Some science behind political polarization, and manipulation ...

Truth-Out not most reliable news source, but this op-ed describes something real: "The Great Turning" ... basically, the democratic socialist agenda.

McMasters has a very Clausewitzian view of strategy. It may still be a bit harsh; but, at least it has a firmer grounding in history than the world view of the totally unhinged Bannon!

Unaware of economic facts, as usual, Trump claims China currency manipulation going in opposite direction from what it has been doing for last two years

First post for "Totems" page:

33 mi. all-electric range, almost as good as my Chevy Volt ... the plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica

Defense of the "deep state" ... the "shallow state" of Donald Trump is far worse!

An underground railroad, Rapid Response Teams ...

Apologia to Erik Erikson

William Sundwick

Yes, Erikson’s Eight stages of psychosocial development does have a sort of poetic elegance, as I wrote two weeks ago in this blog, but I fear I was in over my head. My ground rules for Warp & Woof specified that it would not be scholarly. The main reason is that I don’t have the “cred” to write an academic critique, or knowledgeable review, of very many scholarly subjects. Major theories of ego development, like Erikson’s, clearly fall into this category. It is now time to retract some of the assertions I made in that piece two weeks ago … and, hopefully, clarify the rationale I had for writing it in the first place.

First, a quick recap, here are the eight stages, in table form:

Tension	Virtue	Generalized age group
Trust vs. distrust	Hope	Infancy
Autonomy vs. shame, doubt	Will	Toddler, pre-school
Initiative vs. guilt	Purpose	Pre-school, early childhood
Industry vs. inferiority	Competence	Middle childhood, “tweens”
Identity vs. role confusion	Fidelity	Adolescence
Intimacy vs. isolation	Love	Late adolescence, early adulthood
Generativity vs. stagnation	Care	Middle adulthood, middle age
Ego integrity vs. despair	Wisdom	Old age

Superficially, the table says everything I know about Erikson’s eight stages! They were first laid out in his seminal 1950 work, Childhood and Society. All his subsequent work was based upon this first book. I certainly have not made any extensive study of the literature of child psychology, much less ego development in psychoanalysis. But, further research has given me a bit more insight into Erikson (good academic, biographical piece here), but surely does not bestow any authority to my writing.

As I wrote in the conclusion of my earlier piece (p.2), Erikson, himself, tried to mollify his critics by disclaiming any prescriptive value for psychoanalysis of his theoretical structure. Any attempt I made to explain these stages by giving examples from my own life, or people I have “known”, is deserving of serious caution, if not outright retraction. I believe I was guilty of considerable hubris, even intellectual dishonesty, in my presumption that I knew what I was talking about!

Instead, I’d prefer to focus on the literary value of Erikson’s language. That was what inspired my title, “The Poetic Elegance of Erik Erikson“, and that is what has driven my fascination with the structure over nearly fifty years (I took my Developmental Psych course in Winter Quarter, 1969, at Kalamazoo College). If one were engaged in writing a novel, or a play, or long form poetry, what pool of understanding would they use in creating their characters? And, what sort of plot would these characters find themselves immersed in?

It seems to me that, were I such an author, a framework much like the one presented by Erikson would serve as my raw material. (I frankly don’t know enough interesting people … or, at least, don’t know enough about them … to say my fictional characters would come from personal life experience). But, of course, I’m not an author of fiction, any more than I am a psychoanalyst!

The beauty of Erikson’s language is that you really can feel the dialectical tension in each of these stages, especially when you draw upon a personal understanding of the definitions of those virtues. You don’t need to be a psychiatrist to understand, but only a philosopher; or, perhaps, just a semi-literate, sentient human being.

Then, there’s the tricky problem of resolutions for each of these tensions. I confess, my lack of knowledge of the literature handicaps me here. I’m not sure I can quite grasp the important precept that resolving these conflicts throughout life should be seen as a continuous struggle … not, as I asserted in my original piece, something akin to advancing from one grade in school to the next, after completing some predetermined requirements. It seems I missed the boat on this. It deserves a full retraction. We’re all likely to revisit these struggles throughout life, there’s NEVER a resolution you can count on! Erikson defines life’s challenges as crises.  But, these crises can appear and reappear many times in an individual’s life. You’re never safe … not until you’ve completed that ninth stage, as hypothesized by Joan Erikson. It all sounds like the old Russian proverb: “First you’re born, then you suffer, then you die.”

