Author Archives: skipper

Let’s all get together

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Mariner visited his primary care physician yesterday. He is an excellent doctor and has become a friend. The first thing he wanted to do in his office was show mariner photographs he had taken at the annual West Point Military Academy reunion where graduates return every year for a large get together that includes a hike of many miles. The photographs suggested there were thousands at the reunion. The doctor’s pictures reflected that he had a great time and really enjoyed meeting again with fellow compatriots, officers he had served under, and the professors at the academy. It was obvious that the experience reaffirmed his sense of self, of his image as equal among many.

The doctor’s enthusiasm led mariner to remember the good times he had when, as a teenager, he was a lifeguard at a church camp. The camp had five-day programs for various ages where students stayed in camp cabins for the whole program. On Monday, most students didn’t know one another; there were obvious cliques from the same church but the whole group did not reflect unanimity or familiarity. By Friday, the students had become animated, gregarious and liked nothing more than the camp-wide marshmallow roasts, free time mingling on the beach and having a camp-wide lunch on the lawn on Friday. Clearly, the campers experienced the same affirmation as the doctor did.

Mariner also was reminded of Ted Danson’s show ‘Cheers’. The theme for the show tells it all:
Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you’ve got;
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?

All those nights when you’ve got no lights,
The check is in the mail;
And your little angel
Hung the cat up by its tail;
And your third fiance didn’t show;

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they’re always glad you came;
You want to be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name.

Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee’s dead;
The morning’s looking bright;
And your shrink ran off to Europe,
And didn’t even write;
And your husband wants to be a girl;

Be glad there’s one place in the world
Where everybody knows your name,
And they’re always glad you came;
You want to go where people know,
People are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

There is a special affirmation that can only be experienced in a common, unified group. After all, we are a tribal species!

What creates the opportunity for reaffirmation is twofold: everyone is subject to a common discipline; the Academy and the camp staff set the rules. The lesson is this: Democracy is a bottom up philosophy. The common experience is each individual at a voting station. Democracy fails to provide reaffirmation when it is no longer a common experience and unity is no longer available. Today, democracy is weakened by top down, fragmenting actions caused by a government run by money and TV advertising instead of citizens gathering to discuss issues in a place ‘where everybody knows your name’. Weakened democracy is also caused by authoritarianism and excessive capitalism – practices where nobody cares what your name is. Forget the television and talk to neighbors and citizen groups, in a place where everybody knows your name.

Ancient Mariner

 

 

Regarding lifespan

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From The Week magazine:

Don’t blame the politicians for our gerontocracy. Any of us would find it hard to quit a job that pays well, has endless benefits, automatic prestige and guaranteed self-importance. Blame yourselves. One has more confidence in the current officeholder only because the name is familiar and the party is traditional.

Having said that, mariner is forced to endorse Biden in 2024 if only to buy time for Democracy to find itself and for the Z generation to be old enough to run for office. He will not, however, endorse Chuck Grassley for another term as the Senator from Iowa; he turns 90 in September. He went to Congress with the Reagan Presidency – the beginning of a forty-year abuse of the labor class.

But this post is about all of us – politics, religion and oligarchs are irrelevant. This is a perspective on how all of us live through life. Joseph Campbell, a significant sociologist, often referred to “the arc of the champion”, referencing the travails of Jason as he pursued the golden fleece. Joe meant that we all chase a golden fleece, not necessarily money or fame, just each of us managing our own life from birth to death, each of us with our own unique existential reality to manage.

Dragging out one of mariner’s tropes, Homo sapiens is a tribal species. Further, Homo sapiens has an unusually high number of phases compared to other animals – the phases are called ‘generations’ because a human undergoes sequential brain changes about every 15-20 years.

