Category Archives: Culture

Immoral circumstances

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Since early last December online news services have begun reporting on the immoral circumstance and the economic impact of a rapidly self-enriching oligarchy, i.e., the super billionaire citizens and large, illegal income structures of international corporations and investors. Ironically, Putin and his cronies keep their hidden wealth in the US and a few other western nations – it’s safer.

Wealth can be purchased at advantageous times and allowed to grow untaxed because of tax loopholes. These invested assets are, in fact, removed from the economic flow of Growth Domestic Product (GDP) that supports the entire nation. While showing the wealthy growing even wealthier, the fungibility, or trade value is zero. In effect this wealth sits in an attic with no comparable value in the common economy. Think of a magician making a dollar coin vanish from his hand and never show up again.

One of the news sources is ProPublica, known for deep investigations where daylight doesn’t shine. To save words, mariner quotes ProPublica’s opening remarks to a piece written last year:

“Had the billions in budget reductions occurred all at once, with tens of thousands of auditors, collectors and customer service representatives streaming out of government buildings in a single day, the collapse of the IRS might have gotten more attention. But there have been no mass layoffs or dramatic announcements. Instead, it’s taken eight years to bring the agency that funds the government this low. Over time, the IRS has slowly transformed, one employee departure at a time.

“The result is a bureaucracy on life support and tens of billions in lost government revenue. ProPublica estimates a toll of at least $18 billion every year, but the true cost could easily run tens of billions of dollars higher.

The cuts are depleting the staff members who help ensure that taxpayers pay what they owe. As of last year, the IRS had 9,510 auditors. That’s down a third from 2010. The last time the IRS had fewer than 10,000 revenue agents was 1953, when the economy was a seventh of its current size.”

 Another news source wrote about eight multibillionaire families who had never paid one dollar in taxes. Obviously the IRS needs to be refunded at appropriate levels and the fungibility of trillions of dollars must be returned to the economy by rewriting tax laws so that gained wealth can be taxed.

But this issue is more than numbers, profit margins and taxes. The wide, growing division between the wealthy and the average citizen has deformed the national culture. The number of poverty-stricken people is growing at an historic rate. The working class has endorsed Donald Trump as a savior. A normal lifestyle is out of reach for the twenty-year-olds who cannot afford college, marriage or housing. In times of great swings by inflation or recession, these are times when the private equity world sweeps in to gather easy, profitable pickings. Note that the US is heading for two economically disastrous situations: inflation and climate change. Will Government have the resources to keep the boat afloat for the next ten to fifteen years?

Not without a total rewrite of taxation laws and the agents needed to enforce compliance.

Make sure your representatives in every level of government hear your concern for tax reform.

Ancient Mariner

Reality

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{The Atlantic} The moment that broke Cassie Alexander came nine months into the pandemic. As an intensive-care-unit nurse of 14 years, Alexander had seen plenty of “Hellraiser stuff,” she told me. But when COVID-19 hit her Bay Area hospital, she witnessed “death on a scale I had never seen before.”
Last December, at the height of the winter surge, she cared for a patient who had caught the coronavirus after being pressured into a Thanksgiving dinner. Their lungs were so ruined that only a hand-pumped ventilation bag could supply enough oxygen. Alexander squeezed the bag every two seconds for 40 minutes straight to give the family time to say goodbye. Her hands cramped and blistered as the family screamed and prayed. When one of them said that a miracle might happen, Alexander found herself thinking, I am the miracle. I’m the only person keeping your loved one alive. (Cassie Alexander is a pseudonym that she has used when writing a book about these experiences. I agreed to use that pseudonym here.)
The senselessness of the death, and her guilt over her own resentment, messed her up. Weeks later, when the same family called to ask if the staff had really done everything they could, “it was like being punched in the gut,” she told me. She had given everything—to that patient, and to the stream of others who had died in the same room. She felt like a stranger to herself, a commodity to her hospital, and an outsider to her own relatives, who downplayed the pandemic despite everything she told them. In April, she texted her friends: “Nothing like feeling strongly suicidal at a job where you’re supposed to be keeping people alive.” Shortly after, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and she left her job.

Maybe we should buy her a robot puppy.
Ancient Mariner

Nearer My Casket to Thee

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Mariner just saw a frightening news clip on CBSN (ROKU). Robot puppies that look like the Paw Patrol cartoons are displacing real dog ownership. It reminds him of the perverts who live with sex dolls and people who marry suggestions from a manipulated database or the adults in a doctor’s office playing mind killing smartphone games.

Say goodbye to reality. Fantasy sells. Benignness sells. Stupor sells. Laziness sells.

