I like new things. There I said it. I love new science, new technologies, new media, new games, new friends, new enemies, new favorite sandwich. Yet I hate change... go figure.
Mostly though I like the idea of us as a species learning new things. The fact that some of us as humans are able to peer deeper into the mysteries of the physical universe and find proof of the Higgs Boson, or dark matter, or able to give sight back to the blind, take the idea of memory away from the realm of then metaphysic to the realm of them empiricist. We as a species are damned impressive. Humanity defintly has its moments of glory.
I am an odd duck. Ok you knew that but still let me explain. I am pessimistic about our immediate future most of the time. I feel the systems we have built for ourselves have become our cages more often than not. We have the inability to take the long view, and that might be an evolutionary issue. But here's the odd part, I am optimistic for our long term as a species.
Granted, to steal a classic phrase, we stand on the shoulders of giants. The collective knowledge, cultural heritage, and technology are the products of a very special few amongst the very many average rest of us. Einstein, Newton, Voltaire, Plato, Sun Tzu, Lao Tse, and a handful of others are the diamonds in the rough of humanity. We the masses benefit from their genius, while being unable to truly join them in their understanding. Newton was so far beyond, he had to create a new level of mathematics just to described the new science he laid out in physics. I will never approach that level of discovery.
But we don't stop, the best of us keep going, pressing out to the borders of our collective knowledge, our collective cultures, our technologies. The next wave builds upon the collected work of all the previous generations. Well ok, the works that survived. But still, that's alot. This is our light in the darkness, to blatantly steal from Carl Sagan. Our reason, our adaptation to new ideas, and our drive to understand. Our light only gets brighter. Just as the days get longer, as we pass the solstice of darkest nights, so to does our collected us shine stronger and brighter.
I am a pretty bad pessimist. I have hope in us all. I blame the Quakers.... but that's another rant for another day.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Context, its kinda important... historically speaking ....
So with a degree in Polisci, and that pesky minor in Philosophy, I get roped into more conversations about random things than I should. Though to be fair, I would probably get into those anyways. The problem though is that often it can be like pounding your head against a electrified brick wall. Its shockingly painful. Yeah not a great pun but its early and I'm confuzled.
Whats most painful is what my old anthropology professor called the "Flintstone Fallacy." We have a tendency to project the way of life we live into past cultures and histories. After all, to blatantly rip off many funnier comedians than I, how does Fred Flintstone celebrate the mass commemorating Jesus Christs birth 1,000 years give or take before he was born? We assume because its been around us our whole life... or most of it anyways, that it must always have been.
This projection creates illusions. When we dont know the details we fill in the gaps with our experiences, which often would have been so alien to those we are projecting ourselves on. I have no idea what it would have been like to live day in and day out as a recently conquered addition to the Roman Empire. I have no personal context to be one of the first wandering tribes to sow seeds and grow barley, or rice, to ferment into the first beers. There has been no part of my life that would let me empathize with a son of "untouchable" in any true class structured society.
Being an American having discussions about international politics and foreign policy is quickly becoming closer to conversations at the end of the British Empire. I cant explain where I think we as the American Empire should go without either assuming the other people in the discussion know the basic histories for 1,000+ years, or taking the time to cliff notes my basic history knowledge.
How can I expect people to understand the guilt that seems to drive modern Germany's desire to hold the EU together with all of its resources, while at the same time pointing to the lack of historical memory that is creating many of the same frameworks around those other EU members that led to the guilt in the first place? Or why chlorinated pools are still frowned upon in most of Europe with out understanding the horrors of the first World War. Understanding the problems of trying to occupy Afghanistan require 2,000 years of history, and an understanding of the many Abraham theologies. How can I have a discussion about what the Bill of Rights means when we quite literally have different meanings for some of the words used due to the evolution of our language and culture.
Looking up I can see this is a longer rant... but I am going to keep going... sorry the unknown internet gnomes.
