I don't know if 4 years of Trump as President would ultimately be a bad thing. With the chaotic and complex (in both colloquial and technical terms) interaction of global influences, from economics to social (and mainstream) media to global relations to mass cultural movement, no one can say. Calamity often aligns enemies against a common foe or congeal the bonds of alliance between loose associates, and can result in long term betterment. The energy crisis of the 70s gave us a head-start on development of alternative energies, the atomic bomb may have ended WWII earlier and prevented deaths (we don't know because in one-off events, there is rarely any reliable control (in the scientific sense) to compare the alternatives timelines. Some of the most interesting fiction involves exploring what happens on different timelines. Because we KNOW we don't know what will happen.
As much as I value and respect integrity, compassion, wisdom, competence and strength (the opposite of Trump), I cannot pretend to know for sure that putting a narcissistic, stunted intelligence in office wouldn't ultimately strengthen this country -- much like surviving cancer, or the loss of a limb or loved one, or vicious attack by evil, can deepen the character of an individual. It's possible the disaster of Trump could result in a wiser and maturer nation after the deluge. And, as much as I despise the power wielded by bullies and musclemen and as much havoc as the wreak upon their world, there is power, as evidenced by Trumps affluence. And it can be used for good or evil, which often depends on the side you're on. And again, it can often catalyze the forces of good for a future net-gain.
I would never support or vote for a "Trump," and I will do what I can to relegate his brand of small-mindedness to the trash heap of history, but I don't know -- and either do you -- whether in the long run, Trump might not finally wake our country up to more active involvement toward building the best America and Earth we can envision. I don't believe holding signs and shouting is going to change a lot minds. Deeper discussions with each other about what we want as a nation and how we might accomplish it among more and more people over time, might. Getting together to plan real involvement in the (gag) political process, as cringe-worthy as that thought is to me, could make a difference in a year or so.
On a related note: we get what we deserve by our apathy. When those with whom Trump resonates, the insecure and afraid and xenophobic and prepubescent minded are finally excited to join the cause, their opposites can either get up or shut up. If you're too busy basking in your middle-class, educated glory (rut?) to work to motivate your like-minded citizens, you deserve whatever dregs the true believers hoist up the flag-pole. It's the desperate who are seeking the huge change (and rightly so). But when they're not given a rational (if a little jarring) option for change, they'll go with the crackiest of crack-pots.
[Here's where you crank "Get Up" by the Kinks on your loudest sound system]
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Monday, May 9, 2016
Real Service As One Tool To Ease Depression/Anxiety
I know there's no magic pill to make depression go away. I know it's a multi-pronged approach, and different causes will require different interventions. But I do know that some people are prone to get all up in their own heads which spools up into anxiety and mental trouble of all sorts, including narcissism.
Getting significantly involved in the service of less fortunate or helping others in need, like seniors, homeless, single mothers, sick children, or abused animals, to name a few, does a few things.
1. Active engagement takes a person out of their own head and into the activity of service
2. Working with the needy helps provide perspective to our own problems
3. The social aspect of working with others exposes us to co-volunteers (usually a pretty positive lot), and those who we serve.
Along with the counsel of a healthcare professional, good exercise/diet/sleep, and a review of substance use (prescription drugs and self-medicating),
Oh, and along the way, you're helping the world be a better place. Making your neighbor's life a little better is, perhaps, the noblest endeavor.
Getting significantly involved in the service of less fortunate or helping others in need, like seniors, homeless, single mothers, sick children, or abused animals, to name a few, does a few things.
1. Active engagement takes a person out of their own head and into the activity of service
2. Working with the needy helps provide perspective to our own problems
3. The social aspect of working with others exposes us to co-volunteers (usually a pretty positive lot), and those who we serve.
Along with the counsel of a healthcare professional, good exercise/diet/sleep, and a review of substance use (prescription drugs and self-medicating),
Oh, and along the way, you're helping the world be a better place. Making your neighbor's life a little better is, perhaps, the noblest endeavor.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Masters/Ph.D in History and Wondering What to Do?
Make your name and save the world. In a way, literally save the world.
In San Diego today, the first AIDS Hospice house is on sale, and historical societies are concerned that we'll lose what is considered a historical landmark by some.
If someone wants to develop a protocol and format standard for digitally capturing all the historical (or potential) historical sites in the world, to make them available in perpetuity should they be destroyed or re-purposed for whatever reason. You could start with the obvious sites and the obvious needs, partnering with other historians, scientists, computer engineers who are already experts at digital conservation.
Creating a process that could systematically capture the essentials of any given site, with automated 3D modeling, photographic storage, laser measuring, etc. and put together a package for any site that might be of interest to historians (or others) for whatever need arises in the future. It would provide opportunity for local historians finding it hard to get a job, projects for grad (and undergrad and even high school) students.
