Like I said – great place to hone your debating skill and watch the Collectivist mind thought in process. And Gaia worship….and did I say Collectivism? This one started off OK and then devolved into a quick shot of inanity:
Money can’t fix circadian rhythm problems. Sunlight and freedom can
Circadian rhythm lighting products won’t fix body clock problems. Circadian rhythms have been making the news lately. Humans (and animals, and plants) have circadian rhythms — wake and sleep cycles programmed into every cell. These inner clocks tell us when to wake up, and when to fall asleep. And humans seem determined to ignore them, causing us all kinds of problems, from inability to concentrate to sleep problems to depression.
OK, fair enough – TMEW, among other things, suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder when the days gets shorter so I know what the author, Ilana Strauss, is talking about and the first parts of her post are ok for the most part. However, the inanity comes when she says that employers should put up with basically anything that would “mitigate” the folks that share this disorder:
(emphasis mine)
A huge number of people have circadian rhythm disorders (including up to 16 percent of teenagers). And many more, like typical “night owls,” may not meet the definition for a disorder, but they still suffer. They don’t need better lighting. They need understanding. They need bosses and teachers and administrators who let them work and study according to their inner programming, not society’s outdated standards.
“While most people can relate to these times of alertness and drowsiness, some have extremely different biological clocks,” continues The Dish on Science. “In all cases, sufferers can sleep an unbroken eight hours and feel well rested, but simply can’t choose the eight hours that are ‘normal’.”
Businesses and medical professionals often pathologize these problems, making them about individuals. But if you can fix a medical condition by simply not threatening someone with expulsion or joblessness, then it’s not a medical condition. It’s exploitation.
We’ve got a societal problem here, not a series of individual diseases. And a societal problem demands societal solutions. More windows, later school start times, and flexible work hours will get us much further than bright light alarm clocks.
Ah, no. While I am always pro-Individualism (as opposed to Collectivism), this hit me as pure anarchy and the permission to do be catered to. Sure, accommodations can and should be tried when possible but that’s not what she demanding. Of course, I left a comment:
Your title includes “Sunlight and freedom can”. I got the Sunlight part (my wife suffers from this problem) but where’s the “Freedom” part? This?
“They need understanding. They need bosses and teachers and administrators who let them work and study according to their inner programming, not society’s outdated standards. While most people can relate to these times of alertness and drowsiness, some have extremely different biological clocks,” continues The Dish on Science. “In all cases, sufferers can sleep an unbroken eight hours and feel well rested, but simply can’t choose the eight hours that are ‘normal’.” Businesses and medical professionals often pathologize these problems, making them about individuals. But if you can fix a medical condition by simply not threatening someone with expulsion or joblessness, then it’s not a medical condition. It’s exploitation.”
OK, you try to run a daycare, for instance, if half your teachers decide to not show up because they have different biological clocks and YOU are supposed to have empathy and let them watch kids when they’re “OK”. Sorry, stating they must show up when needed is not “exploitation”, that’s a requirement of the job because that’s what your customers DEMAND. (and yes, we owned a daycare center). Being a highly regulated industry, if you don’t maintain proper ratios of staff / kids, that gets you shut down – and then EVERYONE faces “joblessness”. Would you put ALL of your other staff at risk for a few?
What you describe is no freedom, that’s anarchy – and it doesn’t help anyone at all.
“But if you can fix a medical condition by simply not threatening someone with expulsion or joblessness” – that’s not the role of a company – fixing a medical condition. What it should means is that a potential employee should engage an employee over conditions and not just demand that an employer cater to you.
As always, your thoughts are welcome!
(H/T: TreeHugger)
