Möykky: the blob in our lives

An internet friend drew a spiky blobby thing.
It kept him awake, and anxious.
He was a nervous wreck.
He was in therapy because of it.
He wanted it to go away.
It was his childhood trauma.

He had a name for it, a general name.
Möykky.
It means A lump, gob, blob; a shapeless object.
He also said it was a bump in the road.

His drawing was good.
And I love the word.
It’s a great way to describe something that we’re dealing with.
Something scary, ugly, often traumatic.
A nameless blob.

Then it hit me. He drew it.
The source of his anxiety.
It was in front of him. In front of me.
He was running from it. Trying to forget it.

You can’t forget about a pothole in the road.
You can avoid it.
You figure out where it sits.
You can try filling it in.

The only way to stay safe is by knowing the pothole.
Get to know your Möykky.

Give it a name.
Give it a face.
Where did it come from? Why does it do things?
What is its history? Who where its parents?
Don’t let it roam around like a wild thing. Contain it.
Let it live inside your mind as if it were on exhibit.

Our trauma is a part of us. We didn’t have that choice.
My trauma has been family.
Yours might be systemic racism.
Or a terrible accident.
Or losing a parent too soon.

Whatever the reason, embrace your Möykky.
Explore it with your therapist.
Don’t let it control your life.
You are the master of your fate.
You are the captain of your soul.

PS – The definition is is from wiktionary. I submit that Möykky is a most excellent word and should be made a part of DSM6. My friend says the umlaut is important.

Nurturing Teenage Tyrants

Preamble: This is the complete text, including source material, for a series of posts appearing on Mastodon on 2023-07-05. The post uses information from a New York Times article regarding harassment. Here’s the title. At the University of Chicago, a Debate Over Free Speech and Cyber Bullying (this article might be paywalled).

Each toot represents a chapter with its own header and footer. These aren’t needed here so are omitted.

Toot 1) Introduction

Where do tyrants come from? Trump wasn’t the first, and he certainly won’t be the last.  But where is our next tyrant being nurtured?

Hi. I’m an old social scientist with an ancient soul. In the spirit of a nature documentary, let’s examine this recent NYT article. Ostensibly it’s a story about “woke” harassment. Looking deeper reveals some answers.

Toot 2) Synopsis

The Story: A U of Chicago student posted a professor’s email address to his followers, complaining about the way she presented history to his class. She received hundreds of threats, and reported them to the administration. They concluded that the student did not threaten her, therefore there was no action to be taken.

Here’s where our fun begins.

Toot 3) Lesson 1 & 2

A typical tyrannical behavior is to bring pressure on people using mobs. The mob is a tool, so our young tyrant’s hands are “clean.” He was also able to hide behind the term “free speech.”

We learn four things.

One: detach ourselves from the tyrant’s words; only evaluate them through actions.

Two: Institutions that are poorly managed can be easily swayed by ambiguous definitions.  What is “free speech?”

Toot 4) Lesson 3

Three: The administration is complicit.  Institutions such as Law, Judicial, Academic, even the sciences and philosophy are supporting tyranny if they fail to recognize and neutralize the rise of tyrants. Or even for failing to be true to their own principles.

Toot 5) Lesson 4

Four: Find one instance of a growing tyrant, therefore there are more that we have not found. If this is the only tyrant at UofC, we can assume every university nurtures one, on average. Generalizing upon natural observations is one of the oldest scientific methods there is, ask any astronomer or biologist.

Toot 6) Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick investigation into the early life cycle of a tyrant. Perhaps this one will become our king someday. I’d love to hear your comments. And thanks for reading.