[size=150]Pavlovian Dancing[/size]
Here I do not know that I take exactly what is of the ideas around Pavlovian Conditioning. Rather I use the term “pavlovian” to signify the formulation of many behaviors so as to indicate the solution to the nature of both personal and societal habits of the unnecessary and detrimental types. I believe this may be all extendable to almost anything involving interaction between anything thinking and perhaps simply anything living.
First I will discuss what I will call a Pavlovian Vice. A pavlovian vice is when someone has associated a thing with negativity for a long time, and then when that thing is not permeating negativity that person continues to associate that thing with negativity. An example of this might be if I were to always smell bad and have bad armpit odor because I do not as frequently wash and do not as frequently wear deodorant if at all. Over time a fellow used to your company may associate negativity to your smell, consider that it is bad to smell of BO be that for whatever reason (I suspect a bit of Pavolvian conditioning having lead to that in the first place, on a social level), nonetheless that person begins to think you smell bad. Then one day after I shower and also put on deodorant right before going out to lunch with this person, that person insists that I not hold my arm up because I have bad body odor. Now that would be simple enough as considered a logical fallacy; assuming that most of the time means all of the time. But then that same person actually insists that you do smell of body odor. When you point out such is not possible they continue to insist and might say such as, “what do you think I am hallucinating.” In which case you might could say they are, but not quite, rather they are experiencing a Pavlovian Vice, wherein they have negatively associated with an action, that of a raised arm pit, significant negativity long enough to then actually experience that negativity and disorientation and even feel the negative smell simply as a result of conditioning. Think of it as a natural survival instinct to a degree, an instinct though that can have its positive aspects retained and the rest discarded such as to further civilizing people. The natural instinct is the same as to why, for example, an animal might develop harder skin in conditions wherein there is more penetrating and harsh skin conditions; likewise as one abused learns to recoil so does the nose learn to recoil in the previous case and therein this recoiling is that of the sensation of smell. This is a case I saw in a friend. One might wonder why I would call such a vice, I do so because it can lead to social complication; as in one might dislike and thus fight someone over a silly negative association to something actually in a positive state. These vices are such as well because they lead to expenditure on fixing what does not need to be fixed rather than fixing the reaction of the self. However, Pavlovian Vices can occur elsewhere; across an entire society not just for a single person. For example the association of body with negativity has pervaded beyond necessity. Personally I would think that body odor was once acceptable and that it was largely the association with positive scents that thin in contrast lead to the relative association of negativity to the absence of those scents and thus another sort of Pavlovian Vice. Surely a vice in that there is no need to have a negative association with “normal” body odor in so far as it is not indicative of a lack of cleanliness. In other words a person can go around with what might, in this day and age, be considered “stinky” arm pits for maybe two weeks before they were really of a level of dirtiness where cleaning was needed, at least of the arm pits. Though I am not certain of the time frame but I imagine one can have smelly armpits for quite some time and not really be detrimentally dirty, in fact I might say that being a little less obsessively clean can aid the immune system, whereas obsessive washing for example can lead to the atrophy of the immune system to at least a small degree.(Every little bit adds up over time, thus I do not believe in insignificance of such things that can aid the prevention of waste.) An example of the nature of the pavolvian vice further can be in the evidence of where I had just taken a shower, and someone thought that I smelled. Surely I did, all things have smell, but the matter is that the smell was associated with negativity when it did not need to be, clearly I was clean as I had just taken a shower, and I had even used scented soap as well. What this may further suggest is that there are particular smells associated with deodorant that then when not smelled lead to assumptions of negativity in there being a lack of what was the expected positivity.
Ultimately the above mentioned should be classified as Negative Pavlovian Vices. There can also be Positive Pavolovian Vices. This is where one associates positivity with something and then when it becomes negative they continue to associate positivity to it. These are those less easily expected, less easily seen, and less easily accepted. Though a more common example of where a Positive Pavlovian Vice can occur might be drugs, specifically one like marijuana which is not physically addictive. (I would say that physical alteration can be included in pavlovian conditioning but many will find such a stretch, I find it a unific metaphor such as to signify interrelation between behavioral tendencies…) Marijuana is not typically even very psychologically addictive in my opinion, I would refer though to what many rather accurately call psychological addiction as a Positive Pavlovian Vice, wherein one experiences quite often pleasure and happiness from the drug, not in so far as a literal physical increase in happy-chemicals (at least of significance beyond that of a the good taste of a soft drink), but just that it makes things more enjoyable and it is fun. As a result smoking marijuana becomes continuously associated with fun, thus pleasure, and then when a situation comes around where it is not so good then the positive association can be continued by some, clearly not all; many in this case have the will to overcome. But then I have seen in others as well as in myself, the condition of smoking marijuana when one could have otherwise done something more beneficial, such as go to work or school, or study or learn, rather than consume entertainment. Of course many do not merely consume when on marijuana, rather I am pointing out wherein the use of the thing can actually be negative as a result of associating the thing with positivity to too high of a degree. This one many say is largely avoidable on the conscious level, to that I would say that more and more pavlovian conditioning is avoidable the more conscious you are. A more drastic Positive Pavlovian Vice might be associating a particular form of joke with laughing and thus hilarity and then when in a situation where laughing at such would result in ostracizing one can’t help but laugh. The first example of this that comes to mind on a societal scale is that of the ancient Christian church wherein it began to do the more negative things but people had always associated it with positivity and thus continued to even when it became negative. Again this could have been consciously avoided but such is the case with most Pavlovian Vices.
