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Reminds me of what Martin Luther King, Jr., had to say about the word "maladjusted" [1]. “You who are in the field of psychology have given us a great word. It
by DavidVoid 6y ago
Reminds me of what Martin Luther King, Jr., had to say about the word "maladjusted" [1].
“You who are in the field of psychology have given us a great word. It is the word maladjusted. This word is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is a good word; certainly it is good that in dealing with what the word implies you are declaring that destructive maladjustment should be destroyed. You are saying that all must seek the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities.
But on the other hand, I am sure that we will recognize that there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence.”
[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/features/king-challenge https://www.apa.org/monitor/features/king-challenge
- bobbiechen 6y agoAnd from George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
- taurath 6y agoWhich is a distinctly western sort of thought, that insists on a person being somehow outside and not of the world in which he inhabits.
- dragonsngoblins 6y agoI disagree that it insists on that. You can be part of the world but the world is still external to you.
- chadcmulligan 6y agoI always say the world doesn't care about humans, what people call the 'real world' is just a bunch of made up rules people have decided on so we all get along, and a (different, smaller) bunch of people can make money out of.
- quotemstr 6y agoWell, yeah. We, uniquely among life on earth, shape our world rather than suffer it. That's a good thing.
- LeonB 6y agoA beaver with his blueprint for a new dam would like a word.
- DoreenMichele 6y agoTermites, Crocs, ants. No doubt others.
- alt219 6y agoPerhaps quotemstr should’ve written “architect” instead of “shape”. A beaver for example could never conceptualize, engineer or build the Taj Mahal—indeed any structure whatsoever other than what the beaver’s biological imperative demands of it.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]