I regularly spar with the sort who claim that no one was harmed by covid jabs, no child has been sterilized or sexually mutilated by trans "therapy", America is purely racist/white supremacist and we need to throw out the Constitution, Putin stole the 2016 election and we need to destroy Russia, and I am a bigot, misogynist fascist liar.
But then I remember, I do not regularly spar with the sort who think if we just get gov out of the way fossil energy will be cheap and affordable for eternity, there will be no pollution, stratospheric income inequality isn't a problem with or without government, and might is always right.
I guess because the former is the current authoritarian, existential, apocalyptic threat.
a few months a go i came across the 'sigma male' and was amazed to discover that humans all fall into pretty uniform behaviours. i thought i was quite unusual, unique but no, theres a whole bunch of us that all behave the same. we are rare enough that i dont know any others in person
the problem at the moment is the numbers, there are way too many that fit into this emotional moral thinking that you described and not enough critical thinkers. sometimes people are called sheep and some get upset by this but i cant find a better description
"I know my readership trends older, but if anyone here is younger and childless and has any inclination at all to bear children, my qualified advice is DO IT."
I'm def in the "older" bracket but dating a younger woman who very much wants a child and it's awoken in me a desire to have one as well. Wish me luck and godspeed as we potentially launch an amazing and challenging journey.
To teach is no different from being a carpenter. It has set and specific goals, which are tangible and objectively measurable.
If or when teaching is changed from "how" and "what" to "ought, must and shall" it's no longer teaching but fostering or indoctrinating (in the sense of teaching a doctrine).
Obviously, in some subjects it is far easier to keep these separate - my go-to example being shop class (called woodcrafting here): there is no way to hammer a nail [insert -ism/religion of choice here], there's only the correct way and the plethora of incorrect ways to do it.
I'd argue teaching today is returning to what it was for centuries: a cadre of clerics teaching and indoctrinating acolytes in orthodox dogma and actual skills, to the detriment of science, actual reason and logic.
It's too bad it's not returning to its roots instead.
Regarding crazy political factions and feeling like you are the only sane person in the middle of them: Smith makes a similar point in TMS, about how the wise and judicious person is never so ignored and outcast as in times of factional strife. People don't want to hear about what might be true, they want to hear about how their team is RIGHT and the other team is BADWRONG.
So you aren't being THAT much of a special snowflake, and to the extent you are, the Adam Smith pattern snowflake is a pretty good one :D
For a variety of reasons, the time we inhabit has become very binary. Tech/programming is one’s and zeros - binary. A program works or it doesn’t work. This binary system and its thinking has bled into our society. Simultaneously, technology has given us the ability to see and learn more than any other time in our history. In addition we can connect with all sorts of people and sources of information from all walks of life, professions, disciplines. (There are some similarities with the invention of the Gutenberg press, mass education, etc.).
All these matters have significantly altered the information hierarchy and, most importantly, the control of that hierarchy.
As a result of the binary thought process that advances technology or the loss of control of the information hierarchy or the initial shock of having so much information available to us, binary thinking has overwhelmed us. An instinctual response to too much stimulus is fight or flight. Translation, overwhelmed by all the information available, we shut down and seek a binary solution. This person is bad. This person is good.
Our sociopathic overlords who previously controlled information undoubtedly encourage this processing because if we could move past this place our societal structure will change (ie their value/power will be greatly diminished).
If we are able to move past our natural instincts and apply critical thinking to our problems, it seems likely that the benefit of all this connectivity and information would yield better community based solutions. It is important to take in that community based solutions are anathema to society’s current power dynamic but are the optimal tool for solving problems and allowing individuals to flourish. It seems to me that this Substack community is a great example of people of all types of expertise sincerely examining an issue, tolerating different perspectives, and moving toward some type of cohesion.
As these forums succeed, one should expect the old hierarchy to respond throwing more uncertainty at us (economics, military conflict, etc.) and withdrawing access to information and connectivity. The current disconnection we feel (no one really understands me, I am like no one else) is a result of the collapse of the old system and the slow growth of the new one.
My wife's grandma died last week out in Happy Valley (Warrior's Mark more specifically) near State College, PA. So we were just up there commiserating with the surviving family. Well there and New Columbia where her dad and siblings live.
Husband is a software engineer, huh? Me too. General Dynamics Mission Systems recently bought out our entire company. By January my badge and paychecks will say "GDMS" if they don't cut me loose. Doubt it though. We do some pretty complicated shit. In fact, my code has been on a bird that was in the news recently. No, not that one, the one before it.
Been back to martial arts training since last November. Found a great bunch of guys from the extended family up in DC. That along with a new car on order from the factory, gonna be a great year coming up. I have great expectations.
