You are supposed to go first

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No one denies the confrontational identity politics that prevails today; no one denies the emotional disruption of fifteen months in virtual isolation; no one denies the insecurity of a disappearing lifestyle that eliminates storefronts, careers and every day family security; no one denies the utter absence of a life of contentment, quiet comfort and satisfaction. How do we stop this hellish train to nowhere?

You go first. What are some tricks to escape the gravity of society today? The issue is, after all, how you feel as an individual. How everyone else feels is abstract; what makes YOU feel better and thereby improves life in these times, at least for yourself?

What follows are a few examples that seem to work at an individual level.

֎ Mariner’s wife rises early in the morning to prepare a simple but tasty breakfast. She eats this breakfast outdoors on the back deck just as the garden, birds, insects and other creatures are waking up and the Sun is rising on a new day. Human intervention doesn’t exist; there are no responsibilities, no reason to account for the human world, no thought of chores. In her backyard, at least, all’s well and peace is at hand.

This moment is more powerful and more rewarding than it reads. It arms the reader with confidence at a subconscious level. It is easy to imagine the difference between a morning coffee while watching morning television and a morning coffee in a pleasant, reassuring moment of solitude. It may take some practice to shut down the angst of facing the outside world but it is worth it.

Besides the magic of internal peace, its magic will soften your approach to others during the day and permit you to be less confrontational. Isn’t this an example of how to ‘pass it forward’ in an effort to slow that hellish train?

֎ Mariner lives in a small corner of town where ten homes are clustered in a manner that encourages collective activity. The residents of these homes have political and economic differences that are quite measurable. The political philosophies range from Trump allegiance including conspiracies to extremely progressive socialists. Careers range from retired tradesmen to nurses to master mechanics to systems consultants to truck drivers to school administrators to retired pilots.

In order to sustain civility, sharing, caring and the many other little behaviors that make neighborly life pleasant, everyone practices oppressed confrontation. Neighborly bonding with each other and maintaining an “I’m here if you need me” attitude requires a rule that no one talks about political, religious or philosophical mandates or condescending comments about other neighbors.

It is obvious that unity is more important than ideological supremacy. Isn’t this, too, one small step?

֎ A third exercise is to share, that is to share in a way that would not qualify as every day sharing. The secret is to keep the logistics simple but make a large impact on the recipient(s). Typically the recipient has a hardship of some kind; perhaps being a shut-in, or an invalid or a family suffering a recent death or a family who is in a state of economic hardship or maybe just a special occasion in the recipient’s life. It’s your turn to share some concern and relief to your acquaintances who are in need. Cash not allowed; put yourself and a few friends into it – show sharing, caring and compassion.

Like the first two suggestions, sharing is more powerful and more rewarding than it reads. The common result from all the suggestions is the creation of unity. It is unity that is the antidote to the nation’s infection of identity politics.

It’s your turn.

– – – –

On the side, Mariner and his wife were talking about this post. As is her wont, she quickly wrote a poem to reflect on sitting on the porch:

This garden would be perfect
The old man thought
As he leaned on his hoe
And scratched his ear
If it weren’t for that damned young rabbit.

This garden would be perfect
The young rabbit thought
As he munched on lettuce
And scratched his ear
If it weren’t for that damned old man.

This garden is perfect
The poet thought
As she ate breakfast on the deck and enjoyed the view
Having neither the work of maintaining it
Nor the necessity of surviving in it.

MKM 6-4-2021

Ancient Mariner

Everything is the same but different.

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Last Friday on an early, Way To Early, news show there was a piece about how manufacturers were resizing products to compensate for rising production costs rather than raising prices and lose customers. It has a term: ‘shrink-flation’. Demonstrated were toilet paper, potato chips and ice cream, which had fewer sheets, less weight and smaller capacity respectively. Shoppers have been taught to read labels for health reasons; now they must school themselves on size by learning how many grams in a quart or a pound and beware of count in artificial sugar packets; the price doesn’t change.

– – – –

Turning to a more sociological vein, everyone agrees the United States is having an identity crisis. It is difficult to know how to handle the situation. For the common citizen, it seems only to be a mish-mash of conflict and pointing fingers. The citizen truly is in the depths of the trenches and even trenches within trenches. How does a citizen gain perspective so that reasonable evaluation can be made?

Learn some facts. Mariner knows this is a tall order for the electorate but if a rational path to recovery is to be available, one must check history for similar situations. Sorry, electorate.

