This is a blog with beliefs. With principles.
This is not a deadbeat, slacker, blog of the void.
We will attempt to work through them.
There are foundations.
By constraints of time and media we can not get at the whole thing, but we can get at the foundations.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.... to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
and
The Morning, which is the most memorable season of that day, is the waking hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night....To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning....Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep....There are millions awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a hundred million to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Damnit this computer doesn't have a DVD player
I judge the worth of my life based on my current and potential levels of appreciation for the full moon
on the low tide mudflats
of a freezing night
on the low tide mudflats
of a freezing night
Facts can be misleading, however.
Two problems come to mind. First, thinking of the world and problems and people in terms of numbers and statistics promotes a reptilian way of thinking. It can lead to you see people as numbers and to make sweeping generalizations about them. Valuing the unique humanity of each person is something I have come to see as essential for living a good life. When we use large statistics to try to bring the most good to the most people we have to afterwards conciously turn off that computational way of thinking. We should get a cup of coffee and stare out the window and see all the idiosyncratic, unique, holy, tired, shy, brilliant people out there actually making their lives, and remind ourselves how small and unimportant we truly are.
We should not, however, shrink from our duty to try and make the world a better place. To do so is to be motivated by cowardice. In fact, those soulless bureaucrats working in IOs, the World Bank, the UN, (maybe there aren't any soulless bureaucrats in those organizations, I don't know) who only see people as numbers and statistics are martyrs in a way. They are martyrs (because they live shitty shallow lives) if, despite their shallow views of other people, they are able to maintain their perspective and still work to pull masses out of poverty.
I will not chose a life like that. I want to help the most people the most efficiently, but for myself it is more important that I live a full, happy, wise life. People are beautiful, holy individuals and to lump them into categories tarnishes their inherent holy uniqueness.
The second problem with facts, is that they can be improperly collected. Truly objective reality, as it turns out, is impossible to quantify, at least by humans. People have hidden agendas, they subconsciously misreport, they fail to uncover all the evidence. Still, it is possible to approach an objective representation of reality. If we look at data averaged over the years for large trends and comparisons we can learn a great deal about the world, despite the inherent unreliability of the individual datasets and points.
I was watching a video on the TED website which made me think about this. TED in itself is an excellent example of the possibility of improving the world by the application of knowledge and information (and creativity!). The video was of Hans Rosling, a swedish statistics nerd, who believes in the power of information, properly collected, displayed, and publicized, to increasing our understanding of the world. His nonprofit has created a website, called gapminder.org, which has mined all the available public information databases (of which there are a multitude) and created a flash program that can graph any of these data-sets against any other, and can display changes over time (if the data is available) and even add a third data-set (the default is population) that is displayed by the size of the dots on the graph. The colors of the dots can also be connected to information, such as the region of each country.
I think its pretty cool.
Two problems come to mind. First, thinking of the world and problems and people in terms of numbers and statistics promotes a reptilian way of thinking. It can lead to you see people as numbers and to make sweeping generalizations about them. Valuing the unique humanity of each person is something I have come to see as essential for living a good life. When we use large statistics to try to bring the most good to the most people we have to afterwards conciously turn off that computational way of thinking. We should get a cup of coffee and stare out the window and see all the idiosyncratic, unique, holy, tired, shy, brilliant people out there actually making their lives, and remind ourselves how small and unimportant we truly are.
We should not, however, shrink from our duty to try and make the world a better place. To do so is to be motivated by cowardice. In fact, those soulless bureaucrats working in IOs, the World Bank, the UN, (maybe there aren't any soulless bureaucrats in those organizations, I don't know) who only see people as numbers and statistics are martyrs in a way. They are martyrs (because they live shitty shallow lives) if, despite their shallow views of other people, they are able to maintain their perspective and still work to pull masses out of poverty.
I will not chose a life like that. I want to help the most people the most efficiently, but for myself it is more important that I live a full, happy, wise life. People are beautiful, holy individuals and to lump them into categories tarnishes their inherent holy uniqueness.
The second problem with facts, is that they can be improperly collected. Truly objective reality, as it turns out, is impossible to quantify, at least by humans. People have hidden agendas, they subconsciously misreport, they fail to uncover all the evidence. Still, it is possible to approach an objective representation of reality. If we look at data averaged over the years for large trends and comparisons we can learn a great deal about the world, despite the inherent unreliability of the individual datasets and points.
