Last year I took my parents and my girlfriend to see Rodger Waters. We had all grown up on Pink Floyd, and could probably sing along with most of their catalog. So many people of all different sorts and from so many backgrounds, brought together to celebrate music. He could have led us through a series of sing-alongs and it would have been a love fest. But no, he went straight into radicalized politics, complete with 4 giant screens for the video content. A few of his points really did make sense, but the majority of the show was more propaganda than art. At one point he stopped to tell us that anyone who thought the show was too political could 'fuck off'. As we left the show, the crowds were abnormally quite. It was such a waste. What could have brought people together instead drove them apart. What could have been one of those concerts you remember for a lifetime came out as something I would rather forget. What a shame.
Thank you for this hopeful perspective. Understanding how numbers and functions work to model the world is what fascinates me, so I’ll continue to use that to motivate my lessons as a public university faculty member. I appreciated when my professors provided a neutral and focused learning space for us in the days after 9/11. I found refuge in my studies when the world seemed to be falling apart around me. No politics, no opinions, just pure mathematics to fascinate us and for us to revel in. I intend to do the same for my students. That’s what they want from me and that’s what I’m good at anyway. Keeping afloat and doing my job. Thank you again for the recentering.
"Holding steady in a storm like this is a kind of winning."
Like birds, many small airplanes can hover in place against a strong enough headwind. Lift is produced by the passage of wind over an airfoil. It matters not if the wind is produced by the thrust of the engine or the wild energy of a weather system. Either one will keep you airborne, if you know how to ride the currents.
thanks, Heather. I appreciate the clear thinking and beautiful metaphor. "keeping one's head when all around are loosing theirs", comes to mind.
I find myself vacillating wildly between hopefulness and nihilism (depending on who's podcast I listened to that day). yet with every differing view, I learn some new tidbit, some valid perspective I never thought about before.
weathering the storm as a kind of winning... I'll take some comfort in that today. don't know about tomorrow, but at least I feel a little better about taking it one day at a time and hoping cooler heads will prevail.
'But hatred finds common ground, and from there, it grows.'
This is so true. In a sense hatred is the inescable cultural ethic that woke projects - it amplifies othering like a disabling feedback loop. It robs families, communities and institutions of love - the willingness to sacrifice for each other or operate in good faith. It hobbles any chance we have to speak to each other much less understand each other. And most perniciously it entrenches disgust for each other, without any hope of redemption, as the starting place for relationships. What could be more hateful than this?
Bret dismissed the idea that mean IQ in the west could be dropping for "a single reason" like the disappearance of harsh selection. I could not expand upon those comments due to space. The OTHER reason that IQ is declining in the west is that the most intelligent among us are foregoing parenthood entirely, or limiting themselves to a single "designer child". All the while paying intellectually substandard people to have more babies for a bigger payout from the state.
You and Bret have two, which is out of the norm. Very welcome, but hardly enough to reverse the trend. And don't you admit that steadily declining IQ in the west explains a lot of what we are seeing?
I find I am handling this situation in a much calmer and more productive manner than I did Covid. I find that Covid was a sort of practice round for the next crisis. However, that being said, I find I am still as equally devastated as I was in 2020/2021 by the difference between the potential of our world and its reality.
Recently I took a trip to St. Louis where I enjoyed the sights of classic art and beautiful historic architecture, the tastes of delicious Italian food and well-crafted beer, and enjoyed the humor and love of close friends. It was a perfect reminder of that potential I see in the world and life, and it acted as a reminder of the importance of striving upward and looking past the only option being presented to us now: darkness.
The memory of this weekend, I believe, will be an important benchmark within my memory to which I can return to in times such as these, which I fear will be a constant presence throughout the foreseeable future.
The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case is a classic example of a manufactured narrative. The Conservative Treehouse did deep dive reporting into the case including FOIA requests that showed most of what we were told was a lie. Zimmerman clearly was being stupid, but the evidence that Martin had a long history of being a thug and doing robberies was well documented. Also, Zimmerman was hyspanic and portrayed as only white. A very old picture of Martin was used in the press which made him look young and sweet, he was neither. This case reminded me of when I fell for the Tawana Brawley manipulation at a younger age so now I have to dig more before I believe anything in the press.
Very good friends of mine were BLM supporters and I can understand how people would fall for them. Had I been younger I likely would have.
I have much admiration for the lyricist who put "houseproud town mouse" in a song. But his fascination with the uniforms and symbols of national socialism--his own public cosplay--in his stage theatrics after all these years betray his beliefs as recently espoused and as displayed in more private settings. He is his own kind of pig--a fourth different one.