In place of buying textbooks, use Wikipedia to collect information – and make a donation while you’re at it. Search for information on the cause of the French Revolution, the Magna Carta, the Luddite rebellion and the rise of Nazi government (including persecution of Jews) in Germany. Clues for why there were national identity issues may involve financial security of the masses, oppression, racism, power wars and concentration of wealth.

For starters find something in these events comparable to wage freezes for forty years; find something that represents too much cash for the well-to-do; find something that erased major chunks of job availability; find something where power blocks competed too much for the good of the nation. Once historical information has been gained, how were these issues resolved?

Vote accordingly.

Ancient Mariner

From around the World

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During the pandemic citizens became accustomed to ‘free shipping’ from online and storefront retailers. Amazon, for example, touted free shipping in two days. Behind the scenes, however, Amazon had forced sellers to absorb the cost of shipping into their consumer price. This has led to antitrust investigations of Amazon Prime. In short, pervasive free shipping soon may come to an end.

It will be difficult for all three sides of this market — the customers, the drivers and the sellers themselves — to get what they want.

– – – –

China has eased birth limits to cope with aging population. Couples in China can now have three children, instead of being limited to two, after the ruling Communist Party eased birth limits Monday. It turns out China, like Japan, the United States and most wealthy and industrialized nations, has an aging population that is increasing while younger citizens are a smaller percentage of the population. The economics are familiar to the US – retired old people cost the economy a lot of money but don’t generate GDP; on the other hand as economies begin to grow in this new era, there aren’t enough workers to do the work. State media reports that leaders also agreed China needs to raise its retirement age to keep more people in the workforce.

– – – –

A report by Greenpeace Africa and the Netherlands-based organization Changing Markets urges governments to phase out processing of fish which is fit for human consumption but being used for fishmeal and oil. It says the fish extracted by industrial vessels off West Africa are processed and exported, mainly to Europe and Asia, as feed for fish farms, pet food or use in cosmetics.

The report said the industry is devastating coastal communities and undermining food security in Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia, Mali and Burkina Faso.

– – – –

The Philippines has filed two more diplomatic protests after maritime authorities spotted a total of 165 Chinese vessels within Manila’s exclusive economic zone. The South China Sea is a troubling situation for all the countries adjacent to it. Other nations include Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. Taiwan, of course, has a tight relationship with the United States which may lead to a military war between China and the US, and perhaps enjoin other Pacific allies like Japan, Australia and South Korea. China has made it clear they want Taiwan back.

As troublesome as these news items are, it is a bit of relief not to discuss American issues for a change.

Ancient Mariner

In God We Trust – sort of

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This information, taken from an Axios newsletter, shows the insidious and very serious threat of the conspiratorial right – in mariner’s own church a parishioner said “The American Flag comes first!!”

“QAnon infects churches

LEFT BARS – The government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation

CENTER BARS – There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites of power and restore the rightful leaders

RIGHT BARS – Because things have gotten off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country

 

Poll: 5,625 U.S. adults. Margin of error for full survey: ±1.5%. Graphic: PRRI

QAnon conspiracy theories have burrowed so deeply into American churches that pastors are expressing alarm — and a new poll shows the bogus teachings have become as widespread as some denominations.

  • Why it matters: The problem with misinformation and disinformation is that people — lots of people — believe it. And they don’t believe reality coming from the media and even their ministers.”

With all the confrontations of culture change, economic change and dysfunctional government, the most serious issue is the insurrectionist. They are not just militant, armed groups. More ominously, it is anyone still adhering to Trump irrationality and his intent to destroy democracy; it is the legislators doing everything they can to distort the public vote so their minority opinion can win elections; it is our relatives, friends and community associates.

Science can offer solutions to weather, economists can offer solutions to economics. Dysfunctional issues of society and government, however, are in our hands. Is it the United States versus God or is it versus Satan?

Ancient Mariner

As Time Passes

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Here is something interesting that reinforces the impact of inflation since 1950: in 1950, using Penn State prices, one year of college tuition, fees, board and books cost $1,365. In 2021, one year of college tuition, fees, board and books costs $39,084. The college industry has  increased inflation by 54 percent or in terms of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) today it takes $1,660 to buy what $150.00 bought in 1950.

