Blog Archives

The New Year

12/30/2016

As I contemplate the coming year, I have a feeling of some contentment and optimism. Since the solstice (my idea of the start of a new year), some pretty nice things have ben happening for me. Some if my good news is financial. No, I'm not suddenly rich, but a lot less stressed. That means that I have time to finish writing my book without being concerned with running out of money quite so fast. (See note in my product blog.)

I get the sense that the immense struggle I experienced in 2016 will be eased somewhat - some of my goals may be more easily attained, and new opportunities will open up for me.

I don't know what impression othes will have of 2017. If I see a disturbing headline, my reaction is often one of curiosity and interest, rather than panic or resignation. After all, it takes time to gather the facts, in order to get a clearer perspective. I try not to jump to conclusions immediately, or engage in extensive speculation, based on a single report.

I have the sense that I will always be able to find plenty of good news when I look for it. Today's headlines seldom reveal the real story about where society and cluture are going. For that, I scan the "whole newspaper" for news of studies or trends that may be gradual but still significant. I also look for ways in which groups of people are inspired to try new things of a positive nature. I can usually find plenty.

0 Comments

Optimists of the World, Unite.

12/17/2016

0 Comments

"The march of time has shown itself worldwide to be toward more love, more inclusion, more cooperation. That’s just what happens. With setbacks like our last election, and Brexit, and the unrest in Europe."

A quote from Kate Bornstein during an interview here.

I'm so glad to be a fan of another optimist! I fully agree with this quote.

I've had her book "My Gender Workbook" for about 10 years by now, and have answered many of the questions within.

0 Comments

North Carolina - a microcosm for national unrest?

12/16/2016

0 Comments

While shopping this evening, I noticed that North Carolina had made the front page of the New York Times today, ... again. I live in Arlington, Massachusetts, but I've been watching some of what's been going on in North Carolina for some time by now, after the passage of HB2 (the transgender rights restricting 'bathroom bill') and the reaction to it, not only in North Carolina, but across the country.
I went back to get a little background. I came across David Daley's book, where he outlines how Democrats were asleep at the switch while Republican operatives openly announced what they were going to do and then went ahead and did it - seized upon the 2010 census as an opportunity to perform massive redistricting in key states across the country.
The result was a legislature that doesn't accurately represent the people of the state, because the election was 'tilted' (I hesitate to say 'rigged' - I reserve that term for more direct fraud) by extreme redistricting. The more a legislature fails to represent the population of a state, the more I would call the government 'unstable.' I theorized that there were a lot of people in North Carolina who felt unfairly characterized by what the legislature was doing, as if the state was a monolithic population of reactionaries in the eyes of the rest of the country, resulting in boycotts and ridicule.
To me, the essence of HB2, was how the state legislature directly overrode municipalities across the state. I looked into how HB2 was suspiciously similar to similar measures in other states, right down to the wording. This further convinced me that the bill and the legislature that passed it did not fairly represent the people of North Carolina, and they were not going to sit idly by while all this went on. Call it 'anti democratic' if you will, but the point is, if government drifts (or is pushed) too far away from what the citizens (voters) really want, there is likely to be big trouble and soon.
Now I think we are about to see what happens now that, in my opinion, the entire country has become more 'unstable,' if you will, after the 2016 election. I am waiting to see how the 157 million people, who did not vote for Donald Trump are going to react to what he does. Even some of the 63 million who did vote for him may not end up being too pleased.

0 Comments

A matter of trust

12/14/2016

0 Comments

The issue of trust is growing in importance. The current election of Donald Trump, a man who seems to enjoy making statements not supported by facts, the rise of 'fake' news stories, the dwindling budgets of traditional news sources to verify facts, etc., are bringing this all into focus.

Yet, this issue has been brewing for a long time. For years, we've had "phishing" spam Emails. Commercial messages (advertising) have been increasingly disingenuous, saying "we care about you" when clearly they often do not. It's not actually a scam, but we have slowly trained our minds to live in a disconnect when a big bank posts smiling happy people doing banking with them, when we all know banking is a drag. All the fees, charges, etc., are in place to make sure they make money and if you don't, too bad. They don't really care and we know it. So the smiling faces are a lie, but we still see them everywhere.

As we've increasingly used the internet to shop, communicate, etc., we're often not dealing with businesses and people face to face anymore. Typewritten words can easily hide identity. Even a telephone call offers some idea of who is calling, by voice quality. So, we've substituted account names, passwords, hints, etc., in an attempt to verify identity. When you walked into a shop in the old days, and an employee who had been there for years saw you, they might have said, "Oh, hi, Ms. Peterson!" because you are instantly recognizable. No need for a password or authorization sequence.