I was watching a video on the TED website which made me think about this. TED in itself is an excellent example of the possibility of improving the world by the application of knowledge and information (and creativity!). The video was of Hans Rosling, a swedish statistics nerd, who believes in the power of information, properly collected, displayed, and publicized, to increasing our understanding of the world. His nonprofit has created a website, called gapminder.org, which has mined all the available public information databases (of which there are a multitude) and created a flash program that can graph any of these data-sets against any other, and can display changes over time (if the data is available) and even add a third data-set (the default is population) that is displayed by the size of the dots on the graph. The colors of the dots can also be connected to information, such as the region of each country.
I think its pretty cool.
Monday, December 28, 2009
I believe that all people should have the right to enjoy a good life. I believe in the 'liberal rights', to freedom of speech, religion, congregation, freedom to participate in the government, the right to due process, and equality before the law. I also believe in 'economic, social, and cultural rights' like the right to enjoy and participate in culture, the right to food, work, education, housing, health, and family.
I also believe that humans are animals, and ideally should live on the world in a way that can be sustained as the other life forms on the planet do. With the human population exploding it is difficult to see how humans can continue to prosper on this planet as we have without permanently and drastically altering the biological (ecological?) and meteorological systems that characterize Earth as we know it.
So, I want to work towards addressing these issues. It is one thing to say one supports these things, but what really matters, if one truly cares about improving the world visavis these issues, is to make positive substantive changes in them. Many people like to flout their concern about issues like these. The "bumper sticker activist" whose primary work to save the world has been to purchase the purple 'Coexist' sticker and to place it on their (gas consuming) car.
I am down with "coexisting". I would be interested in knowing how many of the people with said sticker actually practice one of the religions, Islam, Judaism, Wiccanism (like, for real though, with ceremonies and all), Taosim, Confusicianism, or Christianity, that are depicted.
That's not the point though.
The point is caring, giving-a-shit, about human rights and the environment. Since I do give a shit, posturing without substance discusts me, and as a result I am less likely to engage in "bumper sticker activism". I want to be sure, that if I am going to do something, or give my support, it helps to cause substantive improvement in the issue. If I want to do something about starving people, or AIDS, or any number of problems in Africa, I might sponsor one child. But does that really make a substantive change? It will probably make me feel better. It will take the weight of Africa off my mind. But Africa has more than a billion inhabitants. In the long run if I want to feel better about Africa I want a solution that can raise the standards of living of the most people for the longest time. I want facts to guarentee the effectiveness of my support, and to compare my chosen route of aid against others for efficiency. If I donate 5 dollars to one organization and it helps teach 5 people how to read, whereas another organization could have taught 10 people how to read, then in one sense I have just denied 5 people the alibity to read. Or if I help Botswana (which already has a UN Human Development Index score of 0.694) on a lark, instead of Congo-Kinshasa (with a HDI of 0.389). Botswana is less in need of economic aid. A donation to that country, in lieu of others in greater need based on a lack of information is almost a criminal tragedy. What if I were to donate to Portugal instead of the Congo? Or Norway? I am sure there are problems in Norway, but the same aid could make a much greater improvement for its worth, only 5 dollars, in Congo than in Norway. Or perhaps there is such great corruption in Congo that it is impossible for the 5 dollars to have its intended effect, and instead a donation to Botswana, where there is less corruption (with a Freedom House score of 4/14 {USA is 2/14}), would be more likely to have the intended effect. Without reliable information about our work to make the world a better place, we cannot know if we are merely posturing, or actually "being the change we wish to see in the world".
I also believe that humans are animals, and ideally should live on the world in a way that can be sustained as the other life forms on the planet do. With the human population exploding it is difficult to see how humans can continue to prosper on this planet as we have without permanently and drastically altering the biological (ecological?) and meteorological systems that characterize Earth as we know it.
So, I want to work towards addressing these issues. It is one thing to say one supports these things, but what really matters, if one truly cares about improving the world visavis these issues, is to make positive substantive changes in them. Many people like to flout their concern about issues like these. The "bumper sticker activist" whose primary work to save the world has been to purchase the purple 'Coexist' sticker and to place it on their (gas consuming) car.
I am down with "coexisting". I would be interested in knowing how many of the people with said sticker actually practice one of the religions, Islam, Judaism, Wiccanism (like, for real though, with ceremonies and all), Taosim, Confusicianism, or Christianity, that are depicted.
That's not the point though.