CHILDHOOD

It is not an intention to compete with Wikipedia. Most readers will remember these transitions within themselves. Childhood starts when the child possesses a simple, one perspective consciousness: “Am I content?” The early years involve intensive learning of language, interpersonal relationships, muscle management and beginning to organize subconscious assumptions. The next change in childhood is discovering the outside world. Going to school is an organized source to learn about culture beyond the family. Experiences with the greater family, playing with others, vacations, shopping, etc., enable the child to form an independent identity. The sense of self changes significantly with puberty; Role play has a new dimension when the child is aware of sexual differences that run deep in the psyche. The final stage of childhood is wrapping up childhood and enabling the child to step independently into their life, ready to experience adulthood. Psychologists suggest this is a standard time frame for all children, sometime between 20 and 25 for men and 18 to 22 for women.

YOUNG ADULT

The physical condition of the young adult is something everyone in subsequent generations wishes they still had. Young adults have a brand-new brain and body that provides energy, rapid learning, and the inexperience that allows exploration, trial and error, and competition. Interestingly, marriage early in this phase is more likely because of the adventurousness of young adults. This generation quiets down as it moves to adulthood which begins some time in the middle thirties.

ADULTHOOD

There aren’t many stages in adulthood. It is a time when wisdom begins to emerge; it is a time when success and survival must yield to society; it is a time when lifelong emotions can become vulnerable to depression and flagellation; it is a time when jobs change, families move, relatives pass away. Yet, it is the most productive generation. It is the generation capable of making great changes in society; it is the generation considered to be experienced experts.

SENIOR CITIZEN

The Social Security age of 65 is an accurate flag that one has become a senior citizen. Seniors have experienced the active generations but subtle changes in a continuously changing society, health, family (especially between generations) and emotional flexibility hint that the body, for the first time since birth, is less than it was. In today’s medical world, life in the sixties and early seventies has improved. Even in the best of health, however, the brain continues to think more slowly and memory isn’t as solid as it used to be. As this generation closes in on the next generation, forgetfulness and physical weakness become realities that must be accommodated.

OLDIES

During the senior citizen generation, many will have the thought that old age ain’t so bad. As the seventies roll into the eighties that opinion may change. The eighties are hard on the bones and visceral functions. It is a time when injuries that occurred in younger generations return with a vengeance; chemical sensitivities become exaggerated; visceral deficiencies become something requiring continuous attention or surgery. But there is a good side: social behavior is easier and there is a feeling that one has done their bit so attitude, given good circumstances, is simpler. [Mariner understands that this is a two-sided coin; many oldies become eccentric and are difficult.]

ANCIENTS

Too many ancients still are elected officials. The link between Ancients and society is gone. Society isn’t relevant to most ancients. The biggest loss is represented by the phrase “use it or lose it”. The frequency of human interaction – particularly many different humans – diminishes social memories and awareness. Dementia shuts down the senses. Being responsible for one’s existential reality is no longer needed. This is all a matter of individual genes; many will have an easier time but most will not be well.

Mariner knows he is part of a small minority that believes many of the issues today are caused by breaking up tribal associations. Nuclear families do not have the social experiences nor the financial backup that should be part of their lives. Smaller communities, neighborhoods and places where “everybody knows my name” provide a better life experience. Commerce, too, would better serve the public in a storefront. Ordering online may be a great convenience to an individual person – at the expense of living a full life.

But the motivation for this post, after providing three pages of background, is the worst infliction of scattered tribes:

The number of older Americans living alone is on the rise. Nearly 16 million people aged 65 and older in the US lived alone in 2022, three times as many who lived alone in that age group in the 1960s. And as Baby Boomers age, that number is expected to grow even more, raising big questions about the country’s future.

Ancient Mariner

Who is guaranteed to vote for Donald?

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Ranchers because the ‘government’ keeps replenishing wolves in their pastures.

Moralists who think ‘government’ isn’t doing its job when a woman chooses to abort her pregnancy.

States Rightists who think ‘government’ is too nosy when it says things like “everyone must wear a mask”.

Gun aficionados who are afraid the ‘government’ will outlaw guns.

Technical corporations who don’t want the ‘government’ to have access to their records and algorithms.

Pharmaceutical corporations who don’t want Medicare negotiating prices.

