31 August 2011
30 August 2011
30 August 2011
STETSON KENNEDY: 1916-2011…
0813 by Jeff Hess30 August 2011
ROMANCING THE YEOMAN FARMER MYTH…
0619 by Jeff Hess30 August 2011
27 August 2011
26 August 2011
WHEN PEOPLE GIVE UP, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS…
1713 by Jeff Hess26 August 2011
26 August 2011
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE REVERSE THE PROCESS…?
0700 by Jeff HessIn 1976, the American psychologist Julian Jaynes proposed that until late in the second millennium BCE, humans had no introspective consciousness, and that instead their minds were essentially divided in two, with their left hemispheres following the commands from the right hemispheres. (Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness.) These commands, in the form of auditory hallucinations, were interpreted as voices from the gawds. About three thousand years ago, Jaynes suggests, this division of labor between the left and right hemispheres began to break down. As the hemispheres began to communicate more smoothly, cognitive processes were able to develop. The origin of consciousness, he argues, resulted from the ability of the two hemispheres to sit down at the table together and work out their differences. p. 124-5
Incognito: The Secret Lives Of The Brain by David Eagleman
Found in my electronic chapbook.David Eagleman,Free Will,From My Chapbook,Incognito,The Brain
23 August 2011
18 August 2011
AT LEAST I’M NO DAMN (INSERT SLUR HERE)…
0801 by Jeff HessFrom Don’t look down, The poor like taxing the rich less than you would think:
Instead of opposing redistribution because people expect to make it to the top of the economic ladder, the authors of the new paper argue that people don’t like to be at the bottom. One paradoxical consequence of this “last-place aversion” is that some poor people may be vociferously opposed to the kinds of policies that would actually raise their own income a bit but that might also push those who are poorer than them into comparable or higher positions. The authors ran a series of experiments where students were randomly allotted sums of money, separated by $1, and informed about the “income distribution” that resulted. They were then given another $2, which they could give either to the person directly above or below them in the distribution.
In keeping with the notion of “last-place aversion”, the people who were a spot away from the bottom were the most likely to give the money to the person above them: rewarding the “rich” but ensuring that someone remained poorer than themselves. Those not at risk of becoming the poorest did not seem to mind falling a notch in the distribution of income nearly as much. This idea is backed up by survey data from America collected by Pew, a polling company: those who earned just a bit more than the minimum wage were the most resistant to increasing it.
Poverty may be miserable. But being able to feel a bit better-off than someone else makes it a bit more bearable.
While freedom may be another word for nothing left to lose (there is a certain liberation in being at the bottom or in last place) seeing those less fortunate than yourself receive help when no one helps you — ask parents of average students about their anger over the attention their child doesn’t get because of the programs for developmentally disabled children — feels like the unfairest cut of all.
I knew a woman who was a first generation immigrant from early in the 20th century who was furious with the community outreach and support given recent immigrants in the ’80s and ’90s.
I also wonder to what extent this plays out in the African American community where students who excel academically can be labeled as trying to be white by less gifted or motivated students.
Who would you give your $2 to?
16 August 2011
16 August 2011
HELEN KELLER: WARRIOR AGAINST DESPAIR…
0714 by Jeff HessFrom Can Voters and Nonvoters Battling Against Despair Respect Each Other?
My general view toward politicians is best described as cynical, defined as “scornful of the motives, virtue, or integrity of another.” I have abstained from participating in a couple of presidential elections rather than simply voting for the “lesser of two evils.” The lesser-of-two-evils philosophy, I have come to believe, ultimately contributes to despair. And widespread despair, I believe, is one reason the United States has turned into a nation of sheep. In contrast, voting for a candidate whom one respects is an antidote to despair.
It’s difficult not to respect Barack Obama’s intelligence and equanimity, but comedian Sarah Silverman’s respect for Obama goes beyond that. I had to chuckle at Silverman’s video pitch “The Great Schlep,” aimed at inspiring Jews to get their Florida grandparents to vote for her candidate. Obama, according to Sarah Silverman, is “the goodest person we’ve ever had as a presidential candidate,” and she proclaims that he is “our last hope of ending this country’s reputation as the asshole of the universe.” Her video is so clever, adorable, and so silly that it energized me.