What has me frustrated this time, is the 2nd amendment talk. I live in a part of the country that has had some terrible shootings in my life time. I also live in a part of the country that was first re-settled (there were already people living here) by trappers and hunters, and later loggers and fishermen. There is a strong history of firearms in this state. As a matter of fact the state constitutions copy and pasted definitions of firearms is so murky that it would take case to the state supreme court to clarify it, and that's not a case that anyone would be part of. (Quick side note, due to the way the definitions are written, it is a plausible interpretation that anything that can fully automatically shoot projectiles can count as a machine gun with out first counting as a fire arm. Now in daily life this is merely one of those quirky things no one has do deal with. But it could lead to difficult legislation enforcement down the road.) However, there is no historical understanding. Very few people I have met can truly put themselves into the shoes of a recently freed colony, that won its freedom from an Empire that did not use its full resources, out of needing them to deal with the French, and has made no secret it may try to reclaim the newly freed colony later. This is an era before national conflict as we see it today. Pre-industrial war, before Napoleon, and Clausewitz, before some of major technological and organizational advancements that shape every military to this day.
Let me be very blunt. There was a different understanding of what the 2nd amendment was supposed to be than what it is assumed to be today. To be fair that's true of most of the amendments. There was a reasonable fear that British would attempt to reclaim their old colony. (See the war of 1812 to understand how reasonable that fear was.) With out a large (or any real) standing army, the need was to be able to draw up militias from the people in the time of national defense. Also this was a time when the average soldiers weapon was not too different from a hunters weapon. This is no longer true. While the average difference in a breach loading weapon where minimal except smooth bore vs. rifled, there is a massive difference today. A bolt action Remington Model 798 hunting rifle while very effective is a world apart from a Barret M99-1 which is a .50 military sniper rifle. They are no longer analogous. Even the ammunition is different. Where a hunter may use soft lead, or hollow points, a military use may include flechette, full metal jacketed, depleted uranium, Teflon coated, tracer, explosive, or sabot rounds, and if the military use in question decides to to adhere to conventions there are even more exotic and dangerous options.
But that's not the biggest part of the missing conversation. That comes from the 80's... though to be fair-ish it goes further back. In the 80's the US pretty much made it illegal to have severe mental health issues. Let me explain. The mental health system at the time was barbarous, and really was doing a lot of harm. There were not a lot of long term healthy outcomes as much as facilities for long term observation and long term hospitalization. There was a very real need to reform the system. What ended up happening is many "insane asylums" where shut down, and the ability to admit someone that needed help but was not an imminent threat to themselves or others was all but abolished. The mental health system was gutted. So those with severe mental health problems often end up on the streets, self medicating, or end up participating in the revolving doors of jails and prisons being held for minimum amounts of time before being released again. While this is not always what happens, it is common enough to be worrisome.
We treat mental health issues with stigmas. Somebody suffering with one of the many forms of depression is "weak" or "broken" and should be ostracized. We don't think of mental health the same as physical health. We really should. They are interdependent enough to be the same. We need to take a long, brutal, honest look in the collective mirror. There are no simple solutions to our problems as a society. Worse, the longer we wait the more complicated and difficult the solutions become. We need to take stock of ourselves and admit where we have failed, where we are failing now, and the difficult choices we have ahead.
When people need help, we as a community need to be proactive in helping them get it, and sometimes at the extreme of forcing them into places of help. While you cannot truly help those who don't want to be helped, you can get them to places where they have a chance of taking ownership of their lives again. We must understand the stigmas we reinforce every day and take personal responsibility for our actions, or more often inaction. How many lives could have been saved, how many futures could have been better if we were willing to do the hard, expensive stuff that takes years to make a difference?
History is important. Knowing ours, knowing the history of those we talk about, and talk with is important. Knowing the history of the systems we use, or take for granted everyday is important. Understanding the interconnectedness of those systems is even more important. I am a very stupid person, really I am. Anyone who has read this blog knows that. But even I can see how much we hide from the painful truths of ourselves because (insert any cliche excuse here.)
I lost my point somewhere... but then again I always do.
/end rant
Whats most painful is what my old anthropology professor called the "Flintstone Fallacy." We have a tendency to project the way of life we live into past cultures and histories. After all, to blatantly rip off many funnier comedians than I, how does Fred Flintstone celebrate the mass commemorating Jesus Christs birth 1,000 years give or take before he was born? We assume because its been around us our whole life... or most of it anyways, that it must always have been.
This projection creates illusions. When we dont know the details we fill in the gaps with our experiences, which often would have been so alien to those we are projecting ourselves on. I have no idea what it would have been like to live day in and day out as a recently conquered addition to the Roman Empire. I have no personal context to be one of the first wandering tribes to sow seeds and grow barley, or rice, to ferment into the first beers. There has been no part of my life that would let me empathize with a son of "untouchable" in any true class structured society.
