Swimming Against the Tide

How I long for a day when people can actually sit and discuss the merits of an argument reasonably, with logic, without resorting to alarmist bullshit and rhetoric.  Here's a suggestion for how to really improve the country/community/world:  improve the human mental process by teaching critical thinking at an early age.

I cringe every time I hear people resorting to the same logical fallacies time and time again.  When someone says "What's next?", my brain leaps to "marrying animals?" before they finish the thought, because that's the kind of 'slippery-slope' argument some right-wing conservatives spew when rallying against gay marriage.  When someone says "What's the difference?", my brain leaps to "while they're both fruit, the color, shape and consistency..." before they get to express which two unalike things they wish to insist are the same, because I know that they're not going to be the same thing at all.

People are up in arms right now about the police not requiring a reason to pull someone over and possibly search their vehicle.  If my memory of grade 10 Law class serves me right, the police have been able to search vehicles for little or no reason since before the late 80s.  Little has changed in that regard.  But it looks like something is changing - something powerful.  But it's irrelevant, because this attempt "empower" the police to do something about impaired drivers is just another fine example of government pretending to do something about a problem by bringing in "tough" legislation, that realistically will have little or no impact.  It's a lot easier for government to discuss something, write a bill about it, and tell everyone they've worked on it, than to actually do something, and if anything should be offensive about this bill, it's that.  I'm not so concern with the supposed erosion of my civil rights as the fact that said supposed erosion is not being traded for anything effective.  Yes, I'd trade away some of my privacy, if I got some real results in return.  Hell, you can search my car while I'm indoors asleep if you want, provided you can assure me you'll catch, arrest, try, convict, sentence, and somehow rehabilitate the putzes that steal the coffee money from unlocked vehicles on my street once or twice weekly.  (Lock the doors folks, they're too lazy to actually break in.)


The fact of the matter is that when it comes to impaired drivers in this province, the police catching and arresting them doesn't seem to be the issue: light sentences and a "catch-and-release" justice system is the issue.  It's evidenced in the fact that you see people with multiple charges, including "driving without a license" and "driving while suspended".  They get caught.  They get tried.  They get sentenced.  And they just keep doing it again and again.  And it's not just drunk drivers, it's all the other petty criminals too.  If the armed robbers aren't caught that night by the K-9 unit, they're nabbed within two weeks, and "breach of probation" will always be added to the list of charges.

I'm not worried about this change because I truly don't expect to see the constabulary suddenly pulling people aside randomly; they're far too busy already with the list of fuckwits whose names, addresses, and license plates they surely have memorized by now.

Grease the pegs however you like, it's the revolving door that's the problem.

The Price of Hope

Sometimes I think a basic course in accounting should be a requirement at the high school level.  Concepts like "opportunity cost" are so simple yet crucial elements in the proper examination of alternatives, and yet it seems like the general public has no concept of these things.  On almost any subject about which there is public outcry or discussion, the options usually end up horribly misrepresented, because the alternatives are never portrayed realistically, if even considered.

There was a huge argument back when about whether or not to turn the Memorial Stadium into a supermarket.  But for all the public outcry against it, I never once heard anyone speak of a realistic alternative.  A private company wanted to put money into changing the building to supermarket.  To those opposing it, I ask, what was the alternative?  I heard "No, it shouldn't be a supermarket", but I didn't hear, "No, send the private money away, since surely Loblaw's won't take that same money and use it to convert the building into something else for us that doesn't generate profit for them, but instead raise my taxes so that the City of St John's can turn it into something I find more palatable, or perhaps allow the space to continue sitting unused."

And when it comes to clinging to hope, people become all the worse.  The health minister, Jerome Kennedy, feels we should explore an alternative therapy for Multiple Sclerosis that both the MS Society of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research have denounced.  And if one were to believe the polls on the CBC news page (and one shouldn't, I know), it would appear that many people applaud this.  Without a basic understanding of accounting, they fail to understand the parameters of the equation here.  The choices are not "do something" or "do nothing".  The choices are, and will continue to be, "spend limited financial resources on A" or "spend limited financial resources on B".  So if government is going to spend money chasing hope because a politician thinks he knows better than the scientific community - or worse, simply knows it will make him more popular and at no cost to himself - understand that it will come at the expense of something else.  It may come at the expense of less money being spent to explore better, more viable alternatives.  Consider that if "anecdotal evidence" is the benchmark of government spending, I'm pretty sure "Yogic Flying" should be up there alongside the proposed procedure.

I am very sensitive to the plight of people with MS.  It has affected my family and my friends.  I am surrounded by it.  And I hope, very much, that someday soon they find a cure.  But rather than throw money at the first snake oil salesman who comes along, let's have scientists explore the viability of possible cures.  Let's have clinical trials and blind studies.  Let's use well-established quality processes to rule out the snake oil, the yogic flyers, and - from what I'm reading - the Zamboni procedure.  Let's do it right, and let's reserve our hope for options that show proper evidence they might actually work.

