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[personal profile] tcpip
Saturday was spent [livejournal.com profile] sebastianne and Luke and took them on a tour of our home's environs, the Kew Asylum and nearby grounds, including the bat colony by the river. It had been some months since we'd spent time in each other's company and it's always a great pleasure to engage with such a witty mind. I must think of some cunning plan to get her involved in politics and secularism again.

Following day I presented at a meeting of The Philosophy Forum on The Epistemology of Madness. Meeting went extremely well, very well attended and with excellent discussion. Those in attendence certainly seemed agreeable to notions that insanity cannot be equated with mere deviance, and that forms of incarceration is only justified under circumstances where it is causing harm. Also, as a matter of administrivia, the group unanimously decided not to be a subcommittee of the Unitarian church where we meet. Said organisation will kill themselves through bureaucracy.

After philosophy was a different sort of madness, this time in space via the game Eclipse Phase. I'd played in a session on Friday night where we continued our escapes outside the Mars TITAN Quarantine Zone. To up the ante I took the players in my game to the Jovian asteroids where they encountered the remains of a TITAN system along with (taking an old tip from [livejournal.com profile] cheshirenoir, "stainless steel rats". The next step for the characters in my game will be the Jovian Republic, a sort of combination of North and South American conservativism - played with a nuanced view of the problems of posthuman and augmented intelligences, they certainly make a good argument.

Last night caught up with Jo H., and friends from Perth and went to see The Jesus and Mary Chain perform the thirtieth anniversary of their debut album Psychocandy (youtube) at The Forum, a particularly beautiful late noveau building with a fascinating history. In the near future I'll put a review up at Rocknerd, along with a planned review of Central Belters, a best-of album by Mogwai. Funk-punk political radicals, The Gang of Four are also playing at the same location in a few weeks, so I might end up there as well.

Date: 2016-03-09 04:58 pm (UTC)
vlion: cut of the flammarion woodcut, colored (Default)
From: [personal profile] vlion
> and that forms of incarceration is only justified under circumstances where it is causing harm.

The US deinstitutionalized heavily in the 70s, and that's had a complex set of outcomes.

One of the big problems in Seattle, where I live now, is a huge population of homeless on the street. It's understood that of that population, the long term homeless are _typically_ suffering from mental health issues. Contact with them often suggests that some of these people are simply not interacting with the reality we interact with daily. Mental hospitals are rather awful places; not as bad as jails, but not exactly great, either. Especially the public ones.

So I wonder: wouldn't it be better to have a - possibly literal - farm which would serve as sanitarium, but with controlled exits. Large, pleasant space, not a jail or a hospital, but with medical staff and controlled exit. I don't know. But seeing these poor people who can't put two words together makes me wonder.

Date: 2016-03-29 02:40 am (UTC)
vlion: cut of the flammarion woodcut, colored (Default)
From: [personal profile] vlion
> There's pretty good research that suggests that homelessness (and unemployment, or more accurately 'lack of social integration') is a causal factor in mental health issues, and more so than the other way around

Interesting.

One thing I was musing on recently was the historic question of 'homelessness'. We recognize it as a condition in America today, but I am wondering if it was as significant of an issue in a previous time. I really don't know; my understanding of pre-industrial cultures suggests that people had a much stronger social fabric. Unfortunately, my "serious reading" stack is far too deep in "where did Trump come from" to push more reading on.

Date: 2016-03-08 04:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com
I loved Psychocandy when it came out. I tried to get my friends to listen to it, but they didn't, shall we say, respond favorably.

I've only seen The Jesus and Mary Chain once, and that was at the 1992 Lollapoollza. They seemed out of place in the sunlight, and just did their set and left. I was a bit disappointed.

Date: 2016-03-08 11:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com
High levels of activity and audience is not their features. Silhouettes in the smoke, now that's more their style.

Oddly, when Psychocandy came out is was played on the local popular music station (96fm) which certainly extended their reach.

Date: 2016-03-12 02:31 am (UTC)
delphipsmith: (cheesy goodness)
From: [personal profile] delphipsmith
Saw this job and thought of you :)

Date: 2016-03-13 05:55 am (UTC)
delphipsmith: (cheesy goodness)
From: [personal profile] delphipsmith
Cheese librarian! When you click the link ("Saw this job"), does it not go there for you? (The linked text isn't blue -- must be something about your LJ theme -- but it works, I just tried it.)

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