Being an American having discussions about international politics and foreign policy is quickly becoming closer to conversations at the end of the British Empire. I cant explain where I think we as the American Empire should go without either assuming the other people in the discussion know the basic histories for 1,000+ years, or taking the time to cliff notes my basic history knowledge.
How can I expect people to understand the guilt that seems to drive modern Germany's desire to hold the EU together with all of its resources, while at the same time pointing to the lack of historical memory that is creating many of the same frameworks around those other EU members that led to the guilt in the first place? Or why chlorinated pools are still frowned upon in most of Europe with out understanding the horrors of the first World War. Understanding the problems of trying to occupy Afghanistan require 2,000 years of history, and an understanding of the many Abraham theologies. How can I have a discussion about what the Bill of Rights means when we quite literally have different meanings for some of the words used due to the evolution of our language and culture.
Looking up I can see this is a longer rant... but I am going to keep going... sorry the unknown internet gnomes.
What has me frustrated this time, is the 2nd amendment talk. I live in a part of the country that has had some terrible shootings in my life time. I also live in a part of the country that was first re-settled (there were already people living here) by trappers and hunters, and later loggers and fishermen. There is a strong history of firearms in this state. As a matter of fact the state constitutions copy and pasted definitions of firearms is so murky that it would take case to the state supreme court to clarify it, and that's not a case that anyone would be part of. (Quick side note, due to the way the definitions are written, it is a plausible interpretation that anything that can fully automatically shoot projectiles can count as a machine gun with out first counting as a fire arm. Now in daily life this is merely one of those quirky things no one has do deal with. But it could lead to difficult legislation enforcement down the road.) However, there is no historical understanding. Very few people I have met can truly put themselves into the shoes of a recently freed colony, that won its freedom from an Empire that did not use its full resources, out of needing them to deal with the French, and has made no secret it may try to reclaim the newly freed colony later. This is an era before national conflict as we see it today. Pre-industrial war, before Napoleon, and Clausewitz, before some of major technological and organizational advancements that shape every military to this day.
Let me be very blunt. There was a different understanding of what the 2nd amendment was supposed to be than what it is assumed to be today. To be fair that's true of most of the amendments. There was a reasonable fear that British would attempt to reclaim their old colony. (See the war of 1812 to understand how reasonable that fear was.) With out a large (or any real) standing army, the need was to be able to draw up militias from the people in the time of national defense. Also this was a time when the average soldiers weapon was not too different from a hunters weapon. This is no longer true. While the average difference in a breach loading weapon where minimal except smooth bore vs. rifled, there is a massive difference today. A bolt action Remington Model 798 hunting rifle while very effective is a world apart from a Barret M99-1 which is a .50 military sniper rifle. They are no longer analogous. Even the ammunition is different. Where a hunter may use soft lead, or hollow points, a military use may include flechette, full metal jacketed, depleted uranium, Teflon coated, tracer, explosive, or sabot rounds, and if the military use in question decides to to adhere to conventions there are even more exotic and dangerous options.
But that's not the biggest part of the missing conversation. That comes from the 80's... though to be fair-ish it goes further back. In the 80's the US pretty much made it illegal to have severe mental health issues. Let me explain. The mental health system at the time was barbarous, and really was doing a lot of harm. There were not a lot of long term healthy outcomes as much as facilities for long term observation and long term hospitalization. There was a very real need to reform the system. What ended up happening is many "insane asylums" where shut down, and the ability to admit someone that needed help but was not an imminent threat to themselves or others was all but abolished. The mental health system was gutted. So those with severe mental health problems often end up on the streets, self medicating, or end up participating in the revolving doors of jails and prisons being held for minimum amounts of time before being released again. While this is not always what happens, it is common enough to be worrisome.
We treat mental health issues with stigmas. Somebody suffering with one of the many forms of depression is "weak" or "broken" and should be ostracized. We don't think of mental health the same as physical health. We really should. They are interdependent enough to be the same. We need to take a long, brutal, honest look in the collective mirror. There are no simple solutions to our problems as a society. Worse, the longer we wait the more complicated and difficult the solutions become. We need to take stock of ourselves and admit where we have failed, where we are failing now, and the difficult choices we have ahead.