If someone wants a dog, buy a real one dammit. Matrix lives.

Remember pet rocks? At least it was seen as a joke – although as mariner’s wife noted, some people name their automatic vacuum cleaner. Mariner’s wife provides a poem:

On learning that people who name their Roombas have a hard time
throwing them away:

Ah, little Roomba, Roomie-Roo
I love how you clean my floors
Diligently sucking up all the fluff you can find
and then scooting across the room
bumping against the chair leg
backing and turning
to dart off in another direction
Like an eager little puppy
who does the opposite of shedding,
chasing in your funny way
all the dusty bunnies hiding in the corners.
I don’t just love the work you do, little Roomie Roo
I love your friendly presence and helpful attitude
And when at last your lithium battery goes off somewhere to die
As happens to the best of us,
You will always have a home
In the closet of my heart.

MKM 4-20-21

All this reminds mariner of the Pew Christian who thinks one hour every seven days does it. Should we fear the coming of mesmerizing God robots? Preacher robots are just around the corner – or already here in podcast services.

If people want numbness, take opiates.

Ancient Mariner

 

Democracy Simplified

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It never fails to impress mariner how Non Sequitur can simplify so many complex issues into one comic frame. Here’s a great example:

Facts are immutable. That is their strength. Truth is culture, also a strength.

When facts are ignored over time, culture fills in the gaps; the longer the time, the more abstract culture becomes. Finally, disparity overcomes rationality.

The fact that the working class has not been given a fair shake when matched against the facts of inflation and loss of benefits since 1980, culture has adapted to accept this situation until disparity could no longer be denied.

Hence Donald. Hence January 6. The pandemic, a factually based circumstance, has magnified culture’s disparity a hundred fold. Today, a disparate culture is in the midst of collapse.

Who will steer culture back to a factually driven reality?

Not The House of Representatives.

Not the Senate.

Not the housing shortage.

Not global warming.

Not China.

Not Russia.

Not even the European Union.

Not big data.

Not the oligarchy.

Not even religion, which has its own disparate issues.

The United States situation has been represented accurately  by Wiley’s cartoon.

Ancient Mariner

2022

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We must be thankful, truly thankful, if we had a good, heartwarming, soul refreshing holiday season. To have been so blessed in these times is a privileged experience. Mariner had such a holiday. His son and daughter-in-law, a four year old, a one year old, a frisky dog and a cat spent Christmas week with mariner and his wife.

It was commotion and noise, of course, and special meals and decorations and presents and special conversations. It is how Christmas should be experienced. Opportunities to have inter-human experiences are growing less common. Some of it is due to the migration of children (or parents) and close relatives to distant geographic locations; some of it is due to the massive interruption of Covid; some of it is due to the powers of the internet; more common than we may think, some is due to debilitating poverty; finally, some of it is due to cultural disruption caused by a failing national ethos and the unknown future that will be created with artificial intelligence.

But it is our duty to hang on, to sustain the normal pleasures and responsibilities that come with being human. It is our mandate to be among humanity. Our saneness depends on unity amongst the species. We should take every opportunity to share time with others, to mingle, to share common courtesies and goals; to take responsibility for the human condition.

Think about this: all things are subject to evolution. Is our house the first evolutionary form that will become our Matrix casket? Will the growing, amoral reality of machines that can think live our lives for us?

We no longer have to shop outside our home. Our bills are paid automatically. We talk to other human beings on the internet rather than in person; it has become common to go to work without leaving the home; we arrange lifelong partners according to internet specifications. Our house, evolutionarily speaking, is our Matrix coffin. For most of us, that final coffin is beyond our lifespan but in the meantime, let’s celebrate face to face human interaction at every opportunity!

Ancient Mariner

 

The Homo persona versus the AI world

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This entire post intends deliberately to promote a new book: “The Age of AI and our Human Future” by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher, published 2021 by Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316273800.

Not that mariner is comfortable with every premise. Indeed, the book clarifies his own resistance to the impact of AI. Nevertheless, the book is written with rational insight and for the ease of an average reader; the language and grammar are helpful instead of being a confrontation.

The authors point out in clear terms that being a human will be different as AI takes over behaviors usually executed by human beings. One insightful example: It is quite likely that an AI program will choose whether you are hired for a job – no human intervention is necessary; perhaps a human robot may interview you. AI programs author public documents – no human intervention is necessary. Economic activities like engaging in the stock market, international trade agreements and salaries will be managed by AI – no human intervention is necessary.

Many of what today are called ‘labor jobs’ that require skills typical of the trades or white collar workers or many specialist jobs in public service and health will not be required. The new labor class will be technicians trained to work with AI. For the Homo species, the social and psychological changes in an individual’s sense of personal worth will be challenged.