Because that hope - it comes with a price tag.

Quick Lessons in Leadership

Two decades ago, working as a drill instructor in 1989, I learned two valuable lessons in leadership that have stuck with me to this day.  They both centre around the fact that people, as a broad generalization, are lazy.  On hearing that, you may think "but I'm not lazy!", but the sad reality is that most people are, very much so, and the few that aren't are constantly victimized by the majority others if they allow themselves to be.

Lesson number one: if you shout at a group of people, nothing changes.  The problem with non-specific criticism is it allows each individual present to convince themselves you're talking about someone else.  Yes, the rare not-lazy, more self-aware ones may worry you're talking about them and take action, but in all likeliness, they're not the ones who were the problem in the first place.  If you have thirty cadets marching along, and three-quarters of them are not swinging their arms properly, shouting at the group to swing their arms will not make them do so.  Rather, the quarter who were doing it adequately will do it slightly more.

If you want results with a group, be prepared to name names.

Lesson number two: given two options of how to do things, people will pick the easier of the two.  If you want them to do something properly, doing it properly has to be the easier of the two.  They will happily and consistently pick the incorrect way, even if it means occassionally being berated for it, if that way is easier.  Cadets would walk half way from the mess to the parade square, get yelled at by the crossing guard for not marching properly, march until out of earshot, and then resume walking.  They would do this daily.  They did this until crossing guards started insisting they turn around, march back to the starting point, and do the whole thing over again.  This changed the parameters of their decision.  Instead of the options a) march, or b) walk and get yelled at, where b) is obviously the easier answer, they now had a) march, or b) walk, get yelled at, march back, and then do a) anyway.  Suddenly marching from the beginning was the easier, lazier option.

If you want people to be good, make being bad require more energy.

Those Who Pretend to Know

Those who know they do not know gain wisdom;
Those who pretend to know remain ignorant.
-- Tao Te Ching

I came across graffitti on the bathroom wall of Sobey's the other day, slamming the store over pesticides and suggesting that everyone should be buying organic.  I guess they're not familiar with Newfoundland soil and climate, or certainly not with how agriculture works here. 

The CBC website lately has been littered with people insisting crime in St John's is on the rise, despite statistics being released to the contrary.  Yes, those statistics are questionable, but for reasons much better than "geez b'y, I've been readin' the news, and everyone knows crime is up sher since I was a youngster".  I guess it never occurs to them that they weren't reading the online news daily 30 years ago.

It all reminds me of years ago when someone adamantly suggested that killing more seals would help save the cod, since seals eat cod.  Then an expert came forward saying that seals primarily eat another fish which in turn eats cod and it would have quite the opposite effect.  (Not that seals were the problem to begin with, but let's leave the overfishing and government mismanagement rants for another day.)  But then, maybe I'm remembering that wrong.  I might be.  But then, I'm not espousing a course of action regarding seals.  Just so we're clear.

You see, I'm not suggesting for a minute that I know all about potato blight, or whether crime is or isn't rising or falling in St John's these days, or what the fuck we should do about a dead fishery.  I'll leave destroying elephant populations in order to save them from cruel treatment to the likes of PETA.  I don't know these things, and I know I don't know these things.  I just wish the general population asked more questions and provided fewer answers.

Wouldn't it be nice, every now and then, to find activism and ignorance not following hand in hand?

Welcome to the Misinformation Age.

At what cost?

Ἂν ἔτι μίαν μάχην νικήσωμεν, ἀπολώλαμεν"
("One more such victory will undo me!")
-- Pyrrhus of Epirus

Now that Mr Kennedy has taken it upon himself to start grinding down what little bits were left after Cameron's flogging, we'll soon be out of both "responsible" parties and actual responsible parties.  And hey, why not another inquiry?  Let's take yet another big pile of taxpayer money and devote it to carefully scrutinizing the problems and finding a bevy of scapegoats rather than actually addressing any of the issues.  When we're done that inquiry, I have a suggestion for another: an inquiry into the impact on morale and consequent diminished quality of services as a result of the previous two inquiries.  Then that can be followed shortly after by a government sponsored study on the increased "brain-drain" in the medical profession.  A follow-up inquiry could be launched into the role the media played in each of the previous inquiries and studies, and whether their involvement was biased or balanced, good or unnecessary journalism, within or outside the bounds of the Limitation of Harm principle.  We'd have water cooler talk for a decade to come! 

And then, when the decade is out, conversation can turn to whether or not the government should cover the costs of the live chickens you're required to bring to the witchdoctor when you go for your checkup.

all grown up?