This is nice to know information but with little insight until it is compared to wages. The average annual rate of inflation since the 1970s is 3.3 percent; for wages it is -5.1 percent. In street terms, a dollar in wages in 1978 is worth only 68¢ today. Perhaps this may be the reason there is insurrection across the land.

Waxing philosophically, it is technology that changes the behavior of economics – from the first axe with a handle, to spears, to wind, to steam, to internal combustion to artificial intelligence – financial opportunity shifts dramatically giving those with resources a chance to restructure assets while those without resources suddenly are without stability or even individual purpose.

At this moment we are in a time of rapid social and economic change. Worse, our society is managed by governments functioning as they did in 1978.

Ancient Mariner

 

 

Ten Commandments for our times

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  1. Don’t sell your house until you have closed on the next one. The housing shortage increases day by day across the entire country. The price of housing increases daily as well. One might think it is a good time to sell their home at a good price but buying the next house may cost twice as much – if you can find one.
  2. Keep your job if you have one. If you suspect you may be let go for whatever reason, look for that next job NOW. The employment market is in shambles; it may be best to take a job in another profession that has training, certification, and in a stable industry.
  3. Pay off debt as rapidly as possible even if it cuts into your standard of living. Anything associated with money is facing a large windstorm of change. Having a debt-free income whether it is cash, percentage or bitcoin, it is best to be financially stable – the windstorm will toss everyone around.
  4. Do not arbitrarily renovate your home or property. Raw materials like lumber, siding, pipe and electric materials are up an average of 25 percent; lumber is climbing without hesitation and now costs 80 percent more than it did one year ago. Much of this is due to a sudden jump in housing starts – or price gouging by lumber companies and mills.
  5. Stay in college. This can be difficult amid the cost and fractured studies offered. Even if one must drop down to a smaller college or part time for any reason that is better than dropping out. The job market that is emerging under artificial intelligence will cut more than half the employment market for labor and white collar jobs.
  6. Form babysitting clubs. Because of looming inflation, in those families where both must work, both will have no choice but to find child care. Don’t wait for Biden’s social services programs; they won’t happen until McConnell retires. Back in the day when mariner had wee children, mariner’s wife connected with nine other women who had small children. It was a useful consortium socially and functionally.
  7. Strengthen social circle. In volatile social times like today, where every aspect of life carries a threat, it is important to be able to relate to a group of readily accessible friends in the neighborhood. Humans are natural groupies. Become active in any neighborhood activity from little league baseball to bowling to volunteer work to jigsaw puzzle parties to (in mariner’s day) sock hops.
  8. Have a hobby. It can be anything from counting types of insects to making miniature jewelry to building doghouses. The hobby must be rewarding, provide relief from the daily world and not be a burden on the family – and not cost too much.
  9. Take frequent small excursions. Disney World may not be feasible but driving an hour to a quaint ice cream parlor works just as well. Visit the remaining department stores; this is a disappearing life experience. How many years has it been since that last visit to the national forest? Even taking in a movie may be an increasingly rare experience.
  10. Read. Get away from the television, Siri, video games and other numbing devices. Turn on your own brain. Read a newspaper, comic book, sexy novel or delve into the history of Kyrgyzstan. Reading requires a different part of the brain than the temporal lobe, home of conspiracies and fantasies. Perhaps as a combined effort with #9, visit a library or museum.

Ancient Mariner

Demise of the Local Press

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Yes, even news value in the ‘news’paper is disappearing. It is just another severe shift everyone faces in culture’s future. Over four hundred medium and large market newspapers have been bought by hedge funds and venture capitalists. In every case except a very few, the newspapers are stripped of expensive investigative reporting and local news reporting thereby reducing overhead to gain an average of fifty percent profit versus fifteen percent.

The latest round includes Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News and major metro papers from Hartford, Conn. to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. These newspapers have been bought by the hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, referred to as the ‘Vulture Fund’. Fortunately, a very few newspapers are picked up by altruistic investors, e.g., Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post to assure full, unadulterated coverage of news.

So add newspapers to movie theaters, department stores, coffee houses and bars. Notice how these things all required physical movement and personal commitment to achieve? Mariner has decided not to wish for a new Maserati for Christmas.

Instead he only needs a hover board to go to the post office.

 

Mariner is reading a book titled, “The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For – How a new generation of leaders will transform America” By Charlotte Alter. Mariner swears that some of the points in this book were lifted from his Blog. Alter, like mariner, says we must wait until the old timers get out of the way, that it is the millennials who know the answers. She cites emerging personalities in several fields of endeavor like science, business, international politics and local government (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of several in government).