Now we are using networks to connect with each other over long distances. We are finding it hard to verify facts and who is spreading stories. With over 7 billion people on the planet and the speed of information exchange constantly increasing, we have less and less time to verify the validity of the messages that reach us.

This lack of trust on the national and world level may force more reliance on close personal relationships - within local travel distances, in the long run. After all, face to face communication ultimately depends on geography - I can see you in person if you live close by. There are 'facetime' style videophone conversations and YouTube video recordings, so perhaps we will need to rely more on them. Of course, not everyone has access to a connection with high enough bandwidth. The written word is faster, cheaper, and yet more anonymous and more likely to be 'hacked.' Does that mean that those too poor to afford high speed service will have to rely on text which is harder to trust?

If food quality from far off lands is tainted (massive recalls of beef, spinach, etc.), then reliance on locally produced food becomes ever more important, right? If I know the farmer (or rancher) in person, then are we more likely to trust the quality of what we're eating?

Here's where I'm going with all this: The result is a push from centralization to decentralization, from big to small, from foreign to local, from uniform to diverse, from control to acceptance. In other words, perhaps we're headed toward a peak of information glut and reliance on distant sources of resources. Perhaps we are being urged to live closer to the land we physically occupy, to notice our physical bodies and rebalance our energy from being focused in our heads so much. Perhaps we will become more familiar with each other on a personal or even a touch level. Meanwhile, how do we share information that used to be carried by books, newspapers, etc.? How much of what was in the books and newspapers in the past was reliable in the first place? Perhaps our sense of trust was misplaced and now we are coming to realize how unreliable information sources that we took for granted can be.

How will we use networks to learn from each other if we can't trust the content they carry? Will we have to abandon the internet because we can't trust what we read or see on it? Will conspiracy theories replace knowledge because fearful people will try to regain a sense of control through blame of unseen secret forces? Will cynicism and depression become more rampant as some people give up on trying to find ways to trust?

Somehow, we are going to have to address how to trust. And probably sooner than we might like. After all, the erosion of trust has suddenly become a very big question.

0 Comments

Citizenship, Defined

12/13/2016

0 Comments

Last week I attended a Vision 2020 Education Task Group meeting here in Arlington, Massachusetts. I found it to be a good sharing of ideas and I'm very glad I went.
When it comes to citizenship, voting in elections is one thing, but this is where change really happens in my book: At the local level with people who don't necessarily agree with each other at first, sitting down together and working things out.

0 Comments

Looking for where to publish my opinion piece / magazine article

12/7/2016

0 Comments

One of the essays in my book relates to why abortion rights is an issue for men, not just a "women's issue." I'm looking for suggestions on which periodicals might be appropriate for me to submit it as a stand alone article.

This could be magazines, newspaper op ed pages, or news web sites. If you have any suggestions, please comment here (click the link "0 Comments" below, if you're the first one), or use the Contact Us form here on this web site, comment on my Facebook page, or reply to the Tweet I just sent.

Thank you!!!

0 Comments

Is Casual Sex Bad For You?

12/6/2016

1 Comment

Ok, I know, I know. Putting the word 'sex' in the headline is tatamount to 'click bait.'

But I did watch this TED talk recently. And the word 'sex' is in the official title. So I stand innocent before you (!)

Seriously, if you haven't seen this already, please watch it! Yes, it was given before a college student audience, but I think it's got something for everyone, especially for people my age (over 60) where STDs are reportedly on the increase!!

1 Comment

Good News Department - Climate Change Denial now Unraveling in a Big Way

12/1/2016

0 Comments

Remember tobacco industry CEOs testifying at a congressional hearing back in April of 1994? They went down the line, one by one, saying, "... Nicotine is not addictive." Three years later, the game was over, as reported in the mainstream press. They essentially dropped their entire pretense and admitted exactly that.

Now it's Big Oil's turn.

After years, Exxon Mobil is now being accused of using the exact same tactics as big tobacco did decades ago. They paid for scientists to tell their story (that climate change was not real), then built and funded an entire sub industry around them to push their agenda, as discussed on On Point Radio this morning.

Look for a lot more coverage in the main stream press about this. Yes, some people say it's too late (we've already passed the tipping point of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere), but others (including me) say, "Better late than never!"

0 Comments

The New Year

Optimists of the World, Unite.

North Carolina - a microcosm for national unrest?

A matter of trust

Citizenship, Defined

Looking for where to publish my opinion piece / magazine article

Is Casual Sex Bad For You?

Good News Department - Climate Change Denial now Unraveling in a Big Way

Author

Archives

Categories