The timeline of online punishment is inherently uncertain. When does an individual have the right for the shaming to stop, and how is this even possible when the shaming is recorded on the internet? If the shaming does not stop, how can the shamed ever repair their reputations and relationships? Convicted criminals do their time and pay their dues - but there are no parallel concepts in the world of online shaming. Even if the online chatter subsides for a while, there’s no telling when it might come roaring back.
“…Humility, so that each of society’s competing factions might comprehend that it will not always hold power. Tolerance, so that the habitual reaction to a difference of opinion is the shrug rather than the bayonet. And forbearance, so that the immediate rush of victory can be subordinated to longer-term ambition. Little by little, we are losing all three…”
But bounded rationality fails spectacularly when untethered to something real, - that is, unless it is grounded in the real world…
The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: sounds good to me. These rights pretty much cover the purview of government, not counting the obligation to protect other species - but that’s a subject for another day. For now we’re dealing with what governments owe their humans. First, some clarification according to my sense of these three basic rights.
The US murder rate was 5.0 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the robbery rate was 81.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019. Here’s what the five-year trend looks like: …
…Which got me thinking: if human experience and behavior is the product of gene-environment interactions, what does liberty even mean? The dictionary says liberty is “the condition of being free from control or restrictions”, but being a “product” of genes+environment doesn’t leave any room for being free from control.
“The impact of missed education could be lasting. “If a child is not reading at grade level by the third grade, they are four times less likely to graduate high school,” says Christakis. “And low-income children are six times less likely.” - Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children’s Research Institute, quoted in The New Scientist September 2, 2020
People often change their political minds as they get older. Adolescents and young adults tend to form political opinions that reflect those of their peers or are more extreme versions of their parents’ politics (as befits the intensity of youth). Then something happens: the intrepid fledglings leave home and school, enter the greater world of work and responsibility, and begin to doubt their old certainties about how the world is and should be. Or at least some do.
Just a few years ago talk of robots taking over was all the rage. Thanks to robots, humans would no longer have to work unless they wanted to. Some typical headlines:
When Robots Take All the Work, What'll Be Left for Us to Do? (Wired/2015)
Robots will take over most jobs within 30 years, experts warn (The Telegraph/2016)
Robots will eliminate 6% of all US jobs by 2021, report says (The Guardian, 2016)
In the real world, we talk more of causes than rules, but the process of establishing a causal relation is similar to that of validating a rule: seek cases that disconfirm the proposition that x causes y. In other words, find cases of x without y and y without x (the equivalent of turning over the D and 7 cards in the Wason task).
Mmmmm…I had naively thought Americans were more criminally-inclined than Europeans, or at least more violent. We’re actually middle-of-the-road, crime-wise. And we’re not more violent, just more homicidal, at least when compared with the larger European countries like France and the United Kingdom.
Not everyone needs a four-year college degree to get into the middle class (although it certainty helps). There are plenty of occupations that don’t require a degree, in which a good portion of the workers earn enough to be classified as “middle-class”. I’m not saying these occupations pay well right off the bat, but they do have the potential to pay experienced workers at least $40,000 a year - which was the median annual wage in 2019.
So what should be the point of comparison for questions of race, ethnicity and arrest-related deaths? The answer matters, because it sheds light on the nature of the problem…which in turn leads to better ideas on how to fix it.
Jonathan Haidt defined moral emotions as “those emotions that are linked to the interests or welfare either of society as a whole or at least of persons other than the judge or agent.” Moral emotions motivate people to do good and to avoid doing bad. Let’s grant that moral emotions are a good thing. But is more of a good thing even better? And does feeling a moral emotion less intensely mean…
6. Leaves No Room for Doubt: As the Greek philosopher Hippo said, “Doubt is the origin of wisdom”. Calling out comes from a place of certainty, which undermines learning, discovery, critical thinking and scientific inquiry. …
Per dictionary.com, to insinuate is to “to suggest or hint slyly” or “to instill or infuse subtly or artfully, as into the mind”. To insinuate is to lead one’s target along a winding path – a sinuous path – that takes them to where the insinuator wants them to go. On the surface, all is a succession of neutral facts. But what one make of these facts is nudged in certain directions by choice of words, choice of facts, and how they are put together. Think Iago in Othello.
… whenever we feel we’re contributing to another’s well-being or happiness, we feel less lonely. Like if we’re with a friend and that friend is obviously enjoying our company. Or when we help a co-worker solve a vexing problem. In these situations, the pleasures of getting and giving are intermingled, e.g., being liked, appreciated, admired, or respected plus the satisfaction of benefiting someone else.
In contrast to ideologues, reformers still have faith in the current system’s capacity to make things better. To reformers, the system needs to be fixed, not overturned. Reformers identify specific problems and propose narrow solutions. Ideologues identify existential threats and fight for “structural change”. Reformers are cool. Ideologues are hot, hot, hot. Of course, reformers can get excited about their vision of change but they tend to lack the ideologue’s righteous passion.
These are 30 TV series or mini-series that were rated over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes by both critics and audience:
Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, the Shetland Islands, Ireland, the bucolic English countryside…Wouldn’t it be great to visit these places and partake of their wonders and exotic allure? And we can! Maybe not in person, but on our devices of choice. I’m not talking travel shows but deeply satisfying, immersive thrillers and crime dramas - the high quality type, with believable characters, plausible plots, and fully-realized worlds that suck you in, even those with subtitles.