Bank, schmank. Plenty of 4-5% brokered CDs out there with nearly zero risk. Treasuries have been pretty decent lately too. Got a pile of 13-week T-bills. Looking for some small denomination gold.
Lot of compassion in the Gutter today, for yourself and others; this is beautiful and poignant. I was thinking, before you got to falling on the sword, what a treasure your brother is and how much sense it makes to live as a family especially with a farm. I have only a good-sized yard to maintain and I'm overwhelmed. I just gave away my last four chickens (maybe to my chicken-guy's buddy and maybe to the wild rooster who lives behind the library--don't ask, don't tell is our agreement). So for the first time in 15 yrs I'm chickenless and also, this week, an empty nester or free bird as my friend says.
The plan, though, is that my newlywed daughter and hubbie will move into the house in 1-2 yrs and I'll make the Garaj Mahal into my home. They hope to raise a family and I hope that works for them. It's already a relief to not feel that maintaining everything will always be up to me.
But my point was going to be this: can't we recruit some fine woman who'd be an asset to your household/ menagerie with aspirations to be a breeder? Using your brother as bait? My non-PC recommendation is think outside the (white) box. My youngest is dating a Latino guy whose parents, brother and sister all had babies at 19. Her observation is that, while we white folks agonize endlessly over whether we can afford to have kids, want to have kids or even deserve to have kids, their perspective is "babies happen." And you deal with it.
She and her boyfriend, btw, are 24 and she's not in that mindset and has introduced the sister to Planned Parenthood. But she appreciates the way that everyone in his family just pitches in. And surely there are many other cultures who aren't as neurotic as we are. All of them?
I see you haven't allowed comments on your newest post. So I will comment here. I have clinical depression and anxiety. For decades. I get by just fine. The reason I am telling you this, I understand wanting to close yourself off from all the horrible things going on in the world.
You do what keeps you healthy and happy, but I will tell you I will miss you sincerely. You are brilliant and funny and strong. Don't forget that.
I regularly spar with the sort who claim that no one was harmed by covid jabs, no child has been sterilized or sexually mutilated by trans "therapy", America is purely racist/white supremacist and we need to throw out the Constitution, Putin stole the 2016 election and we need to destroy Russia, and I am a bigot, misogynist fascist liar.
But then I remember, I do not regularly spar with the sort who think if we just get gov out of the way fossil energy will be cheap and affordable for eternity, there will be no pollution, stratospheric income inequality isn't a problem with or without government, and might is always right.
I guess because the former is the current authoritarian, existential, apocalyptic threat.
a few months a go i came across the 'sigma male' and was amazed to discover that humans all fall into pretty uniform behaviours. i thought i was quite unusual, unique but no, theres a whole bunch of us that all behave the same. we are rare enough that i dont know any others in person
the problem at the moment is the numbers, there are way too many that fit into this emotional moral thinking that you described and not enough critical thinkers. sometimes people are called sheep and some get upset by this but i cant find a better description
It's nothing new. Hume caught sight of it much closer to the start of our societal rationality-idolatry:
'Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.'
When it comes to truth, I suspect it’s out there but we’ll never fully reach it.
The tribes currently sparing think they have found it, and that error makes them dangerous.
"I know my readership trends older, but if anyone here is younger and childless and has any inclination at all to bear children, my qualified advice is DO IT."
I'm def in the "older" bracket but dating a younger woman who very much wants a child and it's awoken in me a desire to have one as well. Wish me luck and godspeed as we potentially launch an amazing and challenging journey.
Congrats to HM. Here’s hoping for the atypical startup experience.
Oh, and if you listened to the song at the end, my answer: The Rolling Stones. And I married a Beatle.
To teach is no different from being a carpenter. It has set and specific goals, which are tangible and objectively measurable.
If or when teaching is changed from "how" and "what" to "ought, must and shall" it's no longer teaching but fostering or indoctrinating (in the sense of teaching a doctrine).
Obviously, in some subjects it is far easier to keep these separate - my go-to example being shop class (called woodcrafting here): there is no way to hammer a nail [insert -ism/religion of choice here], there's only the correct way and the plethora of incorrect ways to do it.
I'd argue teaching today is returning to what it was for centuries: a cadre of clerics teaching and indoctrinating acolytes in orthodox dogma and actual skills, to the detriment of science, actual reason and logic.
It's too bad it's not returning to its roots instead.
you just randomly popped into my head, still alive and well i hope?
Regarding crazy political factions and feeling like you are the only sane person in the middle of them: Smith makes a similar point in TMS, about how the wise and judicious person is never so ignored and outcast as in times of factional strife. People don't want to hear about what might be true, they want to hear about how their team is RIGHT and the other team is BADWRONG.
