tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15450512.post8187876995895467555..comments2023-11-05T06:27:24.362-06:00Comments on A Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens: Head BangingI Drink and I Know Things...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11608248895813409154noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15450512.post-73852420524899364742008-11-04T09:01:00.000-06:002008-11-04T09:01:00.000-06:00Actually, I think the resistance folks are right. ...Actually, I think the resistance folks are right. I think resistance is a way of asserting some power and dignity when there is almost none left. "I know I need to change, but damn if I will let you control that." I think channeling that power and anger is the answer. <BR/><BR/>If barriers were the answer -barriers of our unintentional creation, anyway- then, when people did change (and some do) they would change to look like us. And almost no one does that.I Drink and I Know Things...https://www.blogger.com/profile/11608248895813409154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15450512.post-21442871039035978972008-11-04T05:08:00.000-06:002008-11-04T05:08:00.000-06:00I was pretty much going to say the same thing as L...I was pretty much going to say the same thing as Lisa. I actually think it may be a bit condescending to call it "political resistance." To my uninformed mind (on this subject, at least, take with a shaker of salt), it sounds like the scholars are saying, "We don't understand it, and <I>we</I> surely wouldn't behave that way, so here's a high-minded potential rationale."<BR/><BR/>But those very scholars may <I>well</I> be unhealthy in a variety of ways. One of the smartest people of my acquaintance is a lifetime smoker and about 65. She's sure as hell not uninformed: she's a Manhattan-based literary agent and a classics grad from Bryn Mawr. And she's not an anomaly, either - go to any New York high rise or Washington government building or the City of London. You'll find smokers like airplanes stacked over O'Hare on a windy day. <BR/><BR/>Lisa's right that people have to want to change. And that desire has to extend to some deeper place than a simple, "I want." It has to resonate someplace in the human psyche that we find difficult to articulate. Think of how many very earnest, very committed people experience "success" on Weight Watchers or some other plan. They buckle down, they make the lifestyle changes, they get accolades from their family and friends, and they're right back where they started a year or six months later.<BR/><BR/>The people who were worried about "barriers" were probably on to something - but they were thinking about the wrong barriers. These are barriers that exist within every population, and they aren't about transportation or literacy. They're about being human.jillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13752779296599153304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15450512.post-23719209817852222912008-11-04T03:02:00.000-06:002008-11-04T03:02:00.000-06:00I am not a college-educated scholar on the subject...I am not a college-educated scholar on the subject of social work...<BR/><BR/>But it seems to me that these classes, like any "intervention" on any level, don't work because people have to <I>choose</I> to change in order for there to be any possibility for change to happen. And even that isn't always enough.<BR/><BR/>Outside the social work arena... People diet and then gain back all the weight. People take money management classes and then declare bankruptcy. People take parenting classes and then fall back into the parenting model they learned from their own parents... VERY difficult to change such ingrained behaviors. I can attest to that in my own life.<BR/><BR/>The most likely "secret" to addressing these negative behaviors in poor people--in <I>any</I> people--is to try to get the proper training to them when it will do some good: when they are very young and their lifetime behaviors are still being imprinted.<BR/><BR/>I didn't say I knew how to go about doing that...I just said it was likely to be the most successful tactic...Lisa :-]https://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com