When people need help, we as a community need to be proactive in helping them get it, and sometimes at the extreme of forcing them into places of help. While you cannot truly help those who don't want to be helped, you can get them to places where they have a chance of taking ownership of their lives again. We must understand the stigmas we reinforce every day and take personal responsibility for our actions, or more often inaction. How many lives could have been saved, how many futures could have been better if we were willing to do the hard, expensive stuff that takes years to make a difference?
History is important. Knowing ours, knowing the history of those we talk about, and talk with is important. Knowing the history of the systems we use, or take for granted everyday is important. Understanding the interconnectedness of those systems is even more important. I am a very stupid person, really I am. Anyone who has read this blog knows that. But even I can see how much we hide from the painful truths of ourselves because (insert any cliche excuse here.)
I lost my point somewhere... but then again I always do.
/end rant
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
On being not as sick as I could have been...
So its been awhile... again. I know, I know. I always say that. What can I say, I'm lazy, and busy. But mostly lazy. So it goes.
So random venting, ranting, and praise time.
I am just getting over being sick.
Really sick.
So sick the medication made me sicker to the point of scaring all those around me pretty much completely and thoroughly shitless. Long and short of it. I had one of those really annoying persistent coughs that just refused to die, and occasionally got worse. 6 weeks of fighting it and I was done, ready for help. So I go and get seen at the medical office. They check me out and give me some antibiotics and an inhaler to get my bronchial swelling down. On day 9 of 10 of the antibiotics I have a reaction, basically full body reaction.
I am fine, and will be 100% recovered shortly. In a weird way I am thankful for the experience. I am not a "high user" of healthcare. I work in the field these days and it was good to get a patients point of view. Everyone I dealt with was nice, knowledgeable, and result oriented. So I get to come out on top. Many are not as fortunate.
This was a rare condition, as I am told 2 in 500,000 or so. There isn't alot of first hand experience with it outside of very specialized departments. Which is why I am so grateful to the people I dealt with before getting their. They hit the evidence based research when in doubt. They made sure I was doing what had been shown to work, not just what they thought might. Doing that early was the key to minimizing the damage, and speeding up my recovery.
What scares me is that so many people are becoming anti-science. Wanting things done that "feel" right. If that had been the case for me, I would be in intensive care right now, and would not be close to being on a recovery path.
I am not saying science is perfect, it can have a dark side. I dont want to eat corn that has been engineered to be frost resistant and immune to DDT. In this country I dont get much of a choice in that if I eat processed foods. But so it goes. At least with science though, we know what we know, and we know what we dont know.
The reaction I had is so random and could have been to anything, we dont know exactly why it happens to some, and not to others. Yet. But at least there is enough research into outcomes to know what works and what doesnt.
Ok thats long enough of a rant.
Later
So random venting, ranting, and praise time.
I am just getting over being sick.
Really sick.
So sick the medication made me sicker to the point of scaring all those around me pretty much completely and thoroughly shitless. Long and short of it. I had one of those really annoying persistent coughs that just refused to die, and occasionally got worse. 6 weeks of fighting it and I was done, ready for help. So I go and get seen at the medical office. They check me out and give me some antibiotics and an inhaler to get my bronchial swelling down. On day 9 of 10 of the antibiotics I have a reaction, basically full body reaction.
I am fine, and will be 100% recovered shortly. In a weird way I am thankful for the experience. I am not a "high user" of healthcare. I work in the field these days and it was good to get a patients point of view. Everyone I dealt with was nice, knowledgeable, and result oriented. So I get to come out on top. Many are not as fortunate.
This was a rare condition, as I am told 2 in 500,000 or so. There isn't alot of first hand experience with it outside of very specialized departments. Which is why I am so grateful to the people I dealt with before getting their. They hit the evidence based research when in doubt. They made sure I was doing what had been shown to work, not just what they thought might. Doing that early was the key to minimizing the damage, and speeding up my recovery.
What scares me is that so many people are becoming anti-science. Wanting things done that "feel" right. If that had been the case for me, I would be in intensive care right now, and would not be close to being on a recovery path.
I am not saying science is perfect, it can have a dark side. I dont want to eat corn that has been engineered to be frost resistant and immune to DDT. In this country I dont get much of a choice in that if I eat processed foods. But so it goes. At least with science though, we know what we know, and we know what we dont know.
The reaction I had is so random and could have been to anything, we dont know exactly why it happens to some, and not to others. Yet. But at least there is enough research into outcomes to know what works and what doesnt.
Ok thats long enough of a rant.
Later
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