The point is caring, giving-a-shit, about human rights and the environment. Since I do give a shit, posturing without substance discusts me, and as a result I am less likely to engage in "bumper sticker activism". I want to be sure, that if I am going to do something, or give my support, it helps to cause substantive improvement in the issue. If I want to do something about starving people, or AIDS, or any number of problems in Africa, I might sponsor one child. But does that really make a substantive change? It will probably make me feel better. It will take the weight of Africa off my mind. But Africa has more than a billion inhabitants. In the long run if I want to feel better about Africa I want a solution that can raise the standards of living of the most people for the longest time. I want facts to guarentee the effectiveness of my support, and to compare my chosen route of aid against others for efficiency. If I donate 5 dollars to one organization and it helps teach 5 people how to read, whereas another organization could have taught 10 people how to read, then in one sense I have just denied 5 people the alibity to read. Or if I help Botswana (which already has a UN Human Development Index score of 0.694) on a lark, instead of Congo-Kinshasa (with a HDI of 0.389). Botswana is less in need of economic aid. A donation to that country, in lieu of others in greater need based on a lack of information is almost a criminal tragedy. What if I were to donate to Portugal instead of the Congo? Or Norway? I am sure there are problems in Norway, but the same aid could make a much greater improvement for its worth, only 5 dollars, in Congo than in Norway. Or perhaps there is such great corruption in Congo that it is impossible for the 5 dollars to have its intended effect, and instead a donation to Botswana, where there is less corruption (with a Freedom House score of 4/14 {USA is 2/14}), would be more likely to have the intended effect. Without reliable information about our work to make the world a better place, we cannot know if we are merely posturing, or actually "being the change we wish to see in the world".
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The New Eon
Blog.
Itsablog. Brother is off to take night greyhound to visit sweetheart in Spokane. I have graduated from college, and have no job or money. I have negative money in fact. I don't even know how much. I'm waiting for them to find me, and then they will tell me how much I owe. Going back to Portland after new years. For no reason I guess. Can't really find a job until I get back from Ecuador.
Going to Ecuador to visit lovely Erika in February. Have nothing else on my life calendar. Apply for the Peace Corps. Get a job. This things have no hard dates set. But am going to Ecuador the 11th of February and coming back the 23rd. Will be there for Carnaval and another weekend. It is a wonderful thing to have a place to stay and a guide and a friend to be with in a far off country.
I might as well visit people in the mean time. As long as I can keep it cheap. What if I did my whole trip?
My idea is to travel down to California and visit Andrew Shaw Kitch in Monterrey California. Then I could go south to see cousin Brian in LA or take the train from Sacramento to Salt Lake City to see Jenni, Elyse, Brian, and Sara (and Bradford). From SLC the train line runs out to Lincoln Nebraska where I could see my old friend Brendan. I don't know how I would get back. Craigslist rides, perhaps.
But I have got no money. I have got negative money, in fact.
And I can travel cheaply, but probably not as cheaply as I can live here. At this point I am totally dependent on the largess of my parents. Both of which are just about out of money and scrimping before traveling to Mexico (mother) and Hawaii (father and stepmother) in January.
What does it say about my family that we can afford to travel separately to three different tropical locales in the coming two months.
Who do I want to be?
What are the things I want to do?
How do I want to live?
What are the things I consider worth doing? Worth acomplishing?
Itsablog. Brother is off to take night greyhound to visit sweetheart in Spokane. I have graduated from college, and have no job or money. I have negative money in fact. I don't even know how much. I'm waiting for them to find me, and then they will tell me how much I owe. Going back to Portland after new years. For no reason I guess. Can't really find a job until I get back from Ecuador.
Going to Ecuador to visit lovely Erika in February. Have nothing else on my life calendar. Apply for the Peace Corps. Get a job. This things have no hard dates set. But am going to Ecuador the 11th of February and coming back the 23rd. Will be there for Carnaval and another weekend. It is a wonderful thing to have a place to stay and a guide and a friend to be with in a far off country.
I might as well visit people in the mean time. As long as I can keep it cheap. What if I did my whole trip?
My idea is to travel down to California and visit Andrew Shaw Kitch in Monterrey California. Then I could go south to see cousin Brian in LA or take the train from Sacramento to Salt Lake City to see Jenni, Elyse, Brian, and Sara (and Bradford). From SLC the train line runs out to Lincoln Nebraska where I could see my old friend Brendan. I don't know how I would get back. Craigslist rides, perhaps.
But I have got no money. I have got negative money, in fact.
And I can travel cheaply, but probably not as cheaply as I can live here. At this point I am totally dependent on the largess of my parents. Both of which are just about out of money and scrimping before traveling to Mexico (mother) and Hawaii (father and stepmother) in January.
What does it say about my family that we can afford to travel separately to three different tropical locales in the coming two months.
Who do I want to be?
What are the things I want to do?
How do I want to live?
What are the things I consider worth doing? Worth acomplishing?
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