What's the Use?

 I have found arguing with people does not work - their beliefs are so tied with their being that if they let them go they destroy themselves.

Now some beliefs are relatively harmless - like if you are a Patriots fan or believe Ford makes the best trucks, but some are dangerous, like Democrats are going to take away my guns, or that our elections are rigged.

Now I am working on some ideas of my own - egotistical?  Maybe.

Some things we can do:

1. Expand fact challenging (not fact checking) Ask people to show you the facts rather than telling them what you think the facts are.

2. Treat conspiracy theory spreaders like criminals - have a nation wide social media ban - like a no fly list for serial offenders - they are really no different than terrorists of the mind.  This will require a BIG change to how we look at free speech - i.e. you have the right to free speech but I do not have to be an amplifier for you.  Twitter and Facebook are moving in this direction.  Of course if they move to a subscription based service, that eliminates any argument against it. Of course doing away with anonymity will help.  Getting rid of comment sections on news sites will also go a long way to more civil discussion. 

3. Or ditch social media all together - I stopped watching nightly cable shows a long time ago and an enjoying my evenings.  I snooze Facebook friends at the slightest political (not philosophical) post.

4. Teach our children to think - easy with some - tougher for others.  The funny thing is that for the most part - the younger you are, the less you fall for fake news, but as you get older, even kids who grow up with technology start to fall back - so it may be a psychological not an intellectual issue.

5. Stop reading what Google and Facebook send you - start reading about what interests you.  By searching out knowledge for knowledge sake - you will wean yourself of the garbage that is force fed to you.

Of course I must be an optimist to believe any of this can come true.

As Pliny the Elder said (probably not Nelson Mandela)  "It always seems impossible until it is Done".

Seeing into the future

 This was a Letter to the Editor I wrote - It was published November 20 in the Waterbury Republican.

We wish we could see into the future, and science and engineering give us a method to maybe do that. It is called a control feedback loop. One you are very familiar with is the cruise control in your car. You set the speed for 65 mph and if you go faster the cruise control will let off on the accelerator and the car will slow down. If it slows down too much then the cruise control will accelerate and bring the car back to the set speed. There are many other examples, like the air conditioner in your house. Each has its own set point; the equilibrium it tries to maintain.

Humans as a group act like a control feedback loop. One example is the current Covid 19 crisis. At first, infections are low and people go about their normal business. As the virus spreads and more people get infected, people read about it in the paper or see it in the news; or unfortunately they might know someone who has gotten sick or died. They change their attitude and habits. Then the virus stops spreading and the numbers go down. After a while people go back to their old habits and the cycle starts over again; although hopefully, this time they respond quicker to the spike or enough people have adopted habits that keep the spike in check.

The set point of the virus is what we tolerate. For the healthcare industry it cannot be over the capacity to handle the patient load. If healthcare gets overwhelmed then it is no different than setting the cruise control on your car to 70 in a school zone. You will lose control and eventually crash. If this is the critical set point, then all others, economic, political or religious, must adapt to the set point. At some time a vaccine or improved medicine will allow us to return to a different set point. Until then, it pays us to pay attention to the numbers.

First Impressions

 Okay - writing this on Friday night - looks like Joe Biden is going to be the next President.

Now while the pundits  make their comments and all trash the pollsters I will throw in my 2 cents.

It was not a vote for Joe Biden, it was a vote against Donald Trump.  Your Fired!

If not for Covid, Trump probably would have won - maybe.  Biden ran the perfect race - kept his mouth shut, for the most part trashed the other side only on facts, and let the President put his foot in his mouth over and over and over - people grew tired of him.  They changed the channel.  They got what they wanted (tax cut and 3 Supreme Court Justices) and they decided Trump is too high maintenance.  

Now why do I say they did not vote for Biden?  People hate change - they like stability and what they know.  They are like the proverbial frog being boiled; if you change them slowly they don't notice it.  That is how they end up buying $1000 cell phones.   But they don't like sudden change.  That is why even though many conservatives voted for Biden, they also voted for their local Republican representatives.  They did not suddenly turn liberal - they just hated the guy who was running the show.

Now here is the problem.  After the yelling and the suing and the claims of fraud fade into reality, we will end up with a Democratic President, a Republican Senate (but the skin of its teeth) and a Democrat House (by the skin of its teeth).  They will still have to try and solve the trade imbalance intelligently, deal with the fact that the 1% IS killing the middle class, figure out how to handle automation taking people's jobs, understand and try to contain terrorism around the world, put some reigns on runaway technology like genetic engineering and social media (yes - runaway technology) while facing Climate Change and all types of inequality (racial, economic, educational, etc.) just to name a few problems.  In other words there is a lot to be done - change is inevitable.  If you just kick it down the road it just gets bigger and hungrier.  Oh, and did I mention Covid?  Instead of kicking its butt, we kicked it down the road - now we are paying the price.  Don't believe it is easy or that we are done with it soon either.

So if ANYONE thinks they have a mandate - think again.  If we don't realize that we are fighting the same issues and have to work together to solve them...well then we won't just be back where we started, we will be further behind...

Chris