We Deserve the World We Make

 To be sure, we are all individuals and deserve our own just rewards. And so shall we reap them often, and sometimes not. 

We desire for ourselves and our kin and so we leave our neighbors with less. And we strive for riches and so leave the others poor. And in this unhealthy balance, so shall we capsize the vessel. You've overbalanced a canoe (well, some of us have, but you can imagine, or just view a YouTube of one... you get the picture). And yes, we're all in the same boat - Lifeboat Earth. But even in the rich countries, we see the symptoms of crumbling. There are always signs if wear and tear, as in any lived-in house. But statistically, the trend is clear. We're seeing the results of our systemic selfishness, and it's scary. Not for me, I'm always up for some huge trauma. But it seems like most Americans prefer a stable peace.

In my 7th Grade science class, I make it clear that the most important thing is kindness. "What wisdom is greater than kindness?" asks Rousseau. What anything is greater than kindness? After almost 57 years of watching the world from my TV screen and bare eyeballs and computer monitor, it gets clearer every day. We, as a species, are not that good at collective kindness on a global scale. One on one, lots of us do pretty well (and lots don't). But if we refocus our efforts, expand our vision of who and what is in "our world" (because even if we don't see it, the whole world is affected by us and our collective action), if we reward this and the next generations for kindness, we're going to all benefit from that in the same way we are suffering from our current lack thereof. 

Buddhist meditation has many methods and objects of focus, one of which is to beam lovingkindness out into the universe. I don't for a minute believe that those mystical rays actually do emanate any more than God allows YOUR team to win the Superbowl over all the other people praying for THEIR teams. But I do believe that the practice affects the behavior of those who practice it, and the effect of their behavior does, indeed, emanate out into the world. Just as prayer and the belief in prayer and the belief that others are praying for you can bring peace and affect people's behavior and mindset in a way that results in divine outcomes. And in that way, practices that induce people to pray, meditate, spend time with the holy spirit that is in us all as sacred denizens of Earth (along with other animals and plants) is useful and makes a difference. 

As we let those practices languish, as people leave their churches and benevolent orders, as they distance themselves from communities of all sorts, as we withdraw from in-person activities because it's SO DAMN EASY to sit at home and chill with the compelling entertainment of movies, games and TV, we weaken the communal fiber of the world. Back in the day when more of us needed each other for survival (think Pilgrims and settlers), we were able to progress rapidly in every measurable way. Yes, we often treated each other (the outgroups, like Native Americans or African slaves) horrendously, even as we succored our chosen brethren, and we were able to move past the most egregious of those behaviors. But we are still finding ways to "other" groups of us, and we suffer the results with unrest and higher levels of homelessness, certain types of crime, and a pandemic of deaths of despair. We even get to use those new groups (that we create through our lack of kindness) and blame them for our collective failure to love our neighbor. 

When we fail to temper the benefits of capitalism with restrictions that check the dispassionate liabilities of capitalism, we end up where we are. In the first slumping stages of a true plummet of society. Like I said, no skin off my back. I'm an oldie with a broad and deep tolerance for discomfort. But if we can find a way to spread the riches of capitalism to the foundational workers that make it possible, we strengthen the whole system. 

I know competitive politics is one of the driving forces of othering, finding a common scapegoat, and this flies directly in the face of lovingkindness. What's the real solution? The trait that allows people to think it's OK to amass enough wealth for thousands of people, and not use it to buoy up the working class needs to be directly addressed. If you believe selfishness is Gordon Gecko Good, you're normal, and you're morally bankrupt. Justify it any which way you want (legally, economically, existentially), but there's part of you that knows it's one of the root causes of crime, addiction, and poverty. And it eats your soul. You can tell yourself, "Who needs a soul when you get another Lambo?" But you'll die without the golden fleece, without drinking from the Holy Grail, and of course, you'll not make it through that eye of the needle. Not that you need to, but of all the goals to strive for in life, looks like you picked the wrong one.

Old Age Wisdom or Not

 How can a person so smart be unwise? I've noticed that smart techno bosses, when they reach older age, can renounce former mindsets. It's fine, because we need the blind exuberance of running with an idea to make the progress, which has shown to be ultimately pretty dangerous, and maybe even unmanageable, and perhaps not that progressive in terms of humanity, like "the humanity" of humanity. Look at the first big one: The Industrial Revolution, which led to the obsession around growth (without necessarily always of hardly ever thinking of the consequences). What brought us this remarkable enabling industrial complex lead to awesome warfighting capability and the biggest catastrophe yet in human history (WWI & II). Its technology supported landing on the moon and the next big revolution: tech. Which now is both helping and harming us. It's saved billions of lives and it has led to some disturbing trends which could potentially bring it all down in 2 swell swoops. The first is climate change, and the second is AI/Social Media and it's unpredictable influence on politics and government. When we stop trusting the government for real (we're like 20% there?), the termites could eventually weaken the foundation enough to have it crumble. Or is conflagration a better metaphor, once we reach a criticality. If we even last long enough to reach the theoretical Singularity of AI. 

