You Don't Know What "Democracy" Is, Because You've Never Lived In A Country Without It.

My views on politics and life in general are pretty simple: "Everyone has the right to govern their own lives and are also responsible for what they do." Of course this is an extremely oversimplified statement, but at the heart of my thinking, that is it. The individual is free to do what they want and they must owner what they do. But It seems that today people are yearning for the exact opposite, rather than freedom, they want more "guidelines". There are now more socially implied  rules and it is much easier, at least from my perspective, to step over some politically correct boundary. What is going on here? Globally, societies seem to be throwing away the idea of democracy. They may call it something else in the media but I think that's what it boils down to. You just need to look at what is going on in the United States right now to see how polarized the liberal and conservative camps are becoming. It doesn't matter the topic either. There is less true debate and more justification of why any particular viewpoint is correct. It is almost as though every idea is being approached as though it were a sales pitch, literally a commercial. Rather than discussing a viewpoint or position, individuals are selling their point of view. There is no discussion and interaction involved.

Don't take democracy for granted. The "Good Old Days" were not as good as you remember.

Democracy and the responsibilities that brings with it are being thrown away bit by bit. My concern is that the people doing the "throwing away" don't know what their giving up because they've always had it. Some of you reading this paragraph may say "Patrick, don't be ridiculous. It will never get that far." My response to them would be "Look at the world. Look at how polarized people have become in their viewpoints." There seems to be far less a willingness to discuss and debate any issue now days we seem to go straight for the extreme.

On 11 February 1990 Nelson Mandela made
his first public speech, after 27 years in jail.
Source: South Africa Gateway.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Is this because modern communication systems have taken face-to-face meetings and interactions out of discourse? Instead of dealing with a real person in a group, the debate is happening over a video chat? Which takes out that small but very important responsibility involved with dealing with someone personally, physically in the same space. They used to  call this  video chat side effect "The Ivory Tower"; it meant that the person was out of touch with the topic and not seeing the broader picture. I think this might be what is happening today with society. Therefore it becomes easy to complain about democracy or any other concept because people are seeing it only from their own ivory tower. It is very much like dealing with someone over the phone rather than a person. When you are right there with the individual there are many more subtle cues and motivations. The two people may understand the issue much more thoroughly, because meeting in person brings the topic alive for them. They still may not agree, but there is much more understanding and I bet her list of the tendency to become polarized on the issue at hand.

The bottom line is: People need to gather in person more. To rebuild those connections that originally brought societies together and allowed sincere debates to occur without the dangers involved in thinking in extremism terms. It's a slower process absolutely. But everyone wins no matter what the outcome because dealing with people face-to-face makes you acknowledge the humanity and the complexity. People are stronger emotionally and I believe intellectual as well.

Whereas with the Internet and other communication media it is far easier to write your comment, click the submit button and off you go to somewhere else. You can't do that in real life. You have to deal with whatever the issue is, with the people right there with their comments and rebuttals. Everybody comes out of this real-life experience with them far richer understanding.

As far as democracy goes, debated with someone in real life. Meet with them over time. Go through the pros and cons of not only democracy but any other system you can think of. Then you will know what it is like to live without it or at least have some depth on the topic.

Take care Patrick.

Which came first, "The Word" or the "Message" it conveys?

Image based on photo by  Lauren Mcalary
under CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed license.

This is a very spontaneous, and probably very short article. It is so off-the-cuff that I really don't know how long it will end up being.

Over the last few years I have noticed people becoming more and more for lack of a better term "Phrase Sensitive". I had been involved with a few meetings lasting several hours each debating which terms are more appropriate for a given situation. Now before I go any further please do not misunderstand this is not the standard rebuttal about being overly politically correct. However, I do want to question why people seem to be so transfixed and often uncomfortable about terminology.

To my way of thinking the totality of the message you are conveying is much more important than the words you used to convey that information. In other words, it's the message that is important and not the phrasing. When I think about it by making things completely acceptable we are in danger of creating a society which does not know how to deal with diversity. Diversity is the very engine which drives evolution and change. People should not be afraid of this aspect of life. Indeed they should embrace it, because that is where new things are found out.

Do not pay attention to the individual words and phrases used in any monologue; rather look at the greater message. That is what you hold society and people accountable to.

I have a challenge for you. 

