Tag: Ideas

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Election Day Should be a Day

There are a couple of reasons I think that early voting is a bad idea. If during the Civil War when Lincoln was running for re-election there had been early voting people would have voted before the victory at Atlanta and McClellan might have won the Presidency. So my first objection is that we should all be voting at the same time so we all have access to the same information.

My second objection is that everyone voting together is one of the tiny and fragile acts that makes us feel united as a people. Election day should be a day. Doing it together is an important part of that experience.

Now of course there have to be exceptions for the infirm, the aged and those who are traveling but on the whole election day should be a day. Not five weeks like in some states.

For instance what if a hostile nation attack one of our allies with nuclear weapons just a few days before an election. The thirty or forty million people who had already voted would not be able to put that data into their choice.

I am in favor of electronic voting as it becomes feasible and safe. I generally oppose initiatives but these are both subjects for another post.

The photo is the Space X launch from Vandenburg AFB last Thursday.

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Thoughtful Speculation

“Thoughtful speculation“

I have run into this phrase several times this summer and thought it was worthy of a blog post. The context was in book reviews where the author did not have all the facts but could see a trend line or an implication. For instance near the mound at Pueblo Grande Museum there are the remains of a ball court. In fact ball court remains have been found throughout the Phoenix area. Thoughtful speculation would lead one to the conclusion that there was plenty of free time to play games meaning food surpluses.

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A Dog Tied to a Cart

How much free will does a person really have? According to Zeno of Citium not much.

“When a dog is tied to a cart, if it wants to follow, it is pulled and follows, making its spontaneous act coincide with necessity. But if the dog does not follow, it will be compelled in any case. So it is with men too: even if they don’t want to, they will be compelled to follow what is destined.”

Zeno of Citium

Free will is constrained by obligations, customs, fears, desires and many other external circumstances. Just like the dog tied to the cart you are free to go to the end of your leash but compelled by it to follow the cart.

Photo Nurit’s dream dog.

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A whistle

“As clean as a whistle?”

The phrase originated in the early 1900’s and is probably derived from an earlier expression: “As clear as a whistle.” Which referred to the clarity of a whistling sound and how far the high pitched noise would travel.

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Depletion

The copper mine in Bisbee Arizona closed when all of the easily obtainable ore was mined. Nobody much cared. The miners moved on and a future Ghost Town was created.

The Oyster fleet in the Chesapeake used draggers to catch most of the easily obtainable oysters and the area and the nation went into a paroxysm of worries and “solutions” to the problem.

Why is one a problem and the other an event. My friend, Mark V, introduced trees as another resource that we attempt to manage. Clear cutting of trees is economical senses and they will grow back. But we recoil from the short term ugly result and the degredation of the ecosystem.

We grow corn and wheat to harvest. Most of the Salmon sold at Costco is grown in pens. People have a built in set of rules about what we feel is acceptable to do to the earth.

Deer once plentiful in Upstate New York were almost gone by the early 1990’s now they are abundant again. The black bears have returned to Southern California to the delight of some and the consternation of others. It is easy to predict what the response will be when the brown bears (grizzlies) return.

Zebra Mussels have cleaned up the Great Lakes but they are invasive and therefore bad. The Asian Carp are in the Mississippi water shed and we oppose that and we’re fighting a losing battle to keep them from getting into the Great Lakes.

Men are in charge but we can’t control multiple variable problems very well and we are in conflict about what result we want, as the above examples show.

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Celebrating Democracy

During the election season candidates put up signs on public right of ways to get your attention. Most people hate these signs. I have learned a way to like them and so can you. Just start seeing them in the same way that you see Christmas lights. They are a celebration of the Christmas season, Think of election signs as a celebration of the First Amendment and the election season.

That these signs can exist at all is a testament to our democracy and the freedom to choose that we have. Thinking of them as the outward signs of the annual celebration of democracy has worked for me. To me the electioneering signs are no longer eyesores, Now to me they are as beautiful as Christmas decorations. That they will exist is not controllable by you, but your attitude to them is.

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Hammurabi’s Code

At the time Hammurabi’s code was written (circa 1750BCE) the family was the basic unit of society. Individual rights were not a consideration. Here is a quote that demonstrates it: “If the architect built a house and the house subsequently collapses, killing the firstborn son of the master, the firstborn son of the architect shall be put to death.”

Culturally in Western Liberal Democracies we now consider the individual to be the holder of rights but in much of the world the family is still paramount. The proposition is still being tested in the marketplace of ideas and occasionally on the battlefield. We shall see.

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