Monthly Archives: July 2019

Fly By Subjects from Mariner’s Mail

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֎ Astrophysicists have pursued dark matter for decades. It seems there is growing evidence for yet another kind of dark matter. The new dark matter is called ‘Chameleon Theory.’ It is so named because it can change its mass thereby ‘hiding’ among other objects. If the reader is interested, check out https://www.livescience.com/65919-chameleon-theory-explains-dark-energy-maybe.html?utm_source=lst-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190712-lst

֎ The US dominates international trade when it comes to services. The following statements are from a Politico podcast.

The national dialogue about trade has almost exclusively focused on hard goods, the things the US makes or grows. But if the tariff debate focuses only on goods, there is a risk of leaving out something crucial to our understanding of trade today. There’s been an equally stunning shift in a different segment of the economy. . . . In fact, when we look at the US, the US actually runs a trade surplus when it comes to the services component.

. . . . The hottest areas of the economy, consumer tech, software, retail, entertainment, and communications now account for the most number of jobs, and they’re becoming export industries.

– – – An educational podcast that looks at global trade from a fresh perspective. See the podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sponsored-content-rethinking-americas-role-in-global/id1202281739?i=1000442921861

֎ Fivethirtyeight.com (Nate Silver’s website) has an article about the Democratic campaign for the presidency. A hidden influence is asking voters who their second choice would be. See: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/lanes-are-starting-to-emerge-in-the-2020-democratic-primary/

֎ From The Atlantic: The age of TikTok begins.

If you didn’t know, now you know. The fun, jumpy, puppy-and-meme-laden video app is well on its way to becoming the next big social network. It’s already broken the 1-billion-monthly-users mark and ranks as the third-most installed app worldwide—just behind Facebook’s WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger—for the first quarter of 2019. TikTok overtook YouTube as the star of this year’s VidCon, an influential gathering of content creators in Anaheim, California. “The older generation doesn’t realize how important TikTok is yet,” one 21-year-old attendee told our Gen Z translator Taylor Lorenz. See: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/07/tiktok-stars-are-preparing-take-over-internet/593878/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20190712&silverid-ref=NDkwMjIzMjA1Mjg2S0

Ancient Mariner

When it comes down to it, you’re not on your own

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[NPR] Debbie Baker thought she qualified for a federal program that helps teachers such as her, as well as nurses, police officers, librarians and others. The Department of Education program forgives their federal student loans if they make their payments for 10 years and work in public service.

But it turns out that her $76,000 in student loans didn’t get forgiven. Baker was finally told she was in the wrong type of loan. If she’d known that at the beginning, she could have switched loans and ended up qualifying. But she says nobody ever told her.

The tough message is that no one is in your corner but you. There are many who want to help you but they can do only so much. The bottom line is, in the jungle of politics, government programs, health, career, taxes and survival, one must be responsible for one’s self – but not by one’s self! This is especially true in these times of confusion and change.

It used to be if a person had a good physician and at least knew of a lawyer, the person’s interaction with society was manageable. Today, of course, a person requires specialists for dozens of relationships with society; most of these relationships are not petty and can have an impact on finances, insurance, property and taxes – to say nothing about education and medical expenses. Even taking a vacation often requires interacting with travel agencies.

To the reader, this means two things: 1- society is like a herd of elephants; they are big, cumbersome and even if they want to help out, it’s just as likely they will crush you. 2- surviving elephants requires special knowledge; it is a sad fact that one can no longer simply visit a specialist who will guarantee one’s wellbeing. Today, one must first do homework.

  • Know very specifically what one wants to achieve. Have an idea about how the achievement will be accomplished.
  • Educate one’s self about the subject; the Internet is a marvelous place to research details. So are libraries. Particularly learn about the responsibilities of those who will help. Ideally, talk with someone who has achieved the same goal.
  • Just as Debbie made a mistake by not reading the fine print, most folks will overlook something that may be important. Fine print is everywhere today. A common error when investing is to not know the difference between a financial planner and a fund salesman. Financial planners were required by federal law to act in your best interest. Mariner said ’were’ because Donald had that rule removed early in his presidency; still, financial planners have one’s best interests at heart. Unfortunately, the larger investment firms stock up on fund salesmen; unless one is genuinely wealthy, one will not be serviced by a financial planner.
  • Use a local bank and a local attorney. Let them know they will be counted on for all actions even if circumstances require additional specialists.
  • When it comes to health insurance, it is a cutthroat business. Find neutral intermediaries to help with jargon and options. Some pharmacies offer services that will help make the best decision; there are quasigovernmental agencies (SHIIP, for example) that will help when making decisions about medical insurance. In matters of health finances, homework is required.
  • Voting is the most important civic responsibility. Shortly before voting season, write to your elected officials to request promotional literature. Mariner cannot count the number of conversations with folks who not only didn’t know much but what they did know was attributed to the wrong party.

