January 14, 2006
-
Currently Lusting
Mad propz to Charles Earland for a succinct restatement of the Doody Dilemma. R.I.P.
Edit: For the uninitiated, Charles Earland was a jazz organist who died in 1999. The CD I was listening to contains an original composition entitled "No Brain, No Pain". Another way of saying, "The mind is a terrible thing," which is a slight bastardization of the United Negro College Fund slogan.
The Doody Dilemma was first identified around 1963 by myself and a high school classmate who is currently a physician in Chicago. It is named after Eddie Doody, now a Chicago firefighter but then a neighborhood kid of less than average intelligence. My colleague and I observed, over the course of a number of clinical trials, that young Doody, who lacked the wit to engage in what is now known as "critical thinking", was one of the happiest young men we had ever seen. We, on the other hand, recognized the hypocrisies and injustices in the world even at age 13 (much like Anna_Lanche, though not nearly so clearly or articulately), and were not even remotely as happy-go-lucky as Mr. Doody. Ignorance, therefore, seemed to indeed be bliss. It was a conundrum for which we had no ready solution, and thus the Doody Dilemma was born as an identified psychological phenomenon. We're still waiting for it to appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychological Association, but its non-inclusion to date in no way nullifies the legitimacy of the phenomenon.
Over time my physician friend has learned to cope with the Doody Dilemma by employing rationalizations and hypocrisies of his own. I, however, never have. If, as has been said, depression is anger turned inward and cynicism is frustrated idealism, I experience both to this day in full measure.
Comments (27)
Who is Charles Earland? Where did he restate the Doody Dilemma? Which of them is resting in peace? Charles Earland or Doody?
I am driven MAD by unsatisfied needs to KNOW.
Which, I suppose, is a symptom of the Doody Dilemma.
hahahah
(((U))))
I've missed you. Where've you been?
I am guessing I am as hungry as Anna
who, what, and when?
and I miss you as well.......peace out!!
okay, at least i know what to do now.
two people fuck up, only one forgives. it's life. but a sense of fairplay is absolutely necessary.
"Why can the church not have rituals that are equally life-affirming?"
hm. is that a rhetorical question? i have no idea how to answer that. from listening to my family and friends who are christian, it seems as though they feel like their lives are pretty affirmed, though i don't know that they go through any rituals for it. it sounds like a lot of it comes from bible study with others or by themselves. what do you think?
oh, and my mom, who recently became super christian, went CRAZY when she found out how involved i was with the circle i belong to. but honestly, the women that i circle with and my christian friends aren't much different except for our spiritual paths.
Don't you like faerie children ECC??
Hey Ecc;RYP; When the pages were flipping over I already had my line ready,"True,Ecc,but at least you lived life.That HAS to be the point,I hope!"
Then the comments,and the brainiac's confusion.I'm calling it confusion instead of "thirst to know everything" because I thought it was clear Doody was alive and blah,blah! But now I'm not sure,obviously.
I didn't flip back to reread,and I won't this trip.You can check your tracker.I want to come in fresh and try to replay it.
RYC; You now own the rights.I am heading to make the change now,disgusted with humanity.
Peace Scott
And yet Doody as a firefighter is actually making as big of, if not more than a contribution to society than those who philosophise and make 'shoulds' about society.
No aspersions. I forgot you were a firefighter too. I was sticking up for him, because I felt just because he didn't have academic 'critical thinking' .... whatever that is, for we all have different gifts, well actually it's being theorized that EQ (emotional quotient) is just as important than IQ for success. Not everyone has the part of the brain for politics like Anna, or in a different analogy, fundamentalists bitch about mimimal religionists going to hell, we all have different talents. If Doody is happy as a pig and making a contribution to society, I don't think he has to be diagnosed with anything but high EQ. I don't think my wording of "making as big of, if not more than" was any way putting saying that he was better than you, again forgetting that he was in the same field as you. If anything, I was casting aspersions on judging someone solely on academic critical thinking. Of course, they didn't have EQ back in 1963.
There comes a point when the pot either must be taken off the flame or it boils over. That you have not "boiled over" that I can tell, is a testament to your patience and fortitude. There is a trade off with the Doody Principle. Doody may not have the ability to appreciate the negatives in the world the way you do, but this ability that you have can also be used to appreciate the sweet things. Though, I understand how trite that can sound when good things are not made apparent.
I have learned to disconnect myself from things that keep me awake at night, to a point. I reconnect when I am able to, but there is self-preservation involved for me. I have a lower boiling point than you, I think. And where my disconnects may be courting ignorance to some, I know full well that I can come back to the issues and delve when I like. (Also, when dispassionate about an issue, sometimes it allows for a different view, not of the issue per se, but of how the issue is presented, and where it could logically go.)
It would be denial, except that I am fully aware that I distance myself from certain issues at specific times for real reasons. Is this something that you ever do? Do you allow yourself to enjoy a bit of blissful ignorance every now and again? I would so love to get you in a squirt gun fight to see if you would just sit there and get soaked, or if you would rally and drench my ass. See, I'm a horrible shot, but I take a LOT of shots. You, I suspect, would have dead aim. And that would be funny as hell at my expense. No, the world does not require another squirt gun fight, well, yes it does. The world does require the silly, whimsical, and downright Doody every now and again. We just can't do it all at once.
