Response to Adam

[Adam Blatner]

Hi Gwen, yes, i think so.
     Yet, on further thought, I think that it need not be so precarious if you develop a 
sense of mental flexibility, of creativity, of improvisation. This is a skill few people 
have, though, and one of the underlying reasons I'm excited about promoting what I find to 
be most enduring in Moreno's ideas and further refinements by you and me and others: We're 
laying out a foundation for weaving spontaneity into the culture.
        anyway,  Tell us a bit about yourself, your interests, ways you apply ideas, 
etc. -- adam   responding to your email:

-----From: "gwen blake" <veggies at fastmail.fm>  To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
   In reading your statement, Adam; it seems clear to me that people generally have a 
tendency to use avoidance to maintain equilibrium; which denies them (us) of health and 
fullness of experience in finding balance.  It becomes a precarious endeavor, such as if 
one were walking a tightrope without safety for one to, as you stated, develop a capacity 
to numb out cognitive disonance.  The immediate gratification or relief in avoiding, or 
acknowledging such struggles may outweigh the value of feeling discomfort while working 
toward resolution.  Gwen Blake

responding to Sun, 21 Sep

  adam:  Moreno, in Essential Moreno/Fox:  "It is almost a miracle that an individual can 
achieve any degree of balance, and man has continually been in search of devices which 
will enable him to attain or increase his equilibrium."
   comment:    Now I like the 2nd part of the sentence, but the first part stimulates the 
following:
      People develop a rich capacity to numb out cognitive dissonance, to create loose and 
flexible belief systems that can be a general assortment of five to twenty 
platitudes---vaguely associated. Yet this matrix can serve as a sufficient narrative 
flying carpet to support all manner of ideologies and self-system creations,
>      neurotic, psychotic, fanatic, submissive, oppressed, oppressor, and so forth. 
> People don't closely reason their belief systems. They select items from the teachings 
> of sermons, parts of books, radio or TV broadcasts, they read supportive magazines and 
> news articles, they sustain their beliefs. You can gather enough "evidence" to  maintain 
> a prejudice, support a political position, and so forth.
          This belief system then works as a buffer. Without it people would be very 
precarious, especially as they notice the  profound vulnerability of their own limited and 
neurosis-laced  consciousness.               What do you think of this?   Warmly, Adam