Only after exploring the nuance, and interaction, of all the stages, can we say we’ve come to the real message of the Eight Stages. Its true poetic elegance and beauty is its portrait of the pathos of a life lived fully. We should all see our lives thus. The ultimate reward may be yet to come. Next chapter: the last works of both Erik and wife Joan Erikson, “Vital Involvement in Old Age” and “The Life Cycle Completed”; I must read them, before I write about them! 

Hard to imagine U.S. not participating in worldwide shift to EVs over next several years, but that seems to be exactly what Trump administration has in mind! American workers, as well as planet, will only be worse off as result ...

Michael Moore's 10-point plan -- I especially like the idea of "Rapid Response Teams"

Sometimes, it's the old guys who are needed to get the job done. Here is a case illustrating Erik Erikson's batle between "ego integrity" and "despair". This Texas PBS commentator was 70 years old, not worried about job security, only about personal integrity!

Microagression on display in CNN panel ...

Good example of microagression, from DK post

Be afraid, be very afraid. Do NOT acquiesce in the comfortable position that "it will all work itself out." History proves otherwise!

Unsurprising result of a long-term reputable study ...

Big study on ADHD etiology confirms delayed brain development at fault

His Italian Leather Sofa: Cake Does an Anthem

William Sundwick






Alternative Rock was a big thing in the nineties, and not just among the teenage crowd. Some of us old-timers could instantly relate to the sound, based on fond memories of its genesis with classic blues-based rock ‘n roll, acid rock, and punk. Its definitional boundaries are fuzzy, however. Some critics will include “grunge” bands from Seattle, notably Pearl Jam and Nirvana, in the genre; while others want to include late punk, like Green Day, in the mix, a much harder, darker sound; or, perhaps, retro blues rock, like White Stripes.

In the middle range of Alt Rock is Cake: not too dark or heavy, not too anodyne pop; but just edgy enough, just creative enough, to rise above the crowd. Hailing from Sacramento, its lifespan stretches from 1991 to the present, although it has released no new album since 2011. They claim they’re still alive, and working on another.

Front man and songwriter John McCrea came up with some real gold in the 1996-98 period, especially on their second album, Fashion Nugget. It went platinum in late ’96. If you followed pop music in the nineties and ‘aughts at all, you’re probably familiar with “The Distance”, which had a great run for a time on radio stations (still the major promotional medium for music in those days). Here it is on YouTube.

Like all the best McCrea songs, “The Distance” has some clever lyrics. He does have a poetic gift:

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line
Engines pumping and thumping in time
The green light flashes, the flags go up
Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup
They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank
Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns
Their prowess is potent and secretly stern

The backup includes not just guitar, bass and drums, as expected … but, also, trademark mariachi horns. They give Cake a ska-like sound. And, McCrea delivers the vocals in a distinctive monotone, almost like a poetry reading in a beat generation San Francisco coffee house!

But he's driving and striving and hugging the turns
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns

He's going the distance
He's going for speed
She's all alone
In her time of need

Because he's racing and pacing and plotting the course
He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse
He's going the distance
No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine
He's haunted by something he cannot define
Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse
Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force
In his mind, he's still driving, still making the grade

Such youthful exuberance, such resolve! Is anybody reminded of Bruce Springsteen, twenty years earlier (“Born to Run”)?

But, of all the songs on Fashion Nugget, my favorite must be “Italian Leather Sofa.” Here’s a prosperous old guy, with a gold watch and an Italian leather sofa, enjoying the company of an attractive young woman, who doesn’t care if he’s a good man, or if he’s an island, as long as his ship’s coming in!

Here’s the YouTube video.

In addition to the clever lyrics, this one has the tempo of a rock anthem, along with the horns. And, rock anthems are always hard to resist for the stridently youthful at heart (like myself)! Also, McCrea has backup vocals for the first two verses, adding a bit more flourish:

She doesn't care whether or not he's an island
She doesn't care just as long as his ship's coming in
She doesn't care whether or not he's an island
They laugh they make money
He's got a gold watch
She's got a silk dress and healthy breasts
that bounce on his Italian leather sofa.

And, the second verse, with chorus:

She doesn't care whether or not he's a good man
She doesn't care just as long as she still has her friends
She doesn't care whether or not he's an island
they laugh, they make money
He's got a gold watch
She's got a silk dress and healthy breasts
That bounce on his Italian leather sofa

Yes, it does sound slightly cynical. But, not really, because both seem to be very happy with their arrangement. Of course, we don’t know if there is a wife around … it may be that the young woman with the silk dress and healthy breasts IS his wife!