Just on a lark mariner decided to list within one minute as many specialists as one may need when engaging society:

Banker, attorney, financial advisor, primary care physician, optometrist, dentist, automobile mechanic, heating and air conditioning technician, proficient carpenter, proficient electrician, baby sitter, public school teacher, marriage counselor, psychologist, fitness center instructor, Tai Chi instructor, real estate agent and on TV, advice for everything from Doctor Oz to movie reviews.

The point is that today one cannot go it alone and must do homework as well. Make sure the right person and the right decision occur.

REFERENCE SECTION

‘1 Million Americans Will Be Shot in the Next Decade’

Video by The Atlantic

“I see more gunshot wounds as a trauma surgeon here in the United States per week than I did when I was serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan,” says Dr. Mallory Williams, chief of the Division of Trauma and Critical Care at Howard University Hospital. “There’s no question about it.”

In a new Atlantic short documentary, American Trauma: How the NRA Sparked a Medical Rebellion, Dr. Williams and other esteemed trauma surgeons explain how the severity—and, frequently, fatality—of gunshot-related injuries has galvanized the medical community to take action against gun violence. However, in many ways, their hands are tied: In 1996, Congress passed an amendment—lobbied for by the National Rifle Association—that prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using federal funds to “advocate or promote gun control.” This includes conducting government-sponsored research on the effects of gun violence.[1]

Ancient Mariner

[1] For video see: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/593707/trauma-doctors/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=video-series-atlantic-documentaries&utm_content=20190711&silverid-ref=NDkwMjIzMjA1Mjg2S0

Mariner’s Alter Egos

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Mariner takes time out in this post to clarify what readers find odd if not confusing – his use of alter egos. A short explanation is on the blog page “About the Ancient Mariner.”

The egos are based on Aristotle’s Triangle of Persuasion: Ethos-Pathos-Logos, alternatively, ethical values, existential values, logical values. Again alternatively, Guru, Chicken Little and Amos. Mariner has taken some unavoidable liberties with the three to infuse them with mariner’s personality and his post objectives; still, the underlying function of each can be defined by Aristotle’s triangle. If the reader wants to know more about Aristotle’s triangle, use the reader’s search engine.

Guru (ethos) is named after the abstract philosopher in the BC comic strip: otherworldly, definitely abstruse and beyond social motivation. Guru lives in the rarified atmosphere of philosophy, theoretical physics and esoteric theological principles.

Chicken Little (pathos) is named after the famous chicken in the children’s storybook. Chicken Little represents the vulnerability of everyone as they try to survive in the manufactured, albeit incongruous and unfair political methods of tribal existence. “The sky is falling” is a genuinely accurate and frequent experience for everyone.

Amos (logos) is named after the prophet Amos in the Old Testament. His accounting of the state of affairs in Israel 700 years before Jesus was quite acerbic and accusatory. Israel was in a period of peace and prosperity (much like the US) but increasingly disregarded God’s laws, especially in economic terms (much like the US).

If one were to review all of mariner’s posts from the beginning in 2013 (not advised – mariner wouldn’t do it, either), one would notice that each post was influenced by one or another of the three alter egos. Most often, Amos prevails because that is what the blog is all about – the state of affairs in life, science, religion, economics, ethics, etc. But the reader need not pay attention to a post in terms of alter egos; it is their contribution to the whole, much like a recipe has ingredients. One doesn’t think of the little yeast living a short life in bread dough, one thinks of toast and butter.

Ancient Mariner

 

This is a strange, scary World

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The Atlantic Magazine has an article about the love relationship between Evangelical Christians and Donald. Mariner suggests only the strongest in faith and self-confidence read that article.

Reason, a so-named ‘skill’ of Homo sapiens, is not to be trusted. Reason is free to imagine anything, whether reasonable or not. Further, the human success derived from inventions and discovery, while entertaining and imaginative, has not changed the human brain one iota in its 100,000 years of immediate evolution.
Humans first respond to the five senses as all creatures do (one will never put one’s finger in the fire twice); humans then respond to sustained survival (me, my offspring and my belongings come first); finally, humans make the mistake that they can create a reality that fits one’s unique perspective, bending or dismissing empirical reality, existential experience and the core virtues of sympathetic awareness – the last of which is present in all mammals.

