Tag: politics

Conservative Follies

Liberals imagine a better world that is based on shiny visions of what might be. Conservatives fear that the best world has already passed them by .

Both positions, of course, can be silly, especially in extremes. Liberals tend to optimistic views of people that have little reality in experience. Conservatives dream fondly of a past that never was.

As someone who reads a lot of history and science, the one thing I fully believe is that nothing stays the same for long. Our bodies are seething masses of churning chemical reactions. We age. Life evolves. And yet – it does not do so too quickly, our DNA was billed to be mostly conservative. 

Conservatives say they fear change and simply want to return to when things were better. They usually confuse what was actually happening in those olden days with their own visions of what they believe should have been happening .

It’s an old, old story. From first shards of clay texts, there were those predicting disaster (because the stupid younger generation ignored the most important rituals and beliefs.) Age of gold devalued to silver through bronze and iron to maybe sand. 

Unfortunately, for all of us, things do keep changing. Even more unfortunately, we have a lot less control over events – especially from beyond our limited circle – then we would like to believe .

Scientist

Until recently, scientists were heroes of the age. Now they are often mocked or even reviled. Science, which used to be the jewel of our culture, is now disdainfully ignored by those who trust common sense and intuition. What happened ?

Many would say “hubris.” But that’s too simple. The definition of science enlarged to include – well – almost everything “good.” Products were “new and improved” by science. All of our problems would be solved by science. A true scientist, certified, by definition must always be right.

And, of course, that was all malarky. Science does depend on a lot of “real” things – observation, logic, experimentation, and – not least – sorting things into a useful and sensible pattern. As does – for example – common sense and personal experience. But nothing is infallible. And all human activities are complex probabilities in an unknowable future .

I accept the scientific structure of physical reality. Within reason, I try to behave as a scientist. I do not _ like many – reject this knowledge and the wonders it delivers. However, I also utilize common sense, personal observation, and probability calculation in navigating my enchanted conscious existence. The best of many worlds, mixed into grateful excitement .

Simple-Minded

In nostalgic eras past, unfortunate individuals with low mental capacity were known as “village idiots” or “simple-minded’” folks. Now we inhabit supposedly kinder times, but those “simple-minded” are still with us. However I refer tp people mentally constrained by their own choice. 

Some are intellectually lazy, and find it easier to accept or reject anything they hear without troubling to investigate further. Nevertheless, they hold their opinion – whatever it may be – arrogantly. Others reach the same condition simply because there is too much to know and life requires us to focus on what is relevant .

The harm in so many people willingly becoming simple-minded is that in the myth of our society, citizens are supposed to be well informed. About everything. Admitting that one is fully ignorant or confused or even unsure about anything is not rewarded. To admit ignorance (even to yourself) when you are ignorant is quite healthy. But many of the unthinking may label you as stupid .

We have a voting population certain of their shallow beliefs, too involved in other things to care much except when egged on by volatile wannabe leaders .

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is not king. In the land of the simple-minded the wise person remains as unobtrusive as possible .

Knee Jerk Regulations

If “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, it is even more true that the road to lawyers’ paradise is paved with knee-jerk laws and regulations. These are well intentioned guidelines that become ever more encrusted with caution, which strangles actions, and which result in stupid wasted time and money _ except, of course, for the legal profession (who often make those rules.)

Playgrounds are a good example. Nobody wants children to be hurt and trying to keep equipment safe is a good idea. But in these times – well a scraped knee might become infected so the ground must be rubberized. Someone may fall so everything must be netted and roped. The kids end up having no fun at all, and the rare accident can cost a town or insurer millions .

The gripes of businesses are legendary. But the truth is that existing corporations and guilds will do everything in their power to build barriers to entry to stop competition. And the most effective barriers are esoteric legal requirements .

In the modern world, common sense regulations do make sense. Nobody wants to get poisoned by the water. But spare us all the do-gooders who fixate on bad “might happen” and try to eliminate all risk in life – which always has risk .

Flash Tsunami

Earthquakes and tsunamis often strike without warning, many times in places where they occur only every hundred years or so. These days, there are often warnings. But they seem to be more and more a metaphor for the various “flash” events created by an instantly interconnected world 

You can, for example, be sitting quietly on a bench in a deserted park and be suddenly surrounded by a crowd. Maybe just having fun, maybe robbing everyone in sight, maybe engaged in gang warfare. The point is, it’s a lot of people suddenly appearing at a small place without warning. Only their social media knows why .