Spend a day saying exactly what you mean. Of course you can tell your friends and colleagues ahead of time that this is an experiment. You don't want to freak them out, but you do want to get them to pay attention to the complete meaning behind your words. Being blindly politically correct only serves to introduce ambiguity into communication. While saying specifically what you mean not only clarifies it for those around you but makes you pay attention to the message itself.

This could also have a very beneficial effect on everyone who engages with you, because it tends to lay bare routines we have for communicating quickly which are not very effective. It is an opportunity to really look at meetings and words.

Taking this a step further you could record your conversations and dialogue throughout the day. When listening to it back, pay particular attention to how you phrase things and the words you used. Did they match the idea you were trying to convey? Did you feel an emotional impact?

We are all so busy. The art of conversation and really conveying I thought is getting lost to some extent, because of two things essentially: 1. We tend nowadays to use the word that is appropriate but not accurate. 2. We make assumptions that are definition of the word is the same as the other persons. This is especially true when we deal with politically correct phrases. Have you ever been in a meeting and heard a phrase used over and over again which has never been truly explained to you. You have a "general idea"… And if that's the case other people may be in the same boat. This is not a good situation for clear communication and cooperation.

So which did come first, "The Word" or the "message" it conveys?

Take care Patrick

Ten Years from Now, 2023...?

 Right now, on this very day, it's Labor Day 2023 in Canada...  How will we use and relate to technology in 10 years, 2034 (it's in the latter half of 2023, so for the sake of discussion will just call it 10 years ahead.)?

This question has been asked in various forms throughout the years but this time around both technology and the society are evolving extremely rapidly. Knowledge itself has changed fundamentally. It used to be you would learn of fact, some tidbit of information and that data was considered for the most part permanent and useful for a long time. Now the platforms and ways of doing things are completely in flux. You may learn something on Tuesday and a month down the road an update to some system you use has completely changed and made that knowledge you gained previously completely moot.

This must drive those in charge of archiving material completely nuts. I mean do you store the data on? What do you know for certain will be around in 10 years. If you store it in the cloud will that service be around. Will the protocols that run the Internet changes vastly. I believe this was one of the problems NASA faced with the Voyager 1 spacecraft years later. They were faced with the old age in computer system which he coded the data and no one knew how to repair it or the language it used was no longer taught. In this situation they had a machine out there in space which was sending information which soon could not be decoded. They were losing their Rosetta Stone. Ultimately I think and I'll put a link to a Wikipedia or NASA article right here for more up-to-date information, they just decided to turn the spacecraft off.

Indeed I have seen the "Compact Disc" be developed, hit the market, and it disappear in about 20 years. Pretty much in 1/5 of a lifetime something existing and then it did not. So how "permanent" will permanent be. Events like this redefine what we society perceived as a long time. Of course I rambled up a video. People seem to like them. Here you go:

I am most interested in how people will change. We have seen remarkable adjustments and also to aspects of what we collectively call "being human". I don't think I'm overstating this, these are fundamental changes and change the very fabric of the individual, especially when you look at it from a societal point of view. My hope is that ultimately when we've gotten over the technology and begin to use it as a tool we will begin to see just how interconnected things are over the long run. Maybe then societies will start to drop the artificial boundaries the human race has erected over centuries and intermingled their creativity and knowledge. It would be a society most foreign to you and I because hopefully they will find this part of human history a bit of an enigma. Considering people of the time creating most of their own problems because we had a mistaken belief in the power of division.

I wonder how intelligent life on other planets has dealt with these issues. As we explore space we are continually surprised by discoveries we never thought of. It shows that the human mind has a lot to expand for and that we are still for the most part wearing blinkers.

Anyway the adventure continues. Let's see if we can make it work shall we? :-)

May you have a great day!
Patrick

Moods: What are they trying to tell us?

 

Whenever you hear a discussion about someone's mood, or indeed, the topic of being "moody" it is always in the present tense or very recent past. People say things like "Why are they so moody?" and "Their moods are unpredictable." More often than not there is an implied negative connotation along with these statements. Like the mood itself is a bad thing.

