Better take more ketamine...

I never actually understood why getting a conservative state Supreme Court in Wisconsin entrenched for some years was supposed to be so important anyway, but if Elon doesn't get the message that his personal brand is poison at the moment after spending millions on this pointless exercise, he'll never learn.

MADISON, Wis. — A liberal candidate for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court glided to victory Tuesday, overcoming a flood of political cash from tech billionaire Elon Musk in a race seen as a referendum on him and President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press called the race a little over an hour after the polls closed.

Musk and groups affiliated with him invested more than $20 million in the race. The top Trump adviser and leader of Tesla and SpaceX handed out cash prizes to generate interest in the race. At a rally Sunday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he cast the election as one that could chart the course of Western civilization because of what it could mean for Trump’s agenda.

But Musk’s spending and hyperbolic framing weren’t enough to win the most expensive court race in U.S. history. The contest cost more than $100 million, nearly doubling the past record and putting it in line with top Senate races.

 

The "authentic self" discussed

I've only recently found Joe Folley's philosophy Youtube channel, but I'm liking what I've watched so far.

This video, about the modern idea prevalent in self help advice, of the importance of "finding" and living in accordance with your "authentic self" is pretty good and expresses scepticism I have long had with the whole approach:

 

I would have liked it to reference Aristotelian virtue ethics more, and also perhaps make more of a connection to the whole free will debate as well, but it's a good start!

It also reminded me about how long "acting authentically" has been in the psychological parlance.  I remember a snippet of a conversation with a priest in my teenage years who was leaving the priesthood, and I am sure that he said that the reason was that he found too many people in the church were not living "authentically."   I think he was into a particular series of Catholic pop psychology books at the time, the name and author of which I now forget, because I never found them very convincing or helpful.   And, who knows?, given that we are talking of the 1970's and the post sexual revolution period, he may have been making a coded reference to either him or other priests being gay (or straight) and living out a secret sex life.   Anyway, I didn't quite know what the term was meant to cover then, and didn't care for the looseness of meaning, and haven't shaken that feeling for 50 odd years!

Update:  I also am often reminded of CS Lewis's book Til We Have Faces whenever this issue comes to my attention.