Isolationists who believe the ‘government’ has one function: print money.

Wealthy citizens who back the above antagonists so ‘government’ won’t be able to restructure taxes on the wealthy.

“Government’ neglect of a labor class that has lost everything since 1980.

NIMBYs who don’t want the ‘government’ to loosen housing regulations to let multiple family housing in their neighborhood.

Anti-democracy opportunists who like plutocracy and authoritarianism so the ‘government’ can forget discretionary funding.

This collection of voters will dominate policies until the Z generation can take over.

Ancient Mariner

Regarding the Apocalypse

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Mariner’s alter ego Guru, responsible for wide ranging philosophical and futuristic insights, claimed in a recent post that the Apocalypse already has begun. There have been queries about definition.

From his safe house in Chicken Little’s hen house, mariner will lay out the timeline implied by Guru.

It all began innocently 2 million years ago when a new species evolved that had a growing brain. The species was Homo. 1 million years ago, Homo began splitting into variations. Many failed to sustain themselves and became extinct but a few with names like Neanderthal, Habilis, Australopithecus and Erectus survived into the age of humans. Together they would become Homo sapiens.

In those days, Homo had no choice but to live within the natural confines of their habitat. Living a plenteous life in an agreeable environment, a typical lifespan was about 40 years. Homo’s predators were meat eaters, infections and serious injury.

These characteristics are similar to the few indigenous tribes that still exist in remote areas of Africa and South America. These tribes to this day sustain themselves only with the restorative resources their environment provides.

About 10,000 years ago, Homo discovered how to grow more grain than he needed, hence the beginning of commerce by acquiring more grain than would be consumed by a local tribe. In a subtle way, this is the first abuse of the natural relationship between Homo and the environment.

Centuries roll by and Homo learns more ways to consume the environment beyond his natural relationship with nature. Homo extracted from nature other creatures like donkeys, horses, and wolves that would help expand the ability to acquire excessive amounts of Nature’s resources. Then Homo discovered iron, tin, lead and carbon-based energy. Now Homo could consume many times his need from Nature. Homo was consuming Nature faster than Nature could replenish itself.

This imbalance was the seed that has grown into the apocalypse we have today.

After I million years of living in accordance with the rules of Nature, in the last 1,000 years, Homo has trashed Nature; Homo has trashed the basic tribal society; Homo has trashed multiple generations that cohabit as a protective wall against difficult times. Homo quickly learned to ignore Nature and lived by the rule ‘If you can do it, do it’. He developed elaborate tools which, at every step, diminished the evolutionary potential of every Homo. For example, the use of coal and gasoline in the last 150 years has destroyed the security provided by extended family and tribe (town economy). Its method was to produce trains, automobiles, mechanized, oversized farms, superhighways and national and globally based industries.

In just 150 years the apocalypse gained speed. Isolated nuclear families became the norm – left defenseless without the human support of multiple generations and tribal support. Giant corporations became the norm, slowly eliminating local economies, local jobs and the existential satisfaction found in smaller towns and cities.

In the last 175 years, the apocalypse has shifted into a higher gear. 16,000 species are extinct because of Homo indifference. Around the world potable water is becoming scarce. Seafood from the oceans is 20 percent of what it was 100 years ago. And obviously the excess use of fossil fuel has launched serious changes in air quality and of the planet generally.

But in this century the chains are off. What easy transportation did to tribes, the Internet is doing to society. Communication technology makes war easier and more horrific; interpersonal skills and rewards are replaced by artificial behavior that dismisses 1 million years of evolutionary sophistication; privacy and security are fallacious assumptions.

Now a new age is upon us: artificial intelligence (AI). AI can emulate the entire reality of Homo. The final bridge to the apocalypse is that AI can reproduce itself. Who needs Homo?

Ancient Mariner

 

Climate change versus Tipping Points

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Everyone with a television or a radio knows the climate is shifting. Typically, scientists and weather broadcasters will cite old weather records that are broken by today’s storms, flooding, drought and heat, inching up in small amounts each year. Generally, the public acknowledges these unusual changes but often dismisses them as part of a slow and probably long-term condition.