It's a process that could be patented or sold or commercially exploited. I know there are parts of this process already in advanced use, but to start cataloging sites and making them publicly available would be a great service for the world.
In San Diego today, the first AIDS Hospice house is on sale, and historical societies are concerned that we'll lose what is considered a historical landmark by some.
If someone wants to develop a protocol and format standard for digitally capturing all the historical (or potential) historical sites in the world, to make them available in perpetuity should they be destroyed or re-purposed for whatever reason. You could start with the obvious sites and the obvious needs, partnering with other historians, scientists, computer engineers who are already experts at digital conservation.
Creating a process that could systematically capture the essentials of any given site, with automated 3D modeling, photographic storage, laser measuring, etc. and put together a package for any site that might be of interest to historians (or others) for whatever need arises in the future. It would provide opportunity for local historians finding it hard to get a job, projects for grad (and undergrad and even high school) students.
It's a process that could be patented or sold or commercially exploited. I know there are parts of this process already in advanced use, but to start cataloging sites and making them publicly available would be a great service for the world.
Saturday, March 19, 2016
The Limits of Knowledge and Saving the World
Of course there's not limit to how much can be known about this bloated universe, and of course no human can know everything about anything, much less everything. But when you read and think broadly for long enough, you start to see the parallels between almost any given domain, and have a strong and deep grasp of the main forces shaping human existence (evolution, neuroscience, physics, sociology, learning, human development, genetics, psychology, biochemistry, the human condition, culture, dialectics and logic, linguistics, economics, geophysics, etc.), it becomes a matter of time. How much time do you spend processing, challenging, discussing, writing about, creating, or otherwise interacting with various domains of knowledge and understanding. I like the idea of a very broad exposure to all of the main domains, and a few deep dives into different elements of life. Once a person reaches this place, it's nice to pick one and apply the whole of what you've mastered to furthering that chosen domain for the betterment of all.
I think of the many brilliant early Americans who applied themselves to establishing our initial institutions, and as we progress, I wonder if breadth of knowledge has become so much less a thing (with the waning of liberal arts as a thing), that the fully educated statesmen have been replaced by specifically trained wonks and fluffy leaders. The prevalence of non-readers, disengaged citizens, and the dearth of broad/deep knowledge of the engaged has left is in quite a difficult state.
There are, to be sure, those who get themselves involved in broad/deep endeavors, and it's a pretty impressive thing to see. I think of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Charlie Rose.... But I just wonder if there are enough of them, and if there are enough associations/collaborations/organizations/institutions that exist to take advantage of the small proportion of those who have applied themselves to that endeavor. When I read of Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton and Bacon and Newton and Einstein and Boorstin and Bryson and Bolden. They are impressive.
With the scope and nature of the challenges and obstacles that are staring us in the face here on earth, notably the immigrant/refugee crisis, virus proliferation and the spread of antibiotic resistance disease, climate change, energy and water shortages, increasingly aged population... All of these need many levels of leader, from the global to the local level, and what we're turning out from schools are students who are uninterested in learning because they've been inculcated with a culture of paper achievement. We virtually ignore the most important aspects of education: psychology and relationships, and leadership married to a mastery of another specific domain of knowledge.
This is the real crisis, because all of the other crises are going to be coped with by effective leaders of people who are able to fully (as much as is possible) comprehend the gross and nuanced full scope of the issues. The fact that we turn out most students who don't read and students who just want the degree instead of the learning that the degree is supposed to certify. We've got it backward, and we're perpetuating a back-dated idea of how we eventually deal with the problems of the world.
Finally, building a better conduit for transmitting what is known about things to the populace in general is going to be needed if we expect the average American to have a pretty good command of the state of affairs that require our active work to solve.
I think of the many brilliant early Americans who applied themselves to establishing our initial institutions, and as we progress, I wonder if breadth of knowledge has become so much less a thing (with the waning of liberal arts as a thing), that the fully educated statesmen have been replaced by specifically trained wonks and fluffy leaders. The prevalence of non-readers, disengaged citizens, and the dearth of broad/deep knowledge of the engaged has left is in quite a difficult state.
There are, to be sure, those who get themselves involved in broad/deep endeavors, and it's a pretty impressive thing to see. I think of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Charlie Rose.... But I just wonder if there are enough of them, and if there are enough associations/collaborations/organizations/institutions that exist to take advantage of the small proportion of those who have applied themselves to that endeavor. When I read of Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton and Bacon and Newton and Einstein and Boorstin and Bryson and Bolden. They are impressive.