All well and good, except, after a somewhat avant-garde interlude from the band, we get the mysterious third verse, where the subject inexplicably changes to simple food storage in the kitchen, and this strange sequence is repeated one more time, as a fourth verse:

She's got a serrated edge
that she moves back and forth
It's such a simple machine she doesn't have to use force
When she gets what she wants,
she puts the rest on a tray in a ziplock bag
...in the freezer 

… intermezzo of a few provocative guitar chords at this point … then repeat chorus, complete with full horn backup:

She doesn't care whether or not he's an island
She doesn't care just as long as his ship's coming in
She doesn't care whether or not he's an island
They laugh, they make money
He's got a gold watch
She's got a silk dress and healthy breasts
that bounce on his Italian leather sofa

Songwriters: John M Mccrea
Italian Leather Sofa lyrics © Cake - Stamen Music


You have to wonder what the third (and fourth) verse has to do with the first two. This sort of device reminds me of another favorite precursor band to both Punk and Alt Rock, The Velvet Undergound … from the sixties, with Lou Reed as front man. What could such nonsense mean?

Cursory research does not unearth any interviews with McCrea, where he might have explained what was going through his head when he wrote those lyrics.

Perhaps he will discover Warp & Woof, and contribute a comment! At any rate, whenever the song comes up on my iPod playlists at the gym, I always smile. It’s one of select few that makes me pedal harder, and grunt more, on the machinery. Such an anthem!

Some news on the battery front: how 'bout a 10-yr. lifespan liquid battery?

Anybody see a future for Transhumanism ... in Libertarian Party?

Lots of talk lately about UBI ... practical in U.S.?

Andrew Sullivan, in New York Magazine: interesting reflection on lies, fear, and faith

Coal is NOT coming back: where is the retraining for unemployed miners? the healthcare? the new industries investing in coal country?

Worth 4 minutes of your time, it will be linked from "The Past" as well.

Bill Moyers on why America is NOT a democracy

Poetic Elegance of Erik Erikson, p.2

                                                     (continued from p.1)

5.   Tension: identity vs. role confusion (virtue = “fidelity”) … the big adolescent tension, who am I? But, don’t we all continue to be confronted throughout life with choices of roles – me vs. not me?  The literature in the sixties often spoke of gender orientation as a good example of a crisis which could cause a fall back to an earlier stage, unable to successfully resolve a “nonconforming” gender/sexual orientation due to social pressure. That’s less of an issue today, but perhaps not totally absent, yet, in certain segments of society. But, don’t we often have demands placed upon us, by some compelling authority, which simply DO NOT FIT who we feel we are. If that leads to job change, there could be a snowball effect with livelihood, family, community, etc. … all leading to a throwback to an earlier stage. I believe I had such an experience with teaching, in my youthful exuberance after college, which led to my moving to the DC area, and back to Stage 3 or 4.

6.   Tension: intimacy vs. isolation (virtue = “love”) … ahhh, the memories! The loneliness of late adolescence (i.e., the horniness!). I’m sure I don’t need to say anything more about this tension to any divorced, or widowed, adult! Loss of an intimate partner can surely propel one backwards to an earlier, more comfortable, resolved, stage of development – stage 5, at least! Fortunately, I have not had such an experience (yet), but I can imagine the devastation I would feel at the loss of my wife of 34 years.

7.    Tension: generativity vs. stagnation (virtue = “care”) … those of us who think we’ve successfully resolved this tension, know that it (and all the previous stages) must have resolution before achieving the final virtue of “wisdom”. We know about the pandemic of “career burnout”, taking away the sense of achievement in your career. That even had an impact on my own retirement decision, when I felt I had done all the damage I could to the institution! But, then I found that I had to establish new “retirement competencies” (Stage 4?), like writing a blog! And, isn’t failure to secure “caring” one of the leading causes of divorce (i.e., stagnation)?

8.   Tension: ego integrity vs. despair (virtue = “wisdom”) … yes, here we are, today. Despair is also described in some of Erikson’s writing as “disgust”: that is, self-disgust. The central question is really: have I been a good person? I Can’t help but wonder where our President is in this stage of psychosocial development, now … also, isn’t intellectual honesty part of the picture? Do I really believe what I say, or write? Readers may speculate …

I only discovered in researching Erikson’s eight stages that, shortly before her death twenty years ago, at age 93, Joan Erikson published an article which postulated a ninth stage of psychosocial development, she characterized it as something which happens mostly to people who live as long as she, and it encapsulates all previous eight stages, but inverted … unwinding, as it were! Until, ultimately, one is left with Distrust vs. Trust … when you realize that, in the end, you are clearly alone and abandoned! Perhaps religious beliefs may help to counteract this realization, at least historically: discussion, debate?

