Author: Wayne Slingluff

Risk/Reward

Anyone can anecdotally give good reasons for never using an automobile. High on the list is a possibility of a deadly accident, examples of which abound. And yet, in this culture just about everyone uses a car all the time. Math has little to do with it. Nor do the horrible examples of mangled bodies. “Common sense” tells us that in spite of possible danger, it is far more useful to go places in a vehicle than to stay home. Unfortunately, such “common sense” is in short supply in other areas of our lives involving risk/reward .

Actually, anyone closely involved in a fatal accident either involving themselves or someone close to them wants to blame someone. The car manufacturer, road maintenance, whatever. And they rush about telling one and all about what must be done, maybe avoid cars at all cost .

That isn’t effective with stuff people are very familiar with. True “common sense” kicks in. 

But in areas that are less well or less easily understood, anecdotes seem to rule. Medicines, laws, even right or wrong. Too esoteric to be easily understood. ” I know a man who …”, “I had a cousin who…”,” once I was …”.

All true. All irrelevant. When people try to make risk zero, as any entrepreneur can explain, reward vanishes .

Too Complicated

Our grandchild in fourth grade is being subjected to the “new math” curriculum. It is supposedly to encourage “curiosity about math”, and by implication the world .

Designed by math experts, it is a total failure.

I spent a little time teaching young children. In my opinion, the primary purpose of elementary school is socialization. Immersing children in the social mythology and tribal culture which they will grow into. That’s why I have always thought “homeschooling” was bad, because it missed that point and in many cases isolated kids from their future normality .

Learning at elementary levels should not be designed to “evoke curiosity”. Young humans are born curious. Nor are many children nor parents destined to become mathematicians. They simply want to use rote math facts and formulas in a complex world. No real need to “understand” why 2 + 2 = 4 – it just does! And that is useful at the grocery store .

Putting professional mathematicians – or professionals of any other academic subject – in charge of elementary curriculums was insane and wrong .

It is destroying what was once a noble pillar of our common culture.

Absolute

Real life is messy and full of contradictions. What feels bad might be good for you, what feels good might be bad. What works in one situation might not in the next. Rational people – whom we like to consider “sane” – understand this .

There seems to be a troubling trend, in times of complexity and change, for many people to drift towards absolutes. In an absolute frame of mind, there is no mess nor contradiction. A crystal clear vision separates everything into right and wrong, or some equivalent binary division .

Such a viewpoint does not allow for trade-off or risk/reward. It never deals in percentages nor probabilities. It does not allow for meaningful dialogue – all that can be discussed is how any other viewpoint is obviously wrong. The only mental movement must be toward whatever revealed “truth”.

It is of course comforting to join a cult of absolute believers. They can reinforce and magnify any belief so strongly that anything contrary – words, events, outcomes – cannot be accepted as “real.” Anything except the absolute is mistaken “lies”. 

The internet is said to lead many down “rabbit holes”. At the bottom of each of these is some form of absolute. Sane people may deplore what is happening online. But unfortunately, sane people are in short supply and decreasing rapidly .

Advisors

Rulers come in many varieties. Some are conceited and whimsically do anything that comes to mind. Some timidly follow rules and precedence. The best are usually willing to listen to others with strong contrasting viewpoints .

Advisors who always agree with and flatter a ruler are obviously not “advising” at all. They are merely echoing and amplifying the ruler’s desires. Sometimes that works well when the person in charge is extraordinarily intelligent, visionary, or lucky. As, of course, most people in power do regard themselves .

In “real life” a know-it-all has a career that is often nasty, brutish, and short. Underlings have the option of leaving to lead their own revolts and enterprises. Isolated rulers rarely succeed below the top level of authority .

Mostly we cringe at the toadies. They just want the rewards and reflected glory. They are willing to forfeit all integrity to remain within the charmed circle of the glorious leader. But, of course, they are also well aware of how precarious their position is .

We used to glory in being a nation of “mavericks” each person standing firm in integrity. Now that the “yes men” possess orders of magnitude of greater wealth, the medieval jester court has returned .

Privacy

Our culture is roiled by assassinations and mindless mass shootings. A cry goes out to “do something”. But what? There are only a few options. Greater limitations, higher protection, or decreased privacy .

In the US, greater limitations are difficult. Everyone wants access to guns – often the biggest baddest guns that exist. Locking potential perpetrators up hardly addresses the problem, since that only addresses low-level “gang violence” where adolescents mostly shoot each other. Higher protection – a security officer everywhere, domes of bulletproof glass for speakers _ is extremely expensive and often impossible .

And that leaves surveillance. Already video footage is so ubiquitous, cell phone records so complete, that those who assassinate are always caught. Most of them know it and embark on suicide missions, almost impossible to guard against .

No doubt, as in China, we will be willing to sacrifice more and more privacy for greater security. Online and in public, all will be known, evaluated, stored, and used for prediction and “interdiction” of potential terrorists. Most of us will welcome the calm .

But such a blessing can easily become a curse, and I foresee no way of preventing that from happening .

Tyrant

Ancient Greeks sometimes put “tyrants” in power. Romans used “dictators”. The 19th century had “a man on a white horse”. Whatever the name, they seem to be ubiquitous in the current era .

These leaders gain control because of commonly perceived malaise or crisis in the culture (as understood by those who control or want to control the culture). The avowed goal is to “shake things up,”  Get things done, and ignore any of the traditional customs and laws that are getting in the way .

Tyrants usually do manage to address issues, often by wrecking norms. For good or bad, they do make previously “impossible” things happen. Sometimes we all admit it is a necessary – even if harsh – cure .

The main problem, of course, is that “power corrupts”. There is little worse than a tyrant who becomes whimsical,  moody, and so self-centered that each momentary passion must be gratified. Usually, any sense of perspective is lost and the tyranny boils down to a small clique of sycophants clinging to and fortifying the “glorious leader” no matter what .

No form of government, no civilization, has ever been immune to the siren call of tyrants. As we are now witnessing .