Skimming Stones

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Indeed.  We all understand this particular truth.

We know that time well spent with family and friends is more valuable than days in pursuit of wealth.

We know the chance to be with our children is finite and slipping away as they grow.

These are tough choices to insert into our lives perhaps, but the valuation itself is simple math.  True?

The author, J.R.R. Tolkien, had a personal culture behind his Hobbit themes. His grandson Simon Tolkien wrote, "My first recollection of my grandfather is like this: I'm four or five and I'm really scared. He is huge, with a great roar in his voice, and he's coming to get me. I am just about to cry when I see the twinkle in his bright eyes, and realise it's all just fun."

"As an only child," his grandson writes, "I was left very much to my own devices and spent vast amounts of time reading everything I could get my hands on. I first read The Lord Of The Rings when I was nine, and from then on it was my favourite book."

"For me the test of a good book was whether it could transport me body and soul out of the here and now into a magical new world, and The Lord Of The Rings certainly did that. After I finished reading it, I read it again and all the time I plagued my grandfather with endless obscure questions about Middle Earth. What went on in the lands to the East of Mordor? Who were the four other wizards to whom my grandfather alluded? Where were they and what were they doing? I wanted everything to be filled in. My poor grandfather. He did his best. Despite being an old man, he was endlessly patient in answering my questions."

"I vividly remember going to church with him in Bournemouth. He was a devout Roman Catholic and it was soon after the Church had changed the liturgy from Latin to English. My grandfather obviously didn't agree with this and made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English. I found the whole experience quite excruciating, but my grandfather was oblivious. He simply had to do what he believed to be right."

"My grandfather was incredibly adept at skimming stones," Simon tells us. "He could make them leap nine or ten times. Perhaps he just had a good eye for the flat ones."

"The sea was warm and inviting in the summer but in the winter the guests would stay wrapped up in the hotel. I still have a letter from my grandfather in which he describes 'a dark afternoon in which great slow waves came silently out of the mist and curled over like oily sea beasts'."

"My grandfather had the knack of being able to talk to a child without seeming like a voice coming from on high."

"He spent a great deal of time with me and his love and kindness helped me through difficult times. ... My mother would put me on the train at Oxford and I would somehow arrive at the other end ... . My grandfather understood how much of an adventure these journeys of mine were. ...  he wrote to me describing a solo train journey that he took all the way from Birmingham to Torquay when he was ten and how it made him feel 'rather grand'."

Rather grand, indeed.

The social psychologist Eric Fromm offers us a comparison between "having" and "being".  He suggests our modern society has changed over the years and become quite materialistic, preferring to "have" rather than "be".  Our productive economy beginning with the industrial revolution has offered the great promise of unlimited happiness, freedom, and material abundance. One might feel that there would be unlimited production and hence unlimited consumption. That great promise failed, of course. 

Materialism seems to feed on itself with those most thoroughly consumed being the primary beneficiaries (or victims).  So, our society nowadays has deviated from its early developmental path. The materialistic nature of people "having" has been more thoroughly developed in our culture than "being". 

A cursory review of popular media, today's replacement for study and inquiry, shows "having" to be the centerpiece.  If we think about it and talk it through, we're aware that our attention would be more profitably spent on "being" rather than the "having". Fromm's premise - this is the truth we know which luxury and plenty allow us to ignore. 

The point of "being" is the more important, of course, as everyone is mortal.  The "having" of possessions becomes progressively more unimportant as the years go by, progressively less satisfying. And as we're uncomfortably aware, the only part which will cross over to the life after death will be what the person actually was on the inside.

So, back to 'skimming stones' with your grandchild, perhaps, and telling stories and encouraging the virtues of character and right thinking. Perhaps that is the more human choice.

Histronomics 401

Dissent

- It's neither a small nor easy thing to take a stand against
your country.  In fact it's both terrifying and costly.
Most who resist pay dearly for the rest of their lives.

We're ferocious about our freedom to speak without fearing some government reprisal.  The public forum is where we work out the issues.  The government has no grounds for action against us when we speak out.  It's a basic human right.


Protest
Protest is part of the package.  Government malfeasance and lies; from the Tonkin Gulf to WMDs in Iraq to Wall Street.  We protested formally and en masse.  That's our right. The government has no grounds for action against us when we protest.  (Tell that to the Kent State kids or the Occupy Wall Street protester going to trial this month after the beating police gave her that put her in the hospital.  That sort of things happens when you protest.)


