Venting some steam

[jaunthie]

A very thought-provking thread in another journal (thanks for the mental boost, tylik!) has helped me realize that I'm carrying around rather too much frustration right now. So for the benefit of my internal well-being, I'm going to engage in some venting. I doubt it will be terribly coherent or well thought out, but there it is.



"People suck. That's my contention. I can prove it on an Etch-A-Sketch." --Bill Hicks

As much as I enjoy Bill Hicks' humor, most of the time I don't entirely believe the above statement. I don't believe that people (which is to say humanity as a whole, not specific individuals) suck so much as they are inherently lazy. I usually believe that given a choice between doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing (as defined by their own personal belief/moral/social matrix), if the effort involved is absolutely equal, then most people will choose to do the right thing. If, however, the effort to do the right thing is more than is required to do the wrong thing (or nothing at all), or if the wrong thing involves some kind of gain or material reward...well, again, people in the generic are lazy. And selfish. Surivial traits, really; conserve energy and keep an eye out to your own welfare, with an emphasis on short-term immediate gain (long-term planning is a resource-intensive investment compared to short-term). Maybe it's not the rosiest or most cheerful outlook on humanity as a whole, but it's an optimism of a sort (cynical optimism, from an optimistic cynic).

I'm finding it hard to be even that much of an optimist at the moment.

• Irritation Source: The death of empiricism in the mind of the general public. I had a really good conversation with MamaBear and fisherbear this past weekend, on the subject of mathmatical education in the public school system, which evolved into a discussion of MamaBear's current crop of teacher-students at the college. One of the biggest problems she's had teaching these would-be teachers is that most of them make no distinction between an empirical study and an opinion article, and weigh both of them equally. It's not so much that they don't recognize that the former is based on objective research and studies and statistical validity and the latter is based on the subjective belief of the person writing the article, so much as they don't think it matters. From what I could gather from MamaBear, there seems to be two factors at work: an inherent disbelief/cynicism about the validity of any study, empiricism, and objectivity(someone's always got a thumb on the scales, so why should I believe this?), and a basic lack of understanding of the scientific principle. On top of this anti-scientific bias is an inherent belief that all opinions are equally valid. That latter doesn't sound so bad until you tie that into their attitude that studies are just opinions, and since all opinions are equally valid, they might as well just go with the one(s) that best map to what they already wanted to believe. AIGH! There go 300 years of rationalism spiraling down the drain... And these well-meaning people (and trust me, you have to be inherently well-meaning to be in a teacher training program, deliberately setting out to earn a crappy paycheck and an infinite amount of abuse), who don't know or care about the difference between a statistically-valid study and an opinion article, are the ones who will be teaching the next generation of kids.


• Irritation Source: The devaluation of critical analysis and objectivity in social and intellectual interactions. Related to the above, have any of you made the mistake recently of reading a "comments" section tied to a newspaper, news article, or other form of "participatory forum" on an Internet news site? Don't do so unless you have a strong stomach. Doing so leads to the inescapable conclusion that 95% of the participants there can neither critically analyze a piece of text, nor objectively and rationally discuss the subject matter. And from what I've seen, I'd say the same is true for a vast majority of our country's leadership. Is it just general human laziness, as posited at the start of this rant? Or is it some weird offshoot of the "every opinion is equally valid" pseudo-touchyfeeliness attitude affecting MamaBear's class? Is it a form of inherent selfishness? Or is it a combination of all of them? Discuss amongst yourselves, but please, keep it rational, keep it polite, and keep in mind that the very principles and institutions upon which this country is based are predicated on the belief that rational discourse is not only possible, but necessary, in order for democracy to work.


