Top Ten Thousand Ways Women Drive Men Crazy:

The contents of the collective unconscious are represented in consciousness in the form of pronounced preferences and definite ways of looking at things. These subjective tendencies and views are generally regarded by the individual as being determined by the object—incorrectly, since they have their source in the unconscious structure of the psyche and are merely released by the effect of the object. [emph. mine]

Isn’t that lovely … released.

But they are stronger than the object’s influence, their psychic value is higher, so that they superimpose themselves on all impressions.

Just as it seems incomprehensible to the Introvert that the object should always be the decisive factor

OMG.

… it remains an enigma to the Extraverts how a subjective standpoint can be …

Is.

… superior to the objective situation. He inevitably comes to the conclusion that the Introvert is either a conceited egoist or crack-brained bigot.

Or worse. It gets much worse. This piece was obviously written by a male—not that I remember the link. Links—feh.

The Introvert certainly lays herself open to these suspicions, for her positive, highly generalizing manner of expression …

Which may be #1 on the list. Higher than one.  Maybe the list goes to eleven.

… which appears to rule out every other opinion from the start, lends countenance to all the extravert’s prejudices. Moreover, the inflexibility of her subjective judgment in setting itself above all objective data …

I don’t know that you’d call it inflexibility so much as, Why waste my time and yours?

… is sufficient in itself to create the impression of marked egocentricity. Faced with this prejudice, the introvert is usually at a loss for the right argument, for she is quite unaware of the unconscious …

Who you callin’ unconscious.

… but generally quite valid assumptions on which her subjective judgment and her subjective perceptions are based.

I don’t know why he has to say unaware—projective identification, no doubt, for are we not the receptacle for all things inferior? Were we not thought to have the mental capacity of Idiots, and therefore unable to fucking vote? FCS?

Does that tick you off when you think about it? It does me. Think about it.

Ben Hammersley: Validation porn has had its day. Enough about the brushes already: give me some beauty.

You know, it is just so true.

Execrable taste does bespeak a lack of moral intelligence—as well as vice versa.

bloggasm posts: Reader feedback on my ‘Your chances of getting laid through craigslist’ article: ‘Finally, in general, I will also tell many men to use the best methodology ever invented by man; it is the one that has worked for me for years (although on rare occasions I have had success without it, specific cases being 3 women from earlier this year on CL). You know what that’s called? PAYING FOR IT!!!

Yes, as my brother (who operates a very successful website out in CA) and I know all too well, this is THE method that is best, avoids endless bullshit, and gets you RESULTS! And I am not even talking about all the stuff in the erotic section (which you also ignored and which would falsify your claims even more), but of making sweet, younger, new girls that have not done this before into your own private whores.’

(Emphasis mine.)

Then, I suppose in some small way to his credit, bloggasm writes:

There were times when I really felt ashamed to be a straight male. I mean, I can understand the allure of the whole thing, but there’s nothing like staring at 200 emails from horny men that allows you to understand how dismal the male gender really is.

I would propose that taking pride or delight or whatever ghastly thing at the idea of turning sweet young girls into “your own private whores” is clinically indicative of a pathological disturbance of—or primitive and ill-formed—object relations, wherein the child perceives others as less than human, unlike himself, but as objects which he is free to manipulate for his own gratification. Absent, of course, any awareness of the abnormality.

“What happened”

Infinite Loop wondered the other day,

“to the Steve we know and love?

Oh, they were in a flap all over the Mac world-of-the-clueless. The WWDC failed to meet expectations—which were running abnormally high, granted, because of WWDC Bingo—but in the land of reality, we do suffer disappointments, and the heart usually finds a way out, via empathy. Via knowing ourselves to be fallible, mortal—human, in other words. We do not think entirely with our left brain. Well, some of us do. On the internet, make that many. Many many.

So far—though I’ve by no means covered all your bases, god no—I’ve read all kinds of speculation on Steve’s subdued Keynote, and I am here to tell you, all of three, that’s right, three people—some wuss on O’Reilly, Bambi-and-Tera, and me—have reported being upset by his actual appearance. And we weren’t even the hell there.

It was immediately and painfully apparent to us, even on that ratty little QuickTime screen, the man is skin and bones. And when you have had pancreatic cancer, I imagine there are only two reasons to be skin and bones: you are in treatment, or—not to put too fine a point upon it—dying.

It wasn’t long ago that Steve appeared before the Cupertino City Council, looking fine. I don’t want to lose him. That was my first thought; I am very clear about that.

But the threads, the threads. Guys falling all over themselves to exchange the usual fatheaded-guy-reasoning. “I know a guy who was there, and he said Steve didn’t look too thin.” This on Slashdot. Oh, like that completely settles it.

Honestly, men will agree with each other about anything. The blind leading the halt and the lame.

Also “It’s a new business strategy” and—how stupid can you get? we ain’t there yet—Steve was merely “giving others a chance to shine.” Or my idiot fave, “He didn’t get enough sleep the night before.”

I don’t know. Men are really weird about sickness and death. Nurture or nature? Even as the evidence mounts for the latter, meaning that supposedly they can’t help it, my reaction remains the same: Guys! Shape the fuck up.

See if you can’t connect a feeling—you know, one of those uncomfortable things rolling around inside your chest—to, hey, a thought. Try not to be total assholes. It was an upsetting sight, we are scared for Mr. Jobs, and we send him heartfelt wishes for good health for many, many years to come.

Or, perhaps more properly: The Steve looketh gaunt and sayeth not Just One More Thing, and the people worried amongst themselves. A blessing was offered up unto Cupertino, and in this way, The Steve came to know, he is widely and greatly loved.

“When you look another man in the eye it means one of two things.”

He waited for a reply.

I was ready with the answer.

“I want to fuck you or I want to kill you,” I said. Everyone turned to look at me.

“Exactly,” said Paul. “I want to fuck you or I want to kill you.”

Oh tis such a cheery thing, to be a male. So … interesting, so complex, multi-layered …

Not. Oh God so not.

link: Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back by Nora Vincent

“When you say to a woman you know what you know, there’s not a woman on this planet that doesn’t have an inner voice. One that she’s learned to disregard because of patriarchal censorship. Like when people say to a girl, why did you get in the car with him? And she says, ‘A voice inside me was telling me not to.’ Only she’d learned to disregard it. That’s what knowing what you know means.”

—Eve Ensler

Who must have a brain in her head after all. Read the rest of this entry »