Finally there is what I would call Pavlovian Dancing. Pavlovian Dancing is where a person is aware of the nature of positive and negative pavlovian vices and constantly growing there capacity to recognize and avoid all forms of pavlovian vices. This of course is done by being aware of things on a more logical level so as to avoid falling into a pattern of definitive association rather than having associative shifting capacity. It is one thing to avoid pavlovian vices, but one of the keys is recognizing using this such as to associate pleasure or positivity to things less likely to result in negativity and associating negativity only with things less likely to be positive. All for the sake of what is best. That is to say that one should for example learn to associate water with pleasure rather than overly sugar filled drinks as such would then be healthier and as water is already a necessity one might as well associate positivity to a higher degree, and take pleasure in drinking it because of its nature as to allow benefit more frequently and thus overall more benefit over more time.(such one could metaphorically call; turning water into wine) Yet at the same time it is important to maintain balance and not force the mind into a state of what I would call Pavlovain Muddle wherein one over associates things in their Pavlovian Dancing. For example one might associate too much pleasure with drinking water and drown themselves, or drink so much their kidneys fail, yet fortunately a wise person might associate pleasure with this in the first place due to the low likely hood that someone is going to ‘overdo it’. Also it would seem important not to attempt a state of limitless euphoria wherein one associates all things with pleasure and goodness, as then one might, say, jump off a cliff thinking it would be pleasure or do something that would otherwise be reductive to the overall capacity to receive benefit. Keep in mind that I would extenuate the benefit of one as requiring the benefit of as many as possible due to interconnection of the environment in all its forms social and the more physical. So this shows that it is important to associate things that are not beneficial with negativity, this does not mean they have to be associated with agitation, as such is in itself detrimental, rather one should associate the things not beneficial with negativity but remain aware of the benefit of doing such so as to then recognize contented pleasure in respect to balance.
One of the largest problems with this though is wherein there are Societal Pavlovian Vices. These are very hard to lead to being overcome for the more that do it the more others think it is right. If it is thought good the more the people will think for sure that it must be good, the more it is thought bad the more people will think it is bad. Many, even when shown such, disregard it as being inconsequential often thinking that it is not significantly wasteful often not seeing how when done on such a broad scale it is. Just as recycling fixes a problem and it was said to be important that every little bit counts so too is it that the little bit of energy, both of time, of labor, and actual electricity put into the building of such things as deodorant; is while a small waste in the instance, a large waste on the scale of the greater population. The problem then, as many might find, is that if you go around not wearing deodorant people will associate you with negativity and think you are an unclean and bad person, then if you attempt to argue with them it will take a dissertation, which will be too long for their willing attention. As a result people might see that in many cases one has to submit to the will of the mob so as to keep from being trampled. However there is then the too common problem of people just offering no resistance whatsoever, not realizing that to slow the mob all one has to do is offer just that little bit of resistance that is not too much. And over time given more and more resistance and the spreading of the thought the Societal Pavlovian Vice, the vice can be overcome. Just as gayness become prevalent over time as a result of the will of the few to stand up against the mob and offer resistance. So for example, in this rather menial seeming case of deodorant; one does not need to stop wearing it all together as of instantly but can rather wear less, allow themselves to smell every now and then, not care as much, mention the silliness of it all when it comes up, and then when it becomes evident one must comply so as to keep from being run over then so be it. But then it is important to apply this to many things, and realize that the reason one needs to keep from being run over the mob is greatly important in that it allows for them to resist further down the road, and help in the long run more effectively. With regards to any alteration to society: It would then seem that one might be wise to strike with shock the mob by allowing there death when life is evident to no longer be of the capacity to be productive, to then use that death to force the point, or it does not have to be death, but rather allow the social death of ostracizing when social mingling is no longer important so as then to stand up and make room for others, For the more that stand up the more expected becomes standing up and the more expected thus the more accepted.