Scientists have begun redefining ‘climate change’ as a series of increasingly disastrous events called tipping points. For example, Vermont, a no-news weather area, has had its second 100-year storm in roughly a decade. This likely could not have happened twenty or thirty years ago but the ‘slow creep’ of statistics has reached a point where new conditions permit sudden disruptions in climate that were not previously possible.

Several nations around the world have experienced economic collapse because of new levels of turbulence, drought or flooding. Rather than defining these news events as a gradual increase in the effects of global warming, scientists have recognized them as notable events that were not possible in the past and identify them as ‘tipping points’.

For the past ten years or so, scientists have used annual statistics to predict that turbulent times will occur between 2030 and the end of the century. Today, however, there is a correlation for climate change based on tipping points. In each instance tipping points become more disruptive.

To be metaphoric about it, we are accustomed to watching the weather train go by but that is no longer appropriate. We should be watching cluster bombs explode and consider the circumstances should the cluster bombs become nuclear bombs.

How can we cry “Uncle” to Mother Nature?

Mariner has his sunscreen, hard hat, flippers and an innertube ready to go at his apartment in Chicken Little’s hen house.

Ancient Mariner

Possession is nine tenths

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Does the reader feel a slight comforting breeze? Just for a second, nothing that will turn around climate or political heat. Whoops, it’s gone. Nevertheless, being able to see a cloud in a blue sky through bomb smoke can give hope for survival.

The breeze he mentions is the slowly shifting opinions of the electorate regarding the economy (inflation fading and a stable job market) immigration (least in two years), and the lowest crime rate in two years. Surely this is enough to cause a small breeze in these cynical times.

It seems this subtle improvement in democratic party performance has chopped the toenails off republican assaults on old man Biden.

Poor Joe. He’s almost as old as mariner. He has trick knees just like mariner. His accomplishments, just like mariner’s battle with rabbits, are an uphill battle.

But what would the electorate prefer – comfortable old, worn out slippers that have earned their trust or a pair of hard leather slippers with a sole of thumbtacks? (that means Joe versus the big D)?

Given a disease-infected republican party, given the lawsuits dragging on about Donald’s veracity, given the religious fervor of the anti-wokes, Joe’s old-style legislating may be a cloud in the blue sky until the rabid right fades.

The liberal side of the democratic party has chosen, wisely, not to go to war with the conservatives; they are waiting for a shift in political wind. That shift undoubtedly will come as Mother Nature continues to wreak havoc with human behavior.

Neither party knows what to do about AI or an economy without fossil fuel. Mariner suggests the electorate stay with Joe, a man who by himself overcame stuttering.

Mind you, this is the ONLY exception to mariner’s first rule of voting – given a choice, always vote for the candidate under 35 years of age.

From his apartment in Chicken Little’s hen house,

Ancient Mariner

Check the sky – is it falling?

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Mariner allowed Guru to offer a spontaneous thought about the state of things. Guru said, “Armageddon isn’t going to happen because there won’t be enough souls around for Jesus to bother coming back. However, the Apocalypse already has begun.”

Mariner has built a small apartment in Chicken Little’s hen house. He’ll be living there now. Amos has been put on leave.

Book to read: “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” by Stephen Hawking published 2018. Stephen Hawking is beyond reproach as one of history’s premiere theoretical physicists; he picked up where Einstein left off. He answers questions like:

Is there a God?

How did it all begin?

Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?

Will we survive on Earth?

And six other questions.

If the reader needs me, check the hen house.

Ancient Mariner

About Fabric

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Has the reader noticed that among cloth generally, there are many different fabrics? Each has a unique feel to it. For example, one can clearly tell the difference between silk and denim, or suede and wool, or nylon and hemp. What if, in fact, all cloth felt the same? Would that not really matter? Cloth is cloth and it’s the fashion that is important; it’s usability for whatever; it’s the style that counts; it’s what is popular that matters more.

