5 ms·

I am vehemently against that notion. If your only point of contact is people who speak spanish, you will never learn english. If your only point of contact is

I am vehemently against that notion. If your only point of contact is people who speak spanish, you will never learn english. If your only point of contact is people that think that the world is flat, then most likely you will grow up believing the same. If everyone around you is insane, then it is exceedingly like you will be too. Again, my belief is that you are a product of 1. Your environment and 2. Your genetic programming. And humans are social creatures, if the people that surround you are all in a certain way, you will probably tend that way too.

naasking 8y ago
Your argument depends on a huge, untenable set of assumptions. Insanity is not comparable to languages or beliefs, they are severe dysfunctions, some or many of them genetically linked. Non-dysfunctional children raised in such an environment will certainly adopt odd behaviours thinking it's normal, but it's a huge stretch to say they will actually somehow adopt insanity.
- Retric 8y ago
  What separates Insanity from normal healthy individuals is the ability to cope with normal society. If you believe you must wash your hands 20 times a day that's a problem even if you have nothing biologically wrong with you.
  - slfnflctd 8y ago
    Except for people who do work that requires them to wash their hands that often (or more), and people who live in cultures where that is part of some daily religious ritual, and...
    - Retric 8y ago
      Actual hand-washing 20+ times for 2+ minutes each every day is extremely rare. Sanitizing for 20 seconds is a different story. Further, doctors don't do this on their days off which ends up being really important. In the first case you would severely irritate the skin and end up with noticeable medical problems. Which IMO is a reasonable line for sanity in terms of day to day impact based on belief vs reality. That said, sure there is something of an exception for religion.
- azeirah 8y ago
  > Insanity is not comparable to languages or beliefs, they are severe dysfunctions, some or many of them genetically linked. I don't know man, I'm not exactly for the idea that insanity is a "social construct", but after reading this paper (http://hci.ucsd.edu/102b/readings/WeirdestPeople.pdf http://hci.ucsd.edu/102b/readings/WeirdestPeople.pdf only the first two pages are the actual paper), I'd say that a lot of behavior in different cultures would be legimitately called "insane" in ours. And besides that paper, there's also this meme flying around that "schizophrenics used to be shamans", although I don't know how believable that is. Anyway, my point being, even insanity isn't exactly definable. Although I do agree stuff like a rabies infection, extremely severe aggressive and psychotic disorders would likely be considered "insane" in all cultures.
emeraldd 8y ago
The fact that science as a discipline exists is a distinct counter example to this view. Without some degree of flexibility in humanities belief structure we as a species would never change at all, which is quite obviously not the case.

naasking 8y ago

Your argument depends on a huge, untenable set of assumptions. Insanity is not comparable to languages or beliefs, they are severe dysfunctions, some or many of them genetically linked. Non-dysfunctional children raised in such an environment will certainly adopt odd behaviours thinking it's normal, but it's a huge stretch to say they will actually somehow adopt insanity.

Retric 8y ago
What separates Insanity from normal healthy individuals is the ability to cope with normal society. If you believe you must wash your hands 20 times a day that's a problem even if you have nothing biologically wrong with you.
- slfnflctd 8y ago
  Except for people who do work that requires them to wash their hands that often (or more), and people who live in cultures where that is part of some daily religious ritual, and...
  - Retric 8y ago
    Actual hand-washing 20+ times for 2+ minutes each every day is extremely rare. Sanitizing for 20 seconds is a different story. Further, doctors don't do this on their days off which ends up being really important. In the first case you would severely irritate the skin and end up with noticeable medical problems. Which IMO is a reasonable line for sanity in terms of day to day impact based on belief vs reality. That said, sure there is something of an exception for religion.
azeirah 8y ago
> Insanity is not comparable to languages or beliefs, they are severe dysfunctions, some or many of them genetically linked. I don't know man, I'm not exactly for the idea that insanity is a "social construct", but after reading this paper (http://hci.ucsd.edu/102b/readings/WeirdestPeople.pdf http://hci.ucsd.edu/102b/readings/WeirdestPeople.pdf only the first two pages are the actual paper), I'd say that a lot of behavior in different cultures would be legimitately called "insane" in ours. And besides that paper, there's also this meme flying around that "schizophrenics used to be shamans", although I don't know how believable that is. Anyway, my point being, even insanity isn't exactly definable. Although I do agree stuff like a rabies infection, extremely severe aggressive and psychotic disorders would likely be considered "insane" in all cultures.

emeraldd 8y ago

The fact that science as a discipline exists is a distinct counter example to this view. Without some degree of flexibility in humanities belief structure we as a species would never change at all, which is quite obviously not the case.