On the program about "Work" (01/06/08) the guest from Loyola Univ. of Chicago summed up his ideas by quoting author/lecturer Leo Buscaglia. He felt it necessary
在总结之前，他先道歉，大意是“我很抱歉在一桌学者面前引用里奥·巴斯卡利亚的话。”
I would be interested in knowing what he thinks Buscaglia was, if not an academic. He held three academic degrees, all in Education. He considered himself an educator above all else. Most of his career was in a classroom of some sort, from
从小学到研究生。
他心胸开阔，知道智慧存在于许多地方，包括你可能想不到的地方。他以一种成功的方式提供了信息，这并不需要道歉;这只会让信息更容易记住……as the guest from Loyola knows, or
Buscaglia's statement wouldn't have stuck with him all these years.
In other words, no apologies necessary.

Perhaps not quite on the subject but I invariably wonder about modern versus whatever homo sapiens evolved from. I believe Darwin himself mused about how "overqualified" the post-'missing link' hominid was for his/her job at the time. What's next on the horizon for our advanced race of arrowhead-makers and hide tanners?

I listen to philosophy talk on podcasts so I just listened to the one on personal identity. I want to mention a novel that has a very interesting take on this matter. It is If I Were You (Si j'étais vous) by Julien Green (the American author who wrote in French, not to be confused with the English novelist Henry Green). At the beginning of the novel the protagonist makes a pact with the Devil that enables him to become another person. What does this mean? It is not like the transposed brain s trick discussed in the podcast. Rather the consciousness of the protagonist enters the consciousness of the other person, both merging and not merging. As I recall (another person with my name read this book decades ago so it?s not fresh in my consciousness) this process is subtle and intriguing, not at all hokey or simple minded. As time passes the protagonist becomes more and more merged with his host?s identity. The protagonist has magic formal to recite to return to himself, and, as he merges more fully with his host, he risks forgetting it (this is the ticking clock of the novel). I won?t give away the end, but Green was a believing Catholic and took things like pacts with the Devils seriously.