Resistance
Resistance takes the form of refusal to cooperate, like Pete Seeger refusing to answer McCarthy's questions. He was found in contempt of Congress and sentenced to jail. Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, and was arrested. Conscientious objectors went to prison rather than participating in the war in Vietnam; many left everything behind and fled the country. Resistance means I'm willing to pay the price for my convictions. Snowden faced such a decision. 



Rebellion
When the lives of our children are at stake, then we will risk our lives in the struggle against a tyrannical government. That was the thinking when the colonies rebelled against British colonial rule. The imposition of taxes became deadly. Colonial rulers taxed most trade, most production, and imposed mandatory labor requirements on most of the adult male population.  Britain's demonstrated intent was to extract wealth from their colony and its residents without providing any benefit in return, not even the agreed meager pay (about 35 cents/year) for the forced labor.  Folks who had lived peacefully for generations found themselves cripplingly oppressed and dying under a government whom they'd not chosen. Finally, with nothing more left to lose, they rose up and fought back.  It was a deadly disaster that lasted decades.  In Africa.

• So began the conflicts in Africa against British, and later German, colonial invaders. Africans across the continent were swept up in the bloodbath.

Dress rehearsal for WWI and WWII

German officers with Namibian civilians.  Around 1905, 

Shark Island, with its picturesque setting, was the site

of the world's first death camp  -  the German invention

that culminated in the Holocaust of World War II, the

greatest crime of the 20th century.

Three-and-a-half thousand innocent Africans were

murdered here by Germans, decades before the rise of

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.

Concentration camps in the colonies.

Few in the West are aware of the concentration camps that the British and Germans operated in their African colonies.  Long before Hitler, tens of thousands of civilians were herded into camps where many died from starvation, forced labor, or disease. At one period of conflict, there were more than forty concentration camps for whites and sixty for blacks scattered across the region.

Pursuit of commercial empire, especially after the discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886), was the sole purpose.

The Brits; when diamonds and gold became economically significant commodities in the Orange Free State and in Transvaal, the British simply moved in to occupy the region. London had become dependent on the gold trade. The British suffered a series of humiliating defeats but finally won that particular conflict.  It took four years and 22,000 casualties to do it.  

Scorched Earth campaign by the British 

against Boer women and children.  A Boer 

family with a few belongings they were

allowed to save, watch as their home is

burnt down by the English. 

Before the end, the Brits had resorted to removing herds, burning homes and crops in a scorched earth effort, and rounding up civilians and relocating them in concentration camps. More Africans died in these camps from disease, abuse, and starvation than died in battle, we're told.

History driven by money, and indigenous Africans suffered the most. Between the upheavals of war, disease, and displacement, many white-on-white conflicts left half or more of the black population dead and the remainder disenfranchised. None of the colonial powers kept reasonable records of the dead blacks, just the whites. Estimates of black African deaths vary widely between 12 and 60 million. The Bantu, Xhosa, Zulu, the Nama and Herero ... it was a hundred years before they would again have a voice in their own countries. 

That hundred years, with world wars and holocausts, is the legacy of such governance. 

And it's our reason for dissent, for protest, for resistance, and rebellion.

'Manifest Destiny' turns out to have been arrogance, racism, greed, and murder. 'Lebensraum' (room to live) was a poorly disguised land-grab by Germany.  Japan's expansion into China and through the Pacific was exclusively for ownership and control of the raw materials they needed for survival and the growth of their superior culture.

Want a first-hand lecture on the subject? Ask a Maasai. Now. He can tell you the truth now since Kenya's new constitution (2010) finally grants him the freedom to speak his mind without fear of being killed for criticizing those in power.  Ask apartheid's victims, the millions of them over more than 200 years.

Was there any alternative for the nations faced with increasing population and limited resources? Was there another approach that didn't require the extermination or enslavement of native peoples? Of course. History gives us examples of merging cultures and populations. Some were more easily transitioned than others, but their successes are instructive.

Contemporary globalization is our current opportunity, yet to date, the 'sole purpose' is unchanged. The world financial institutions backed by their governments continue the colonial era's example. Wall Street is today's British Empire, German Reich, and Japanese conquest.