Well, let's take the longer approach and include the present and the past. There probably is a message here. Something these repeating moods are trying to tell the person. Looking at "moods" in this kind of light can give one far greater perspective. First off to consider the long term aspect means that you have to pause and consider things. That in itself can be very beneficial. Breaking up automatic routines which in the modern world we all fall into. If when you stop and take notice, the mood itself begins to change, then perhaps your mood is trying to say "This routine is not doing you any good." However up until you stopped and took notice, you were in a foul mood. I mean what better way to stop someone from doing something they truly don't want to do then to put them in a bad mood. However people are also expert at ignoring the signs and moods which are intended to get them to change their behaviours. This is particularly true in the modern world where automatic nonthinking behaviours are encouraged..

I really think "a mood" is often nature's way of getting you to change something you need to change in order to grow. What society and people individually have to do is make time in their day to break automatic routines and check-in with their moods and other signals their body may have. To literally get a dialogue going. I am now convinced that far too many individuals put themselves on a one-way track to all sorts of problems because they are not used to dealing with change.

Instead of dealing with the issue which created the mood, they medicate. This produces a spiral which is going in the outer wrong direction. If you can deal with small issues before they become big then you grow, almost by default.

Then there's the other side of this issue: When people find themselves in a good mood, they happily go along for the ride, but they don't consider do any major degree why they are in a good mood. You could think of the situation like a shopper who doesn't look at their credit card or the receipt when they buy something. They just indulge blindly. This good mood could have tons of positive information contained within. Don't miss this opportunity. There could be all sorts of things that could be later used to help one avoid slipping into a bad mood. Or at the very least, minimize the impact of such a mood shift.

So the message here is pay attention to your moods. They are one of the gateways to understanding oneself.

For those of you that appreciate or like this in a video format. Here it is.

 Take care Patrick, and as always leave comments or questions.

Combating Your Negative Bias

 This morning I read a quote from Dostoyevsky which fits in very nicely with this topic:

"To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart — that’s what life is all about, that’s its task."

Believe it or not everyone has a built in evolutionary based "Cognitive Negative Bias". That is, your mind, if left to its own behaviours always assumes the worst. This was right for the early human species as it saved them from becoming a predator's midday snack. However this negative bias over time became generalized and now in the modern world, it not only does it not serve us well, it actually gets in the way of physiological growth.

 It is not necessary to go into examples of negative bias, they are all too prevalent. Rather this article is meant to give you some of my own personal tools to encourage seeing a "Positive Bias" whenever possible. These are things I have learned throughout my life.

To sum them up, they are:

1.  Personal Awareness
2.  Recognizing Habitual Behaviour
3. Enjoying Effort (literally relishing in the fact that something might be hard to do.)

Every time engage in one of these behaviors, you always learn something.

 1. Most of us, including myself, spend a good chunk of our days somewhere between autopilot and grounded awareness. This is the modern survival skill, because frequently you are moving at a rapid pace juggling many things. The problem is that, it has become, for many people, a natural default state; they are slowly lose touch with themselves. In some situations even with their very character. Who they may become over time it's not quite the personality they assume. Everything can change and that includes the very essence of you.

Getting to know various aspects of yourself is critical, because it is the bedrock upon which everything else is built. No one can know everything about themselves because we are always changing, but we can definitely alter the larger and more profound aspects. So, the next time you turn on the TV, YouTube, or other entertainment media especially if it's something you do often, ask yourself to just pay attention to you to the situation you are in. What are you looking forward to? If it is a routine ask yourself what you get out of the routine? Start to take apart the situation in whatever way you want and notice the different aspects. There is so much to discover in personal awareness and it is in these moments that you can find a great many surprises. Encourage yourself to be curious. You are psychologically getting something out of every situation. Start to explore what that might be. Even negative things. What you might call a bad habit has a payoff for some part of your psychology.

2. This leads right into the next item on the list, recognizing habitual behaviours. Again you are getting something out of it. Often can be a way to avoid being aware of yourself. The problem is that habitual behaviours that don't do you any good and can waste a great deal of time getting you nowhere. So you don't benefit from the experience either positively or negatively. --- In sort they keep you stuck. So next time you're eating that big bag of potato chips and you're chewing through them at breakneck speed. Ask yourself what's going on. 

3. Just today I was working with someone who was terrified of effort. That is to say, the minute something got difficult for them, he immediately put up mental roadblocks, essentially guaranteeing that they would fail. I have seen this several times now in various people who will always say they want to learn and succeed. My belief is that it is the fear of change ultimately that is stopping them. Everything you've ever done in your life even the most automatic and unconscious things was at the very beginning, difficult. You had to learn how to gain a new skill. But somewhere along the way these people learned or told themselves that everything must conform to their way of existence or seeing the world if you prefer. If it didn't fit their model then it was by definitions "difficult" and doomed to failure. To guarantee this outcome they began to build up all sorts of behaviours to distract themselves while at the same time frustrating themselves. A guarantee the way not to benefit from learning.