The one caller on today's show had it correct. The associations of words goes way beyond frames into philsophical frameworks that depends on cultural symbols. "Appeasement" has become a symbol for the world war II worldview framework and its consequences - as if it were a general politcal rule.
To explain the theoretical framework behind this opinion be ready for the following long essay.
The following is a summary of the theoretical work of Ernest Becker (Pulizter Prize winner Denial of Death 1974) and the experimental work of Sheldon Solomon, et. al. (In the wake of 911)
Please google Ernest Becker or check out wikipedia for more information
1)我们首先是动物，其次是想象力丰富的人类。我们生活在一个危险的世界，一个不确定的世界，死亡就在附近。试着回忆你在婴儿时期的焦虑，或者注意到你的孩子在成长过程中可怕的阶段，尤其是当他们意识到他们是多么依赖大人的时候。人类在早期历史上也处于这种焦虑状态。老虎很大，我们只有长矛。我们内心总有这种感觉。我们觉得自己的动物本性是脆弱的，是有限的。我们努力成长、掌握和繁殖，就像所有曾经存在过的生物一样。我们渴望和贪婪任何代表着更丰富和更安全的生物生命的东西——即使在我们先进的文明中，它实际上得到了照顾。在下面的文章中，请记住我们是动物。 Thinking animals but animals nevertheless.
2) However, we are social animals - like some herd or pack animals but not at all like big cats, sharks, or hawks. We need each other and the group to compete against other animals and nature. But we also compete with our fellow humans for mastery and status. Knowing our place allows us take on specific jobs in the group and to feel purpose and meaning. We test and gauge our status wihin the group. We constantly compare ourselves (and judge others) by cultural standards of mastery. Early in history and our physical skills were the important measure but that soon turned to social skills. The function of out direct perceptual senses is guage our level of security, protection and worth within the group. Getting our fellow humans approval and esteem enhances this protection because somebody is literally watching your back. In a sufficiently advanced civlization, when the food supply, healthcare, shelter and education are taken care of the impulse to grow - to have more abundant life - does not go away. That is because the emotional part of us knows we are still limited and vulnerable without our cultural and group protections. So we unconsciously compare worth, significance and power in our society - to find our place in it and to gather as many protectve affliations around us as possible.
3) As our brains evolved and abstraction and symbolic abilities developed we imagined we could be gods! Our situation was so perilous in the wild we tended to make false correlations in nature, thus creating "magic" to allow us to feel more in control. Eventually, our egos created complex systems of symbols representing physical skills. We created institualized ritual to control the environment and its ceremonies to control each other. Magic turned into religion. Religion turned into divine states. Divine states turned into secular society and political philosophies. Thus, magical ritual, religion and its decendent instutions allowed for defined heirarchy, castes, classes and organizational efficiencies.
4)我们的自我意识不喜欢听到我们有弱点，或者只是寻求地位竞争的动物，或者我们是自己受苦的原因，或者我们是脆弱的，有限的，有一天会死。因此，我们通过抓住任何能让我们感到安全、有信心一切都会好起来的人或事来寻找消除内疚和脆弱感的方法，在他们的照顾下，我们会繁荣、成长、变得有意义，过上更充实的生活。这就是“英雄冲动”。它普遍存在于所有文化中，除了最简单、最平等的文化。我们重视并承认那些会让我们感到安全或让我们感觉自己是赢家的符号(而不是现实)。当然，这在森林中有大量的生存价值，因为有些人确实拥有真正的英雄技能——作为狩猎采集者——但与“英雄”扯上关系的冲动被扭曲到了荒谬的地步。对财产、头衔、地位、大家庭的获取，以及对与实际生存需求相去甚远的符号的依恋，是推动我们的文化和政治的动力。追求更多、更多、更多的冲动推动着我们的经济体系。事实上，正是我们对更有保障的生活的需求，以及我们对自己为何渴望更有保障的生活的无意识，创造了这个经济体系——这个体系依赖于每年4%的经济增长，尽管我们生活在一个资源有限的有限世界。与其他物种相比，人类为死亡的恐惧而进行的不受约束和不加反思的思考是使人类变得疯狂的原因。 The fundamental confusion is taking mere words or concepts to be reality.
6) Biologically, abstracting egos arise from the left hemisphere of the brain. The symbolic processors of the left brain take fear arising from the amygdala and rationalizes an insulating symbolic defense - many of which are words or concepts. The left hemisphere also tends to mask perceptual realities of the right hemisphere since this holistic part does not harbor linguistic processors. The right hemisphere cannot argue for itself even though it harbors many intelligences! This effectively removes feelings of vulnerability and fear from our thinking selves but it also veils broader realities and perceptions that could have survival value. This is a necessary condition for mental health and negotiation in a highly symbolic environments which most people live in. Cultures are systems of symbols that reinforce a consensual strategy against this fear of death. Or, at least, a "social symbolic death" with insignificance or loss of approval among our fellows. Cultural values change as the demands of survival from the environment change. We create complex symbolic absolutist views and cultural sanctioned rituals, rules and behaviors that institutionalize the strategy against death because total faith brings the most confidence. That is why suicide bombers say they love death as much as we love life - they are assured at place in paradise. These emotional displacements provide order and sense of meaning to our world and provide confidence. The value of the concept of immortality, gods and single great hero, God, has provided the greatest sense of relief for many cultures.
7) Furthermore, We create conflict and suffering through mutual exclusive competing symbols within and between our arbitrary rule-bound cultures. Thus, individuals will constantly compare who's up and who's down, one street gang will fight another over graffiti, how clothing is worn, territoral encroachment; soceer games will erupt in violence over a game, republicans and democrats will demean and "symbolically" fight each to other's social death (the inability to influence others). Our egos constantly strive to strengthen its stature compared to others. Our egos are willing to defend, belittle or even fight to the death any symbol or person who threatens our unconscious immortality symbols because our ego's imaginary life is at stake. The impulse to prove oneself right and the other wrong is simply the defense of the ego against imaginary death.
8)无论是上帝、涅槃、我们想象中的尘世遗产，还是我们的政治哲学，无论我们生活在哪里，我们的自我都会找到一些东西来抓住。文化、宗教和所有绝对主义哲学的存在都是为了为寻求认同的人类提供组织、鼓励、应对、繁荣、避免对死亡的恐惧以及推动文明向某些想象中的美好生活前进的方式——即使是以牺牲当前的幸福为代价。我们是社会人，创造了我们自己的环境，对归属感和自尊的需求是普遍的，所以我们轻易地接受了暗示价值的流行观念。对人际关系和认可的需求是首要的和真实的，文化价值是次要的和想象的。这是非常重要的一点!
9) Our egos can be exploited, controlled and abused by those who use our needs, hopes and dreams to suit their own agendas or by those that insist to withdraw their respect unless we tow the cultural line. We all, quite naturally, give our loyalty and our lives to those who best can communicate to our emotions the symbols that promise security and strength but most importantly - a sense of belonging. The sucess of leadership is proportional to the level of alignment of culturally adopted values to the real demands of the environment. Blind following often leads to disaster. Following, a worldview, hero or personal expression is only useful to the extent that it actually haromonizes with the reality of others, other cultures and the physical environment.
10) So, we only contribute more suffering in the world when we allow the ego unbridled comparison, identification and power-seeking or when we let our egos get competitive, huffy and violent over whose coping mechanisms, behaviors, opinions are best. Judgment and negativity is the primary diagnostic of absolutism - whether it is ubridled praise or criticism. Acceptance (tolerance), enjoyment and enthusism is the primary diagnostic for awareness of the extreme comparative activity of the ego.
观点——最近的研究表明，通过合作、归属感和个人表达的扩展，对社会认可和安全的冲动会抵消焦虑位移。然而，在历史上的大部分时间里，这种情况都被焦虑流离失所所掩盖。既然我们对心理动力学有了一些了解，那么当自我的比较和防御功能发挥作用时，我们就能更有效地利用时间，转而关注我们的基本共同需求——食物、住所、健康、教育、归属感和个人表达的需求。We could look to our common problems and working together to make a difference, rather than defending our egoic coping belief systems or sense of status and worth or defending out-dated cultural systems and pet ideologies.
最终，所有人类活动都是“宗教的”或“政治的”，如果它是一种让人感觉掌握生命而不是死亡或限制的活动，那么它就会变成防御性的。
We must be vigilant in the tendency for our human psyche to attach to absolutist concepts or worldviews. The unconscious denial of death is the primary motivation for humanity. This irrational motive lies behind science, art, technology, politics, philosophy and culture.