Relating to theology and doctrine first, humans toyed with how the universe came to be. In the western world, the earliest documentation of a theology emerged around 7500 BC with the creation of Cybele, the female creator of nature who always had two fierce lions beside her.[1] Cybele may have been the first super hero because of her ability to procreate an entire biosphere. In the rest of the world ancient Egyptians and others applied anthropomorphic values: rocks were gods, trees were gods, the Sun, the Moon, etc. Later, theology allowed males to be gods and also to have more than one god at the same time. The panoply of Greek and Roman gods reads like Downton Abbey.

About 2,000 years ago, a religion emerged that was based on love as its core value. The power of God was love. God created Jesus so people will understand who god is and how they should live accordingly. While proselytizing in Turkey, disciple Paul learned that the local name for this new religion was ‘Christian’. The name stuck.

Until this day there has been confusion about how god relates to individuals or perhaps how individuals relate to god. There is a huge library on this issue, especially on whether god is a personal god (Old Testament) that interjects himself into the daily life of individuals or is a force to which all believers respond (New Testament).

Perhaps the sagest observation was made by theologian Reza Aslan who said, “Humans want a god like themselves.”

A good segue to the second subject, politics. Many Evangelical Christians (ECs) have adopted Donald as a current day savior (for the sake of sanity please don’t correlate Donald to Jesus). Forgetting every verse of faith and decorum in the New Testament, ECs believe Donald will preserve the culture and doctrine that ECs believe. The enemy is the rest of the population who generally are more liberal and Donald’s non-Christian behavior, indeed criminal behavior, is exempted just so he can fight the liberals in the nastiest way possible.

This political circumstance was true for Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and all of history’s despots. ECs believe all virtues are dispensable to sustain the EC world. Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah.

But mariner knows this will begin the decline of the Evangelical Christian. Dare he say God works in mysterious ways?

Ancient Mariner.

[1] See mariner’s post, Cybele, posted April 7 2016

Beyond Donald -3

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Isn’t this fun? Regular readers will recall the last two posts moving beyond Donald and clearing out the debris and smoke of Flanders Field. As the smoke thins, a farther view of the horizon emerges and reality is visible again.

֎ Housing. The word ‘infrastructure’ conjures thoughts of highways, antipollution, communication, public transportation, even climate change. One of the most critical areas, however, is housing. Two influences have led to the US housing crisis: a shift from manufacturing to investment as the backbone of the economy and – because houses are a major investment – an exaggerated resistance to socially integrated housing.

  • By the latter, mariner means Not in My Backyard (NIMBY). In Silicon Valley, the public school teachers cannot afford to purchase a home near their school because those with mansions around the school will not allow ‘cheaper’ housing that may reduce the value of their mansions.
  • NIMBY also applies to gentrification of neighborhoods in cities and suburbs where a new home buyer invests in a fixer-upper and joins a Home Owners Association (HOA) to set rules of exclusion that will preserve the value of homes in the neighborhood.
  • Housing is growing scarce because homes are too expensive for the younger generations, because homes are held onto by an aging population, and because the lack of US housing regulations doesn’t enforce multiple levels of housing or zoning. Already, there is a shift in the social structure of a family. The Census Bureau reports:

“Young adults are experiencing traditional milestones such as getting a job, marrying and having children at a later age than their parents.

One of the striking signs of delayed adulthood is the rising number of young adults who live in their parents’ home – now the most popular living arrangement for young adults.

A third of young people, or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34, lived under their parents’ roof in 2015. More young adults lived with parents than with a spouse in 2016. Almost 9 in 10 of the young people who lived with their parents a year ago are still living there.”

  • Regulations that permitted multiple family buildings (tenements) have suffered at the hands of HOAs and are less than important to local governments because of the resultant increase in the tax base for cities and counties during gentrification.
  • Over the next 25 years climate change will have a significant impact on housing in flood plains. Mariner notes many places along the Mississippi River that already have driven small communities from their homes – not to mention the nation’s coastlines and metropolitan areas.
  • The housing issue will not be as easy to remedy as one may think. One of the side effects of capitalist profit-taking over the last 40 years is that investments (like houses) have grown in value while salaries have not kept up. Salaries are part of the issue.

As mariner suggested in Donald -2, the US needs a burst of new productivity, new gross domestic product, and a new image of what America stands for. Housing is critical both for its need and for changes in government oversight.

Ancient Mariner

Beyond Donald -2

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In the previous post, mariner envisioned the time of Donald to be similar to Flanders Field in WWI. With visibility clouded by the smoke of conflict and confusion, the horizon of reality could not be seen. Mariner contributed some verifiable realities about the US economy as the nation begins again to move into the future.

