14 July 2009

Letter from Lhasa, number 113. (Brennan 1997): Heisenberg Probably Slept Here

Letter from Lhasa, number 113. (Brennan 1997): Heisenberg Probably Slept Here

by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi


Brennan, R. P., Heisenberg Probably Slept Here. The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Physicists of the 20th Century, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

(Brennan 1997).

Richard P. Brennan



(Brennan 1997) is a rapid but rigorous presentation of the lives and ideas of the main physicists of the 20th century and not only. The work is also useful for understanding that science is a high political matter, so battlefield of strong interests and powers.



Brennan, R. P., Heisenberg Probably Slept Here. The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Physicists of the 20th Century, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

13 July 2009

Letter from Lhasa, number 112. (Twerski 1997): Addictive Thinking

Letter from Lhasa, number 112. (Twerski 1997): Addictive Thinking

by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi


Twerski, A. J., Addictive Thinking. Understanding Self-deception, Hazelden Publishing, Center City, MN, USA, 1997.

(Twerski 1997).

Abraham J. Twerski



One tells oneself what one wants to listen. One understands what one wants to understand. People think in such an addicted way when they are addicted of themselves. It is what actually generally happens. In addition, the addict wants instant gratification. The addictive thinker does not reason. He/she acts instinctively. The addict feels grossly inadequate.


(Twerski 1997) in actually about addiction from substances and their influence on the way of thinking and behaving of the addict.


Addictive thinking may exist prior to the abuse of alcohol and other drugs. But there is one characteristic that appears to be generated by chemical addiction: manipulation.

Nonaddicts are occasionally manipulative, and addicts may have manipulated other people before they began to drink or use other drugs. But with the use of alcohol and other drugs, the problem escalates. People are forced into lying, covering up, and manipulating. Addicted people develop expertise at manipulating and, over time, this becomes an ingrained character trait.

(Twerski 1997, p. 63)


Since, an addict is manipulated from narcotics (either psychological or material or, quite certainly, both), and from the whole narcotics' “industry”, it would probably more correct to define the addict as a manipulated manipulator.


The addict nature is characterized more from self-shame than from guiltiness.

The main distinction between guilt and shame is this:

The guilty person says, "I feel guilty for something I have done."

The shame-filled person says, "I feel shame for what I am."

Why is the distinction so important? Because people can apologize, make restitution, make amends, and ask forgiveness for what they have done; they can do pathetically little about what they are. Alchemists during medieval times spent their working lives futilely trying to convert lead into gold. A person feeling shame doesn't even try, thinking, I cannot change my substance. If I'm made up of inferior material, there is no reason for me to make any effort to change myself. It would be an act of futility.

Guilt can lead to corrective action. Shame leads to resignation and despair.

Close analysis of addicted people often reveals very low selfesteem and deep-seated feelings of inferiority.”

(Twerski 1997, p. 67)


Actually, what (Twerski 1997) calls “shame” seems more narcissistic contemplation of one's abominable condition. If it is shame of oneself, it is also desire to perpetuate one's self-shameful condition. Differently, shame may be, in my opinion, a positive feeling, complement of morality and of equilibrated behaviours.


According (Twerski 1997), addictive thinking is nonspiritual. So, recovery from addiction needs a shift from addictive thinking to spirituality, whatever kind of spirituality. Actually, the addict is furiously in love with one's own addiction, without any real space for any spiritual or whatever other “affective” sphere.



Twerski, A. J., Addictive Thinking. Understanding Self-deception, Hazelden Publishing, Center City, MN, USA, 1997.

12 July 2009

Letter from Lhasa, number 111. (Brummer 2009): The Crunch

Letter from Lhasa, number 111. (Brummer 2009): The Crunch

by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi


Brummer, A., The Crunch. How Greed and Incompetence Sparked the Credit Crisis, Random House Business Books, London, UK, 2009.

(Brummer 2009).

Alex Brummer


It is not question of law of profit, as populist vulgata perhaps loves to claim. It is question of frauds with “the system” allowing them, until some intervention be finally inevitable at least for self-justifying in front of the popular masses, the so-called “public opinion”. The revenues of these frauds do not magically disappear. In the process, a lot of people earns and perhaps a lot more suffers, eventually heavy, losses. For instance, real estates do not disappear as well as the money paid for them. Money, eventually, moves to different pockets.


Certainly, the following economic depressions or prosperities are not imaginary. Finance is a key element of “the real [material] economy”.


Magically, a new business was invented: to sell real estates and the relative mortgages to people could not afford them. Companies expanded. Others were created. People were hired. New financial products were invented on this new business. Careers of professionals, of charlatans and of both were founded on it. It was not even a true new business. The traditional mortgage business was extended to who could not afford real estates. However, everybody was doing that. It seemed silly not to exploit the new chance. Could a manager let his shareholders without the additional and abundant profits of the new business? Could a sub-proletarian not to exploit the possibility to buy a house in some convenient area? “Sign here and everything will be all right!” “You could not afford it?! Resign here, even for more, and it'll become magically affordable for you and your family.


“But the sub-prime boom was not solely connected with the poor who were previously unable to get home loans. Brokers also found rich pickings in equity release among the working classes who had already achieved homeownership. These owner-occupiers were persuaded that they could raise cash by refinancing their homes. As ever, it was not fully explained to them how the 'teaser' rates worked.