In virtually every fiction book and film where mariner has observed ‘the future of mankind’, the plot is about humans becoming nondescript, that is, the fabric of life changes. It happens in a piecemeal way. Consider what effect the internal combustion engine had on daily society: Towns no longer had to be only twenty miles apart because that was the limit of a day’s horse ride; agriculture shifted from local market to national market; shared resources among large, stationary families shifted to independent career income no longer bound to the home town or the family.

Even the fabric of riverside cities changed from river shipping to rail, leaving dozens of river towns with dwindling resources. Today local business, the enjoyment of life, the vitality of society is a pale remembrance. Perhaps it could be said these towns lost their fabric.

Readers will quickly challenge loss of fabric versus endless increases in the economy, freedom of new life opportunities, better health services, etc. After all, it’s not about fabric, it’s usability, fashion and style that counts.

Several months ago he read a book, ‘The Way Home – tales from a life without technology’ by Mark Boyle. It is an accounting of Boyle, an economist, who deliberately spent three years without money – zero dollars. The only economy he had was what he could muster with his own hands. What gave him the idea to retreat from industrial society was that he was aware of what it took to pump a glass of water from the ground; it required steel, copper, plastic, dams and endless pipelines including what to do with wastewater. It wasn’t about Mark Boyle being thirsty nor was it about any other individual being thirsty. Individuals were nothing more than a device used to discharge water from a very large, self-important industry.

His key discovery was that the farther away a human is from his core, natural environment, the more damage is done to that environment. His second discovery was that the few families that were close enough to his cabin to interact, were genuinely friendly and willing to help Boyle survive in his stark environment. He and his few neighbors came first instead of last. They had human fabric.

For more philosophical insight into the idea that humans are at the center of life, not abusive corporate trashing of the biosphere, read Gandhi.

Ancient Mariner

 

About the ‘do nothing’ Congress

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Yes, it’s common knowledge that few citizens think Congress cares about them – about 74 percent on a recent poll, another poll had it in the 80s. Two large and lengthy articles have been written this week about new ways to redesign Congress and new ways to collect votes.

Fewer but larger state districts

If states had only two or three districts and each district had several representatives based on election percentages, this would make gerrymandering virtually impossible and would guarantee both parties (or more) would represent each district. Many countries already use this model, e.g., Australia.

Rank voting

This idea has been around for several years. Instead of counting votes exclusively for one party or another, the vote would include the total vote from all parties and the highest count would win. (For a detailed review, see ‘Ranked Voting – 2’ post published on April 2, 2022). Several states already have moved to this method first made by Alaska. This method does not change congressional seats.

What is new is the degree of angst among political writers that the two-party system will, in fact, destroy the nation. Now, party choice among the electorate is close to equal which means an evenly split Congress that can’t get anything done. Worse, the abuse of gerrymandering has become so extreme that minority races and opposing liberal-conservative representation do not have equal vote status – even when they vote.

The other condition is that if two weaponized parties continue to fight one another, both parties will move to extreme political positions. Does this seem familiar? This is the issue that bothers political thinkers.

These changes have a tough road ahead – especially in Dixie. Changing the structure of Congress requires changing the Constitution; while we’re at it, why don’t we change the Second Amendment as well?

Ancient Mariner

Does anyone have a plot line?

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By Wiley:

Is it possible that our eager scientists are consumed by the phrase, “I do it because I can”? Is Homo sapiens ready for an automated lifestyle? Is the biosphere ready for Homo sapiens to have an automated lifestyle?

Scientists have created Xenobots, computer cells that can reproduce. Even Steven Hawking predicted this will be the demise of humanity.

Over the millennia, humans have learned to adapt to significant changes in the biosphere status quo; everything from ice ages to rocket ships and nuclear bombs. But each epoch was singular – just one at a time.

It isn’t the same today. There is AI, collapsing nationalism, global warming, social abuse, over-population and the waning of Adam Smith economics.

Can we Homos handle it?

Ancient Mariner