Well, in order to learn you must be prepared to change and what you need to learn is that change is a good thing in this context and if something is difficult that is also a good thing. It means you're being stretched and exercised and ultimately growing. So learn to accept difficulty as a positive indicator. If the "wall" is too high, take your time and appreciate the small steps. If you are observant of your accomplishments and your setbacks you will reach the top. You will however not be quite the same person you are at the beginning of the undertaking. It is necessary to let go of the "you" you knew. It may be a very difficult thing at first and it may remain difficult. That is okay. Take the time to understand why. If it is not in your power to see why it is difficult then see if you can come to terms with the difficulty. It will be up to you whether to proceed and integrate it into the situation or to go down another route.

Don't Resist Change, Embrace It.

There seems to be a tendency for people now to insist on having the world presented to them in a way they are already comfortable with and that can lead to a lot of the above difficulty. You may have to change your behaviour. If you really want to achieve a specific goal. That means taking a look at your negative bias and indeed taking a look at the individual you have knowen for all these years who just happens to be your self.

A practical example of people resisting change while insisting they want the benefits of change without the work involved would be the following:

This happened several times every year. Either in my volunteer work or when assisting someone in my building with new equipment or purchases. They get the latest phone with all the bells and whistles. After they've had it for a few days they come to me and they ask can you make this do what I saw in the commercial? It doesn't matter what the undertaking is what the person is often really asking is "You do the work so I can have all the benefits without having to think about it.". And of course things never really work out for them because they do not understand the very future they are attracted to. Even if everything does work after it is been set up they are still somewhat frustrated because they intuitively know that they don't know what's going on. And in order to benefit from an experience you have to understand that experience. Just buying a good camera will not make you a good photographer. You must undertake learning how it works. There is no getting around this if you really want to grow.

So there we have it. The key points of my philosophy in regards to negative bias. My advice throw the negative out and do the work to get the positive in.

I have made a companion video for this article. It covers the same points and also addresses a few other aspects. If you are more comfortable learning it through multimedia then this is for you. It is about 10 minutes long.

Take care Patrick

Has humanity begun to think globally, or are we still thinking like a tribe?

1915 World map
Click to enlarge

Photo by Patrick Barry License: CC BY-SA 2.0

Are we used to the big picture yet?

By "The Big Picture" I mean the world and to some extent beyond. Humanity is come a long way in the last 200 years. New hardware and technologies of bound, it really is quite cool to see some of the things that can be done and part of me would like to live for another 200 years to see what the human race gets up to.

However, many of us individually as well as on a societal level are still perceiving things as though we were still a small tribe, the "us versus them" mentality. Human beings naturally have a individual sense of self and a fairly early age but when it goes beyond that to the groups of human beings you interact with there is indeed a problem. It simply doesn't work anymore, and as a matter of fact it is getting rather dangerous to think in terms of one group versus another one. This only promotes stratification and a lot of the problems we are now seeing.

We have to begin to develop more rapidly socially, to be not just politically inclusive but begin to go beyond the old models. I find myself wondering what if a map of the world never had borders or even countries drawn on it, and further to that, what if there was no concept of a country. We would still develop individually and personality wise but we would not have imposed divisions. This is of course emphasized when we are quite young and forms the bedrock of a lot of our thinking and perceptions, to the point where it is hard to conceive of any other system on good old planet Earth for the human race. It makes sense that humanity had to develop this way initially, we were small groups split apart from others geology. There was simply no other way to survive and no master blueprint, no common anything, pretty much. But we can't afford to take a thousand years for our social norms to catch up. Indeed the idea of "society" will have to change fundamental because within the current definition is it built in division. And along with society politics will go through a similar situation... If one can ever truly unravel one from the other.

So I answered my own question: We are indeed still thinking like a tribe. But there are little indications that this may be beginning to change. I have seen this at meetings and when dealing with people individually and as a group. We are a little more aware… Just a little more… But the beginning is clear. The old and new behaviours are running in parallel right now. Man I would really like to see the world in 200 years. I would probably be completely confused. But then again knowing myself, I would adapt.

