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Explorations Outside
Yes, a large majority of people under 60 who have been infected with the coronavirus have only mild symptoms. And I guess if someone is only concerned about their own health, that's enough to be cavalier about the possibility of getting sick. But higher risk individuals can get seriously ill and, given how contagious the coronavirus appears to be, the more people who get sick with mild symptoms, the more people who will get seriously sick in the general population.
The following stats are care of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), part of the U.S. Department of Justice. First, data on time served in state prisons, based on prison release records for 2016 from 44 states…So, how are US prisoners doing upon release? Turns out, not so good. This from a BJS nine-year follow-up study of state prisoners…
“Profit is the money a business pulls in after accounting for all expenses. Whether it's a lemonade stand or a publicly-traded multinational company, the primary goal of any business is to earn money, therefore a business performance is based on profitability, in its various forms.” — What Is Profit? by Will Kenton/Investopedia Updated Nov 13, 2019
Cross-cultural studies have found that people generally agree the needy deserve some sort of help (van Oorschot and Roosma, (2017). Such generosity comes with qualifications, though. For example, individuals “seen as being personally responsible for their neediness are seen as less deserving (if at all)” (van Oorschot and Roosma, (2017). How much control the needy have over their circumstances, and whether these circumstances are so bad that charitable assistance is warranted are additional considerations. In lab studies, young children would not help a distressed child if her distress appears unjustified, such as crying over something trivial. They would only help when the distress seems justified by a clear cause (Tomasello 2019).
So what does matter to Americans? That is, what are the essentials of their own version of the American Dream? Allowing that the American Dream means different things to different people, there are some things that most Americans care deeply about: freedom, family, and a comfortable retirement (followed by contributing to the community and then owning a home). That’s according to a survey conducted by Pew Research a couple years ago. Check it out:
Of course, not all optimism is good. Per Haynes , Perry & Stupnisky (2009), over-optimism is actually a risk factor in college. Overly optimistic college students tend to base their optimism on uncontrollable factors, such as innate ability and luck. Think of people who like to repeat self-affirmations or are prone to saying things like “I can do it!” and “I know it will all work out!”, without taking concrete steps to actually make the good thing happen. Time and again, they fall, pick themselves up, repeat their affirmations, then fall again.
Then again, the right kind of optimism is associated with academic success…
“Optimism is naively believing that everything will be all right, when we know that reality is far more complex and messy…. Optimism is like a sugar high that quickly fades…” - “Why to choose hope over optimism for 2020” by Kevin O’Brien
“…it was not until the 1920s, four decades after Thomas Edison’s first power station, that manufacturers embraced [his] killer app for electricity, designing factories to accommodate dynamo-powered assembly lines…. Genuine innovations are inherently difficult to spot in advance. So the game is more about creating the right conditions for companies to press ahead and to seize on breakthroughs when they arrive. Asian-tiger governments are steering their economies with a lighter touch
“We are mean-spirited little monkeys, capable of moments of great grace and kindness…”
Turns out our little friend is not a preprogrammed automaton but an unpredictable creature of “unexpected depths”, a complex and strategic decision-maker capable of “changing its mind” in response to failure. For example, Stentor roeseli “can dodge, duck or flee” to avoid a threat, alternating these evasive maneuvers in a seemingly random manner until the threat is gone. Here’s a nice illustration …
Good government seeks to foster conditions conducive to the well-being of its people. This mission is not all that different from that of a parent: provide a secure base while encouraging the child to leave the zone of safety to explore the world. There’s still a secure base to return to in case you lose your way - a solid safety net - but you’re free to wander, experiment, fail, get up again, and pursue happiness on your own terms.
According to the researchers, these emotional reactions are understandable in the context of human evolution. Human emotions evolved to help our ancestors survive and reproduce during a time when conditions were brutal. Emotional reactions served to reinforce behaviors necessary for individual and group survival: warm fuzzies for individuals who demonstrated a willingness to put in the effort, reciprocate, and cooperate; and anger for individuals deemed lazy, selfish or uncooperative.
Cross-cultural studies have found that most people agree with the following: 1) Distribute resources equally, when need and merit are equal and the rules allow it; 2) Give more to the needy at some threshold of neediness, regardless of merit; 3) If there are agreed upon rules, and resources are allocated unequally based on these rules, that’s okay; and, 4) Merit is partly based on considerations of effort, both quantity and quality.
… income and life expectancy have more to do with how we evaluate our lives and less to do with how we feel on a day-to-day basis…freedom to make life choices and a sense of community make us feel good…corruption, lack of social support, and lack of freedom make us feel lousy.
“The problem with free speech is that it’s hard, and self-censorship is the path of least resistance. But once you learn to keep yourself from voicing unwelcome thoughts, you forget how to think them – how to think freely at all – and ideas perish at conception.” George Packer, Mute Button /The New Yorker.
Free speech is essential for moving closer to the truth of things. That’s enough for me, but I’ll add that free speech is also good for problem-solving, good governance, and democracy. Apparently, that’s not enough for some people. It’s not so much that these folks have fully articulated arguments for limiting the right to speech. It’s more that they have ways of thinking that minimize its value and justify restricting speech. Here are a few examples: …
Psychology is implicated in everything humans do, think and feel - as in all humans…. But “psychology” is not independent of reality. Things are rarely “in our heads” or “in the world”. Pointing out that a belief serves a psychological need (a “use-value”) says nothing about whether that belief is correct (it’s “truth-value”).
Being at the mercy of another person means feeling one cannot get away from them, because they have something one wants badly and that something is not readily available elsewhere.
The program was funded by the city of Chester and had previously been managed by a local non-profit - rather poorly it would seem, given its dismal job placement and dropout rates. My employer - Associates for Research in Behavior - took over the city’s contract with the promise of improving outcomes by applying the principles of motivation to the business of training adult students. The main principles were: …
“With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. ... Individualism will also be unselfish and unaffected.” Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism …“…conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectibility. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave faults, the conservatives know. Man being imperfect, no perfect social order ever can be created. To seek for utopia is to end in disaster, the conservative says: we are not made for perfect things. All that we reasonably can expect is a tolerable ordered, just, and free society, in which some evils, maladjustments, and suffering will continue to lurk. By proper attention to prudent reform, we may preserve and improve this tolerable order.” Russell Kirk, Ten Conservative Principles