Yeoman Artisans

Jefferson expected a country of “yeoman farmers” who would have self-sufficiency by day and discuss politics by night. Never happened. He certainly was not much interested for himself, at least if slaves were not available to do the work .

For a while we did have artisan farmers, who would grow some of their own food and sell specialized items for the rest. Soon enough, artisans stopped growing stuff altogether. Then the idea was suburban nuclear families, working for a large company to gain currency. Fuzzy effect of the ongoing industrial revolution on society, as workers were turned into machines. No politics by night, just entertainment .

Now I wonder. Is AI and automation the end of that paradigm as well? More and more we seem to become a nation of “yeoman artisans” bartering our own specialties for livelihood. Not quite worked out yet, but I wonder what work and life may become in the next decade .

Not Jeffersonian. And probably far from Utopian. But the real point is – nobody knows. And hardly anyone is even sure what they would like .

I enjoyed being an artisan computer professional. Artisan pride fit me well. But the other thing I wonder is if there will remain varied niches for varied folks to fit into .

Taxing Machines

Any society seems to require government, complex societies more so than simple ones. Except under true communism (where the government/people own everything) taxes must be raised to pay for it .

Taxes over the last tens of thousands of years have taken many forms, and involved almost anything imaginable. Fees, income, wealth, property, sales, ethnicity and on and on. But as the industrial revolution morphs into the AI/automation revolution, perhaps machines and processes should themselves provide revenue .

This is heresy to classic economists. More production always enriches society, they say, and should be encouraged. Lately, that may not be true. A marginal gain in output of widgets entirely done by machine instead of traditional labor may actually harm the society more than it helps .

How to directly tax machines? probably with heavy fees and taxes on the input resources they use – electricity, air, water. Large land taxes on the property they occupy. Major levies on associated nuisances like noise pollution or environmental degradation. And, of course, the equivalent of tariffs to equalize all this between nations and regions .

Simple? No. But presumably an AI in charge of government could make it all work .

(As long as that AI was not self-aware !)

No Team in I

One current cultural complex alternates between the values of being on a team, or just following a leader. Usually one expects that moderation works best, but in this case a genius or gifted leader can be the right choice, though having a strong team is important as well. It’s illustrated well in the fortunes of sports franchises.

No question a perfect ruler is a wonderful thing – in politics, business, or sports. Almost superhuman, always making the right decisions. Lifting all those around with a series of almost miraculous performances and decisions.

On the other hand, single rule has issues too, well beyond whether the leader is always right. Illness, corruption, burn out and a general malaise on the part of anyone not in the charmed circle. A wonderful leader is often a short-term solution, and one which simply leaves a bigger mess to clean up when it ends .

There is also the unfortunate tendency of such strong personalities to assume they are gods, placed well above all mortals, and deserving of worship. Like the ancient Greek pantheon, they may become irrationally bitter or destructive over the smallest perceived slight .

Unlike those gods, they do usually require some kind of team to accomplish their whims. Alas, poor Zeus.

Alas, the rest of us.

Making Criminals

We are each guilty. As the Bible says “let him that is without sin cast the first stone”. Going through a red light as it changes from yellow. A few miles over the 15 mph speed limit. Fudging an application slightly from need or vanity .

Life isn’t fair. Being nice when accosted by the police sometimes gets you off with a warning (unless they’re too far behind on quota.) Sometimes they don’t like your looks. A fine or court appearance – it’s a free country except for time, hassle, and in some cases expenses for a lawyer. We won’t even mention bribes.

But the point is, if somebody doesn’t like you – the police, the actual officer, the people controlling the police – you are going to be harassed as a criminal for something or other. Even if “proven innocent” later, the loss of reputation, not to mention loss of time and energy – can be significant. Often that’s the point of the whole thing .

Juries were supposed to be the backstop. And maybe they were in the slow old rural days. Now they can be as intimidated as anyone else, and the massive loss and time of a trial makes an awful lot of folks accept a plea deal just to get back to normal .

When the judicial system rots from above or within, well, we’ve seen the results in Stalinist Russia and a bunch of other places. Maybe coming soon to a courtroom near you .

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 .

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.

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 .

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 .

Joseph Campbell

I was brought up through excellent public schools in the scientific aura of the 1950s. I consequently have always had a cosmopolitan outlook. I firmly believe in shallow history, deep history, human evolution, geologic changes. I know there have been innumerable people just like me living in vastly different cultures .

And I accept that religion in some form is necessary to human health. I also went to Sunday church (and Sunday school, and choir) during my formative years .

Joseph Campbell spent a lifetime documenting and comparing all the religions he could get a handle on. He tried to tie together their great concepts and the underlying intuitions that supported them. I have friends who found his work exceedingly shallow, but I accept it and enjoy the widening of my own mind by doing so .

That is why I have such antagonism for the current religious right fanatics. I have rarely met such vacuous minds. I know most of it is probably just a defense mechanism against a turmoil of our times, but it bothers me to find intelligent people crawling into shallow tribal superstition, not to mention side ventures into crystals, astrology, guru’s, and whatever .

I’m happy at such times to reread “The Masks of God” and understand that this too shall pass .

Conceit

“A sucker is born every minute” proclaimed PT Barnum. The “average American voter” has often been vilified for ignorance, prejudice, whatever. Frozen in collective memory by Menken’s “booboisie.”

And yet, we often found that speaking with each other one-on-one revealed a fairly complete interesting human being. Somehow we trusted that – informed by a free press – such good would shine through in the loneliness of the election booth. Mostly, it seemed to work .

But several generations of being assured that “you are just as good as anyone else” have had evil effects. Even in simple conversation, we discover everyone is as conceited as a god, certain that they know everything, sure that anyone claiming to be an expert (except the internet influencers they follow) is a charlatan.

So conceit has fallen on an entire population, certain that at any moment what they believe is true, fortified by warped electronic propaganda. No longer much fun to talk to. Anything but complete interesting human beings. Conceited know-it-alls, who unfortunately carry their very real ignorance and prejudices into the ballot box .

I used to agree that democracy was “the worst form of government except for everything else.” Now I tend to drop the qualifier .

Self Fulfilling

Long before anyone thought of “attractors” there was the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy. What you expect to happen (good or bad) happens, not because of fate but rather because you unconsciously work to make it happen .

These days we have an administration that glories in self-fulfillment. They decide cities are hell holes and work actively to make them so. They say people are unhealthy and act to make their idea come true. They decide most people are criminals and – lo and behold – “criminals” pop up everywhere .

Mostly they say we need a “glorious leader” to bring us out of a political malaise. Their desire for a dictator who makes the trains run on time is coming true even to the point of considering all American armed forces a feudal militia .

The trouble with self-fulfilling prophecy, of course, is that it is usually a distortion of reality. And by ignoring reality, the eventual decay and destruction is much worse than it should have been .

So, “attractor” as such attitudes may be, they leave me fondly wishing for the good old days when logical and informed leaders were willing to admit they weren’t quite sure what was best to do .