With the scope and nature of the challenges and obstacles that are staring us in the face here on earth, notably the immigrant/refugee crisis, virus proliferation and the spread of antibiotic resistance disease, climate change, energy and water shortages, increasingly aged population... All of these need many levels of leader, from the global to the local level, and what we're turning out from schools are students who are uninterested in learning because they've been inculcated with a culture of paper achievement. We virtually ignore the most important aspects of education: psychology and relationships, and leadership married to a mastery of another specific domain of knowledge.
This is the real crisis, because all of the other crises are going to be coped with by effective leaders of people who are able to fully (as much as is possible) comprehend the gross and nuanced full scope of the issues. The fact that we turn out most students who don't read and students who just want the degree instead of the learning that the degree is supposed to certify. We've got it backward, and we're perpetuating a back-dated idea of how we eventually deal with the problems of the world.
Finally, building a better conduit for transmitting what is known about things to the populace in general is going to be needed if we expect the average American to have a pretty good command of the state of affairs that require our active work to solve.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Charity 2016
If your wondering where to give your hard earned dollars this year to give back to the greater good, consider this. We're a nation of 360 million relatively rich people. We absorb immigrants and refugees from around the world, and, for the most part, have jobs and support waiting for them so they, for the most part, can become contributing members of our society. We have some pretty amazing infrastructure for such things compared to most countries.
In Greece and Turkey, with a total of 85 million people between them, whose economies that don't do nearly as well as we ours, are now absorbing hundreds of thousands or millions of refugees from Syria. Their citizens are making real, palpable sacrifices to take in and process these people simply because they happen to be adjacent countries.
Now, consider the Syrians, leaving everything behind, risking life in ways dearly more extreme than what the Mexicans coming to the US and more extreme than the original colonists coming to America. When I thought of asking my Turkish friend what he thought of the situation, I felt the connection that has been there there all along: I know that this is a devastating situation for the entire region, and aside from my taxes funding some marginal support from the US military, where can I contribute to directly help them?
IRC, the International Rescue Committee. This organization not only resettles refugees from all parts of the world, helping them become contributing members of San Diego, and helping the students directly at Crawford, where I teach, learn English and understand America and what it means to be here, but does so all over the world. They are on the ground in the places around the world where suffering is the greatest and doing their best to alleviate it.
Please entertain the idea of pushing some of your bounty in their direction. People over there giving until it hurts even more than normal.
Even in you don't give personally to this particular cause, please feel free to forward this to others who may not have considered this particular organization and its mission. They willingly occupy one of the most difficult and perilous nexuses between warring nations, sometimes hostile natives, governments, bureaucracy, and the most destitute humans. Be part of the solution!
In Greece and Turkey, with a total of 85 million people between them, whose economies that don't do nearly as well as we ours, are now absorbing hundreds of thousands or millions of refugees from Syria. Their citizens are making real, palpable sacrifices to take in and process these people simply because they happen to be adjacent countries.
Now, consider the Syrians, leaving everything behind, risking life in ways dearly more extreme than what the Mexicans coming to the US and more extreme than the original colonists coming to America. When I thought of asking my Turkish friend what he thought of the situation, I felt the connection that has been there there all along: I know that this is a devastating situation for the entire region, and aside from my taxes funding some marginal support from the US military, where can I contribute to directly help them?
IRC, the International Rescue Committee. This organization not only resettles refugees from all parts of the world, helping them become contributing members of San Diego, and helping the students directly at Crawford, where I teach, learn English and understand America and what it means to be here, but does so all over the world. They are on the ground in the places around the world where suffering is the greatest and doing their best to alleviate it.
Please entertain the idea of pushing some of your bounty in their direction. People over there giving until it hurts even more than normal.
Even in you don't give personally to this particular cause, please feel free to forward this to others who may not have considered this particular organization and its mission. They willingly occupy one of the most difficult and perilous nexuses between warring nations, sometimes hostile natives, governments, bureaucracy, and the most destitute humans. Be part of the solution!
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Why I Like "Groundhog Day" So Much
There's the moment where he switches from autopilot to consciously taking advantage and appreciating each moment, from impatience with his situation to nonjudgmental presence. The result is a shift from self to service. He finally finds meaning in providing succor to those in need. Is there any other real meaning?
His service falls short because he isn't able, and so he has a reason to improve himself, and does it in earnest because there is now a reason for it. From the unexamined to the examined life.
It all happened after he had exhausted all other channels and he was ready to hear the words of some random person: "Maybe it's not a curse, Phil. It just depends on how you look at it." It wasn't just that, of course, but the entire life building up to it. In his case, he had to suffer a lot. Not a surprise, given his overbearing personality.
And in making himself a servant, he becomes the most interesting man in the world as a side effect. But the pleasure of being a virtuoso in his own life may not "matter" compared to his focus on service, but it's a natural and appropriate collateral benefit.
He disengaged his need to connect his intentions with the results. All he could do is what he could do and the consequences are what they are. In a Buddhist sense, he escaped the habit of desire.