• Irritation Source: The success of the "sliding bar" strategy. Speaking of the lack of critical analysis skills, the ongoing success of the sliding bar strategy in institutions ranging from our government to major corporations to public schools is just downright sickening. Obvious example: the whole torture scandal (and yes, Virginia, there is a torture scandal. We torture. We torture without proof, without trial, without doing anything more than seizing "persons of interest" off of the street. It's well documented. And if you think we don't, go stick your head face-up under a running faucet and try breathing for thirty seconds, and then come back and try to explain how what you just went through isn't torture). When the news first broke, the government knew that people wouldn't stand for it on principle, so the statement went out: "We don't torture!" Then came the sliding bar. "We don't torture!...but if we did torture a few terrorists because of imminent danger, what would be the harm?" When the pollsters came back saying people were buying this (manifestly 1-in-a-zillion chance) argument, at least a little, the bar slid further and further. "We don't torture, but we do use stringent questioning methods in order to protect the American people." "Some of the methods we use in our questioning are stringent, but although these same methods have been called torture by irresponsible fringejobs and the U.N., we do not torture." "Ooops, we might have erased those tapes, but we don't torture." "Okay, so none of the people we've questioned with these methods have actually given us anything useful, but they might have been dangerous, and hey, we don't torture." "And anyone who says we does is un-American, because Americans don't torture." Keep lowering the standards, keep moving the bar, and you'll never have to be accountable.


• Irritation Source: The continued success of bread and circuses. "Hey look, over there, Britney Spears! (We don't torture.)" Jeez. We've got the head of the CIA colluding in shredding tapes, and Fox News was running its headline story of an airline using MILF in an ad campaign. (Yes, I'm serious. And no, I wasn't deliberately choosing to watch Fox News; I was visiting someone who had it on.) I'm of two minds about the current writers' strike and how this plays into the 2008 election season. On the one hand, you have to figure both major political parties are sweating the idea of going into an election year without a large supply of bread (new scripted TV shows) to distract the populace with. On the other hand, there's plenty of circuses coming (the ongoing mass coverage of "celebrities" who don't matter, the return of American Gladiators, the "reality" TV shows), and there's a silver lining: writers' strike means no comic skewering by Leno/Letterman/Colbert/Stewart etc. Could we all please collectively stop being lazy, stop being distracted by the completely inconsequential (who is Jessica Simpson, really?), and pay attention to the important stuff going on that will directly impact the quality of our lives? (But then we'd have to stop being lazy. And attracted to shiny distractions.)


• Irritation Source: The social acceptance of learned helplessness. Far too many of the energetic, intelligent, well-educated people I know don't pay attention to the news, what's going on in the world, simply because they feel helpless to do anything about it. They don't know what to do, can't think of anything to do, so they'd rather not know. The problems are too big. The issues are too widespread. (And we're all lazy, even the bright educated ones.) We've succumbed to analysis paralysis, or what I call learned helplessness: if we can't fix it all, we can't fix it at all. And that's just horse-hockey. Remember the old slogan "Think Globally, Act Locally?" Well, it still works. It worked when a bunch of frat-boy equivalents chucked a bunch of tea into Boston Harbor to protest an unfair tax. It worked when American men and women went around wearing homespun linen instead of buying cotton, to avoid paying tax revenues that would pay for their continued oppression. It worked when millions of Americans planted Victory gardens and restricted their travel to the bare minimum. It works by joining a carpool/vanpool/taking the bus/walking or riding a bike instead of driving a car. It works by joining a protest. It works by changing one single thing. And everyone can do it (and still be lazy for the most part).




There. I feel a little better. A very little.

Comments

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

Opinons are like noses, everyone has one and I do try to respect other's opinions whether I agree with them or not. If I think someone's opinion is off by whatever facts they've used...I'll point it out if only to make sure that no one else starts falling for it.

Me and the news - I did stop watching the news because for a long time it seemed (to me) that all they reported was "doom and gloom" and I wasn't in a space to deal with it. It wasn't that I didn't think I could make any changes...it was just making me even more depressed. I've sorta started watching it again...just in small doses so I don't get pissed because it is really hard to find any news that isn't biased in one way or another, you know?

As for bread and circuses...it's further proof (imho) that the US gov't is part of the "dumbing down of America" with all the crap they pull. "reality" tv is another culprit (sp?). I don't get the fascination with watching someone eat horse shit, worms, dip themselves in vat of X bug for money. That is not entertainment to me. It's just bloody stupid.

How's this for an answer? ;D