“With the banks cashing in on sub-prime, it was small wonder that many Americans wanted to get in on the act. It was a bonanza that swelled the ranks of the lenders, as the man and woman in the street sensed 'pay dirt'. At one point the boom was so great that people with no banking qualifications or lending experience were joining in. (…) Between November 2001 and April 2005 housing and housing-related industries created an amazing 788,300 jobs across the US – 40 per cent of the total increase in employment during a period of sharp growth.”

(Brummer 2009, p. 23-24)


Too many poor people were induced to subscribe mortgages they could not repay. Only guarantees were the real estates they were buying. Their salaries were, frequently, even inferior to the installments they ought to pay or, anyway, clearly inadequate to the financial burden they were subscribing. These mortgages were transformed in financial products, with other additional broader effects. “It was what the banks did with the sub-prime loans that caused a financial crisis that spread far beyond America's shores. Regulators were reassured that because these sliced and diced, bundled up, sold-on loans were reaching right across the financial system there was no general risk to global stability. But the loans would become the second main link in a chain that not only brought about a crisis in the US property market but also led to the international credit crunch.” (Brummer 2009, p. 35)


How that could happen? “Sub-prime mortgages had been disguised as first-class assets and, best of all, yielded far better returns than quality debt.

“After all, it was the banks that paid the credit rating agencies, not the consumers and investors they were meant to protect.”

(Brummer 2009, p. 38-39)


“On 9 August [[2007]] the system appeared to be broken.”

[...]

“The first public signs of serious distress had come a week earlier, on 2 August, when three German banks revealed severe problems arising their exposure to sub-prime loans.”

(Brummer 2009, p. 57)


Everybody knew it ought to happen. However, everybody was concerned with the today advantages and hoped the inevitable tomorrow never rose. Salaries, benefits, profits etc were distributed... The machine was running.


Regulators were unwilling or incapable to do anything. They could. De facto, they did not do. “In the case of sub-prime lending and the credit crunch, the regulators failed so miserably that serious questions have to be asked about their role: their alertness, their responsibilities and the way they performed. Warnings about the credit risk and lack of liquidity were certainly available, but there was a leadership vacuum, and no one was willing to assume control and take the harsh disciplinary action that might have restrained the worst excesses and calmed the market.” (Brummer 2009, p. 110)


Economic depressions, crises or cracks periodically happen. It is physiological to the modern (alias capitalist) economic system. It would be extremely complex, perhaps impossible, to calculate a trade off with what would have happen if the “crazy machine” had been immediately repressed.


What happened had and is certainly having redistributive effects. If sub-proletarians and proletarians, or also middle classes, were illuded they could afford what they could not, other ones, in part the same ones, benefited from the running “crazy machine”. We do not want to tell that it was a zero-sum game. We have no element and we have done no research for asserting if and where there were, at macro-class level, earnings and losses. Economic and social effects are generally less simplistic than presented, before with the [easy] mortgage fashion, now with the mono-criminalization of the mortgage bubble.



Brummer, A., The Crunch. How Greed and Incompetence Sparked the Credit Crisis, Random House Business Books, London, UK, 2009.

03 July 2009

Letter from Lhasa, number 110. (O'Connor 2001): The NLP Workbook

Letter from Lhasa, number 110. (O'Connor 2001): The NLP Workbook

by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi


O'Connor, J., The NLP Workbook, Thorsons, 2001.

(O'Connor 2001).

Joseph O'Connor



Neuro-Linguistic Programming is about languages and individuals.


Reality is finally how it is perceived. Changing its perception changes one's being.


Visualizing goals is preliminary step for their concretization. Visualizing realistic steps permits building the necessary bridges and implementing concrete actions between our present realities and what would remain dreams without real acts towards them.


Languages, self-representations, determine what we are, how we act, so finally also how we are perceived.


Nothing is simple either simplistic, in this field. This workbook presents possible methods for dealing with different aspects the practitioner meets.



O'Connor, J., The NLP Workbook, Thorsons, 2001.

Letter from Lhasa, number 109. (Kunkel 2009): Instant Appeal

Letter from Lhasa, number 109. (Kunkel 2009): Instant Appeal

by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi


Kunkel, V., Instant Appeal. The 8 Primary Factors That Create Blockbuster Success, Amacom, 2009.

(Kunkel 2009).

Vicki Kunkel



“Contrary to popular belief, persuasion in not mostly psychological; it's anthropological and biological.” (Kunkel 2009, p. 12)


“(...) Instant Appeal shows how our reactions to stimuli are embedded in our DNA and are more biological, primal, and anthropological than psychological.

“ (…) Instant Appeal is about who gets heard, what gets our attention, who and what has staying power, and why.” (Kunkel 2009, p. 17-18)


(Kunkel 2009) examines, in seven chapters, the eight primal factors helping to achieve instant appeal:

1. The conspicuous flaw factor

2. The visual preprogramming factor

3. The reptilian comfort factor

4. The sacred cow factor and 5. The jackass factor

6. The biology of language factor

7. The biotuning factor

8. The mental real estate factor.


The exposition is supported from wide updated reference to psychological and marketing research.



Kunkel, V., Instant Appeal. The 8 Primary Factors That Create Blockbuster Success, Amacom, 2009.