All this leaves us with the question, what is the goal of our nation?  What do we, the people, hope for as our place in history and the world?   Do we hope to be remembered as the noble and virtuous home of good people, or as the the world's elite who cared only about themselves?

Rigor and Mortis

A family should continue having children, their farm should continue getting larger by clearing and acquiring more land, the herds should be larger each year, and irrigation water consumption will increase accordingly, of course.  More tractors, more barns, more ....  At what point does that no longer work?

Jeremy Grantham tells us, "One of my new heroes is an economist called Kenneth Boulding who, at 22, got a paper into Keynes's journal. At the age of about 50 he realised that economics was not taking its job seriously, that it was not interested in utility, in real serious improvement in the world, but that it was increasingly interested in new, elegant mathematical theories designed to get career advancement over usefulness.

He said the only people who believe you can have compound growth in a finite world are either mad men or economists."               Thanks and a hat tip to Jeremy Grantham, Chief Investment Strategist, GMO 

He also said: "Mathematics has brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."

The Black Swan.  The impossibly improbable event that just cannot, cannot happen, really. Look at the math! Like when Greenspan said it would be impossible for the derivatives marketplace to lose so much as a dollar because it was balanced and buffered and perfect in every way. Just a few years later, of course, Greenspan turned out to be wrong to the tune of a several trillion (TRILLION) dollars.  

Economists, one would hope, would see recent events as an opportunity to adjust and align their math models, their expectations, and certainly their decision making.  One could hope in one hand and poo in the other, too.

On a side note, we're still waiting for the economists of the world and their financial industry BFFs to announce their great discovery.  "We know what went wrong," they should say, "and we know how to keep it from happening again!"  It's that pregnant pause when everyone expects someone to say something, but the awkward silence goes on and on.  Not a peep; perhaps because they were racing ahead of the regulators and ahead of the law in a gray area of questionable ethics.  They knew what they were doing was perhaps legal but unquestionably unethical and potentially destructive; a loophole they could exploit with impunity.  

Next; economists vs. ecologists; that will be a fun match-up.  You show me your latest economic theory, and I'll show you the missing piece.

Every national government, agreeing with every large scale economic model in play, presumes continuing compound growth, don't they.   What does that suggest?

Macro applied to micro-system; a family should continue having children, the farm should continue getting larger by clearing and acquiring more land, the herds should be larger each year, and irrigation water consumption should increase accordingly.  More tractors, more barns, more ....  At what point does that no longer work?

Meanwhile, buyers like China are grabbing huge swaths of farmland in Africa, Ukraine (the EU breadbasket), Brazil, Moldova, etc. Known deals of about two million square kilometers have been part of the last decade's world-wide land grab; two-thirds of that has been in Africa.  That's the equivalent area of Spain, France, Britain, Italy and Germany put together.  China, with 20% of the world's population and only 9% of arable land, plans to farm and export back home to feed their own people. At what point does that no longer work?

Triple C's & Gunplay

A cursory look through the published material for Rick Ross
reveals a degree of social aberration and overturned values 
that is difficult to grasp as having a real-life origin.  While the
profanity is less than eloquent, the notable elements are
his detailed braggings about an unrestrained life.  From drugs
and criminals to prostitutes and unrestrained violence and 
beyond.  Too, there's a recurring theme of status from money.
Not recommended for your reading, of course.

So what is this stuff doing in our entertainment industry?
Why would it be popular rather than ignored by our youth?
Is it influencing their behavior?

Beyond the obviously off-center nature of the content,
what led to such a lifestyle for those involved?  There is
a traceable change, particularly among the poor over the
last several decades, that supports an abandonment of
traditional values, respect for law and authority, and
family traditions.  Beginning in the 80's, the context
of personal development changed to "I'm going to
get mine!"  Those Millennials, as they are called, are
characterized as the 'Generation Me' crowd, marked by
a sense of entitlement and narcissism.  Is that perhaps part
of what we're seeing?

Avoiding the standard 'kids these days' response, how
might we practically and beneficially interact with that
segment of our youth's culture?  It has to be forward-
focused or it won't be heard.  So?

I recall conversations with my dad when I was young where we talked
about the music and lyrics and what they meant.  Is that the approach
that would serve; some open interchange?  Or should we ignore it as many do.