Erikson’s influence has grown since the 1960s, until now, when the “Eight Stages …” are fundamental components of any understanding of developmental psychology. Like many psychosocial theories, Erikson’s has both supporters and detractors. He acknowledged that his theory was more descriptive than predictive, certainly not prescriptive, but it still stands on its own as a beautifully balanced portrait of an idealized lifespan, truly elegant in its structure, and its language. He uses the term “epigenesis” to describe his theory, “beyond genetics”. The critics tend to focus on his lack of prescriptive therapeutic practice. But, to this student, at least, the expansion beyond Freud’s emphasis on the id is seminal. It allows us to see psychosocial development as a life-long process, not something which is completed in adolescence -- Freud’s “genital” stage of development. Although, Erikson’s entry point was adolescent psychology (hence, my early fascination?), it is the life-encompassing nature of the theory that generates its “poetic elegance.”

Poetic Elegance of Erik Erikson, p.1

The Poetic Elegance of Erik Erikson: An Homage to the “Eight Stages …”

William Sundwick

Eight stages of psychosocial development -- such a pedestrian name for such an influential theory. But, the language and vitality of its dialectical tension has resonated with me ever since I was first introduced, in my undergraduate Developmental Psych class, 47 years ago. 

In a nutshell, Erikson (Erik, a German immigrant, and his wife and collaborator, Joan) took the concept of Hegelian dialectic (thesis à antithesis à synthesis) and constructed with it a general architecture of personality development throughout life. Influenced by Freud’s ideas about development of the id and superego, Erikson built his model, instead, around ego development.

When I was first exposed, I had already captured, from earlier philosophy courses, a similar Hegelian (even Marxian?) world view. Continuous struggle was the theme. Instead of one great reward at the end of a single monumental struggle, however, Erikson posited eight sequentially ordered struggles, resolution of one leading only to the next, with each of them having a characteristic tension, and acquisition of a labeled virtue to mark successful transition to the next struggle, up the hierarchy. Each was built upon all the preceding. This orderly structure for personality development always appealed to me. It had an aesthetic, a poetic elegance to it.

For some reason, even though I never pursued teaching as a career, despite it being my intent at the time, the language of the relational dialectics, which wouldn’t be named until the 1980s, and the description of the “virtues” at the successful completion of each stage, have always stuck with me. I’ve negotiated each successive stage’s tensions, in my mind … from ego identity, in those days, through intimacy vs. isolation; generativity vs. stagnation; and, now, I believe, integrity vs. despair.

The dialectical struggle at each stage of my own life has been palpable.

What I didn’t grasp in my youth, though, was another central theme in the theory: there is often retrograde motion as we plow through life … what may appear to be resolved doesn’t necessarily stay resolved! The role of crisis is fundamental to understanding Erikson.

While clearly something like the layers of an onion, Erikson’s writing strongly suggests that crisis floats around chronologically, each stage is not fixed to particular age ranges. He arrived at the age brackets for each stage only as statistical norms. We should always expect outliers, within one or two standard deviations. And, we should remember that he, and wife Joan, always felt that people, in times of personal crisis, would often revisit an earlier, comfortably resolved, tension later in life. External events, stressors, can throw you back, perhaps even to the very earliest stage of development, characteristic of infants! Nevertheless, the basic theory asserts that successful resolution of one stage generally advances to successfully resolving the next stage, like advancing a grade in school!

Fair enough, despite the uneven progress that many of us follow, as we negotiate through all life’s crises, large and small. Let’s look at each of the eight stages, and think of our own experiences with child rearing, or our own development through life crises. It really DOES make sense, and I will illustrate some throwback crises people close to me have experienced. The reader may easily recognize other situations. Each stage is identified by its distinctive tension, and the resolution virtue is identified in parentheses:

       1. Tension: trust vs. distrust (virtue = “hope”) … think what impact abandonment could have on an infant; but, then, what about extreme survival situations in adulthood? Perhaps failure, in such a crisis, to rely on hope, would result in death? It strikes a chord, doesn’t it? “Abandon Hope, all Ye Who Enter …”

2. Tension: autonomy vs. shame and doubt (virtue = “will”) … we think of emergence into toddlerhood from infancy (mobility and language), but what about an adult who has their livelihood stripped from them? Or, crippling disease, like Parkinson’s? Was it their fault? What shame must they feel at becoming totally dependent, once again, on others? I experienced this with my mother, who declined over her last years (almost 12 years, as I recall) little by little, from Parkinson’s, until at the end of her life, she was entirely immobile, in a skilled nursing facility, dependent on aides for all daily functions, yet still sentient, still able to talk … with a fainter and fainter vocalization ability, then one day she simply stopped breathing. It was her only release from the prison of her body.