If we look at world (macro level) through the lens of our experience (micro level) we see obvious but painful solutions. When my abusive husband (does it matter that he was a doctor? a jew? a man?...shall I now revenge on all doctors, jews, and men?) was beyond living with for safety and sanity for myself and my sons, I was forced to leave MY dream home (a home only possible by the support of my parents) and FLEE. When my now husband was married to a woman who cheated on him and forced him out of a family home that was passed on to HIM and took his children through alienation syndrome, should he have fought her or just left so that his children wouldn't be traumatized and maybe she would realize that this insult that didn't get the results she hoped for would mean she would tire of her game and eventually leave? She did. When a family are victims of atrocities like a child being kidnapped and chopped into pieces with DNA confirming the murder, but they are still forced to sit in a court room day in and day out, rather than exact revenge that understandably burns in their hearts, we see that on a micro level we are forced into civilization. If we each personally acted on all the injustices we face in life by killing those who have wronged us and bombing the neighborhood they live in, where would we be now? Israel for all its RIGHT to home must face the fact that the deep and twisted road of the wrongs of the past..theirs and their enemies will NEVER be untangled. They are a relatively small population surrounded by insanely large population that doesn't share their world view. Should the entire planet now be dragged into a world war when the clear answer is to move out of enemy territory and relocate? HOME is where safety and sanity are had. Logic tells you that when if/when a person or a group insist on holding on to a location to the point of death, not just for their families but putting millions at risk, they are nothing but religious zealots, sentimental fools or barbaric idiots. There are places in the world, large islands and beautiful lush lands that the Israel state can relocate to. If there is a question of how long it will take to move 9 million people think of the money available by reallocating war funding and calling on peace-loving nations to contribute to end the madness. You only need to look at the so-called unsupported raid on our border to see how many people can be relocated WITHOUT legitimate resources. In under a decade the new state will flourish when energy is spent building not fighting. Again, what side caused the problem it is no longer the issue. If you are taking a side after centuries of tit for tat and don't see this now as a scrambled, dangerously divisive nightmare you are not a critical thinker. The only WHO that matters are the ones that design a way to a SANE solution. Any talk or action that divides... mostly clueless populations who couldn't pass a 10 question quiz on the issues, yet now scream 'KILL THEM ALL' , will bring the world to its knees if they are allowed to call the shots. You are not allowed seek revenge of death for wrongs done to you personally (you go to jail!) nations should not be allowed to do so either.
As we stand on the brink of an Israeli genocide of Palestinians, I cannot help feeling that encapsulating the whole of the problem here as "antisemitism" misses a huge portion of the facts, and the bias, that are relevant to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Again, I wish you would talk to, or read, Norman Finkelstein to challenge your beliefs.
Last year I took my parents and my girlfriend to see Rodger Waters. We had all grown up on Pink Floyd, and could probably sing along with most of their catalog. So many people of all different sorts and from so many backgrounds, brought together to celebrate music. He could have led us through a series of sing-alongs and it would have been a love fest. But no, he went straight into radicalized politics, complete with 4 giant screens for the video content. A few of his points really did make sense, but the majority of the show was more propaganda than art. At one point he stopped to tell us that anyone who thought the show was too political could 'fuck off'. As we left the show, the crowds were abnormally quite. It was such a waste. What could have brought people together instead drove them apart. What could have been one of those concerts you remember for a lifetime came out as something I would rather forget. What a shame.
Thank you for this hopeful perspective. Understanding how numbers and functions work to model the world is what fascinates me, so I’ll continue to use that to motivate my lessons as a public university faculty member. I appreciated when my professors provided a neutral and focused learning space for us in the days after 9/11. I found refuge in my studies when the world seemed to be falling apart around me. No politics, no opinions, just pure mathematics to fascinate us and for us to revel in. I intend to do the same for my students. That’s what they want from me and that’s what I’m good at anyway. Keeping afloat and doing my job. Thank you again for the recentering.
Thank you Heather, I’m always so grateful for your perspective. Much love to you and yours.
Thank you for the thoughtful words and message.
"Holding steady in a storm like this is a kind of winning."
Like birds, many small airplanes can hover in place against a strong enough headwind. Lift is produced by the passage of wind over an airfoil. It matters not if the wind is produced by the thrust of the engine or the wild energy of a weather system. Either one will keep you airborne, if you know how to ride the currents.
Yes, Heather, thank you, hold steady, steady on.
thanks, Heather. I appreciate the clear thinking and beautiful metaphor. "keeping one's head when all around are loosing theirs", comes to mind.
I find myself vacillating wildly between hopefulness and nihilism (depending on who's podcast I listened to that day). yet with every differing view, I learn some new tidbit, some valid perspective I never thought about before.
weathering the storm as a kind of winning... I'll take some comfort in that today. don't know about tomorrow, but at least I feel a little better about taking it one day at a time and hoping cooler heads will prevail.
Thank you for a somewhat comforting piece. I find some feeling of being settled in reading it.
VERY helpful especially are the links you embedded.
I once stood against the wind in a hurricane. I couldn't take a step forward, but I wasn't pushed back either. Just like the gulls.
It was sufficient for the moment.
'But hatred finds common ground, and from there, it grows.'
This is so true. In a sense hatred is the inescable cultural ethic that woke projects - it amplifies othering like a disabling feedback loop. It robs families, communities and institutions of love - the willingness to sacrifice for each other or operate in good faith. It hobbles any chance we have to speak to each other much less understand each other. And most perniciously it entrenches disgust for each other, without any hope of redemption, as the starting place for relationships. What could be more hateful than this?