Hey! RYC: I read what you wrote over at mybaddy Scott's. Now if you go changing that mysterious profile pic to some pretty boy in order to "git you some" you know that "some" might be piles and piles of manliness. Be warned!
I don't think Doody was being depriciated, Kevin--it's more of a *sigh* regarding the fact that you would THINK that being smart would be a wonderful gift--instead of a painful curse.
Ah, if only I was a lackwit. I could paint black shit in rings around my eyes, pierce every piece of flesh I own, smoke meth, and screw idiots and losers, and think I was living the greatest life in the universe.
Instead, I have apocolyptic nightmares, sleep with a fuzzy, flatulant (GREAT WORD, btw) cat, and am thought strange and/or damned by almost everyone I know.
I have a fucking GREAT vocabulary, though.
And pretty good grammar and punctuation skills!
Of course, those lucky fucktards with the doody syndrome don't realize they can't spell, punctuate, or think, so they are not impressed at all.
Ah, it sucks to be us, John!
Let's make a commune and raise organic pears.
"depression is anger turned inward". I did not know that and have never looked at it that way. It makes perfect sense.
Ryc: My daughter's ethnic background comes from my husband. He is hispanic. His mother is Spanish, from Spain, blonde hair, green eyes. His dad is 1/2 Mexican, 1/2 Indian. I've been told my birth father was from Finland and had dark olive skin. How true that is, I do not know, I've never met him or my birth mother. During the summer's growing up people would always as me what my ethnic background was because I get so dark in the summers. I always just had to say, "I don't know."
ryc: My profile pic is definitely me. Only difference is that my hair is darker and longer now.
And, thank you.
Darn, you've gotten handsome!! lol!
RYC:
Free will is at times a perfect illusion. I've talked about this often enough with friends and we always came to the conclusion that even if there was a plan for you, from the Christian perspective God's plan, then you would still be faced with choices. But they were no real choices because it was already predetermined that you would make that choice and no other. It just leaves you feeling like you had to decide.
I had the thought that, if there is no free will, I could just stop doing anything at all. But hey, even that would be a choice and even that would be predetermined. I'm just following a path without seeing that it was already set up before I walked it.
Yes I get along real well with my mom. It's feasible we could run a business together. But we do push each other's buttons often enough. We are both very strong-headed personalities. And after all I'm still her daughter who reacts to her mother like any daughter does. We'd definitely have some arguments and get on each other's nerves.
Hey, you're looking good as you age!
Happy Dr. MLK Day.
so are you inferring that you can trade one psychological diagnosis for another? Such as " I really like my depression and I would never trade it in for the Doody Diagnosis.' Could a person have the Doody Diagnosi and get depressed? What if a person appeared to Have the Doody Diagnosi but when they were tested for critical thinking skills they scored quite high? With all do respect, It seems that there are some problems with your position and that before doody can be put in the bible, I mean the APA's Diagnostic Manual, there needs to be more studies with larger samples. And the studies need to be conducted by gods, oops I mean contemporary psychologists,not a couple of angst ridden 13 year old boys in the 60's . LOL
I'm amazed that so far only Anna seems to have even remotely understood the Doody Dilemma. Perhaps I'm not explaining it clearly enough?
Thanks for the two compliments on my appearance. Did you know that when I was much younger I finished third in the Mr. Universe contest?
Eccentrique,
"Estan" is a pluralization of the verb estar, so I was basically just saying "we're all good" --even though I was technically only speaking for myself! Thus, the confusion.
Come to think of it, it could really confuse people with this... Hey Eccentrique, how are you all doing? If we were closer to the south, I could address you as "y'all"...
i knew what eb meant...spanish class paid off. but, eccentrique...you handsome devil...
Oh my. Sean John Connery Eccentrique! So let me get this straight, the Doody Dilema is a version of "ignorance is bliss" only reversed is it not?
Yes--ignorance is bliss, intelligence is guaranteed misery
Good to see you back,it looks like many of us missed you!! Happy MLK day to you. Great new profile pic...Mr.Bond!!
I am absolutely swooning
over your photo...but you know
this right ???
well, yeah. everybody knows that knowing stuff...like the truth...only causes pain. we can't fix anything. why know about it? but, alas, we don't get to choose.
Wow,Ecc. You're certainly welcome.You could have chosen a picture that would have made my suggestion look like crap,but then you may have seen the sites where twenty-somethings on up swoon over a guy that looks just like you do in your new avatar.And all it took was a few pushups and situps,eh?
Peace Scott
ryc: Jack Handy, oh my, I never aspired to such heights! And yeah, what's with this doggie deal? Holy cow, they have me all gushy with the puppies! WTF?
Did Solomon understand the Doody dilemma? Ecc 1:18: For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Comments are closed.