3. Tension: initiative vs. guilt (virtue = “purpose”) … now that I have “will”, when can I use it safely? What can I get away with? Who doesn’t know this tension as an adult? I won’t elaborate, due to my desire to avoid self-incrimination … but, think of how you feel when you get caught! What if getting caught were to lead to prison time? To what stage would be beat your safest retreat?

4. Tension: industry vs. inferiority (virtue = “competence”) … although Erikson characterized this as the dominant tension among school age children, on into adolescence, don’t most of us have a gnawing feeling of incompetence through most of our professional lives? Or, for that matter, as a homeowner, or a parent, or a cook? While many of us will grow to accept that there are some things we just can’t do as well as other things, there may be cases where later progress through stages 5 -8 may have seemed assured, until suddenly one is confronted with a failure to perform competently in a life role where they have become accustomed to success. I’m reminded of the difficulty many older employees at my agency faced with new technology. Jobs which they performed perfectly well prior to the introduction of new digital technologies became impossible for them once typewriters, or word processors, or card catalogs, disappeared. I was a librarian for many years at the Library of Congress, and saw a wave of retirements, some premature, among this group back in the eighties and nineties. If they stayed on the job, many retreated to Stage 3, where they filled their time with less demanding tasks. I chose to reinvent my job, to become an IT specialist, perhaps merely a cover for a similar retreat!

   (continued in next post, p.2)

Good article to share, from Vox.com ... are you "science curious"?

#Resist ... from The Nation, a guide

Guide to #Resistance, from The Nation

Not intending to make Warp & Woof primarily political, but there's a place for this on The Past page ... it will be historical!

Warp & Woof: Welcome!

Welcome to Warp & Woof, a blog by William Sundwick. It is in the public domain. Free for all. Its purpose is to help its readers negotiate their lives and their futures … in the philosophical, moral and aesthetic realms.

It is not scholarly, and neither is it overtly religious. Its author, however, has come to believe that he has the tools to resist “fake news”, and he is a person of faith.

He wants to share with you some of the things he believes matter, hopefully offering up a regular enough dose that you will be motivated to keep checking in.

It has a structure. In version 1.0, there will be five thought compartments (pages) … but, some entries may be cross-posted in more than one compartment. These five “realms of deliberation” are:

 The Present

 … what matters, for sure!

                                              The Past

                                     … what used to matter       

The Future

                                                              … what may matter, who knows?   

 And, in a timeless space, these two:

                                           Totems

                                             … objects that matter (or mattered)  

Beats

    … sounds that matter, since we never get tired of hearing them! 

 Author’s Introduction

Now I want to switch to the first person, and translate … readers can expect entries dealing with health and fitness for seniors (that’s me) in The Present, along with some musings on psychological wellness. The Past will be filled with lots of philosophical meanderings about politics, sociology and history (I’m a liberal artsy type, undergraduate major in history, professional librarian for something like 30 years before imperceptibly transitioning to being an IT professional, until my retirement from the federal government in 2015).

Exciting, for me, new developments in science and technology will be found in The Future, along with a healthy dose of fear about things like global warming and other planetary or civilizational catastrophe! Perhaps that last is my apocalyptic frame of reference; it includes most of my thinking about economics and anthropology, as well. But, The Future is not a place for invective about the current state of American (or world) politics … those things may be found on the page for The Past!

In Totems, expect to see lots of apparently senseless information (call it my obsession) with cars, past, present, and future. I’m a “car guy”, by virtue mostly of my upbringing as a General Motors brat in Flint, MI in the fifties and sixties (the age of the “Chrome Colossus”).

Finally, in Beats, my other obsession comes to the fore: rock music, from the first British Invasion, hard blues, acid rock, punk, metal, techno … all coming to an end early in the millennium, as far as I can tell. If anybody thinks it’s still happening, please let me know! Yes, there will be audio here, and YouTube videos, when available.

All this describes the concept: version 1.0 of Warp & Woof. We’ll see how long I can keep it going, or how long before v.1.1, or even v.2.0, is released! If and when that happens, I hope my mission will remain unchanged: to help my readers see the “big picture” more clearly, to make the complex simple, and to have some fun while expanding both their peripheral vision and depth perception!

Oh, the title … the reader will hopefully appreciate its meaning as posts accumulate, revealing how interwoven they all are, across the five compartments, like the warp and woof of threads on a loom.

                      Me, on 1/15/17, my 34^th anniversary with wonderful soul-mate, and tolerant wife!