Blog Posts

We have met the enemy, ...

3/9/2018

Yesterday, I read a report from MIT researchers about how so-called "fake news" spreads about six times faster than true stories on Twitter! The researchers found that it was more due to real people than any "bots" automatically spreading fake stories.

The whole thing reminded me of something from a long time ago. A quote by Walt Kelly, published in this cartoon in 1971, shortly after the first Earth Day. Then it was about trash & pollution of the physical kind. Now, we've added trash and pollution of the information kind.

Recently, the talk has been about "the Russians" meddling in our elections. They reportedly set up "bots" online to inject "fake news" and inflammatory comments into our social media.

To be clear, I don't think the Russians are the problem. They've just figured out how to amplify what's already there.

So, are we to "blame" instead? No, I don't believe in blame. We're just human. Human nature is to respond to the outrageous, the frightening, the upsetting, much more than to the mundane and typical. Most of us are "ambulance chasers" and cause "curiosity delays" when passing an accident scene on the other side of the highway. It's hard to "... move along, nothing to see here ..." when asked. It's a lie. There is plenty to see and we want to see it!

Our responsibility, therefore, it seems, is to recognize this tendency in ourselves, catch ourselves indulging in the fantastic story, then take a step back (a BIG step back), stop and breathe. I recommend that we take a few moments to engage our healthy skepticism, invoke some patience, and settle down while more information becomes available.

Hard stuff, perhaps, but if we don't, we're just fueling the fires.

1 Comment

What about those guns?

2/21/2018

0 Comments

Even the BBC is talking about gun policy in the US, as I heard on the radio this morning (WBUR carries their program).

So, here's my take on what will happen and how to move things along.

First, as I've said before, laws don't usually change culture, they work best when they reflect it what most people want. As I see it, school shootings have pushed more and more of the public toward the idea of better gun policy. So, perhaps now is the time to make some changes.

1. Instead of "Gun Control," rename the effort "Gun Policy Reform." Practice saying that, please. After all, we're really trying to control the people who want to use a gun on innocent people, not the guns themselves. I think the term is more honest and will help show more people that it's ok to make some changes in the law. The US has 325 million people right now, and almost that many guns. That would make one gun for every person alive today, including children. Actually, about 1/3 of households own guns, so 2/3 households are gun free, so those households that have a gun often have more than one. Even if no new guns were manufactured and sold, almost anyone can still obtain a gun via a private sale. No background check, no registration, nothing.

2. Focus on the state and local level. I've said this time and again and it's still true, in my opinion. In 2004, same sex marriage was illegal everywhere in the US. For the next 11 years, states made it legal, one by one, while the federal government wouldn't budge. Finally, almost all the states had changed the policy before it became the law of the land. We're doing the same thing right now with drugs and immigration policy. It's all happening at the local level. Go ahead and write to your representative in Washington if you like, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a largely symbolic effort.

3. Find a way to diffuse the scare tactics of the gun industry. Look what happens if there is a threat of legislation in Washington regarding so-called "gun control" - gun owners rush out and buy more guns! That's because the propaganda from the gun industry is that we're going to ban certain kinds of weapons and people want to get one before it becomes illegal. This web site shows how successful the industry has been in selling new guns to people. Just scroll down until you see the graph. Gun sales have skyrocketed in the last 10 years.
We must get across the point that we're not trying to take a gun away from anybody, unless that person poses a direct threat to harm innocent people. If we keep trying to get a nationwide ban on certain kinds of guns, it plays directly into the hands of the gun industry, so let's not do that. That's the paranoia that the gun industry depends on. They put out the word that Uncle Sam is going to swoop down and take your guns away, so fight back and don't let him do it. Come on, people, this kind of scam is so obvious! Circumvent it by working at the local level. It's not a federal conspiracy, it's real people trying to protect real lives by making sure that anyone who owns a gun knows how to use it and is not dangerous.
It's a symbolic gesture anyway. If somebody wants an AR-15, they'll find a way to get one. Again, it's the people we're trying to find and disarm, not the kind of weapons. A person with an automatic pistol can shoot up a school almost as badly as someone with an automatic rifle. They can fire just as fast.

4. Instead, require training and a certificate to own a gun. Just as we do with driving a car. Then, during the required training sessions, we are much more likely to identify who is dangerous and take action.

0 Comments

Deeper Causes

2/20/2018

0 Comments

There has been a lot in the news lately, after the most recent school shooting in Florida last week. Students from the school are speaking out louder than ever to reform gun laws to help prevent more of this kind of thing in the future.

Meanwhile, less prominently, there is some discussion about the young man who did it. Sadly, most people are still mystified about his motive. Why would anyone do this? The event is so horrible, that it's tempting to just cross the person off as crazy, mentally ill, or some kind of monster. Just looking at his picture can be really scary. Perhaps we feel safer to just distance ourselves from him. Build a wall between him and us and keep it there. It can be very challenging to look deeper into ourselves and find parallels between him and us. But I can't avoid thinking about it.

