A View Askew

(Or: Did the Dinosaurs See the Comet?)

 

You may or may not know this but I teach a class for the University of Phoenix. The course is Critical Thinking (You may stop chuckling now!) and I have to say that I have probably learned more about the topic than my students in the four years I’ve been at it. Anyway, one of the most important things we talk about in the class is that one of the biggest enemies of critical thinking is . . . confirmation bias.

 

Most of us are aware of confirmation bias – it’s the very human trait that makes all of us seek out information that confirms our beliefs. It’s always been around. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on your view – modern media makes it that much easier to scratch this particular itch. Fox news, MSNBC, ( NPR?), the internet – all feed this need 24/7. Nothing wrong with using them but just know WHY you are watching them – or why you just forwarded that stupid political email!

 

Where Do I Get My News?

Thank you for asking! Mostly, I follow several financial and economic blogs (and newsletters). Why, you may ask, since the Pederson fortune could easily be managed with a piggybank?  Well, because most people that are smart about finance and investment tend to be politically agnostic. Not that they don’t have biases, it just that bias and smart investing do not go together – you need to be ruthlessly apolitical – so they try to steer away from dumb, biased thought. Also, they tend to steer readers to articles and actual data that support their ideas.

Finally, and just as important, they usually have REALLY smart readers who make comments that help me understand the issue – just like my friends here! 

 I do read the paper. Yes, the Star and Sickle - it’s all we got. (Paper version, sorry.)  I never watch the national news on any network. I never watch Chris Matthews or the Ed Show nor would I waste precious minutes of my life on O’Reilly or Hannity; they’re all just confirmation looking for a bias. I really just read a lot of stuff and try to form my own conclusions. I’m certainly still biased but at least it’s MY bias and nobody else’s.    

This leads me to one final thought about this. It occurs to me that getting your own facts and opinions takes a lot of time; I could never have done this when I was younger and working – I had to make a living. So maybe we’re all doomed to be biased and/or uninformed until we get old.

Geez, that’s depressing!   

Things That I Think About

 

 Halloween is for . . . Adults?                      Lately I have been thinking about Halloween. No big surprise given that it’s mid Oct. More to the point, however, I have been thinking about the recent articles that tell us that adults have now taken over Halloween and turned it into a major adult holiday.  (Guess it isn’t enough that we have screwed up most other childhood activities with our meddling – follow this link for more proof: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101122473.)  It got me to thinking, though, about a book I read some time ago called “The Sibling Society” by Robert Bly.  Bear with me here. 

 It has been pointed out, and with some accuracy, I think, that “we” (babyboomers) really don’t want to grow up.  (This is not to be confused with the last newsletter which was about getting old. Getting old and growing up are two very different things!)

In any event, we are the charter members of the “eternal youth” movement.  Doing everything to look, act and, ostensibly, stay young is pretty much a generational quest. 

I do not say this as an outsider to that quest. I assure you I remember very clearly what my mom and dad were like when they were my age – they were ooold!  Of course, they were appropriately old - they looked like everyone else their age – but everyone looked old when they were my age.  I, on the other hand, do not wish to look old.  I don’t dye my hair (my pop did that and had the most lovely burgundy hair you’ve ever seen) nor try to sag my pants or anything but I definitely wish to be thought of as “youthful’ in look, spirit and demeanor. It’s certainly not a sin – nor even nonsensical – to want to look and feel your best. (In support of that I hypothesis as I write this I have my teeth whitener contraption in.) However, when taken to its logical conclusion it is possible to conclude that perhaps it’s more than just outward appearances and health issues that Bly is talking about.  

Bly acknowledges this trend and provides some evidence that we (that’s you and me, pal) are a generation of individuals who refuse to grow up. More importantly, we seem – according to him - to refuse to accept the thousands-of-years-old responsibilities of growing up. By that I guess he means that we have kind of lost the distinctions that separate generations. (Or in other words, we kind of reject many of parenthood’s usual roles.)

Bly being Bly, he attempts to link a whole bunch of different pieces of evidence from across many disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, mythology and blah, blah, blah to kind of say that maybe we are actually evolving toward something really new and different; the wholesale rejection of adulthood as a life stage, experience or outlook – we will skip adulthood and stay forever kids - until we keel over, I guess. Thus, continuing to focus only ourselves and, for example, wanting to be pals with our children. (And co-opting their holidays, I presume?) 

And you know what? I’m not so sure he’s wrong that this might be an evolutionary type thing because I’m also not so sure it’s just our generation that is acting this way - have you taken a look at many younger parents today? (The so called helicopter parents?) They aren’t babyboomers (well, maybe younger babyboomers) but seem to be showing a lot of the same symptoms. Maybe we are evolving to some other perpetual youth mode or at least a lot different than past parents.

Well, it gets very Freudian and Jungian and many other ian’s but, as is often the case, there appears to be a nugget of truth in here somewhere.  But that begs another question: if true, is this necessarily bad?  All I can say is . . . Hmmmm

But back to Halloween. I certainly hope I won’t have to hurt many kids as I elbow them out of the way for treats. 