(NC-17 content)

As has been the question in each generation, does the culture produce the music, or does the music produce the culture?

Lyric excerpts here are the tame segments from popular recordings.

While not excusing the musicians or sponsors, there are some interesting cultural issues that lead to and encourage this kind of lifestyle expression.  

From Macklemore, who took home four Grammys (Lyrics, excerpt)

White hoes in the backseat snorting coke
She doing line after line like she’s writing rhymes
I had it hella my love, tryna blow her mind

From Rick Ross with Gunplay - Bogota Rich (lyrics, excerpt)

I got vicious in my veins
I got hate all in my heart
I got revenge all in my brain
Now you just heard a killa start
Snatch a bitch and pull her brain
Smack her (...) and roll away
I just give that bitch a look
ain't gotta tell that hoe behave
When she actin' like a dog
I'ma treat her like a stray

From Rick Ross - I swear to God (lyrics, excerpt)

Rose-gold Jesus, rose-gold watch
All-black Ghost, all-black Glock
Three new flows, that's off top
All white squares, the city on lock
I swear to God, I need a hundred m's
'Til the day I die, I plan to represent
Hold your heads high, we had a nice run
Let the bankers know we have just begun
I broke the mold; my total assets
Will get you (...) left in the past tense
I broke the mold in every aspect
I'll get you (...) left in the past tense

That's probably enough to illustrate the point.
As a side note on the culture vs art question, this year's Grammy Awards show was apparently quite controversial. 'Satanic' according to many.

Just a little way into the show, Christian Gospel singer Natalie Grant, an award nominee, left the Grammys quietly. She later posted on Facebook: "We left the Grammy's early. I've many thoughts about the show tonight, most of which are probably better left inside my head. But I'll say this: I've never been more honored to sing about Jesus and for Jesus. And I've never been more sure of the path I've chosen."

Graciously said; good for her.

At least one Grammy winner decided not to attend Sunday night’s show. She received two Grammy awards in absentia. Gospel singer Mandisa explained on Facebook why she decided to stay home rather than accept the awards in person. That's not the world she wants, her explanation goes, and that's not the kind of person she wants to be.

Yeah, me either kid. Choose your battle, fight and win.

Beach is better!

No surprise here; in studies of children and attitude, children at the beach are consistently happier about their lives than children in school.  Similarly, adults express significant improvement in mood and energy over their normal workday environment.

Beyond the general mental health issues, foot and toe health appear to benefit from the beach environment as well.

The results suggest spending more time at the beach should be reviewed and perhaps incorporated into a national health initiative. 

Scientific surveys of primary and secondary school children do suggest a reduction in attention to academic productivity when in contact with warm sand. Priorities appeared to be skewed as evidenced by a lack of focus on homework, class attendance, and question asking.  Teachers also report being less actively involved in the children's daytime activities. Perhaps additional study in an appropriate tropical setting is warranted.

Bizarre solution! Degrowth

When there's not enough for everyone, what do we do?

Here's an absolutely fascinating subject area that's relatively new, at least by name, in academic circles. It points to a deliberate plan of action to preclude the inevitable collapse in various locales due to having exceeded carrying capacity.

Current national policy and business models require continued growth, do they not? Is there another approach?

Degrowth is a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics and anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist ideas. It is also considered an essential economic strategy responding to the limits-to-growth dilemma (see The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries and Post growth).

Degrowth thinkers and activists advocate for the downscaling of production and consumption—the contraction of economies—arguing that overconsumption lies at the root of long term environmental issues and social inequalities.

Key to the concept of degrowth is that reducing consumption does not require individual martyring and a decrease in well-being.^[2] Rather, 'degrowthists' aim to maximize happiness and well-being through non-consumptive means—sharing work, consuming less, while devoting more time to art, music, family, culture and community.^[3]

Reality has shown us the problem in dozens of major venues. Many cities now are stressed for water in the U.S. and for oil, natural gas, and electrical power. Regions are stressed for agricultural resources, particularly irrigation water. Consumption strains the international marketplace.

We're flying fresh flowers half-way around the world for some high-school prom corsage, for pity's sake.

^{Thoughts?  This is something about which our kids will wonder why it took us so long to understand; true?}