On a recent visit with my 90-year-old father who continues to live independently in West Palm Beach, Florida, I asked him if he thought that the upcoming presidential election was worth his voting in. My dad, a retired postal clerk and former union activist, responded, “Yes. I like Obama. He is well-educated but he speaks in a way that the common man can understand — and I believe he is sincere.” He said that he wanted to vote for Obama, but there was a problem.
My dad has been living in Florida full time for the last few years but hadn’t yet registered to vote, and we only had two days left to beat the October 6 Florida voter registration deadline. With my wife at the wheel of the rental car and my dad in the backseat, the three of us drove to the Palm Beach County Board of Elections. My dad filled out a simple form, and I showed it to the clerk who assured me that it was properly completed. I thought that we had succeeded, but my double-checking wife, following up a week later, telephoned the Board of Elections and discovered that because of a bureaucratic snafu his registration had been “suspended.”
Owing to my wife’s tenacity, the problem was corrected and my dad is now registered to vote, and he is looking forward to helping Obama take Florida. Registering my father to vote was not only an antidote against despair for my wife, my dad, and me, but also for our blue-team friends.
Levine quotes Helen Keller:
Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
I confess that I know nothing about this political side of Keller. This is a deficit that I am correcting.
15 August 2011
AM I MORE RATIONAL…?
0748 by Jeff HessFrom How Meditation Makes You More Rational:
Kirk’s subjects had $20 to split among themselves. When the offers were wildly asymmetrical (keeping $19 for oneself, while offering only $1), 72 percent of the controls refused the money, meaning both parties left empty-handed. But when the meditators played, only 46 percent rejected such blatantly unfair offers. More than half were willing to take whatever they were offered.
The study is flawed because it only used subjects who were Buddhists. I would argue that the philosophy of Buddhism, not the practice of Buddhist meditation, tilted the meditators toward rationality in the playing the Ultimate Game. A better study would have mixed secular meditators from a number of traditions and non-secular meditators in the test group.
I started meditating when I was 17. Has it made a difference?
15 August 2011
HOW ARE YOU COPING…?
0559 by Jeff HessBarbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, writes in the afterword of the 10th anniversary edition of the book:
How have the already-poor attempted to cope with their worsening economic situation? One obvious way is to cut back on health care. The New York Times reported in 2009 that one-third of Americans could no longer afford to comply with their prescriptions and that there had been a sizable drop in the use of medical care. Others, including members of my extended family, have given up their health insurance.
Food is another expenditure that has proved vulnerable to hard times, with the rural poor turning increasingly to “food auctions,” which offer items that may be past their sell-by dates. And for those who like their meat fresh, there’s the option of urban hunting. In Racine, Wisconsin, a 51-year-old laid-off mechanic told me he was supplementing his diet by “shooting squirrels and rabbits and eating them stewed, baked, and grilled.” In Detroit, where the wildlife population has mounted as the human population ebbs, a retired truck driver was doing a brisk business in raccoon carcasses, which he recommends marinating with vinegar and spices.
The most common coping strategy, though, is simply to increase the number of paying people per square foot of dwelling space — by doubling up or renting to couch-surfers.
What stories, personal and anecdotal, can you share?
15 August 2011
14 August 2011
FROM WHERE HAVE I HEARD THIS BEFORE…?
1647 by Jeff Hess14 August 2011
DEPRESSION, CONSUMMERISM, BOBBY MCFERRIN…
0854 by Jeff HessFrom Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy by Bruce E. Levine
The unhappiness taboo has dominated the United States since it became a nation primarily of consumers rather than citizens, a gradual process that accelerated with the ascent of advertising in the beginning of the 1900s, and which dramatically spiked with the consumer boom following World War II. The belief that people should be either happy or trying to be happier is a fundamental principle of modern consumerism — the never-ending search for products and services to bring happiness and prevent unhappiness.
So, was Bobby being real? Ironic? Sarcastic? Trying to make a buck?