Golf and Other Crimes Against the People                             

I have lot of golfers as friends and readers here but for those that aren’t I can only assure you that is not the beginning of endless golf stories and the flimsy, golf-as-life allegories. No, I won’t do that . . . but I will occasionally inflict you with a story or two. It won’t hurt much.

With the approach of winter most common sensed Minnesotans start to prepare the yard and the house and stuff. Not so golfers. In fact, some golfers – and you know who you are – refuse to accept that winter is actually coming and will continue to try and play through 30 degree weather and maybe a couple inches of snow in the earnest hope that winter will skip us (as it did the winter of 2011-2012 when yours truly played golf on Dec 26^th and Jan 9th.) Is this normal behavior? No, not for most people but then golfers aren’t normal.

There is a smug superiority that most golfers have (not me of course); that we know better because we play what is essentially an impossible game (Others might call it masochism.) Impossible to master, impossible to ever relax and enjoy and certainly impossible to understand the rules. (Did you know that if your ball comes to rest in an orange it must be played as is or take a penalty stroke? Not kidding.)  It’s expensive, time consuming and frustrating – what’s not to love?! So yeah, golfers think we are God’s gift to the sporting world. This superiority expresses itself, however, in a lot of unattractive ways to the average person. We consider it a license to use bad words when the $!*#&^% ball doesn’t go where we want it to – which happens with alarming frequency. We are allowed to wear incredibly bad clothes (although we are getting better; well, I am – no more cutoffs and wife beaters for me!) We think nothing of abandoning our family dinner for an “important business meeting” – at the course. Finally, we look down our nose with disdain at the poor wretches who are content to be . . . content without golf.

You know, as I think about it, this is Minnesota, land of 10,000 treatment centers; maybe someone could start one to treat golfers. You know, like “Linksters Anonymous.” Or “Choose Normalcy, not Golf.” This could be a real money maker because you’d have more repeat patients than the smokers or alcoholics combined!

I’ll get right on this after the season . . . should it ever end.                   

 

     I Got Your Debt Limit Right Here!

Disclaimer: this not intended to be a political statement. It is my opinion but hopefully founded mostly in logic and facts. However, it is kind of hard to not SOUND political when you are talking about knotheads (and there are plenty on both sides.) For the record, I am a political agnostic leaning towards populism. 

Whew, glad that’s budget thing is over! Do you wonder what happened? Here you go.

So, have you ever heard of the Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy? (Look it up.) In this case an example of that disease would be this: a problem intentionally created (budget and debt limit) so that someone could take the credit for solving it (Politicians.) Both parties play the game but this one’s on the Grand Old Party; the goofs somehow got into the control room and started pushing buttons and - voila – instant crisis! 

So about their strategy. Okay, so you’re these guys and you really, REALLY hate something (oh, let’s say the Affordable Care Act, ACA, or Obamacare) but you haven’t been able to get the votes to defeat it. Even worse, the dad gummed Supreme Court (the same one that said corporations and unions can buy any election, um, I mean can spend as much money as they want anonymously on elections) said the act was mostly legal.  

So what’s the best way to get what you want? Why, shutdown the government, of course! And if that doesn’t work?

Then how about threaten not to pay bills - that Congress had already appropriated and spent - unless you get your way? Oh, that’s much better.

But it does get even better! How did the Republicans decide which was the best way to go about this? Have a guy who’s an evolution denier (sorry, that’s pretty much a game stopper for me but he has other bizarre ideas too), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), set this agenda. For the record, the Republicans didn’t really select him, he kind of self-selected - much to the chagrin to the vast majority of Republicans who don’t have mad cow disease. Also, for the record, after throwing poop in the punch bowl, Cruz effectively disappeared (except for getting big campaign contributions) - so much for leading from the front!

As if you need more proof of the strength of this strategy how about this? Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) “We're not going to be disrespected," he told The Washington Examiner. "We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is." (Emphasis mine) Geez, sounds like something you’d hear from a gang banger not an elected congressman.  

You may think that I am making fun of all of the so-called Tea Party guys but I’m not; I actually agree with many (okay, some) things that they espouse.

But these goofs and others that caused this mess are all probably pretty representative of the thinking – or lack thereof – that dominates a small minority of Republicans today and it is going to kill them politically. And that would be very, very bad.

Lord knows, we need a strong (mentally stable) Republican party to keep the goofs on the left in line.

So, the crisis is over for now. We can breathe a sigh of relief that our fine political leaders have averted disaster . . . again. (Thank God, now we can go back to watching the Kardashians.)

This was a dumb strategy and I am really glad that this tactic didn’t work. It remains to be seen, however, if either party learned the larger lesson here: Americans don’t like blackmail no matter how much they might not like the other side. (Unless you, of course, you mess with the Kardashians.) 

I guess we’ll find out in January. Any bets?

Another Issue Endured

Thanks for the generally positive feedback on this experiment. I encourage all comments (keeping in mind my two rules) so please feel free to speak your mind.

If you like this, please feel free to share.

Next up, what is “upscale” and do we care?

In the meantime, be a good citizen of your world . . . and don’t be a dope!

Quote Du Jour

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”                                             Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Collected Works

 A View Askew is the sole property of D Roger Pederson, Mpls MN. You may forward without special permission but if you want to use anything here for your own purposes please send me a request at dpeders2002@gmail.com.

A View Askew