Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

The American Psychiatric Association and The National Institute of Mental Health define Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder, consisting of recurring thoughts, ideas, and obsessions that drive people to engage in repetitive behaviors.  About 1.2% of Americans have OCD, slightly more women than men, and typically show symptoms around age 19.

A diagnosis of OCD requires the presence of obsession and/or compulsions that consume more than an hour a day.  OCD causes distress and impairs work, social, or other important functions.  OCD thoughts cannot be settled by logic or reasoning.  It is typically treated with medication, psychotherapy, or both.

The most prominent example of Obsession:

 Fear of germs or contamination.

Examples of Compulsions:

Cleaning:  excessive hand washing and cleaning surroundings

Ordering and arranging things

Check your environment to reduce the fear of harming oneself

Hoarding

Binge eating

Drinking

Health experts in both the private and public sectors have issued a list of Instructions to the entire American population to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Protect yourself from germ-carrying individuals

Wash your hands for 20 seconds frequently

Wash all delivered packages

Clean and disinfect your house daily

Keep a distance of 6 feet from another person

Stay home

Avoid social interactions

If the above measures are faithfully followed, the entire American population will become afflicted with OCD.  With the fear of another pandemic just over the horizon, these behaviors and thoughts will become ingrained in the population.

OCD will become a virtue, not a disorder.

Who knows how many other psychiatric disorders will be transformed into virtues.  Something to think about!

2020: What's In and What's Out

What’s In                              What’s Out

Sinophobe                            Sinophile

Trust but verify                    Trusting China

Cold War 2.0                        Chimerica

Sovereignty                          Internationalism

America First                       Spreading democracy

Withdraw troops                  Invade foreign countries

Strategic stockpiles              Low-cost outsourcing

Borders                                Xenophobia

Remote learning                  Classrooms

Tele-learning                       Less political indoctrination

Social distance                    Social justice
Home schooling                   Public schools

Virtual conferencing            Conference rooms

Work from home                  Office buildings

Less travel                           Global warming

Less driving                         Air pollution

Staycations                          Foreign adventures

Self-reliance                        Social mixing

Victory gardens                    Discrete shopping trips

Self care                              Routine trips to doctor

Homemaking                        Nannies, cleaners
Homemaker                         Trophy wife

Stay home                            Street murders

Logic                                    Psychobabble

Facts                                    Ideology

Mental toughness                  Victimhood

Caring                                  Selfishness

Truth                                   Lying

Whatever it takes                 Fiscal prudence

Stagflation                           Three Percent Growth

Epidemiology                        Economic modeling

Robinson Crusoe                   Hillary’s “Takes a Village”

National unity                      Racism, sexism, homophobia

Self-improvement                Blaming others

Private enterprise                Calcified bureaucracies

Puzzles, board games           Bars, clubs

Factual reporting                 Schools of Journalism

Sweats                                 Business dress

Monogamy                            Hookups

March 3, 2020, California Primary Election: Political Diversity At An Elite Institution

Stanford, among the nation’s premier universities, is home to several thousand faculty and staff who own or rent a campus residence, along with more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students who live in student housing.

Stanford encompasses eleven precincts in Santa Clara County.  The County Registrar of Voters reports combine eleven precincts into two multi-precincts. 

Precinct 2542 consists of six smaller precincts:  four are exclusively faculty/staff, one is exclusively student, and the other is mixed.

Precinct 2543 consists of five smaller precincts.  Three are exclusively student, one largely student, and one mixed.

Most students are registered to vote in their home state, not on the basis of their student housing.  This explains the smaller number of student voters in the Stanford precincts compared with permanent faculty/staff.  About half of all faculty/staff lives in campus housing.  I assume campus residents have similar political views to those who live off campus in neighboring towns.

Here are the results:

Precinct 2542, largely faculty staff: Democrat candidates for president received 1,561 votes (96.2%), Republican candidates 58 votes (3.6%), and the candidates of four marginal parties 3 votes (0.2%)

Precinct 2543, largely students:  Democrat candidates for president received 818 votes (97.8%), Republican candidates 15 votes (1.9%), and the candidates of four marginal parties 3 votes (0.4%).

Stanford claims to believe in diversity of political views, along with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, etc.  Not much political diversity in these voting patterns.

By way of comparison, in the general election of November 2016, Hillary Clinton received 90% of campus resident votes, Donald Trump 5%, and the four minor party candidates 5%. 

One further vote merits inclusion in this discussion.  On the ballot was a legislative referendum, Proposition 13, for a $15 billion bond issue to modernize and rehab schools from K-12 through universities, to be repaid over 35 years at an estimated $740 million/year ($11 billion in interest) from general revenues (taxes).

The measure lost statewide, 54% no to 46% yes.  Santa Clara county voted 50.7% yes to 49.3% no, just barely for the measure, about 5 percentage points above the statewide vote.

Stanford’s precincts 2542 and 2543 voted 83.3% and 86.9% yes respectively, 37-41 percentage points to the left of the California electorate in favor of new debt and higher taxes.  Stanford’s faculty, staff, and student body are not representative of voters in Santa Clara County (home of Silicon Valley) and the State of California overall.

This pattern typifies elite universities and leading liberal arts colleges in America.  Maybe this explains strong student support for Democrat Socialist Bernie Sanders.