So any speculation on what society (for lack of a better word) will evolve into in that time? Post your thoughts here.

Take care and have an excellent day.

Presence of Mind

 

One important skill that is all too frequently overlooked in our busy day to day lives is "The Presence of Mind" I've written a related article, about this several years ago but I think it is now more important than ever so here is a refresher.

First, it is important to understand why you need to be aware of the moment, or to put it another way, not on autopilot. Autopilot and routines can be useful especially if you're involved in something which must progress very efficiently. But they also will remove you from reality and since you only have one life to live, as far as you know at this moment, and really you don't want to miss anything. Because mother nature does not believe in the concept of reruns.

The steps are for putting yourself in the present are straightforward:

1. If you are multitasking while you are reading this short article, stop and pay attention to what you are reading now. Become focused on just this one task. If only for a few minutes, but make those few minutes count.. Be prepared to put a little effort into this if your mind wanders off after a few seconds. This is especially true if you spent a lot of time in autopilot. The brain does not like a change in routine.
   
   
2. Take stock of your environment. Look around, not swiftly, but deliberately. Take note of any emotions or thoughts which occur. If you have an urge to write them down or otherwise record them do so.
   
   
3. Check in with your feelings. Are there any stressors or other emotional aspects you weren't aware of before you put the brakes on the autopilot? If so pay attention to them and make note of any actions you would like to take.
   
   
4. You should do this short routine three times a day. It will help put you in the centre of control and is usually quite eye-opening after being done for a few days.

The reason that the presence of mind steps can be so "eye-opening" is because when we are spending large parts of our lives and in automatic mode we frequently don't notice the issues affecting us on various levels and therefore don't pay the necessary amount of attention to them they require. By being aware of yourself and surroundings including emotions you can frequently deal with issues while there are still small and save yourself a lot of grief down the road.

Personally I am convinced especially now that I have lived in assisted living for four years that is in some measure determined by how much listen to your surroundings. There are quite a number of people in my building who are constantly distracted and very reactive. The trouble is they don't know what they are on ultimate autopilot and I frequently find myself thinking "No wonder, they are in poor health. Things have probably been going wrong for them physically for a long time and I haven't stopped to notice." An analogy would be, if a phone was running low on battery power and yet the owner insisted on keeping the brightness set to maximum, then it is no wonder the phone died. But if they had charged the unit up regularly not only with the phone not be running out of power, but the battery would probably last longer.

In summary then: One of the keys to improving one's life is to stop and pay attention, then take the actions necessary.

Take care Patrick

Are We Trading Off Our Emotional Intelligence to Automation?

 

We are at an interesting point of time, the Internet is still evolving along with the technology that supports it and I'm wondering if we are losing specific skill sets to automation. This may sound like the old headline "Millions Unemployed Due to Robots In Workforce!" but it is not. That has to do with physical activities. This time I would like to consider psychological and emotional skills.

When handheld calculators became popular in the 1970s, I remember clearly them being immediately banned in school. Anyone found with one, was in serious trouble. The reason was obvious, a bunch of kids would of course use them to get the answers to all the math questions you could think of. But, all of us in school at the time could do the math in our heads, we just didn't want to especially since there was an easier option and that was the calculator. The key point here is that we already had a skill established. So the calculator was an option, for those of us sneaky enough to get around the embargo.

But suppose one had access to the calculator from the earliest days of school. We would never have developed the ability to do math in our heads. That's a really important skill and if you generalize a little bit there is a real ripple effect, because we are talking about the brain actually exercising itself. Learning how to make pathways between the neurons. Remembering phone numbers, was another mental activity which everyone undertook. You always knew your best friend's phone number and now no one needs to do that. If we begin to multiply the effect of not being responsible for these activities are there critical aspects of brain and mind development which the current generation is being deprived of?

With the beginnings of artificial intelligence being combined with search engines on the Internet, we are looking at machines that can actually do the research on almost any given topic for us. Once that evolves and matures, how much thinking will the average person really have to do? This is bound to have a major impact on the whole person as a whole. They might never develop the skills needed for deeper understanding of a subject or indeed their relationship to others. It goes way beyond problem-solving skills. From my perspective it impacts the very process of thinking and understanding in their most fundamental forms.