So you aren't being THAT much of a special snowflake, and to the extent you are, the Adam Smith pattern snowflake is a pretty good one :D
For a variety of reasons, the time we inhabit has become very binary. Tech/programming is one’s and zeros - binary. A program works or it doesn’t work. This binary system and its thinking has bled into our society. Simultaneously, technology has given us the ability to see and learn more than any other time in our history. In addition we can connect with all sorts of people and sources of information from all walks of life, professions, disciplines. (There are some similarities with the invention of the Gutenberg press, mass education, etc.).
All these matters have significantly altered the information hierarchy and, most importantly, the control of that hierarchy.
As a result of the binary thought process that advances technology or the loss of control of the information hierarchy or the initial shock of having so much information available to us, binary thinking has overwhelmed us. An instinctual response to too much stimulus is fight or flight. Translation, overwhelmed by all the information available, we shut down and seek a binary solution. This person is bad. This person is good.
Our sociopathic overlords who previously controlled information undoubtedly encourage this processing because if we could move past this place our societal structure will change (ie their value/power will be greatly diminished).
If we are able to move past our natural instincts and apply critical thinking to our problems, it seems likely that the benefit of all this connectivity and information would yield better community based solutions. It is important to take in that community based solutions are anathema to society’s current power dynamic but are the optimal tool for solving problems and allowing individuals to flourish. It seems to me that this Substack community is a great example of people of all types of expertise sincerely examining an issue, tolerating different perspectives, and moving toward some type of cohesion.
As these forums succeed, one should expect the old hierarchy to respond throwing more uncertainty at us (economics, military conflict, etc.) and withdrawing access to information and connectivity. The current disconnection we feel (no one really understands me, I am like no one else) is a result of the collapse of the old system and the slow growth of the new one.
My wife's grandma died last week out in Happy Valley (Warrior's Mark more specifically) near State College, PA. So we were just up there commiserating with the surviving family. Well there and New Columbia where her dad and siblings live.
Husband is a software engineer, huh? Me too. General Dynamics Mission Systems recently bought out our entire company. By January my badge and paychecks will say "GDMS" if they don't cut me loose. Doubt it though. We do some pretty complicated shit. In fact, my code has been on a bird that was in the news recently. No, not that one, the one before it.
Been back to martial arts training since last November. Found a great bunch of guys from the extended family up in DC. That along with a new car on order from the factory, gonna be a great year coming up. I have great expectations.
Bank, schmank. Plenty of 4-5% brokered CDs out there with nearly zero risk. Treasuries have been pretty decent lately too. Got a pile of 13-week T-bills. Looking for some small denomination gold.
Cheers!
It's been All Quiet on the Eastern (Pennsylvania) Front. Everything OK with you, Guttermouth?
Lot of compassion in the Gutter today, for yourself and others; this is beautiful and poignant. I was thinking, before you got to falling on the sword, what a treasure your brother is and how much sense it makes to live as a family especially with a farm. I have only a good-sized yard to maintain and I'm overwhelmed. I just gave away my last four chickens (maybe to my chicken-guy's buddy and maybe to the wild rooster who lives behind the library--don't ask, don't tell is our agreement). So for the first time in 15 yrs I'm chickenless and also, this week, an empty nester or free bird as my friend says.
The plan, though, is that my newlywed daughter and hubbie will move into the house in 1-2 yrs and I'll make the Garaj Mahal into my home. They hope to raise a family and I hope that works for them. It's already a relief to not feel that maintaining everything will always be up to me.
But my point was going to be this: can't we recruit some fine woman who'd be an asset to your household/ menagerie with aspirations to be a breeder? Using your brother as bait? My non-PC recommendation is think outside the (white) box. My youngest is dating a Latino guy whose parents, brother and sister all had babies at 19. Her observation is that, while we white folks agonize endlessly over whether we can afford to have kids, want to have kids or even deserve to have kids, their perspective is "babies happen." And you deal with it.
She and her boyfriend, btw, are 24 and she's not in that mindset and has introduced the sister to Planned Parenthood. But she appreciates the way that everyone in his family just pitches in. And surely there are many other cultures who aren't as neurotic as we are. All of them?
That last bullet point, on tribalism. So perceptive. Thank you.
I see you haven't allowed comments on your newest post. So I will comment here. I have clinical depression and anxiety. For decades. I get by just fine. The reason I am telling you this, I understand wanting to close yourself off from all the horrible things going on in the world.
You do what keeps you healthy and happy, but I will tell you I will miss you sincerely. You are brilliant and funny and strong. Don't forget that.
Xoxo