Alter says we won’t really know what things will look like until the millennials are pretty much in charge of everything. For one example, they know more intuitively what a cloud is and what it can do besides make it rain.

So, millennials, will mariner and his wife ever go to the movies again? Will they ever meander among racks of new sweaters and shirts? Will they be able to go on a cheap date to McDonald’s instead of waiting for a drone?

Ancient Mariner

The Money Rodeo

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Covid, shelter-in, election turmoil, Afghanistan, Brexit, China, impeachments, perhaps these things still are unresolved but at least we’ve had a chance to beat them with sticks and throw stones, pushing them into some kind of partial remission. There is time now to take a quick shower, put on some clean clothes and prepare for the next item in the national job jar: managing money.

News outlets are covering the party debate about Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill; the sport of legislation will be headlines for a while. Slowly emerging into electorate awareness, however, are the issues of government spending, taxes, user fees and inflation. These are the bucking bulls behind the battle over bridges and health care. Some bucking broncos are bank and investment regulations, bitcoin, and climate change just to mention a few money issues. The rodeo clowns still are putting on a show, that is, everything Trump, McConnell, McCarthy and Gaetz but the main events will take over quickly.

The main attraction is inflation. It is devastating to the value of the dollar bill in our wallets. Economists, both political and institutional, see inflation taking off and running because the US government has – or will – dump $6 trillion dollars into the general economy (6 includes Trump’s contribution). An extremely brief description of how inflation works is “If there is so much money around, then you can afford to pay $10 for this hamburger instead of $4.”

The problem is that common citizens don’t receive salary increases commensurate with the rate of inflation. Everything is subject to inflation from toilet paper to homes and automobiles. Mariner experienced the 1970 inflation by having a pleasant salary that over ten years became a meager one that required him to shift careers. During the 70s the Consumer Price Index (how much things cost) went from 37.8 to 76.7, cutting in half what that dollar in the wallet could buy.

The second attraction is taxes and fees. These actions slow the possibility of inflation to a degree. Biden has said no one with an income below $400 thousand will receive a tax increase; he intends for the wealthy to pay for infrastructure and health services instead of spending government debt money. It can’t be denied that very wealthy citizens are sitting on a pile of money that isn’t doing anything for the economy but republicans don’t want to raise taxes at all. Instead, they prefer that government spending be offset by user fees (an attempt to hide the fact that ‘fees’ actually are taxes applied to specific purchases like gasoline, tolls and utility services) – meaning that the general population foots the bill.

The next two issues of extreme financial importance are regulations to restrict banks to what banks are for and to push them back from ventures into Amazon-like partnerships and credit card manipulations; the other issue is automation of finances generally, that is, replacing the dollar in your wallet with the state of an electron in a computer somewhere.

Finally, climate change will impact everything – everything! Whole industries may disappear as well as whole cities. Climate change is like a very, very, very slow hurricane. There is no doubt all the other money issues will be affected.

Put your chaps and spurs on – the legislators will need guidance.

Ancient Mariner

What is the brain?

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In the past year or two, mariner has complained that various groups and individuals don’t know what they are doing – especially the electorate. Many topics contribute to this ignorance: civics is not taught in public schools; political history is not taught in public schools; environmental science is not taught in public schools; health and hygiene generally is not taught in public schools; social psychology is not taught in public schools; economics is not generally taught in public schools.

Since the 2016 election, mariner has been concerned about the electorate being led by a crazy person compounded by Big Data altering reality on purpose. The issue is the role of facts in the human thought process. Mariner has promoted films about how the brain is influenced and how the brain depends – or not – on factual reality.[1]

Just as a clinical beginning to understand that there are many mini-brains in the human head, mariner provides a legitimate shorthand description of these brains:

What is the brain?

The brain is an organ that’s made up of a large mass of nerve tissue that’s protected within the skull. It plays a role in just about every major body system.

Some of its main functions include:
   processing sensory information
   regulating blood pressure and breathing
   releasing hormones

Anatomy and function

Cerebrum

The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain. It’s divided into two halves, called hemispheres. The two hemispheres are separated by a groove called the interhemispheric fissure. It’s also called the longitudinal fissure.