History is demonstrated that we lose skills pretty quickly, if they are not in regular use. I have met people who do not know how to deconstruct a problem as the first step in finding answers to the issue. Without Google they stop dead in their tracks and are absolutely at loss as to what and how to break something down into its constituent parts. My own math skills have degraded to a pretty abysmal level now days as well, but at least I know how to get them back. I did the exercise once and can do it again because I have the fundamental groundwork and history to build upon.

But if you don't have that in the first place and especially if you haven't learned it early in life that makes starting off learning these skills a very difficult task and to some extent on the finer points may be impossible. So how does this impact the whole human being? More importantly how do we ensure that this does not happen, so that people today and tomorrow will have the fundamental building blocks needed for life. The first solution I can think of is that people must be introduced to certain aspects of technology only once they've demonstrated that they have the groundwork and mental experience necessary for going without it if need be. A "License to use Google". Even though it sounds ridiculous something like this needs to be put in place on some level when we deal with automation and devices which remove us from the responsibility of learning and growing.

The following is pure conjecture on my part:
I find myself also wondering if this has even broader impacts. A mind that is underused, that has fewer neural connections solidly wired, may indeed have less of a margin for the actual process of thinking and therefore may be susceptible to various disabilities later in life.

On the other hand, would it be possible, or would the brain actually take this offloading of tasks as an opportunity to evolve in different directions? I mean usually when you deprive the brain and mind of activities there is a natural tendency to fill that empty space with something.

Let's see now if we follow the "fill the empty space with something ", train of thought where does that lead? Well, cell phones have pretty much meant we don't need to remember phone numbers and the same with calculators we don't need to do basic math, so is there anything we've expanded ourselves with, have we developed any new attributes, subtle though they may be? Most of us multitask every day now. Is that a gain or loss? It's really hard to say. I mean historically if we look back we have gained immensely from the use of technology. But this time it's different because we are dealing with some of the aspects that actually form the personality and psyche of the individual.

There are more questions posed in this article, then answers that's for sure. Let me know what you think. This could really open up to an ongoing discussion and as you can see after I thought about it some more I have made a video. So take a peek at it if you like. As of this writing it may not be available publicly on YouTube yet and may be difficult to find when it is because I only have two videos up there at the moment. Nevertheless enjoy and comment.

Take care Patrick

A Life after Gathering Stuff

 

As I've mentioned in other articles on this blog, I live in an assisted living building which means that we have staff available to us 24 hours a day. The building is 14 years old now and so they've decided to replace the carpet with vinyl flooring. This is good, the original carpet was beginning to look a little frayed. This has meant that a lot of material items, which we will henceforth call "Stuff", in honour of the late comedian George Carlin, has been pulled out and rearranged to make room for the work crew. It is amazing how much stuff there is. It seems to have come out of nowhere and yet I know that it is been there all along. 

George Carlin's classic standup routine "Your Stuff"

Of that huge mountain of stuff how much do we really need? Why are we so attached to gathering as many belongings as possible around us? I mean when you think about it only a small fraction of that stuff adds to your life in the long run. Works of art are marvellous items of stuff and that lends them some merit in hanging around for a long time. But we all have that dear friend who's apartment or house it's just overflowing with stuff which we all know they don't need. Yet they cannot seem to get rid of it. What in human nature is being met here? What is the urge that is being satisfied or is it an insecurity.

When I looked into this building I made a conscious choice to minimize the gathering of stuff because I just moved out of the apartment building where it spent 34 years gathering stuff and most of it was utterly useless and just the pain to get rid of. But some people in my building and friends I know can't get enough stuff. They are constantly on Amazon or Best Buy or Walmart paying good money for more, and more stuff. I have seen suites that are crammed full of it. Bringing me to my ultimate conclusion of the assuming that they must get an adrenaline hit when they gather or pay for stuff.

When I saw the number chairs downstairs I thought "My God! We must have a billion seats." The human race just keeps cranking more stuff out.

For me when I finally did move and got rid of 90% of my stuff. After the shock wore off I found it quite liberating. Yes, there can be "A Life after Gathering Stuff ".

Have a great day. This is been a random thought which just evolved into a short blurb.
Patrick

Political Correctness

 Okay today's entry is going to be very short initially because I am under the gun with so many things right now. But I did want to post something....

There is a problem with "political correctness" and its related phrases. That is to say the wording we use in relation to a person or group automatically. Very often I find now days that the phrase used is now more important than the meaning or the intent of the message. That means that the society tends to get sensitized to the words used and ignores the message. That's can't be a good situation.

