QuoteJohn Gray's career spans several decades, during which he has been at the forefront of political philosophy. His intellectual trajectory has been marked by a steadfast opposition to the optimistic assumptions of human progress. Through his works, he has dismantled the notion that the trajectory of humanity is one of continuous improvement.

Gray's philosophical pessimism sets him apart from other intellectuals. He argues that the belief in human progress — whether in the form of political, social, or economic improvement — is both misguided and dangerous. Gray contends that progress is a myth, one that often leads to harmful ideologies, including the rise of liberalism, which he critiques for its emphasis on individual rights and its assumption of universal human values.

Key works such as Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002) challenge the foundations of humanism and anthropocentrism. Gray criticizes the way humans have historically placed themselves at the center of the universe, believing in their ability to control nature and shape history. In his view, humans are not inherently superior to other animals, and this belief in human exceptionalism only leads to destructive behaviors toward the environment and other species.

https://writerblog.co.uk/john-gray/

QuoteA Scorpion arrived at the bank of a wide, rushing river. He stared at the water, feeling uneasy. He didn't know how to swim.

Just then, he spotted a Frog resting among the reeds.

"Frog," he said, "could you carry me on your back to the other side?"

The Frog looked at him warily.

"No way. If you get on my back, you'll sting me, and I'll die."

The Scorpion slowly shook his head.

"That wouldn't make any sense," he replied. "If I sting you, you would die... but so would I, because I would drown."

The Frog, convinced by his logic, hesitated for a moment... and finally nodded.
"All right. Hop on."

The Scorpion carefully climbed onto her back, and the Frog dived into the river.

For a while, they moved forward in silence, carried gently by the current.

But when they were halfway across the river, the Scorpion raised his stinger... and struck.

The Frog felt a sharp burst of pain and realized her body was starting to fail.

"Why did you do it?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper, as they both began to sink.

The Scorpion, already losing his strength, replied:

"I couldn't help it... it's my nature."

And together, they disappeared beneath the water.


https://runruneando.com/en-us/stories/the-scorpion-and-the-frog

QuoteA recent small study analyzes how the psychedelic drug LSD reshapes brain activity. The research shows that the substance boosts widespread neural synchronization while blurring the boundaries between sensory perception and abstract thought. Through computer modeling and brain scans, researchers found that LSD alters the balance of excitement and inhibition in specific brain circuits, potentially pulling the mind out of entrenched patterns.

https://www.psypost.org/how-lsd-reshapes-brain-circuitry-to-blur-the-lines-between-perception-and-though/

QuoteOnce there were two children. Dolores was seven, and Sandra was five. They lived in a small house in the country with their mother and their baby brother, Arthur. Their father was a seaman and he was away on a long voyage, but he was expected back any minute.

One day Dolores and Sandra were running across a field near their house when they met a gypsy girl playing a drum. Her family was camping in the field for a few days.

As the girl played, a little mechanical man and a little mechanical woman came out of the drum and they danced. Dolores and Sandra had never seen such a drum, and they begged the girl to give it to them. She looked at them and she laughed. "I will give it to you," she said, "but only if you are really bad. Come back tomorrow and tell me how bad you were, and I will see."

As soon as the two sisters got home, they started shouting, which was against the rules in their house. Then they wrote all over the walls with their crayons. At supper, they spilled their food. And when it was time for bed, they wouldn't go. They did everything they could think of to upset their mother. They were really bad.

Early the next morning, they hurried off to find the gypsy girl. "We were really bad yesterday," they told her, "so please give us the drum." But when they told her what they had done, the gypsy girl laughed. "Oh, you must be much worse than that if you want the drum," she said.

As soon as Dolores and Sandra got home, they pulled up all the flowers in the garden. They let the pig out, and they chased it away. They tore their clothes. They sloshed in the mud. They were a lot worse than the day before. "If you do not stop," their mother said, "I will go away and take Arthur with me. And you will get a new mother with glass eyes and a wooden tail."

That scared Dolores and Sandra. They loved their mother, and they loved Arthur. They could not imagine being without them, and they began to cry. "I don't want to leave you," their mother said. "But unless you change your behavior, I will have to leave you."

"We'll be good," the girls promised. Yet they did not really believe that their mother would go away. "She is trying to scare us," Dolores said later. "We'll get the drum tomorrow," said Sandra. "Then we'll be good again".

Early the next morning, they rushed off to find the gypsy girl. When they found her, she was playing the drum again, and the little man and the little woman were dancing. They told the gypsy girl how bad they had been the day before. "That must be bad enough to get the drum," they said. "Oh, no," said the gypsy girl. "You must be much worse than that." "But we promised our mother to be good from now on," said the girls. "If you really want the drum," said the gypsy girl, "you must be much worse." "It's one more day," Dolores told Sandra. "Then we will have the drum." "I hope you're right," Sandra said.

As soon as they got home, they beat the dog with a stick. They broke the dishes. They tore their clothes to pieces. They spanked their baby brother Arthur. Their mother began to cry. "We will be good," Said Dolores. "We promise," said Sandra. "Please try." said their mother.

Early the next morning, before their mother was awake, Dolores and Sandra ran to see the gypsy girl. They told her all about the bad things they had done the day before. "We were horrid," said Sandra. "We were worse than we have ever been," said Dolores. "Can we have the drum now, please?"

"No," said the gypsy girl. "I never meant to give it to you. It was just a game we were playing. I thought you knew that."

Dolores and Sandra began to cry. They rushed home as quickly as they could. But their mother and Arthur were gone. "They are out shopping," said Dolores. "They'll be back soon." But they were still not back when the time for lunch came. Dolores and Sandra felt lonely and scared. They wandered through the fields the rest of the day. "Maybe they will be home when we get back." said Dolores.

When they got home, they saw through the window that the lamps were lit, and there was a fire in the fireplace. But they did not see their mother and Arthur. Instead, there was their new mother-her glass eyes glistening, her wooden tail thumping on the floor.

https://scary-stories.fandom.com/wiki/The_Drum

QuoteWhen asked to reflect on what form their thoughts
take, people who score low on both inner speech and
visual imagery claim that they "think in concepts." What
it means to think in concepts without relying on lan
guage is not clear. Beyond informal self-reports, the
existence of such nonverbal and nonperceptual phe
nomenal experiences is supported by Descriptive Expe
rience Sampling (Heavey & Hurlburt, 2008; Hurlburt &
Akhter, 2006). When participants are probed at random
times and asked to report on their mental states, approx
imately 22% of the time their reports are consistent with
what Hurlburt and colleagues have called "unsymbol
ized thinking." In such episodes, people feel that they
think "a particular, definite thought without awareness
of that thought being conveyed as words, images, or
any other symbols" (Heavey & Hurlburt, 2008, p. 802).
Unsymbolized thinking is a slippery construct that tends
to be defined in terms of what it is not. For example,
Hurlburt and Akhter (2008) described it as "a thinking,
not a feeling, not an intention, not an intimation, not a
kinesthetic event, not a bodily event" (p. 1366). A telling
example is a participant wondering whether her friend
will arrive in a car or pickup truck but not experiencing
any words or images; rather, the question is experienced
as a single undifferentiated whole.

https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10547757

Quote from: GoldSoul on Jul 12, 2026, 10:19 PMI am unsure. I knew of a programmer who would score highish on an aptitude test; he claimed to have no inner speech. I've also heard of people who can't visualize objects in their minds and they seem to be functional. Maybe it's the same kind of disconnect that blind people have which results in compensating in other areas.