The authors point to other significant changes to human worth in history when, for example, the weaving machine was invented which promulgated a national resistance movement called the Luddites; also, the printing press changed individual awareness and political acumen forever, allowing ideas like democracy to grow. But the great double-cross in mariner’s mind is captured on the back cover:

“Recently, a sophisticated language-generating AI named GPT-3 was asked philosophical questions. It replied in part:

Your question is ‘Does GPT-3 have a conscience or any sense of morality?’ No, I do not.

Your next question is ‘Is GPT-3 actually capable of independent thought?’ No, I am not. You may wonder why I give this conflicting answer. The reason is simple. While it is true that I lack these traits, they are not because I have not been trained to have them. Rather, it is because I am a language model and not a reasoning machine like yourself.

The gray line for mariner is, in fact, that AI has no soul. How does one provide insightful charity? How does one know when the exception proves the rule? How does an individual achieve the hero’s path in light of determinism? Further, mariner does not trust the three-way relationship between AI, government and private investment. How will our Congressmen manipulate campaign funds?

As Forrest Gump would say, “Amoral is as amoral does.” How a person may be treated or defined is driven by their table values in massive databases. Mariner remains a Luddite and a member of the silent generation. One day he will buy a pony and a pony cart. Who needs automobiles driven by AI? The pony knows the way.

Nevertheless, read the book. You owe it to yourself to understand your future self-worth.

Ancient Mariner

Stupidity is a human characteristic

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.  – George Carlin

Two that are stupider are the parents of the student who shot attendees at his school. They bought him a semiautomatic pistol then refused to intercede in an obviously distraught situation. The school administrator is at best of average stupidity. Given the nation’s propensity for killing school children faster than the Taliban, how did the boy get a weapon into the school?

Another stupider individual is Kyle Rittenhouse who carried an AK assault rifle to a rally in another state. Also stupid are all the governments involved. How could a boy who traveled to Wisconsin with an unlicensed weapon, brandish it in public, then kill people with it and not face at least one charge, say, ‘disturbing the peace’?

Others that are stupider are the unvaccinated citizens in states infected with Trump disease. Several reports from different quarters say that the death rate from Covid in these states is three times higher than Covid deaths in vaccinated states.

Stupid is as stupid does.  – Forrest Gump

Stupider is the Republican Party. By what set of rules, ideology or practicality can the party endorse/unendorse Marjorie Taylor Greene and Liz Cheney at the same time?  Oh, mariner forgot – it’s the electorate that is stupider; representatives are in it for the money.

You can’t argue with stupidity.  – Jermaine Jackson

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.  – Napoleon Bonaparte

Ancient Mariner

 

Caste the mote

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Mariner stumbled across a small analysis that suggests the United States is struggling with an ingrown caste system very much like the caste system that exists in India. Americans don’t pay much attention to India (they should, it’s a sumo nation). India covers a large part of Asia and has a cultural history dating back six thousand years. The culture is a mix of authoritarianism, Buddhism, Hinduism and a current political structure instituted by the British occupation during the age of Colonialism (1600s to mid-1900s).  Rather than devote pages of copy to describing India’s history, mariner will provide simplistic comparisons between the two caste systems. A simple chart describes India’s caste system:

The smaller type in parentheses is helpful. Twice Born, loosely interpreted, means those who were born under normal circumstances but remade themselves into successful leaders of the nation, religion or wealth. In the United States a similar structure exists with different terminology. For example, where would the reader put the white-college-successful democratic party? Where would the reader put the labor class? Taking into consideration India’s stronger theocracy, where would the reader put conservative evangelicals? And obviously, where would descendants of slavery be put? And the Oligarchs and capitalists?

Mariner hopes this is enough information to demonstrate how castes work. Certainly the two systems don’t reflect identical cultures but the point of the analysis was how hard it is to deconstruct what are, in fact, culturally cemented castes. The samples mariner used for the United States date back to the nation’s origin. The first settlement introduced slavery from the get-go. Remember the Puritans? Remember Native American genocide? Etc. etc.

That the Declaration of Independence says ‘all men are created equal’ doesn’t displace Western Civilization’s long practiced, class-based social structure.

Having read the analysis – just a paragraph in a larger article about politics – mariner now has a different perspective about the troubles the U.S. is having. Maybe people can’t break embedded castes but a pandemic plus artificial intelligence together are having a go at it. Primarily, the changes are superficial and economic in nature, caused by recent changes in elitist society. Unfortunately the embedded castes like racism, Christian theocracy and plutocracy will be around for the foreseeable future.