Each hemisphere of the cerebrum is divided into broad regions called lobes. Each lobe is associated with different functions:

Frontal lobes. The frontal lobes are the largest of the lobes. As indicated by their name, they’re located in the front part of the brain. They coordinate high-level behaviors, such as motor skills, problem solving, judgment, planning, and attention. The frontal lobes also manage emotions and impulse control.

Parietal lobes. The parietal lobes are located behind the frontal lobes. They’re involved in organizing and interpreting sensory information from other parts of the brain.

Temporal lobes. The temporal lobes are located on either side of the head on the same level as the ears. They coordinate specific functions, including visual memory (such as facial recognition), verbal memory (such as understanding language), and interpreting the emotions and reactions of others.

Occipital lobes. The occipital lobes are located in the back of the brain. They’re heavily involved in the ability to read and recognize printed words, along with other aspects of vision.

Cerebellum

The cerebellum is located in the back of the brain, just below the occipital lobes. It’s involved with fine motor skills, which refers to the coordination of smaller, or finer, movements, especially those involving the hands and feet. It also helps the body maintain its posture, equilibrium, and balance.

Diencephalon
The diencephalon is located at the base of the brain. It contains the:
    thalamus
   epithalamus
   hypothalamus

The thalamus acts as a kind of relay station for signals coming into the brain. It’s also involved in consciousness, sleep, and memory.

The epithalamus serves as a connection between the limbic system and other parts of the brain. The limbic system is a part of the brain that’s involved with emotion, long-term memory, and behavior.

The hypothalamus helps maintain homeostasis. This refers to the balance of all bodily functions. It does this by:

maintaining daily physiological cycles, such as the

   sleep-wake cycle
   controlling appetite
   regulating body temperature
   controlling the producing and release of hormones

Brain stem

The brain stem is located in front of the cerebellum and connects to the spinal cord. It consists of three major parts:

Midbrain. The midbrain helps control eye movement and processes visual and auditory information.

Pons. This is the largest part of the brain stem. It’s located below the midbrain. It’s a group of nerves that help connect different parts of the brain. The pons also contains the start of some of the cranial nerves. These nerves are involved in facial movements and transmitting sensory information.

Medulla oblongata. The medulla oblongata is the lowest part of the brain. It acts as the control center for the function of the heart and lungs. It helps regulate many important functions, including breathing, sneezing, and swallowing.

End of clinical description.

The frontal lobes are the problem. This is where judgment is formed based largely on internal conditions of the body; things like fear, hunger, safety, interpersonal behavior, etc. There is no need for external facts; decisions are about physical survival laced with contrived imagery from the temporal lobes. A successful society must include training of the frontal lobes to include external facts in addition to internal emotions.

Sigh. Yes, mariner knows he is jousting with windmills. Apes we are, apes we’ll always be.

Ancient Mariner

 

[1] An important film focused on this specific issue is ‘Hacking the Mind’ available for viewing or purchase on PBS.com . Another film available on Netflix is about how Big Data manipulates individual behavior to maximize profits; search ‘the social dilemma’.

Liz

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A member of the Cheney line (Dick Cheney, a Vice President under George W. Bush who actually was the shadow President in authority), Liz Cheney has the same strict conservatism as her heritage. She is a staunch, very conservative Republican. As we have seen, she is a determined representative of her views. But she has the one characteristic most desired in her industry: honest allegiance to her electorate. She is a clear example of the moral accountability necessary to make a two-party political system work. Given that all elected officials had scruples, the work of legislation would be a careful balance of what is best for the state of the Union.

Liz Cheney’s credentials as a representative of her electorate are sound, coming from one of the most conservative states in the Nation. Mariner clearly is sympathetic to her plight. She is fighting a broken Republican Party whose economic premise has collapsed and has yielded in spineless obedience to a destructive leader because he promises that they will keep their jobs even without due consideration of their electorate.

Whatever her aspirations (shrewdly she has positioned herself to be a player in 2024), in the current era Liz is confronted by a ‘party first, country second’ behavior that started with Joseph McCarthy in 1951, was reinforced by Nixon and intensified by Newt Gingrich in 2012. The ‘party first’ style of legislation has affected both parties to a point of MISrepresentation of the electorate.

In a complete vacuum lacking economic and electorate values, for President the Republican Party elected a showman to sell snake oil. God bless the electorate, they bought it. Until the 2022 election passes, all the inadequate Congressional representatives will be loyal puppies to Donald. Donald may even adversely affect that election. If mariner could replace any of them with Liz, it would be an improvement.

Ancient Mariner