The preceding comment was meant to be a response to radio program on linguistics and meaning...not work and self - even though some it applies to this conversation as well. The theory tends to subsume and not contradict many investigations - a good test of its revelatory power.

As a recent graduate and new member of the workforce, I found this episode particularly intriguing. I am currently an instructional assistant at a school and one day hope to become a teacher. I think one of the main reasons I want to become a teacher is to be able to have the time off (Summers, Winter Break, etc)!
但自从我开始做教学助理以来，我发现自己越来越沮丧，因为我正在学习如何管理一群孩子——我必须承认，因为我才刚刚开始，我做得很差，当我试图让孩子们学习如何阅读时，我看到的只是一些温暖的、模糊的故事，即给他们世界的故事。另一件让我担心的事是我害怕星期一。每个星期天的晚上，我都觉得自己在犹豫是否要再去工作。
你在节目中谈到没有一份工作是完全没有烦人任务的，但你也提到了做一份自己喜欢的工作是多么重要。我的问题是，不喜欢自己的工作(害怕周一，让孩子沮丧等等)在多大程度上是正常的，甚至是可以接受的?总的来说，我发现我现在所做的事情有很多意义，我希望在未来做的事情——教学是一个非常有意义的工作。但每天的挣扎，尤其是在我刚刚接触这一切的时候，让我很难看到回报。

Call For Entries: Atlanta Philosophy Film Festival
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AtlantaThinkFestival.org
Cheers.

I like what you said: "I love doing philosophy for its own sake."
Reading Hofstadter's Anti-intellectualism in America and recognize that our culture totally regards and reveres the person who does unrewarding, back-breaking work for a cause greater than himself. That's the practical way.
I think in a way we all start off that way. We have to do journeymen time.
But some people--my father in law for example--found the life-long journeymen pursuit just fine. He provided. That's what counts. Security and money were important to him [He was a telephone line man, so lots of over time.]
However, job satisfaction is most important to me. I'd make peanuts, as long as I'm happy. That includes studying subjects like theology or philosophy--for their sake.
但如果我没有在战壕里挥洒汗水，我永远不会有这样的机会。如果我没有打下基础。

My previous comment has apparently been deleted. It's hard to believe someone has wasted their time reading all the comments.
I'll say it again. To be a philosophy professor is not an option for a moral person.

重提一句老话:工作是思想阶层的诅咒!

I don't see what's so bad about work. Just find something you like to do, then find a damn job. That's what I do.