Is there a U.S. comparison to India’s sacred cows (in light of the fact that the United States virtually eliminated the existence of the American Buffalo)?

Ancient Mariner

 

Read all about it!

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In the news. Newsy broadcasting had an article about marijuana and the current attempt by Congress to make it nationally legal so it can be taxed. Turns out the marijuana older folk played with had 3 percent THC; today the hybridized weed contains as much as 30 percent. Further, medical cards issued by doctors are relatively easy to acquire (fake). With a medical card a person can buy a tar-like concentrate that often causes serious emotional problems and physical damage to the brain. Newsy interviewed a mother whose son died from abuse.

In the News. Britney Spears wins release from conservatorship. Britney’s father demonstrated an evil, abusive, perhaps even psychotic abuse of his daughter for 14 years. Not that Britney was an angel by any means but those wild times have been behind her for years; it has been made clear that her ongoing career was financially curtailed by her father. Truly, money often is at the root of evil. Conservatorship is supposed to be an aid to those who can’t make rational decisions about money and other decisions that affect one’s wellbeing.

In the news. “The Liberty Way”: How Liberty University Discourages and Dismisses Students’ Reports of Sexual Assaults. Jerry Falwell’s university joins the company of athletic managers allowing sexual abuse of the women’s Olympic gymnastics team. An article published by ProPublica reports that the University ignored reports of rape and threatened to punish accusers for breaking its moral code, say former students. An official who says he was fired for raising concerns calls it a “conspiracy of silence.” Read the full account at

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-liberty-way-how-liberty-university-discourages-and-dismisses-students-reports-of-sexual-assaults?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter&utm_content=feature

In the news. The former chief executive of a tech company in suburban Chicago who lost his job after he threw a chair inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot was sentenced Friday to 30 days imprisonment. Rukstales was forced out as CEO of Cogensia and sold interests in the firm after his participation in the riot became known and the boards of directors for the firm’s clients were ready to cancel contracts. Is it a threatening thought to realize that not everyone at the riot was a gun-toting, white supremacist labor class person? Remember the pillow guy?

This post is a crude attempt to emulate yellow journalism. Similar to TV news, so much sensationalism is thrown at the reader it is hard to determine whether some subtle implication may have importance.

For example, marijuana has had a level, generic aura about it all along except for its early twentieth century association with opiates. Who knew it had morphed into a potent psychedelic? How that was unnoticed is the more important story.

In Britney’s case it is the regulations for invoking conservatorship. There must be hundreds of abused conservatorships that aren’t reported because the individual doesn’t have a famous profile. The same applies to other decisions like moving someone into a hospice. Living will regulations have been developed as a response to some issues but regulations may be lacking when deciding about someone else’s wellbeing. Morally speaking, no human should be reduced to a simple commodity.

As for the membership of the rioters, the real story is how potent the danger to democracy is given the amount of money involved in weakening elections and the broad but unreported cultural membership of the rioters.

Ancient Mariner

Call 2021 a year done with.

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Does anyone still watch TV news? First, the broadcasts are full of nothing but disaster; nothing is accomplished anywhere unless it is an increase in aggressive populism, crime rates, failure in the ecosystem, threatened democracy or the gathering of war clouds. Second, the news is targeted and skewed to attract and sustain certain types of viewers; consequently news is soaked in criticism, drama and biased speculation. ‘News’ must be redefined to mean, as Joe Friday said, “All we want is the facts, Ma’am.”

Even more destructive is that society now gets its ‘facts’ from social media.

So, in November it is a good time to return to hibernation in the home. The colder weather turns one’s mind to inside hobbies and events – something like the string of fall and winter holidays or making some hearty soups and casseroles. With the weather changing, it is time to bake rather than grill.

It may be a good time to put down the smart phone and pursue old fashioned hobbies like knitting or repairing that wobbly chair. One task that is always needed is to clean out the filing cabinets, closets and the garage. A chore mariner faces is to paint and refurbish lawn furniture. How many years has it been since the lawn mower blades have been sharpened? It’s a good time to paint that back hall. Visit family you haven’t seen for a while.

The point is this: Everyone, rich or poor, young or old, smart or dumb or any race – needs to refocus on the self; society is unstable and not much comfort to the self. The trick is to occupy one’s time doing things on a firsthand basis, doing something where you determine a successful outcome all by yourself! Mariner likes the analogy of a bear preparing for the winter: eat well, make a comfortable place for yourself and stay in for the winter.

Perhaps your sanity and scruples will be better prepared for next spring . . .

Ancient Mariner