I remember what it was like to be mercilessly bullied when I was in school. Someone threw rocks at me as I walked home from elementary school. On the way to junior high school, kids kicked me on the bus then looked away and pretended they had done nothing.
I remember how enraged I felt, and at the same time, hopeless. At home, I fantasized about killing the bullies with my bare hands. But at the same time, I was frightened because I was a skinny kid and could easily have been beaten up by the bigger kids. I knew somewhere deep inside that I truly did not want to be responsible for anybody's death. I realized that if I ever really killed anyone, my own life would be over (either literally or effectively) and I did not want to die. Also, my family did not believe in violence and did not own a gun. I had siblings and at least a few friends (so I wasn't completely isolated). There were problems in my family, but my parents never got divorced, incarcerated, or died while I was young. So, fortunately, I never did anything that drastic.
But somewhere in my bones, I understand the desperation, the rage, the hopelessness, the fury, and the resolve of these people.
What is really sad is that they represent the tip of the iceberg of desperate suicidal people today. I think that's our real epidemic. Many more people die from suicide than in school shootings. It's just that most people with suicidal thoughts don't actually go through with it, and of the many who do, most don't decide to take a whole lot of other people down with them. Our current culture of quiet stress, anxiety, and anger seldom makes any headlines. People just suffer or die, each one at a time, alone, every day.
This is the real tragedy. And this is what I think our work truly is from here on. To reform our culture, change our priorities. I say we must prioritize connection, support, and nurturing more than making a lot of money, living in a big house, or having the best toys. If we can do this, I think we'll all be better for it.

0 Comments

Net Neutrality ... predictions

12/15/2017

0 Comments

All the talk these days is about how the FCC just voted (3-2) to void existing "Net Neutrality" regulations established two years ago That policy, which has kept internet service providers (ISPs) from favoring some internet traffic over others, is now reversed. There has been plenty of speculation about what will happen next, as ISPs can now do what they want, overall.

As much as I usually avoid speculation, I do have a few things to say.

1. Short term. I predict that the ISPs will avoid obvious customer price gouging as that is likely to produce the most backlash by the public. They will more likely use subtle means to 'skim' more income, including 'back end' price changes (charging Netflix more to stream movies, so that Netflix has to absorb the costs and eventually increase rates, for example), and by providing more "free" (aka "zero rated") content to tilt the playing field, so to speak. For example, let's say they invite you to download as much as you want from certain services that they provide or sponsor without it counting toward to your monthly data download allowance. Free content looks like a perk to consumers, but it has the side effect of encouraging traffic to their (the ISP's) favorite (crony) web services while charging normal rates for everything else.
This little trick is unlikely to cause as much backlash, because who will complain about free content? Perhaps it will appear to hurt ISP revenues at first, but in the long run, there are other ways for them to "monetize" their favored services and recoup any potential losses.

2. Long term. The so-called "private sector" is largely a myth. Giant companies are so intertwined in government, they are now an integral part of it, what with lobbyists, PAC money, and 'revolving door' appointments (such as the FCC commissioner himself, recently working for Verizon). As there are fewer than 10 players in many major industries (such as processed food, news & entertainment, etc.) they have the effect of being just another government to the rest of us. If you live where there is only one ISP for broadband, you have no choice, no free market. You are governed by their policies, period.
How did this happen? Easy. After the last major economic panic in 2008, the Federal Reserve decided to 'stimulate the economy' by providing loans at low or zero interest to banks and other big corporations. These giant businesses were able to use the money to buy up or merge with their competitors! Why compete when you can offer your competitor a sweet retirement package, in effect. Poof! No more messy competition. I mean, if you had struggled to build a business by working 60 hours a week for years, and someone came along and said, "I'll give you 30 million dollars for the whole thing - give us the keys to the front door and walk away with the money," would you do it? I bet you would. Retire, vacation, invest in a hobby, or even start up some other business if you like. So after all these mergers and acquisitions, we've ended up with a few mega corporations dominating many of todays major business sectors.
So, now, like it or not, the work of regulation now falls to the states, and to the municipalities, even. I know, I can hear the response to this now: "The internet is now a world wide system, so how can the states or cities ever hope to control it?" Ok, in the long run, even they will only make a dent.

3. The really big picture: We are entering a world of decentralization and diversity. The Federal Government is actually becoming less and less effective every day. In spite of the centralization of power we now see, my prediction is that eventually, these behemoths (giant corporations which now effectively 'govern' us) will fail because we, the public, will do more and more on the local level, bypassing their services and creating our own sustainability at the neighborhood and town level. We are already doing this, although we're just getting started. Solar panels and windmills on our roofs, food directly from farmers at local markets, entertainment at local coffeehouses, storytelling stages, etc. Yes, we will have to fight to overturn federal and state regulations that attempt to restrict freedom of cities, towns, truly small businesses, and non-profit citizen groups. But I see that as eventually becoming more and more successful as people start to get up and get active.

