As IF Times

link Childrens tantrums may be classed as psychiatric disorders under US proposals | World news | guardian.co.uk.

As. If.  I suppose if a respected body such as the American Psychiatric Association says it’s so, then it must be so.  But first, the same routine; check The Onion to see if it’s a spoof story.  Sadly no.  From the article:

“Childhood temper tantrums, teenage irritability and binge eating may soon rate as psychiatric disorders in the US, according to proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the bible of the psychiatric profession”

I wonder if I can be diagnosed with some kind of disease because my blood pressure instantly rises upon reading such inanity.  Maybe I can qualify for some kind of disability subsidy because over the years, I have found no cure for  my condition.  Other symptoms include eyeballs spinning in my head like pinwheels as well as the urge to drop cartoon-like trapezoids labelled ” 5 tons” on top of idiots who propagate this stuff.  Call me crazy.

As has been mentioned a few dozen times in my commentaries, it’s always about the money. 

“At stake are billions of dollars in insurance payments, pharmaceutical sales and medical fees. The proposed revisions, published online today , will be subject to public comment until late April.”

And,

“…Alan Schatzberg, president of the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the guide, told reporters. “It influences how research is conducted as well as what is researched. It affects legal matters, industry and government programmes…”

So, in effect, the APA is on the verge of creating their own new business scheme.  Not content to classify fatness and thinness, sexual appetite, anger, sloth, parental alienation, moodiness, introversion etc etc as conditions requiring medical treatment, they want to bring bratty kids into the sick camp as well.

Had my parents only known that as kids we could have been treated medically with drugs, therapy and ink blots, they could have spared themselves the physical exertion of having to beat our backsides.  Frankly speaking, the threat of a lobotomy to cure our tantrums may have worked as well.   How we managed to become adults is truly miraculous.

The paper makes it clear though, that there are likely more diagnoses of medical conditions yet to come:

“…The panels proposed a new category of condition called “risk syndromes”, in which a patient is at risk for a mental disorder that is not yet present…”

You really can’t make this up.  Here’s a suggestion.  Perhaps the APA can do a study on their own  members on professinal delusion syndrome or PDS, only coincidently the same acronym for “pretty darn stupid”, wherein victims conclude that any type of human behavior is an ailment requiring medical treatment by psychiatrists.

link Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not politicians—for our political and economic crisis. – By Jacob Weisberg – Slate Magazine.

A classic piece of liberal writing.  As the link’s headline states, an ignorant populace is apparently responsible for all of the political struggles and associated turmoil that we see today with our government.  While it’s hard to argue with some aspect of this view, it may be useful to look at why that may be. 

In a time where information is as accessible and free as it has ever been in man’s history, how can it be that so many make uninformed decisions? While this topic can be the subject of someone’s masters thesis, I can attempt to look at some of the reasons for why people appear to be so ignorant when it comes to the political process.  First of all, I will agree that mental laziness is partly to blame.  Given a choice of either watching politicians bloviate on an issue, or American Idol, we obviously know which will tilt the Nielsen ratings. Politicians are typically old fat people speaking in tongues sometimes resembling English whereas American Idol has young attractive singers.  Hmm what to do. 

Secondly, among those that are products of the national education system, the process of politics and the relevance to students’  lives is poorly taught.  Unless you are pursing law as a career, the dry presentation of the political process is about as gripping as string theory physics.  But even disregarding the study of politics in school, the whole process of education has been so watered down ( this is only anecdotal, not a thesis) that the essential skill of critical thinking has been abandoned for the more mundane achievement of passing classes. It can’t be money.  Despite bleating of teacher’s unions, money has always been available for education.  Of the large American cities, New York, Chicago, Washington etc, kids are measurably ‘dumber’ than they’ve ever been.  That opinion results from a study by Jay Greene, author of Education Myths.  He points out that:

“…If money were the solution, the problem would already be solved … We’ve doubled per pupil spending, adjusting for inflation, over the last 30 years, and yet schools aren’t better.”

The problems are rooted in the basic principles of the education system, the educators and in a big part, teacher’s unions.  Never mind politics, kids come out of the public school system unable to string words into coherent sentences or perform simple math without taking off their shoes.  This results from the errant mentality that kids can’t fail and that every child must pass to protect their self esteem.  The consequence of many generations of this “non education” are adults that don’t understand how the world affects them outside of their work/family circle of influence.

In addition, due to America’s celebrity obsessed culture, the “uninformed masses” begin adopting the utterances of entertainers and athletes, not necessarily the most enlightened group, as their own opinions.  So we’ve  gradually built a society that is brainwashed to believe in entitlements rather than obligations.  This may explain the dichotomy put forth by the author Weisberg, regarding what people profess to want and what people are willing to pay for.  This entitlement mentality has been fed to them during their entire educational experience.  They expect government to fix all that ails them as has been the experience their whole lives.  Liberal mindsets in governments have created entire societies still suckling on the nipples of government.  Perversely, liberals and progressives constantly push for more government involvement in people’s lives pointing to the need, a need they created.  It’s  pretty easy to pander to a willing constituency when they’re predisposed to noble notions of “equality” and a kumbaya existence as a right.

Except that in the real world, that’s not how it works.  Someone has to be smarter than others.  Someone has to come up with innovations.  Someone has to pay the bills. But at some level, I do agree with the author of the piece.  The ignorance and childishness of much of the american electorate has allowed the most unqualified and unsuitable gang of people ever, to govern them for another 3 years.  The naivete of hope and change has turned into a serious ideological wrong turn for the U.S.  The restlessness that the author complains of is, hopefully, people finally growing up.