Michael Lissack the live load he wants borne so be it -- regardless of the capability of the system to bear the load and without the benefits of design. Under loads that often change directions from upward to downward and back again, as may happen in bridges under moving traffic, beam stresses may change from tension to compression and back to tension, when the loads change the beam curvature from downward to upward and vice versa. When these changes occur millions of times, as in machine elements, steel- elements may break under low stresses because of a phenomenon called Fatigue. Who among us would not describe our government as hopelessly fa- tigued? The inability to deal with the stresses and strains imposed by in- adequate design and review is rampant. In modem life complexity tends to reveal itself through stress. Stress requires a style of imagining that sees psychological life in terms of material objects. This materialistic bias is the preferred stance of modern science, a stance also dedicated, ironically enough, to the belief that material objects are soulless. Despite this denial of soul, it is interesting how psychology, in its rush to be accepted as a sci- ence, has wholeheartedly, if not always wittingly, embraced this materialistic bias. When modern psychology talks about stress, it usually talks in terms like dynamics, coping mechanisms, hardiness, adaptation, or relaxation techniques. Popular prescriptions for relieving stress include working out stress through exercise, as if relief lay in a harder body, or in monitoring brain waves through bio-feedback. The theme in these responses is that stress is a structural defect best corrected through controlling and relieving pressure. Although these various materialistic prescriptions might alleviate the phys- ical symptoms of stress (tight neck, headaches, rock-hard shoulders), they do little to respond to the underlying psychological attitudes that create and sustain stress to begin with. They are simply too mechanical, too reductive. It’s as if those who prescribe them believe we can relieve stress through purely physical means or through sheer force of will. But such ideas actu- ally reinforce (more engineering talk) stress and can even create situations where the means meant to reduce stress actually increase it.
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