you can find work or create work that feels like it serves a greater purpose, though i admit it is hard to find and often comes with a heap of bullshit on the side.
that said, i think "taking care of myself" can be worthy purpose enough.
so if we were the player characters right now, who the heck picked me, why would they play me this way? what kind of person would want to play this out - someone very like me or very different? couldn't they have rolled again for better hair? i dunno, interesting thought experiment. 🤔
it's a complicated issue, and we need to get society on board with the idea of treating mental health (to both a sufficient and humane degree) in addition to physical health. moving away from the institutionalization model was intended to ensure people weren't just locked away to rot at the state hospital under the "supervision" of indifferent or hostile caretakers.
without community support and with the move toward profit-driven healthcare, people aren't going to get what they need. now our institutions are just literal prisons instead of asylums.
but anyway, i know you know most of this already (the shortcomings of the profit-driven model), as someone working in healthcare.
maybe not... a high profile case like this may well have attracted the attention of more competent psychiatrists, or motivated his care team/state to seek it out. it also seems possible to me that his psychosis was very treatable with the right meds, but that he had not been able to access that care previously.
so yeah. mental health care is health care, and in this case it's important not only to the well-being of Mr. Smith but to his community as well. i agree with you that, for the american "justice" system, most cases are treated as it punishment is the correct response.
well, the particular manifestation of his psychosis isn't common (eating people), but psychotic disorders aren't super uncommon and they still aren't as well understood as we might like. unfortunately, not everyone responds well to treatment - it can take some effort to figure out which meds are effective and for some minority of patients, nothing really helps at all.
in this case, it sounds like he responded very well and perhaps (haven't read more than what's posted above) had not been treated before. at the very least, treated insufficiently well, clearly. it doesn't hurt that he was forced to receive treatment and supervision for a long period of time, and given his high profile case, maybe got the best psychiatric care available to him. i'm happy he was able to get some help.
supposedly. not at the local grocery chain, according to them. at the pharmacy chain i can get one, but my teens will only get them if they are covered by state health insurance, which they aren't. my income from my new job stopped that instantly, but my coverage doesn't start until november. they're in limbo.
edit - so i'm just waiting. i guess i could get mine at least.
i'm late gen x (78), that's more comfortable to me than being lumped with millennials. (the caveat being, i suppose, that we're dissimilar in some respects from early gen x.)
internet was not widely available until about the time i started college, and gen x media defined popular culture at that time. i also relate to the notion of being the child of two working parents - the first generation of latchkey kids.
i tend to see millennials as people who were kids when i was in school - and they grew up with the internet.
i'm with you. late x'er here. my boomer parents' promises never panned out, my retirement plan is work until i die or check out early if i can't manage it.
getting lumped in with boomers when i have been served the same shit as the younger generations gets old, but the minds of people who never didn't have internet is still a bit of a mystery to me.
funny how appropriate the x nomer and all it implies about our generation turned out to be.
i mean, he may very well not have paid. this is the guy who refused to pay rent on headquarters, and two different people quit/were fired because they wouldn't just... not pay rent on his orders.
has he paid rent since? as far as i can tell, he just gets away with this shit. edit - looks like an eviction notice was issued this summer, so i'm guess he still hasn't paid.
at this point, i'm not sure where to buy most things and not get garbage. every online platform is trying to emulate amazon and become a "marketplace" filled with unvetted cheap shit; stores often have little stock and no one with expertise.
i need a lamp for my office. where do i buy something i can ensure is safe and well made? i have no idea.
i realize this is a small concern relative to the larger failures of capitalism, but free market competition isn't even successful at providing basic goods and services.
you can find work or create work that feels like it serves a greater purpose, though i admit it is hard to find and often comes with a heap of bullshit on the side.
that said, i think "taking care of myself" can be worthy purpose enough.