Anankasticism

We aren't part of the 1% out here on the back 40, those rich dudes we keep hearing about on the news, and that may be an understatement. But we have our own ways of gratifying our obsessive compulsive disorders. Why, we have one heifer who's so obsessed with her anxiety over a consistent feed supply that she keeps breaking the fence down into the stack yard. Our local vet tried fluoxetine, but she developed such an aversion to her meds that we can't get close to her with that darn pill gun. The vet says this poor heifer thinks that all the cattle have the need to be as well fed as her, but they can't do it because they are just inferior. It never occurs to her that the rest of them just have other goals.

We were in Schmoes Delicatessen, that's the place out on the highway with burger, coffee, and fries all listed alphabetically on the menu and where you can usually find a willing mouth to entertain you for a stretch. Cultivated Herb, our local palaver of useful information, was discoursing on obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, also apparently called anankastic personality disorder, this personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, excessive attention to details, mental and interpersonal control, and a need for power over one's environment, at the expense of flexibility and openness.

Now the drive to amass wealth, in purely psychological terms, is a symptom of this anankasticism. Fear of the world makes these dudes want to control it, and wealth is a means of obtaining some measure of control. Most of this, like most of what motivates us, is subconscious. Dudes who want to become wealthy are not known to be paragons of self-inspection, and for the most part think they are quite normal. That's why they think that everyone has the need to be as rich as them, but can't do it because they are just inferior. It never occurs to them that the rest of us really just have other goals. This has apparently been studied, and is becoming increasingly well understood. In previous centuries these people became robber barons, dictators, and tyrants. We have simply progressed.

These regulars at Schmoes, they all know we have this here blog, and the conversion got vitiated around for the need to amass followers for our little blog here, and they're making all kinds of pleasantries at us and our need to control the world and all with our blogging. Guess we'll have to go home and take some fluoxetine if that rascally heifer don't want it.

You all have a good day and keep the pot covered, eh.