tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post158861263011807686..comments2023-08-20T04:55:39.436-07:00Comments on Ars Psychiatrica: Make Yourself ScarceNovalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-23066068802835428562010-01-10T10:50:11.242-08:002010-01-10T10:50:11.242-08:00I find that age and the experience of loss have in...I find that age and the experience of loss have increased my awareness of scarcity with regard to possibilities in life. The scarcity of time remaining is more conscious and unsettling than a child's scarcity of experience.<br><br>This doesn't in any way contradict your observation about the relationship between surprise and maturity. I'm just pondering the role that ever-present but shifting scarcities play in psychological life.Dr Xhttp://drx.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-5100526139718513422010-01-10T17:03:10.572-08:002010-01-10T17:03:10.572-08:00Good point--scarcity, like other goods, is wasted ...Good point--scarcity, like other goods, is wasted on the young.Novalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-22713230578952539832010-01-10T21:34:32.824-08:002010-01-10T21:34:32.824-08:00For children, there's nothing more valuable th...For children, there's nothing more valuable than being like everyone else. Uniqueness is only valuable as an intensity of mediocrity - being the biggest/fishiest fish in a sea of fishes.<br><br>I can’t think of anything that’s not cheapened by plenitude. Every exquisite rarity can be reduced to garbage in sufficient quantities. So is quantity everything afterall? Is quality in itself impossible?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-76864639853579351622010-01-11T06:47:25.702-08:002010-01-11T06:47:25.702-08:00I don't think quantity can be *everything*, wh...I don't think quantity can be *everything*, which shows the limited (yet powerful) range of economics. I may be naive to think it, but with respect to the highest values--God (for believers), one's beloved(s), and the profoundest beauty--the law of diminishing returns, while perhaps still present in a purely neurophysiological sense of perception, is at least moderated by a certain intensity of attachment.Novalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-65464413159956503822010-01-11T20:10:05.606-08:002010-01-11T20:10:05.606-08:00I guess it would be awful if 'intensity of att...I guess it would be awful if 'intensity of attachment' was inversely proportionate to the quantity of time spent in an attachment. But some attachments do tragically cheapen with age - to the point of non-value.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-89760336597559763362010-01-12T06:03:41.078-08:002010-01-12T06:03:41.078-08:00To paraphrase Samuel Johnson's famous comment ...To paraphrase Samuel Johnson's famous comment about London, everyone should have those people/values/things about which he can say, "When I am tired of *that*, I am tired of life itself."Novalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-78220647184098371882010-01-12T15:08:37.443-08:002010-01-12T15:08:37.443-08:00So ultimately, everything moves towards disposabil...So ultimately, everything moves towards disposability. Raisons d'etre become reasons for dying. Life is eventually sated. Quality and quantity become one and the same nothingness.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425732352511468694.post-20504200116015234232010-01-12T15:30:34.026-08:002010-01-12T15:30:34.026-08:00Whoa...sure, as Keynes said, in the long run we...Whoa...sure, as Keynes said, in the long run we're all dead, but that doesn't change the fact that we're alive now...Novalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10501890494890617030noreply@blogger.com