Trusting The “Like” Heart

I read or listen to hundreds of books every year.   My favorite topics include poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, history, sociology, and criminology. 

I am Silver Sneakers status and figuring out how things work is very good for my aging brain because it gives my brain new information to attach to the old information.  I have a lot of old information readily available these days because as we age that information is more easily accessed. Plenty of otherwise mundane memories move forward in the flotsam. Ask any elderly person “tell me a story from your past,” and they will give you ten. 

Whenever I meet up with other PhDs–doctors, dentists, social service workers, ophthalmologists, lawyers, detectives, writers, teachers, professors, morticians–I’ve known for years, we talk about these same subjects too.  

I consider a carpenter a PhD too, and that Rodent Removal guy in your neighborhood? He has a PhD in sociology whether he is willing to admit it or not.  Both relearn and learn new systems all day long. 

Mostly my professional friends and acquaintances recommend books.  We love explaining the premise of books to each other.  It happened yesterday.  I got a book recommendation on the healthcare industry, “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” by Atul Gawande, and now it’s on my list.  Because she recommended it, I trust her opinion because I have been in-person hearing her opinions for many years. 

Sociopaths can be brilliant too.  Fun to chat with. Artistic. Charming.  The online format can be deceptive though. The “like heart” used to be so desirable, collecting “like hearts” meant heaps of approval.  A big shot of dopamine. Being educated and being able to process this kind of information quickly is an advantage for some if they decide to use this skill to manipulate others.  The Human Resource Department on Billions deliberately hires sociopaths. 

I’ve complained about this before, the way many industries have been infiltrated with undercover Republicans ready to destroy everything in their sight–the healthcare industry for example (try to find a doctor’s office in close range in West Virginia when you need it!)–but the departments I love most–the English Department, Creative Writing Departments, and Non-Profit Art Programs in general are included too. 

I loved teaching.  I don’t think a day goes by when I don’t miss it, but right now I am a full-time writer.  I no longer apply for academic jobs, but my friends and former colleagues still do and my heart goes out to everyone out there trying to figure out who is telling the truth and who is lying.  Like other industries, the monster on our block is a mediocre white person that can be hired to be fired later.  An undercover MAGA can be hired as the director of the nonprofit arts program in a conservative state and draw a big salary with full benefits, and procede to do nothing but create pain for others, including when they deliberately hand out grants to other conservative amateur artists.

Not all Sociopaths are registered Republicans or even vote.  Sociopaths don’t care if they hurt others and are indifferent to right and wrong, but one thing they know for sure: they are being watched. They know the law and they know how to protect their rights in a pinch.  They know how to manipulate and harass without being caught.  

Sociopaths know that “like hearts” from others can be insincere.  “Like hearts” can be a way to store information for later, a way to fluff her ego, a way to harass him as in, “Hey, I am out here watching you!” 

However, because the sociopath assumes everyone else is stupid (they do, they DO) the sociopath goes into overdrive trying to embarrass others first (because it turns them on).  

Meet up with a sociopath late in life and witness first hand the rage they feel for seeing you again, for being robbed of their moment, for not becoming a star in their field, and if they can’t scale the big dream, no one else can have it either! Sociopaths may be brilliant artists and when they are simply mediocre, well, they think it’s funny, something they have gotten away with.

Yesterday the monsters on my radar screwed up big time.  I hope it ends for them soon.  

This is our world: except for when we turn off our phones, go for walks, scrub our bathroom floors, sing to that beautiful infant in our arms–we can’t help watching everyone else.  We must protect ourselves.  This is our world. 

I recommend this book, “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America” by Author Ijeoma Oluo.