And I like it so much because it's a resurrection story, and how doesn't like that? I like it because something like that happened to me once upon a time.
His service falls short because he isn't able, and so he has a reason to improve himself, and does it in earnest because there is now a reason for it. From the unexamined to the examined life.
It all happened after he had exhausted all other channels and he was ready to hear the words of some random person: "Maybe it's not a curse, Phil. It just depends on how you look at it." It wasn't just that, of course, but the entire life building up to it. In his case, he had to suffer a lot. Not a surprise, given his overbearing personality.
And in making himself a servant, he becomes the most interesting man in the world as a side effect. But the pleasure of being a virtuoso in his own life may not "matter" compared to his focus on service, but it's a natural and appropriate collateral benefit.
He disengaged his need to connect his intentions with the results. All he could do is what he could do and the consequences are what they are. In a Buddhist sense, he escaped the habit of desire.
And I like it so much because it's a resurrection story, and how doesn't like that? I like it because something like that happened to me once upon a time.
Friday, January 29, 2016
SuperBrain Yoga, Another Helpful Piece of Crap
Placebo is real and effective, and so if it helps the unsophisticated find a little comfort from their anxiety, then by all means, let it.
Yes, sciency types know that it's the simple act of believing in a thing that can have real, measurable psychological effects on mood. If someone believes themselves to be happy for real, then, by God and by definition, they are happy. And we know that happy alters the stew of brain chemicals, hormones, and other real biochemical dynamics in the body, and can improve well being. Never mind that it's all in the head. Because the head (mind) is indeed a powerful force for good (or evil) in a person's life.
I do believe that someone who studies neuroscience and psychology a little deeper could find better ways to self-regulate that believing in magic by simply believing in the scientific principles that lead to similar results, because they they would be able to really optimize the effects.
When I saw the video, it was clear that the ritual focus on something aside from problems, no different than regular yoga, taking our minds off anxiety-fueling thoughts, finding a biophysical routine that helps the mind reach a calmer state, was in work. No difference than learning a new dance and then practicing it. Or working on the backhand (although this one is even more helpful because not only could it accomplish the same thing as SuperBrain Yoga -- using the same mental dynamics of physical and mental concentration, but it would actually improve one's backhand and make tennis more fun! Yippee, tennis! If one were to, while learning and practicing a better backhand, believe that it was also improving their brain, then I am confident that it would accomplish the very same miracles, probably even better, than SuperBrain Yoga.
On the other hand, it's enriching the bank accounts of several bandwagoneers. Good for them. And they're probably more effective in their pursuit of gold if they truly believe it's a thing. I read an interesting article of the possible survival advantage of believing one's own lies. It makes the lie less detectable, which is good for the liars.
In any case, just because it's bullshit doesn't mean it's not useful. Manure is essential to the fertilization of real plants that become real food and nourish real people. Turning bullshit into good shit is one of the fundamental functions of mankind. Although I'm pretty sure we create more bullshit than we use. But that's another story.
Yes, sciency types know that it's the simple act of believing in a thing that can have real, measurable psychological effects on mood. If someone believes themselves to be happy for real, then, by God and by definition, they are happy. And we know that happy alters the stew of brain chemicals, hormones, and other real biochemical dynamics in the body, and can improve well being. Never mind that it's all in the head. Because the head (mind) is indeed a powerful force for good (or evil) in a person's life.
I do believe that someone who studies neuroscience and psychology a little deeper could find better ways to self-regulate that believing in magic by simply believing in the scientific principles that lead to similar results, because they they would be able to really optimize the effects.
When I saw the video, it was clear that the ritual focus on something aside from problems, no different than regular yoga, taking our minds off anxiety-fueling thoughts, finding a biophysical routine that helps the mind reach a calmer state, was in work. No difference than learning a new dance and then practicing it. Or working on the backhand (although this one is even more helpful because not only could it accomplish the same thing as SuperBrain Yoga -- using the same mental dynamics of physical and mental concentration, but it would actually improve one's backhand and make tennis more fun! Yippee, tennis! If one were to, while learning and practicing a better backhand, believe that it was also improving their brain, then I am confident that it would accomplish the very same miracles, probably even better, than SuperBrain Yoga.
On the other hand, it's enriching the bank accounts of several bandwagoneers. Good for them. And they're probably more effective in their pursuit of gold if they truly believe it's a thing. I read an interesting article of the possible survival advantage of believing one's own lies. It makes the lie less detectable, which is good for the liars.
In any case, just because it's bullshit doesn't mean it's not useful. Manure is essential to the fertilization of real plants that become real food and nourish real people. Turning bullshit into good shit is one of the fundamental functions of mankind. Although I'm pretty sure we create more bullshit than we use. But that's another story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)