In this post, mariner seeks to clear enough smoke to see the reality of education. Do not worry, Betsy Devos is gone – and so is Lori Loughlin.

The contemporary grading model for public schools and colleges, i.e., As, Bs, Cs, or 100s, 90s 80s, etc. plus the separation into grades, i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. plus ringing a bell to change classes, plus being required to sit still at a desk – are a grading methodology established in 1853 by Horace Mann and others. 1853! Nevertheless, readers must offer kudos to Horace for advocating and installing (in New England) government-supported free public education without prejudice to race, religion, or social status.

By and large, primary and secondary schools still abide by this methodology; colleges have added variations – but still tests – like ACT, SAT and activity history (cheerleader? sports? honorary recognition?)[1] In the last thirty years or so, individual teachers have been exploring teaching not with individual desks but having students sit around a table; students are allowed to influence content and to be openly expressive. Still, though, that damned bell rings to ruin the mood.

But as the smoke clears beyond Donald, education is no longer a pure – or effective – ideology. Race is an issue; religion is an issue; social status is an issue; cost is an issue and to be blunt, the electorate is satisfied if their children can read, write and can deal with rudimentary arithmetic. Beyond that expectation, education should not be a first-line expense for their taxes.

Due solely to an outdated economy manipulated by capitalism and compliant government for 40 years, education and housing both suffer pricing that is beyond the general public’s reach. Some progressive candidates advocate free education via paying off student debt and cancelling tuition. Mariner is suspicious of this approach because it deals only with the imbalanced economy and doesn’t mention learning targets, new concepts for elementary education or modifying that grading system students have lived with since 1853. Education is more important than ever as the approaching technical age changes every aspect of an electorate’s reality.

Ancient Mariner

 

[1] For a good survey of issues related to methodologies, check out The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World In Flux, by Cathy N. Davidson, Basic Books 2017.

Beyond Donald

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The political battlefield today reminds mariner of the Fields of Flanders in WWI: smoke, poison gas, sluggish trench warfare, cannon shells screaming overhead. Is it no wonder that news programs are losing market share? One can learn from destructiveness, gossip, falsehood and grandstanding only so long. But someday, history tells us, at a moment in time the populace will come together, strap on a common harness and pull this wasteful time out of the muck.

As the smoke clears and propaganda diminishes and both armies greet one another amid the carnage, what real issues will become visible?

The tattered, worn out and unmanaged economy will become visible. Amid the smoke, visibility was limited. One could say, “Unemployment is 3.5%. We must be doing really well.” But as the horizon stretches, one is aware the economy may change drastically in the near future.

֎ Climate. Yes, Virginia, there is climate change. Not only will the economy of the US be severely pressed to cover climate related expenses, but the entire world will suffer at the same time. This is a situation the world has not faced since the viral plagues of the Dark Ages. No, not even the great wars match the financial and social strain of climate change.

֎ New Economy.

  • Within just a few years think about cryptocurrency, cashless paychecks, cashless retail and expenditure managed by banks instead of people.
  • Wages and the meaning of ‘job’ will be changed by Artificial Intelligence and international consortiums. In some manner, those without a livable income will be carried by US governments. Already Congress is toying with monthly stipends paid to every citizen.
  • Corporatism. In the mid-eighties, the Federal Government and capitalist interests began changing regulations to ease corporate opportunity for investment and expansion. Tax laws, too, were excessively loosened. While this strategy was needed through the nineties, it was not repaired as the economic environment shifted for the new century. Corporatism is very much out of hand and is the primary contributor to plutocracy today. Mariner offers just one example of how Corporations have run amuck and control too much of the economy. Consider Disney – ol’ Mickey’s place:

The lobbying power alone will weaken democracy and move toward a genuine plutocracy where economic policy is made by a few very powerful executives. The solution to this is totally political: enforce antitrust laws already on the books. A second example is the power of banks such that they sit at the center of the US economy. One may recall that Senator Warren has made breaking up big banks a major plank in her campaign.

  • National image. The US has no economic image that reflects its industrial might or its ability to keep pace with the future. Not having this image is the same as an individual not having a psyche. An image will be needed if US society is to overcome identity politics. The only model at present is the Green New Deal which will provide for infrastructure, reducing climate change and bring manufacturing back to the shores of the US. The nation needs a new Rosie.

So that is a view of the economy as the smoke and shells clear. Were readers masochistic, the discussion could continue to fascinating topics like church versus state, revamping undemocratic issues such as the Senate, elections, universal health and reasons for going to war.

May the Force be with you.

Ancient Mariner