Bret dismissed the idea that mean IQ in the west could be dropping for "a single reason" like the disappearance of harsh selection. I could not expand upon those comments due to space. The OTHER reason that IQ is declining in the west is that the most intelligent among us are foregoing parenthood entirely, or limiting themselves to a single "designer child". All the while paying intellectually substandard people to have more babies for a bigger payout from the state.
You and Bret have two, which is out of the norm. Very welcome, but hardly enough to reverse the trend. And don't you admit that steadily declining IQ in the west explains a lot of what we are seeing?
I find I am handling this situation in a much calmer and more productive manner than I did Covid. I find that Covid was a sort of practice round for the next crisis. However, that being said, I find I am still as equally devastated as I was in 2020/2021 by the difference between the potential of our world and its reality.
Recently I took a trip to St. Louis where I enjoyed the sights of classic art and beautiful historic architecture, the tastes of delicious Italian food and well-crafted beer, and enjoyed the humor and love of close friends. It was a perfect reminder of that potential I see in the world and life, and it acted as a reminder of the importance of striving upward and looking past the only option being presented to us now: darkness.
The memory of this weekend, I believe, will be an important benchmark within my memory to which I can return to in times such as these, which I fear will be a constant presence throughout the foreseeable future.
The Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case is a classic example of a manufactured narrative. The Conservative Treehouse did deep dive reporting into the case including FOIA requests that showed most of what we were told was a lie. Zimmerman clearly was being stupid, but the evidence that Martin had a long history of being a thug and doing robberies was well documented. Also, Zimmerman was hyspanic and portrayed as only white. A very old picture of Martin was used in the press which made him look young and sweet, he was neither. This case reminded me of when I fell for the Tawana Brawley manipulation at a younger age so now I have to dig more before I believe anything in the press.
Very good friends of mine were BLM supporters and I can understand how people would fall for them. Had I been younger I likely would have.
I have much admiration for the lyricist who put "houseproud town mouse" in a song. But his fascination with the uniforms and symbols of national socialism--his own public cosplay--in his stage theatrics after all these years betray his beliefs as recently espoused and as displayed in more private settings. He is his own kind of pig--a fourth different one.
If we look at world (macro level) through the lens of our experience (micro level) we see obvious but painful solutions. When my abusive husband (does it matter that he was a doctor? a jew? a man?...shall I now revenge on all doctors, jews, and men?) was beyond living with for safety and sanity for myself and my sons, I was forced to leave MY dream home (a home only possible by the support of my parents) and FLEE. When my now husband was married to a woman who cheated on him and forced him out of a family home that was passed on to HIM and took his children through alienation syndrome, should he have fought her or just left so that his children wouldn't be traumatized and maybe she would realize that this insult that didn't get the results she hoped for would mean she would tire of her game and eventually leave? She did. When a family are victims of atrocities like a child being kidnapped and chopped into pieces with DNA confirming the murder, but they are still forced to sit in a court room day in and day out, rather than exact revenge that understandably burns in their hearts, we see that on a micro level we are forced into civilization. If we each personally acted on all the injustices we face in life by killing those who have wronged us and bombing the neighborhood they live in, where would we be now? Israel for all its RIGHT to home must face the fact that the deep and twisted road of the wrongs of the past..theirs and their enemies will NEVER be untangled. They are a relatively small population surrounded by insanely large population that doesn't share their world view. Should the entire planet now be dragged into a world war when the clear answer is to move out of enemy territory and relocate? HOME is where safety and sanity are had. Logic tells you that when if/when a person or a group insist on holding on to a location to the point of death, not just for their families but putting millions at risk, they are nothing but religious zealots, sentimental fools or barbaric idiots. There are places in the world, large islands and beautiful lush lands that the Israel state can relocate to. If there is a question of how long it will take to move 9 million people think of the money available by reallocating war funding and calling on peace-loving nations to contribute to end the madness. You only need to look at the so-called unsupported raid on our border to see how many people can be relocated WITHOUT legitimate resources. In under a decade the new state will flourish when energy is spent building not fighting. Again, what side caused the problem it is no longer the issue. If you are taking a side after centuries of tit for tat and don't see this now as a scrambled, dangerously divisive nightmare you are not a critical thinker. The only WHO that matters are the ones that design a way to a SANE solution. Any talk or action that divides... mostly clueless populations who couldn't pass a 10 question quiz on the issues, yet now scream 'KILL THEM ALL' , will bring the world to its knees if they are allowed to call the shots. You are not allowed seek revenge of death for wrongs done to you personally (you go to jail!) nations should not be allowed to do so either.
We just don't know, Candide. We keep working on it.
As we stand on the brink of an Israeli genocide of Palestinians, I cannot help feeling that encapsulating the whole of the problem here as "antisemitism" misses a huge portion of the facts, and the bias, that are relevant to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Again, I wish you would talk to, or read, Norman Finkelstein to challenge your beliefs.