"When the colour of the night
and all the smoke for one life
gives way to shakey movements,
improvisational skills,
a forest of whispering speakers
let's swear that we will
get with the times,
in a current heath to stay
let's get friendship right
get life day-to-day
in the forget-yer-skates dream
full of countervailing woes
in diverse-as-ever scenes
proceeding on a need-to-know
in a face so full of meaning
as to almost make it glow"
-- The Tragically Hip, "It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken'"


So I took today off, as I always do on March 2nd, as a personal day.  They used to be days of mourning, or of deep introspection, but it's been long enough, and I'm centered enough, that that's not always the case any more.  I spent the morning piecing together tidbits of old journals/blogs to start this one, since I traditionally write on this day (or so I thought, before I discovered I was actually very inconsistent about it), and I needed somewhere to put it.

Pouring through my old writings for anything I still felt was of worth was a mixed experience.  I look upon most of my really old stuff as trash.  Granted, it was very honest, sometimes brutally so, and very personal, but it lacked grace and cohesion.  I'd guess there's maybe 5% of it worth repeating, if that.  And that's fine; its purpose was not to enlighten others so much as myself.  My first journal, in particular, was a journey of self-discovery, one I look back on as incredibly worthwhile and which I highly recommend.  I think sometimes that most people go through life without ever actually taking the time to really get to know or understand themselves, or to come to accept themselves for who they are.  That's tragic, really.

I am at peace.

There's no simpler way to put it than that.  I live a life very blessed, and I count those blessings often.  I have a good relationship with a fabulous woman.  I have an adorable step-daughter.  I have good friends and a good family.  I have many fond memories.  I have a good job I enjoy and I think I'm good at it.  I have good coworkers.  We have a good house and plans to buy an even better one a few years down the road, and a good car we bought ourselves for Xmas.  A few days from now, when Liza-Ann and I sign a new mortgage agreement, I'll be about-as-married as I'll likely ever be.  Yes, in many ways it's a stereotypical middle-class existence, shy the dog and the white pickets - though we do have an adorable hamster - but that stereotype is a stereotype for a reason: it's the most common collection of things that people want in their lives.

I look back on the me of ten years ago, and I realize just how much I've changed.  I don't mean simply in my likes or dislikes, or my work ethic or anything like that, but fundamentally, in an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual (and sadly physical) way, just how different I am.  I have little doubt that such change would not have been possible without that initial dive downward into my own psyche, but I'm certainly glad to find myself now in a much happier, better place.

I needed to accept the Yin to get to the Yang.

I hope to write more in the future.  One of the things I've learned about myself in recent years is that I can use my "creature of habit" feature to help overcome my "forgetful" feature, so by making this my homepage on my browser at home, I hope to do just that.

And it won't be all "wow, I love my life" posts either, nor will it be a return to the dreary of an early-30s me.  It will be balanced - like me.  I hope it will also be thought-provoking, because I like to inspire whenever I can.

On that note, the thing I discovered from perusing those old writings that was perhaps the biggest surprise:

I long ago said that I'd discovered things about myself I liked, things I didn't like and would change, and things I didn't like but couldn't change.  I realize now I was wrong about that third bit.  Some of the things about myself which I felt were so ingrained as to never change have changed.  These were things I didn't like but felt helpless about.  I underestimated the power of time and will.  Yes, you aren't likely to go to bed one night and wake up a different person the next day, but when I made that statement I was thinking primarily about the next day.  You can wake up a decade later and be very different, and much happier, and much better.

In the same paradoxical way that Taoism suggests that the leader who cares the least about his troops serves them the best, or who tries the least does the most, so too does working hard on being happier make for so much wasted effort and sorrow.  Back then, I just wanted to be a happier person.  It never occurred to me to try to be a better person.

Becoming a better person is what led me to become a happier person.

Gen Five

Some time ago, Geocities closed and with it, two of my old journals (my first and third) disappeared.  I managed to rescue one at the last minute, and thought the other had joined the fate of my second in being lost to the void forever.

Some time later it turned out that this was not the case, as I came across an old CD where I'd backed up the first and second journals.

I'd like to get back to writing again, though I make no promises to do so with any regularity.  But I figured the first step was to at least go back over what I've written in the past and rescue anything I feel has substance.  I refer to this as "Gen Five", because there was also a short-lived blog simultaneous to my third journal as well, from which I've taken nothing but the Mantra above, as it was the only thing there I felt had value.

It may take some time to get back through all the old material and find those things I consider worthwhile, so for archived posts from the past may seem to appear at random.

And FYI, since I don't know the dates on a lot of the older stuff, much will simply appear as Jan 1 for the year I think I wrote it.