Similarly, there can be flash shortages of almost any good or service as advice or warnings go viral and everyone grabs as much of whatever as possible, paying much more than usual. Frantic hoarding clearing shelves instantly .

And of course there is the mental flash information known as “memes”. Suddenly everyone “knows” something they never knew before. Maybe true, maybe false, usually irrelevant but when thousands or millions of people are affected, even mental illusions have an impact .

It seems that such social flashes are more and more frequent. Almost like the “good old days” of the unexpected earthquake or tsunami .

Rule of Law

“Civilized” people like to look down on “primitives”. Among our other virtues, we live by rational “laws” while they have only childish “taboos” to guide actions and keep society working .

Laws are wonderful things, and a “rule of law” assures that we are all treated as fairly as possible. Our lawyers tell us so, and the authorities enforce their opinion. What a laugh it would be, they claim, to try to run a modern city with nothing but arbitrary taboos and foggy customs .

And yet . . . laws are rarely applied in personal life. There are few laws in a healthy family or friendship. There are still only “foggy” customs and basic taboos holding our relationships together. That is human. Even more formal organizations use mostly flexible “rules” and “guidelines” .

Laws try to be logical but are often too rigid to fit circumstance and must be “interpreted”. Lawyers love it. I am well aware you cannot at this moment run a modern society without law, but basing some future utopia on the perfection of its laws is madness .

“Rule of law” is of itself neither good nor evil. Like taboo, it all depends not only on the wording, but also on the application. We are all kind of primitive still .

Egomorphism

Anthropomorphism shapes everything into a kind of human, with feelings, desires, and powers similar to us. Not only “hard” nouns like trees, the sun, or buffalo, but also “concept” nouns like luck or evil. Many take it so far as to include imaginary ideas like family, government, or conspiracy.

I would coin an equivalent “egomorphism” for those who narrowly believe everything (including all other people) are exactly like them. They evaluate every part of the universe as if they were in control. Their desires, hopes, and fears become those of everyone and everything .

Unfortunately, it seems that such mentalities also see themselves as essentially rotten. They only survive by suppressing their inner worst tendencies. They assume that everyone else maliciously applies full power as they would do if they had no inhibitions .

That includes what is known as “projection” but it goes far beyond. It includes a basic hostility and paranoia as if fighting inner demons. It assigns agency to illusions such as conspiracies and secret societies all trying to destroy them .

A sad mental state for them .

A dangerous mental state to everyone else .

Ozymandias

We read Shelly’s Ozymandias as a distillation of the illusions of power. A cruel despot forcing subjects to erect a massive statue to his glory, all crumbled and forgotten over the millenia. But there are other interpretations.

For one thing, that king of kings probably could care less what we see in the desert today. Assuming it was a vanity project, it was more to impress his present than anyone after he died. And for all we know it could have been a public works project to keep folks employed.

More to the point, Ozymandias was not a god, but a human. That means he had to eat, defecate, sleep. He was bored and worried at times. If he grew old there were toothaches and various pains, wounds, and diseases. He may have been good or evil to his subjects, but he was subject to all the ills that flesh is heir to, like everyone else, then and now .

Besides, he was more constrained to his locality than anyone today. He could not know science, visit other continents, talk to people a world away. His direct sphere of influence was limited to a tiny immediate environment. His powers were in some way less godlike than those of anyone with access to a cell phone or automobile .

Power, yes. Cruelty, perhaps. But not to be pitied because his colossus and kingdoms did not survive the ages. Never to be envied because most of us are more godlike than he could ever dream .

Punishment

There are three ways to deter crime. One is to remove the reason for the crime – a well-fed person need not steal food. The second is to make the consequences of being caught worse than the gain from the crime itself. And the third is to remove a person who has committed a crime from society.

Locking criminals and socially inept (ie insane) people away from everyone else has long been a workable alternative to killing them outright. But once these people are safely out of sight, what should be done with them?

Some would say they should be ” rehabilitated.” Others that they should be made to suffer. Others that they should do productive work to pay back their debt to society. But all of these courses take extensive resources in people and money .

I’ve often toyed with the idea of a “drone paradise” where convicts have access to all the drugs, alcohol, and entertainment they want, happily deteriorating to death. It would be inexpensive and relatively humane and would, after all, serve the main purpose of keeping them away from the rest of us good people .

Just another modest proposal .