Alexandra Wolfe on the deleterious effects of TMPR (Too Much Positive Reinforcement):<\/p>\n
We’ve become so inured to the idea that a person’s self-assessment need not be changed by a little thing like repeated and utter failure<\/em> that no one was the least surprised when Joe Lieberman took so long to throw in the towel. Before New Hampshire, he said, “The people of New Hampshire put me in the ring, and that’s where we’re going to stay.” Jon Stewart on The Daily Show<\/em> put it best: “When did our elections become the Special Olympics? You’re not all winners. Not everybody gets a hug. You guys got crushed.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSorry I haven’t posted anything in 10 days. I’ve been busy at work, traveling for a conference, and doing a lot of formulating for longer essayistic VM<\/em> entries (pop music, foreign policy, translations of love, and the white whale I call Gold\/Stopwatch).<\/p>\nAlso, I’ve been battling a mini-depression, but I like to pretend I’ve overcome it (of course, if I had, I wouldn’t be writing this sort of thing at 12:30am on Sunday\/Monday, but hey).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alexandra Wolfe on the deleterious effects of TMPR (Too Much Positive Reinforcement): We’ve become so inured to the idea that a person’s self-assessment need not be changed by a little thing like repeated and utter failure that no one was the least surprised when Joe Lieberman took so long to throw in the towel. Before … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “You Are Not a Beautiful, Unique Snowflake”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-2p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18292,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-687-ida-kao","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":0},"title":"Episode 687 – Ida Kao","author":"Gil","date":"August 19, 2026","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 687: Ida Kao \"I can point to a dozen different problems that all meaningfully contributed to why Hampshire is closing now. How all those things accumulated is pretty tragic.\" \"There are ways to downsize a college, but with Hampshire it felt more like a hollowing-out.\" Our latest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaobannerhamplives.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaobannerhamplives.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaobannerhamplives.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaobannerhamplives.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaobannerhamplives.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18254,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-686-halstead-york","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":1},"title":"Episode 686 – Halstead York","author":"Gil","date":"August 3, 2026","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 686: Halstead York \"The core Hampshire experience was figuring out how to do things for myself and figuring out how to excite other people about what I wanted to do.\" It's time for the first installment of The Hampshire Tapes! Halstead York (F88) joins the show to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/halsteadcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C525&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/halsteadcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C525&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/halsteadcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C525&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/halsteadcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C525&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/halsteadcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C525&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":821,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/821","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":2},"title":"Get Smart","author":"Gil","date":"January 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I attended the Graduate Institute at St. John's College in Annapolis, MD from 1993-1995. At the end of that period, I was awarded a Master of Arts, Liberal Arts degree (we nicknamed it the evil Spanish woman degree, or M.A.L.A.). During four different job interviews (between 1995 and 1997), the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2027,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/final-tale-of-hofmann","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":3},"title":"Final Tale of Hofmann","author":"Gil","date":"April 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was a student at Hampshire College, the annual Halloween tradition was known as \"Trip or Treat.\" Being a total square, I never partook. For a variety of reasons, I wish I'd tried acid, but it's a bit late in life for that. Anyway, Albert Hofmann, the man who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/archieacid.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14805,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-458-robert-emmet-meagher","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":4},"title":"Episode 458 – Robert Emmet Meagher","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2021","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 458: Robert Emmet Meagher \"As I grew as a thinker, as a scholar, as a teacher, I took Camus with me, and my appreciation of him grew as I did.\" With Albert Camus and the Human Crisis (Pegasus Books), professor Robert Emmet Meagher distills a half-century of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meaghercomp.jpg?fit=1145%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meaghercomp.jpg?fit=1145%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meaghercomp.jpg?fit=1145%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meaghercomp.jpg?fit=1145%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/meaghercomp.jpg?fit=1145%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1484,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/im-hyper-trans-post-modern","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":5},"title":"I’m Hyper-Trans-Post-Modern","author":"Gil","date":"May 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was an undergraduate at Hampshire (1990-1993), I didn't really understand what \"the culture wars\" were. I just thought it was a hassle that I had to go over to UMass to take a Shakespeare course, since the only offering we had was \"Shakespeare's Treatment of Women.\" I ended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}