{"id":63541,"date":"2022-09-18T07:25:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T12:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63541"},"modified":"2022-09-18T07:25:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-18T12:25:13","slug":"in-brief-trading-safety-an-inflection-point-the-crisis-of-under-consumption-a-reign-of-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63541","title":{"rendered":"In Brief: Trading safety, An inflection point, The crisis of under-consumption, A reign of decline"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Brief: Trading safety, An inflection point, The crisis of under-consumption, A reign of decline<\/a><\/h3>\n

Trading safety<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Within the inner sanctum of one of the world\u2019s oldest and most esteemed universities, an ageing professor sits in a battered leather armchair.\u00a0 Oblivious to the day-to-day sensations within the room \u2013 the slow tick and tock of an antique grandfather clock, the shimmering particles of dust caught in the beam of sunlight making its way through the sash window, or the odour of the worn, dusty and tea-stained carpet \u2013 our professor meditates upon the deeper mysteries of the universe.\u00a0 In the adjacent reception sits a dragon secretary, whose main role in life is to guard the inner sanctum and to ensure that none of the mundane workings of a modern university be allowed to disturb the professor\u2019s haven of tranquillity.<\/p>\n

After three decades of neoliberal governments turning universities from bastions of knowledge and inquiry into the individual units of a\u00a0cargo cult-based Ponzi scheme<\/a>, this vision of a university may be but a reflection of a lost past.\u00a0 It is, however, a metaphor for the way in which the human brain works \u2013 just like the dragon secretary \u2013 to prevent any of the millions of pieces of data that flood in through the senses from disturbing peace of mind.<\/p>\n

When the mechanism \u2013 which psychologists call the \u201cAffective Signalling System,\u201d which causes us to seek pleasure and avoid danger \u2013 works properly, any sudden change in the environment will be allowed to enter the conscious mind.\u00a0 This is a safety mechanism wired in by ancestors who needed to know if that rustle in the grass or snapping of a twig might indicate the presence of a predator hungry for a hominid meal.\u00a0 And even within that tranquil inner sanctum, the odds are that our professor will notice immediately if the old grandfather clock stops ticking.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Brief: Trading safety, An inflection point, The crisis of under-consumption, A reign of decline Trading safety Within the inner sanctum of one of the world\u2019s oldest and most esteemed universities, an ageing professor sits in a battered leather armchair.\u00a0 Oblivious to the day-to-day sensations within the room \u2013 the slow tick and tock of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[658,31962,31360],"class_list":["post-63541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-liberty","tag-psychology","tag-the-consciouness-of-sheep","tag-tim-watkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63542,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63541\/revisions\/63542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}