in the past, when I was like <16 years old. I don't think like that anymore, for different reasons, including personal experiences and change. Sure, many people (different to "all people") still are behaving stupid to me, but I think that is to some good degree a fault of our society making people like that, and I cannot really blame them completely for it. On the other hand I have got to know some wonderful persons to know that not everything is bad.
 

Queen Kat

The Duchess of Oddity
Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
3,053
MBTI Type
E.T.
Enneagram
7w8
My father hates people too, but I don't know if it could be type related. He's pretty untypable, but he does seem E though. I don't know. He does like animals, especially cats.
 

Synapse

New member
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
3,359
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4
Personally the stuff they put in the water doesn't help, sleepy brains are like rusty metal. probably to do with diet, the foods and environmental stimuli like alcohol and drugs that manage to excite such conditions no? Children aren't born stupid, boundless curiosity and energy to explore the world around them, then adults are conditioned into their trance through who knows what vice.
 

foolish heart

New member
Joined
Dec 26, 2008
Messages
470
MBTI Type
ISTP
people are ignorant in the sense that they know a very, very small amount of what one could. there is, however, a reason for everything they do so it is ironic for someone to complain about ignorance instead of attempting to resolve their own.
 
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