So that's the background, but let's turn the perspective back into the everyday life or normal humans. Wisdom makes it pretty clear that a life well lived doesn't depend on any of those things, and people go on living their normal, regular, amazing lives despite all of the cataclysms impinging on us from the macro world. The final calculus for a life well lived, though with considerable variation on this theme, is having satisfying interactions with the universe that make us feel human. For most of us, it's probably our friends and loved ones, the close cadre of our people. For others it might even be their moments in nature or with their animals and pets. For some, it might be how they see their work has touched people's lives, but I'm guessing those people are most affirmed by the special, individual interactions they have with the people, their fellow humans/ animals, that have benefited from their service, and that might be what they need for their deepest, most meaningful life experiences. For everyone I've ever heard talk about it, it's those personal connections (even if it's with "nature" or "the Universe" or their version of God) that, in the end, we value most. That really mattered and matter to us.

Spending time with our dear people, sharing ideas and thoughts and feelings, some music and food. Playing games and sports, and hanging around and hugging and loving, singing and dancing, making art and sharing it... We can do that, and have for millennia, without any of the machines of modern life. Medicine can lengthen and enhance those meaningful interactions, make us feel better for longer... But even so, we don't need a phone or a car or an extra three feet of counterspace to get what we really want out of life. Let's consider that universal truth deeply, and let it wash over us and permeate and saturate us until we really get it now, before we have to reflect on it as we face our mortality in our death bed or when the fire is outrunning us. Let's take a day now and sit with that idea until it forces us to reprioritize our calendar, and tone it down so we can drift off in the end with no more regrets than we'd have if we died today. 

Tater Tate and Allen Mundy by John Hartford Lyrics

Bluegrass music playin' in the park

Bluegrass music pickin' way past dark

Bluegrass music it don't butt in

Don't need an amp, and don't plug in

Bluegrass music that's where it's at

Hey let's hear it for Lester Flatt

Joe Sturd and Pete Rowen

Mack Wiseman and Melvin Goin

Stoney Cooper and Earl Sneed

Bluegrass Music is what we need

It is a Tater Tate and Allen Mundy

Earl Scruggs and Junior Husky

Bill Monroe and Betty Fischer

Don and Earl and Curly Cifer

Norman Ford and Douglas Dillard

Patsy Clemin, Jay and Jesse

JD Crow and Little Lord Fletcher

Francis Gray and Big Joe Green

Jackie Felton Don Mckuen

Doctor At--- and Doctor Harris, 

Sam Bush and Johnny Barton

Curly Fox and Curtis Brown

Roy Ossen Howdy Forseth

Charley Monroe and the Lewis Family

Eddie Hill The Louven Brothers

Carter Ralph and the Stanley Brothers

Uncle Josh and the Brewster Brothers

Bobby Sudder and the Osborne Brothers

Rudy John and the Frewer 

Grandpa Jones and ---

Curt Magee and Eddie Awkuff

Bobby Sloan and Charlie Waller

Lonnie Pierce and Allen Shelton

Dale Slate and Jim Buchanan

Little Roy and Lightning Chance

Monroe Fields and Ronnie Reno

Clarence White and Candy Baker

Roger Bush and Buddy Edmonds

Uncle Dave and Byron Burle

Gene Goforth Bad Burton

Ron Russel Randy Scruggs

Gordon Terry and Doc Watson

George Croon and Loyd Loren

Don, Brown and Carl Storey

Chuck Taylor and Mitch Dean

Mike Belford Stoner Haven

Nate Bray and Raymond Fairchild

Dave Hollen Roy Husky

Bill, Kieth and Jim Roony

Del McCrory David Christman

Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice,

Ronny Stullman Ever Lilly

Billy Ray and Wilma Lee

 The feels. We don't say that anymore -- that was so 2019. But words aside, the idea is universal. There are times when they hit us. It makes it almost impossible to be thinking bad conspiracy thoughts about people. For me, it stops the judgments and puts me in the situation of whatever I'm exposed to. 

With the feels, it's about a connection of some sort to someone else's experience, and I join them there. It's the compulsion of empathy. Yeah, I could resist and steel myself against it, but why? Why? I'm so used to my own feeling main-drag most of the time -- why NOT take a few minutes to let myself see a different view of life from another's...eyes? Hypothalamus? Amygdala? 

I'm convinced that if we could sit on a big sectional with a decent sound system, have someone from the other side of opinions play their favorite high school play-list, and talk over the thoughts and feelings that they bring up, that this ridiculous othering and demonizing of the "enemy" would disappear with a few sessions.

This isolationist, echo-chamber, anti-speech immersion common today is the opposite. It lets the thought leaders (influenceers/ pundits/ talking heads/ pecuniary exploiters) corrupt the truth by sticking to their one-sided righteousness broadcast, which, of COURSE, is so much more common-sensical then the other side. When you don't have to feel anything but your own (baser) sentiments amplified and stimulated and emitted, and then radiated out with laser focus against whoever is not [us], of course that's going to excite that default "I'm good, aren't I?" desire. 

