Image by jimpg2 via Flickr

From the Edmonton Journal (Actually dose.ca, but it’s the same article I read in the Edmonton Journal):

Mental health experts have coined the term “affluenza” to describe a newly recognized cause of depression in children and youth, delegates to the Canadian Paediatric Society conference here heard this week.

“When people have everything in a material sense, they may have perfectionistic expectations and unrealistic goals,” said B.C. Children’s Hospital psychiatrist Jane Garland in an interview, following her presentation to delegates at a session on mental health problems in children and youth.

“Children keep hearing the message that they can ‘do anything,’ but if they are constantly given everything, they may not know how to achieve their goals and when they fail, they may have poor coping skills, and an intolerance for discomfort,” she said.

Telling children they can achieve all their dreams and goals sets them up for low self-esteem and low self-worth when things don’t go their way, said Garland, who is head of the Mood and Anxiety Clinic at Children’s Hospital.

…

As to clinical trials of medications, she noted that patients often have a more “robust” response to medications in such trials, while in real life, medications may not be the magic bullet. So to elicit the same kind of therapeutic response as that seen in research trials, she advises doctors to ensure they set up frequent appointments with depressed patients.

“It gives them a future and you are part of it, and it can make a huge difference.

To be honest, this is an issue we’ve known about since pre-roman times. Alain de Botton discusses in his book Status Anxiety this very “Affluenza” problem, when he repeats the old maxim Self-Esteem (or Happiness) = Accomplishments / Expectations. While most of us realize that through increasing accomplishments we can be happier, we can also drastically increase out happiness by simply lowering expectations. Now, another problem which is ignored is that to achieve high expectations requires large amounts of extra work, more so than to achieve slightly lower expectations.

For example, while it requires a moderate amount of work to find a local recreational sports team and play with them on a regular basis, it requires a much higher amount to play professionally, and even more to get up to the very top. Arguable, since every little bit counts in the major leagues, this is why the push towards using steroids or to cheat is so strong. Freakonomics has an entire chapter dedicated to this. There is a similar phenomena in academia where people will both falsify results and take ritalin and similar drugs to gain the tiny advantage needed to move from 2nd to 3rd place. These moral sacrifices have the effect of lowering the felt value of the accomplishments and commonly drive people who use them further into a depressive state.

I have heard of this very problem with some of the students my friends have taught in the past. While the significant majority of them are good students and work hard to accomplish their goals in life, there are a few who don’t comprehend that gaining mathematical skills and intuition requires long hours of studying and contemplation. Math is like any other skill, it requires work to build it up. However, for some people who have not found any aspect of their life difficult due to the luck of being born to a rich family in affluent times, this extra work to deal with their higher expectations simply leads to anger, frustration and in some cases alcohol and drug abuse.

Sadly though, in the paper, the researchers discuss the possibility of a “magic bullet” to deal with this problem rather than fight the deeper sickness within the society as a whole. In a way this “magic bullet” approach is exactly the source of this problem to begin with. Instead of realizing that things should require work and effort in life, they hope to find a pill to swallow or a needle to inject which will make everything good again right away.

My thoughts on a potential way to treat this is to attempt to get the children involved in some sort of hard physical labour based job where they can enjoy the fruits of their labour afterwards. So, for example, a farm or working in a soup kitchen. While the doctors feel that simply having appointments and such is good and provides a feeling of some support structure for this style of depression. I don’t think it’s enough. I’d almost argue inviting them out to work on a farm for a summer would be far better for their health and self-esteem. They would get the chance to see what they can actually do if they work at it, and enjoy the fruits of their own labour. Giving them an opportunity to gain perspective on their abilities, liabilities and accomplishments.

A perspective which will tell them, the world doesn’t revolve around them. Things will not just fall into their lap because they say so. However, if they work towards their goals in a genuine fashion. They will see the fruits of their labour, or if they fail, learn from their failures to succeed next time.

1h

1h

A mainstay on the fringes, peak oil has been in the headlines a lot lately. One can detect a whiff of nervousness in the mainstream media outlets as oil prices climb and climb, and continue to climb without an apparent end in sight. The tension was palpable as Bloomberg grilled industry insider Matt Simmons, one of a growing number who believe that supply peaked in 2005 and that our current level of extraction, 85 million barrels a day, might be the most we’ll ever pull out of the ground. Locked as we are into a global economy which must perpetually expand or die, the economic implications are enormous. Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens is another adding his voice to the growing murmur: we have peaked. It’s all downhill from here.

None of this need be apocalyptic. It’s natural that an affluent Northerner, steeped in American consumer culture and probably knowing nothing but, might perceive the decline of that hyper-consumptive way of life as the end of the world. Nonsense. The combined brunt of resource scarcity and climate change will force lifestyle changes, and consumer culture’s days are clearly numbered. Although we stand to leave a biologically impoverished planet to our progeny, life will go on as it always does.

But as we begin to rub shoulders with the limits of our natural environment, it might be time to critically rethink the destructive way of life that has brought us to this point. Changes must occur, whether we choose them or nature imposes them. We can cling, kicking and screaming, to the old ways, or we can adapt intelligently to changing circumstances. We can choose to prepare a soft landing.