Look what happened in Kansas after the governor cut all the taxes and decimated services because he said the resulting economic stimulation would take care of it all. Colossal failure! The legislature finally rejected the whole thing this past June (2017) as reported in THIS STORY here. (see sidebar)

But now, almost five years into [governor] Brownback’s “real live experiment” in trickle-down economics, the evidence from the experiment is in. Brownback’s hypothesis about taxes and growth was decidedly not proved. And even Kansas Republicans have had enough.

The more that kind of thing is implemented and fails, the more people are likely to spread the word and vote against that and the candidates that support that in the future.

Meanwhile, the internet will still be here for a long time to come. People will work hard to reformat and reorganize and reengineer it to create new ways to share information and keep in touch, far and wide. We are going to find a way.

0 Comments

How did we get here?

12/1/2017

1 Comment

I was just listening to Science Friday on the radio this afternoon. (Yes, I actually listen to the radio! I was making lunch for myself in the kitchen and I didn't want to sit at a computer.)

The discussion on the program was about Net Neutrality.

So, I'm a visionary, deep thinker, etc. What did I think? I think about how much we human beings love to create and invent things but we often do a poor job of managing them!

Many of the world's problems, including pollution, extinctions, and health hazards are largely due to we humans developing something (the bulldozer & chain saw, new chemicals not found in nature, etc.) without keeping a careful eye on where things could go wrong. We just charge ahead.

Today, we've developed an incredible amount of sophisticated technology that many folks in ordinary walks of life have very little hope of managing because we don't know how it works! We have long since lost touch with what it takes to produce a simple can of soup on our grocery store shelves. Just that one simple item took hundreds of steps to make, with participation of dozens of industries, all the way from mining (the metal) to fertilizers for the crops, people to harvest them, process them, make the inks to print the label, glue it on, seal the can, box it up, truck it to warehouses, distribute it, track it all for accounting, and on and on.

All along the way, there are side effects that impact things such as immigration policy, pollution of rivers, destruction of habitat (mining & farming), fossil fuels to power all this, salt in the diet, and on and on. All for one simple can of soup, right?

When you get to today's smart phones, computers & the internet itself, so-called "cloud" computer services, "free" services such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., what are the side effects? All these things have a gigantic impact, by now, on the entire economy, our culture, addictive behavior (as social media is rigged to keep us logged in all the time), and so on.

How well are we managing all this? Not very well, I argue. First we make these things, then deploy them, then sit back and wait for the effects to come home to roost. By then, what we created has spread far and wide. Electricity, once a "luxury" for a few (when most people still used candles, oil lamps, or gaslight for artificial light), quickly became a necessity. Now if the power goes off, everything stops, and people's very lives are threatened. Look at Puerto Rico, as one example.

We build buildings, then later on realize we have to widen the roads and build more public transit, just so people can get to them. We're supposed to predict such needs, but it's clear that we're not very good at it!

Now, we're at a crossroads. The "infrastructure" we now depend on for our very lives is under review! Net neutrality is just one of many other issues (think continued use of fossil fuels, our broken medical system, and so on). I'm not saying we need to go backwards in time and live in caves. I am saying that we're faced with developing an entire new approach (paradigm) to how we develop and deploy technology in society, world wide.

And, yes, ... full disclosure. I'm keeping this blog on a web site I designed using Weebly. I have no idea where all this data is stored and have never met the people who reply to my questions to customer service. I don't buy canned soup, but I purchase plenty of other items at the supermarket when I have no idea where exactly they come from ... or what was done to make them that I might not think is wise. So I'm struggling with this as much as perhaps you are!

1 Comment

History Test

10/10/2017

1 Comment

Years ago, I realized how cheated I felt when I got mediocre grades in history class (aka "social studies"). It was all about war and politics, followed by more war and more politics. I thought I just hated history back then.

I borrowed books from my junior high school library about the discovery of electricity and all that it lead to (generators, the power grid, radio, television, computers, and so on). I didn't think of it as history but that's what I was learning. They never gave me any recognition (grades or credit) for what I was learning.

Later on in life, I realized that history is about so much more than what we were being served. One day I devised this history test, partly out of spite, I guess. I wanted to show history teachers how little they really knew.

Since then, I've realized that my test is not really much better than what's in the common schoolbooks. After all, my opinion of what's important is just my opinion. These are the topics that inspire me. What I wish is that students become free to study history from any angle that inspires them, and to follow the connections out into all of society and culture, wherever they may lead. If you happen to like sports, then start there. Eventually, you'll run into commerce, politics, technology, media, the entire gamut. See? No problem.