When you get a chance to FEEL the sentiment of someone foreign to your sensibilities, it's weird at first. Because there's a this disturbing sense that they have a point, like there's a legitimacy to their perspective, based on their life experience. And sometimes even their deep study of facts. But you've spent the better part of [a decade? lifetime? few years?] simply trying to contradict their thoughts. Yuck. That's just stupid when you realize that, at the core, the intentions are the same: Everyone should get a fair chance to live their lives as they like, free to be who they are and act as they believe is the best for themselves and their family. Yes, it's not that simple in the details, but fuck the motherfuckers who don't acknowledge that we all want the best for ourselves and the long-term prosperity of our country for everyone between our shores. Start with that. And stop disparaging the others' motives (unless they're bigoted), if you must have your "others." (I get it, it's easy to forget I am you. Easiest thing in the world. And, of course, utterly true.)

Journey Plebe Summer

A Journey story. Plebe summer, the day before second set was going to take over...The firsties from first set was trying to instill the fear of God in us, telling us that as tough as they were, second set was going to be ten times worse. We had been flamed on all day, especially the last hour, and they let us know how disappointed they were. We were all out in the passageway, braced up against the wall, and they were fed up with us. They were screaming at us, we weren't ready. "Everyone, go back and get your bayonets and your newspaper articles and be out here in 5 minutes!!" They were apparently not satisfied with our daily knowledge (conversant with two newspaper articles and a boatload of other trivia) and we expected to have to... I don't know -- hold our bayonets at arms length until our already drenched white-works had another pint of sweat dripping down? So we chopped back into our rooms and grabbed our bayonets and newspapers, checked each other over, and chopped back out. When we got back out in the passageway, there, by everyone's door was a pizza box, two liter bottles of Coke, and a watermelon. One of the firsties had brought his speakers out in the passageway and started blasting "Stone in Love" by Journey. We were given carry-on, and of course the bayonets were to slice up the watermelon, and the newspapers to keep it clean. The surprise of what we expected contrasted with the joy of relief, release, and accomplishment was intense. I would feel it again at graduation, getting my wings, and finishing up SERE school. To this day, that's the song lifts me up. "Oh, the memories never fade away."  That was 11th Company. Did everyone do that? I'm curious.

Interest Rates and Inflation

 If you want a simple understanding of this, it is not going to happen. The forces affecting the economy are so many and so varied, that it is an art as much as a science. Some effects happen in a few weeks, some in a few months, some over a year, and some decades or generations. And all those are pushing and pulling in different directions and on different sectors of the economy.

Trying to answer directly and simply would necessarily omit a lot of the nuances and subtleties, and feel really unsatisfying. And even the experts disagree on how things might turn out if you raise prime interest rate a little more or a little less or not at all. 

Raising the prime rate (which is what the Fed does) cascades through the banking lending system and effects certain markets pretty fast (like housing since mortgage rates follow the prime rate -- sometimes quick, sometimes laggy, and sometimes even LEADING the Fed's actions). That affects certain behaviors with home buyers, which indirectly and later will lead to rents changing, and it can affect other big purchases like cars (where you need loans). The prime rate also bumps credit card interest rates, so people will want to (but may not be able to) spend less on their credit cards, so maybe they wait for other middling purchases like appliances or furniture -- slowing inflation on that sector). BUT, inflation makes people want to buy SOONER because if they wait, their $800 they have in the bank can buy the dishwasher today, but the same one might cost $900 next year.

And all the while, energy prices (which impact inflation and every other sector as well) are affected by other influences throughout the world like hurricanes, wars in Europe, OPEC actions and reactions, bringing refining capacity up or not... Energy prices affect how much people have left over after their gasoline and electricity bills, which are NOT tied as closely to the prime rate.

And of course there are seasonal effects, supply chain snafus still finding their way back from the pandemic (and still being effected by China's "No COVID Policy" which shuts down various economic centers in a chaotic fashion), and literally, the price of [tea? wheat? rice?] in China.

But overall, raising the prime rate can slow things down, eventually enough to get inflation under control (hopefully) without causing too painful of a depression. Because, in the opinion of most economists, runaway inflation and stagflation would be even worse than a depression.

I'm no economist but I've spent a few years reading Business Week, Forbes and the WSJ, and listen to Marketplace every afternoon on the way home from work and it lets me know how much I don't know, and how much of it is "best guess" work by the people actually making the decisions.

September 19th, 2022 Latest Musings

 I'm running into the beginning of the end for my potential to contribute to the world in a way that makes me feel like it mattered. I don't know if it will matter -- by making things better (cause it might make things worse, whatever that means), but I don't know if it won't, either. We can't know. I just have a feeling that more people better understanding their world is a net positive.

Understanding the world -- which could include a few different major ways (modalities) of understanding:

• My relationship with and role in this world.
• How the world works. (Various parts: physical science, social, who am I, how do I live and behave in the world, why things are including people and my relationships with my fellow travelers and with the universe).
• What's important to me, to those in my circle and community, and to the current and future generations of humans.

I have  a feeling that the more people who can appreciate being alive and aware, for its own sake, the better they can cope with the other interesting events and challenges they encounter during their lives.

I really think the greater number of people who see the world as a place and time they can make other people's lives better, and their own along with it, and their own because of it, each of them multiply the betterment for others as well as themselves.