Of particular concern is the food supply which, coincident with the rise of industrial agriculture, is literally soaked in oil. Between fertilizers, pesticides, refrigeration, transport, and the myriad of other factors that make it possible for Canadians to eat strawberries in January, oil and food production are intimately intertwined. As one falters, the other will follow in close pursuit.

This may seem pretty bleak, but Cuba provides a hopeful example:

“In the early 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba lost its source of cheap oil. Its industrialized agricultural system, which was heavily fuel-dependent, immediately faltered. Very quickly, Cuban leaders abandoned the Soviet industrial model of production, changing from a fuel- and petrochemical- intensive farming method to a more localized, labor-intensive, organic mode of production.

How they did this is itself an interesting story. Eco-agronomists at Cuban universities had already been advocating a transition somewhat along these lines. However, they were making little or no headway. When the crisis hit, they were given free rein to, in effect, redesign the entire Cuban food system. Had these academics not had a plan waiting in the wings, the nation’s fate might have been sealed.

Heeding their advice, the Cuban government broke up large, state-owned farms and introduced private farms, farmer co-ops, and farmer markets. Cuban farmers began breeding oxen for animal traction. The Cuban people adopted a largely vegetarian diet, mostly involuntarily (meat eating went from twice a day to twice a week). They increased their intake of vegetable sources of protein and farmers reduced the growing of wheat and rice (Green Revolution crops that required too many inputs). Urban gardens (including rooftop gardens) were encouraged, and today they produce 50 to 80 percent of vegetables consumed in cities.

Early on, it was realized that more farmers were needed, and that this would require education. All of the nation’s colleges and universities quickly added courses on agronomy. At the same time, wages for farmers were raised to be at parity with those for engineers and doctors. Many people moved from the cities to the country; in some cases there were incentives, in others the move was forced.

The result was survival. The average Cuban lost 20 pounds of body weight, but in the long run  the overall health of the nation’s people actually improved. Today, Cuba has a stable, slowly growing economy. There are few if any luxuries, but everyone has enough to eat. Having seen the benefit of smaller-scale organic production, Cuba’s leaders have decided that even if they find another source of cheap oil, they will maintain a commitment to their new, decentralized, low-energy methods.”

— Peak everything: Waking up to a century of declines by Richard Heinberg

1h is writing his Master’s thesis at the moment, and shouldn’t be bothered with such things as the weekly linkflood. I myself am busily trapping a non-Albertan apartment. Being without my home computer, I seem to have forgotten what I normally do on the Internet. Nevertheless, I do have for you a little something.

At least, I will never link to xkcd.

And for dessert, a lovely little cartoon. You don’t even have to be vaguely interested in politics to think it’s funny.

Image via Wikipedia

I normally never forward these unsubstantiated things, but these facts about Obama are simply too shocking and Americans need to keep them in mind when the election in November comes:
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There are many things people do not know about BARACK OBAMA. It is every American’s duty to read this message and pass it along to all of their friends and loved ones.

Barack Obama wears a FLAG PIN at all times. Even in the shower.

Barack Obama says the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE every time he sees an American flag. He also ends every sentence by saying, “WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.” Click here for video of Obama quietly mouthing the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE in his sleep.

A tape exists of Michelle Obama saying the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE at a conference on PATRIOTISM.

Every weekend, Barack and Michelle take their daughters HUNTING.

Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over his HEART at all times. He occasionally switches when one arm gets tired, which is almost never because he is STRONG.

Barack Obama has the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE tattooed on his stomach. It’s upside-down, so he can read it while doing sit-ups.

There’s only one artist on Barack Obama’s iPod: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.

Barack Obama goes to church every morning. He goes to church every afternoon. He goes to church every evening. He is IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW.

Barack Obama’s new airplane includes a conference room, a kitchen, and a MEGACHURCH.

Barack Obama’s skin is the color of AMERICAN SOIL.

Barack Obama buys AMERICAN STUFF. He owns a FORD, a BASEBALL TEAM, and a COMPUTER HE BUILT HIMSELF FROM AMERICAN PARTS. He travels mostly by FORKLIFT powered by biofuels made from IOWA CORN and genuine AMERICAN PATRIOTISM.

Barack Obama says that Americans cling to GUNS and RELIGION because they are AWESOME.

1h

If anyone can get a copy of this book and find/scan in my poem that would be awesome. I found out recently that one of my poems has been published in a book called “School Reform in a Global Society“. It was originally from my now defunct poetry website, “Reality.” Specifically it is the poem I wrote called “Eyes to the Soul.”

I have the poem somewhere on my computer, but since that was all stuff I wrote when I was young, silly and not very well developed in artistic style or form, unless someone really wants to see it, I won’t bother torturing everyone with it.

Regardless, it’s pretty spiffy that someone liked it enough to publish it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to see how it was used eventually.

1h

Al Gore endorses Obama:

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

Great speech.

1h

While McCain sends his prayers and such, Obama actually goes and gets his hands dirty trying to, you know, save lives.

This is impressive, I must admit.

1h

Straight-Talking BS.

1h