Yes, I have also provided a file with my version of "the answers." Enjoy!

history_test_basic.pdf
File Size:	18 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

history_test_answers.pdf
File Size:	31 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

1 Comment

What I wish got more attention! For example, ...

8/14/2017

1 Comment

Before the trouble in Charlottesville Virginia erupted this weekend, a little known report was released. In it, a citizen panel recommend not removing the statues of Robert E. Lee and others from the park, but instead to keep them and add information to help others better understand the history of the area and race relations. The news about their report is here.

1 Comment

Changing the world, one person at a time, ...

8/9/2017

0 Comments

Arielle Scarcella tweeted, "If you want to actually change how people think, then you have to allow them to be where they are and work from there." My initial reaction? Brilliant! So I quoted her on my Facebook page. Then I added this – my own thoughts:
"There are people in this world fomenting anger and distrust, some because doing so furthers their political goals. That is, get people to fight with each other, make a scene, and so on, so they can 'divide and conquer.' A bunch of people busy arguing are weaker, as a group, than a bunch of people working things out.
In order to counteract this effort, it is up to us, we who wish to create peace and harmony in the world, to stand back and not play into this melee! So, how do we do that? We get with the person who seems to contradict our opinions or beliefs and we listen! We accept them for who they are, regardless of what outrageous (to us) ideas they seem to carry around.
In short, we see the person, not the opinions. We acknowledge our commonalities, our shared human qualities. We can discuss political stuff later."
A friend of mine on Facebook replied that sometimes this isn't easy. I responded, "You bet! Starting a flame war is easy. Putting out the fire takes perception and work!"

0 Comments

Not really one nation anymore

6/28/2017

0 Comments

I wrote this message to “Informed Electorate” - (votethewill.org) the people who call me with a recorded 60 second survey question every week or so. .After answering a question when they called this morning, I just couldn’t hold this in anymore, so I went to their web site and wrote:

“I’m already a survey participant. I answer the question each call, but I must say, I believe that the most important issue facing us is that a nation of 325 million people is largely ungovernable as a single entity. We can debate policy and personalities on the federal level ad infinitum but I don't think it will help that much. To me, we are, in the words of Trevor Noah, more like a continent than a single country. I strongly believe that we are not going to "put Humpty Dumpty back together again." More and more, we are making more positive, progressive changes at the smallest levels - the village, the town, the city, and sometimes the state. Both in government and in many non-government organizations. We are a "continent," if you will, that's just way too diverse and too populous to find agreement on many issues anymore. I think this is the true reason for 'gridlock' in Congress and why we have a 'protest' candidate now serving as President. We are divided not because of lack of will or flaw in our constitution or evil intent on the part of our elected representatives. We are divided because it is no longer practical or prudent to attempt to remain a single national entity. Instead, I feel we must recognize the limitations with regard to what can be done in Washington D.C. anymore and find new ways to network with each other more directly, support more local decision making power, and direct our attention to living in harmony with nature and each other.
So, although I will still answer the phone when you call, I think the whole thing is of limited use. Thank you for listening.”

0 Comments

Staying calm and optimistic in today's news headlines cyclone

6/23/2017

0 Comments

Bad news travels easily. It gets the heart racing; the sense of alarm stirs the adrenaline. Good news often takes a back seat.

I have found that keeping my sanity takes at least two things. One, I take time to step back from it all and keep breathing. Two, I pay better attention to what’s going well, where progress is being made, and where relationships in my personal life are going well.

Oh, and one more thing. I think of all people as inherently good, who sometimes do things that are unfortunate. I’ll admit it. I’m one such person. I sometimes do things that are unfortunate. Then, I have to see what I’ve done, make amends if I can, and see if I can forgive myself.

Stan Dale reportedly said, “Everything is either an act of love or a cry for love.” I think that’s pretty close to the truth. And we have Marshall Rosenberg, Philip Zimbardo, James Gilligan, Chip and Dan Heath, and others to back that up.

At first, some of those people (referred to by the links above) might not seem to directly follow my quote from Stan. But nonetheless, they are all authors and works I have investigated, and it has helped me realize some important aspects of humanity I never heard about in school.

Every day, millions of people do good things for other people and themselves, and none of it makes news headlines. That doesn't stop them. They'll get up tomorrow morning and keep doing good things for each other, regardless of reports of bad behavior spreading through the airwaves.

0 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

We have met the enemy, ...

What about those guns?

Deeper Causes

Net Neutrality ... predictions

How did we get here?

History Test

What I wish got more attention! For example, ...

Changing the world, one person at a time, ...

Not really one nation anymore

Staying calm and optimistic in today's news headlines cyclone

Author

Archives

Categories