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Do you think there is an underlying reason behind my "bad luck"?
No reason, you just have a bad luck 24%  24%  [ 4 ]
Only "weird" people can tolerate your aspieness which forces you to deal with them 29%  29%  [ 5 ]
All NT-s have "defense mechanisms" against aspies; the few NT you describe just have different KIND of defenses 18%  18%  [ 3 ]
Other 29%  29%  [ 5 ]
Total votes : 17

sgrannel
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29 Mar 2011, 1:35 am

There's nothing new about being duped by a con man using religion as a disguise. People who are normally quite savvy about observable things like making medical decisions, figuring out how much a bushel of tomatoes should cost and shopping for a used car may find their critical thinking skills go right out the window when confronted with religion. I guess people have a soft spot on their heads for that, perhaps because religion pertains to things which are not observable, hence people lose their grounding, and con men know this and that's why they use this to their advantage.

In the future, keep in mind that religion should serve you, and not the other way around, except maybe only in a very indirect way like doing things you'd do anyway even without religion because it's the right thing to do. People can do bad things when they serve their religion. Ask "what am I being asked to do and why?"

Here are some examples of religious leaders, perhaps not unlike the fellow you encountered who started things for less than ideal reasons, such as monetary gain and access to more than their fair share of young women, and to various degrees of detriment to their followers.

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/david-koresh/
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/l-ron-hubbard/
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/reverend-jim-jones/
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/joseph-smith/


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Roman
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31 Mar 2011, 10:19 am

I am not sure if "the religion" is the main thing here. When I hear "religion" I think West; but this scammer seems like a third world phenomenon (even though his brand of religion happens to be Westsern). In some sense I am pissed at the third world version of it. At least, in the West, they know they are ripping millions, they simply don't care. But the third world people seem to feel that htey are so poor and thats why "rich Americans" owe them money; they would not believe if I tell them "yes I am American but i happen to be pretty poor". They feel ALL Americans are rich and I find it insulting. I don't think this specific brand of misperception happens in the "religious" people you are talking about. After all, they are, themselves, Americans and rich, so they won't hate me for being "rich American". Yes they would take advantage of me, but that won't have anythign to do with their prejudices, so nothing for me to take offense at. In fact, the Western scammers are probably good examples of the kind of Americans that the third world scammers hear about and then go and hate all Americans for it.

As far as your other reply where you asked me why I was told I have no future in theoretical physics. Well, I was told this back in 2006 and the reason for this was that I made no progress between 2001 and 2006. Mainly, I chose an area of physics I "didn't like" and so I decided not to proceed on my reading until I "rewrite it" in such a way that I would "like" it. It ended up taking a lot longer than I hope it would. Looking back, there could have been two possible solutions:

1) Change the area of specialization (and yes, I done it in late 2006 which is what allowed me to make progress afterwords)

2) Stay in that area I "didn't like" but, whenever I was trying to "rewrite it to make myself like it better", PUBLISH whatever I was "rewriting". This could have made for a wonderful thesis topic and the same amount (or lack of) progress would have looked a lot better

The reason I didn't do either of the two is because I didn't know "the rules of the game".

Anyway, like I said, starting from late 2006 I implimented both of these options. First, I switched fields (option 1), and secondly, I chose the kind of field where not much is done which gave me a good excuse to be very creative and original (option 2). Unfortunately, though I did this far too late, so by that point no one liked me in my department (Michigan) any more and I found a mentor in Mississippi, while still getting my phd from Michigan.

That was probably the source of the problems I am facing now. The mentor from Mississippi IS on my side, but he is rather weak so he doesn't have good connections. This is probably why I ended up going to India for postdoc to begin with. Now, it turns out that the particular place I went to in India IS well recognized internationally. So, I WOULD have done well if I didn't screw myself up AGAIN (and this time it was ONLY a social reasons -- academically I am doing fine but I happened to allienate my advisor on social basis). Now the mentor is more than willing to step in and help me, but this brings me again to the issue that he doesn't have many connections. So I guess the bigger picture is that, because of my weak mentor in USA, I basically have to do WELL or if I screw up I have nothing to fall back onto.

But the good news is that it seems like I am getting a visitor poition in another place in India (right now I am in Bangalore and I am getting a visitor position in Chinnai -- which is another city in India -- after my term expires). So it LOOKS LIKE I am getting out of the mess I got myself into. From now on, no more screwing up. I will put my prime effort into 1) PUBLISHING whatever I am doing in reputable journals 2) Making social connections in Chinnai 3) Engaging in other people's work, not just my own. I believe if I will STICK THROUGH these items I will probably do a lot better.