Indeed, I prefer the exact opposite. I don't care what phrasing or terminology you use in describing myself or someone else. Rather my focus is on your message and intent. 

Clarity of communication is the bottom line. If people and society are going to rely on political correct statements then need to, understand their origins, and  their context. Choose for yourself based on the situation you are in what you would like to do and what message you would like to convey.

The focus of all communication should be to remove ambiguity and inequality. It is very simple to put together a politically correct statement which still trashes the person's dignity if someone is so negatively inclined.

So don't rely on political correctness to do your work or you, and hope it keeps everything comfortable. Rather understand the context and purpose of the statement. Most of all take responsibility for what you say and do. At the end of the day you are the master of your own ship and sometimes political correct statements don't help in defining that truth.

Take care Patrick

Owning responsibility

Holy cow! I had a phone conversation yesterday with someone who, in a nutshell, absolutely did not want to take responsibility for any of the technical issues they were calling about.

I couldn't even get the model number of their equipment beyond the brand. There was a lot of "You're supposed to know that…". When I looked up the information we did have on file, I saw that there was a previous email from them where they were asking three very vague questions. I instantly thought to myself "Okay, now I can get somewhere with this caller. I can break down each question and ask the things I need to know." The caller's response was "How am I supposed to know that?" (I felt like saying, "You bought the device, surely you know something about it." But I didn't. With these kinds of calls becoming combative in the least just causes things to spiral.) Eventually after what felt like a very long 30 minutes I mailed them some documentation and am praying that on Monday we won't hear back from them. I know that sounds rather callous but really people do have to own their own actions and decisions.

Deflecting responsibility for issues in one's life is a guaranteed way to not grow and is a roadmap to frustration for everyone concerned. The above was just an extreme example. I have worked with several individuals like this over the years and there does seem to be a few attributes they share:

1. Where there should be ownership of responsibility there is anger.
2. This can escalate into aggression and accusation.
3. They are the victim inevitably of whatever the particular situation is and that is the rationale for sidestepping responsibility.
   

It boggles my mind, because these behaviours get them nowhere and indeed cause them a great deal of grief. I'm going to guess that the only thing that keeps them reusing the above tactics are the fact that if they can keep you mashed in the situation long enough. Most people will finally give in and take over and fix everything for them. Or they will just walk away. In either case they get short term victory, but in the long term it's just a spiral downward.

But it appears the human brain was never good at looking into the future. Evolution has geared us toward only solving short-term issues in a very rudimentary way. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with whether it's good in the long term. It's as though evolution said "If you're alive at the end of the day, that's all that matters. We don't do quality of life."

For people to grow or evolve I think it will be necessary for all of society to recognize that we all have our own ivory towers. Our own perceptions which we tried to force on reality and or people. The above story is just a example of what it is like when these perceptions become extreme. Wherever your reality ends there is always something just beyond. Maybe the best way to deal with this kind of thing is for all individuals to realize that they must always go a little bit outside of their comfort zone regardless of what that zone is so that you are always in an ever-expanding bubble. That I think would go a long way toward growth and achieving goals. And lastly eliminating full calls like this one.

Have a great day Patrick

There is a silver lining

Photo by Keven Law. 
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Apologies to everyone for not updating my blog in the last several months. I have been very busy and of course the pandemic has changed a great deal on how we do things and as I'm sure everyone knows by now, when you work from home there is a tendency to keep working. No longer do you have the separation, it's just "one more thing", followed by "one more thing…" after that… On and on and, on it goes.

One thing I have noticed in the past few months is a sharp polarization of various viewpoints. No longer are there debates on whatever topic might be at hand in discussion, rather people seem to be digging their heels in. I think this is mostly due to an anxiety response. We all have an innate desire to change and control things. When an event happens which is global in scope there is a tendency to feel helpless and therefore you hold on to whatever you can even harder. Be it a behaviour, or an opinion. The line is drawn deeper in the sand. And just maybe this is had an unforeseen positive impact in that people are once again learning to speak up. The world is a little rougher and a little more uncertain… Some of the cushions have been taken away.

With the current protests and social actions which are so reminiscent of the 1960s in their scope and sincerity, have taken place to the same extent if the pandemic had not occurred. I think for people worldwide this is help the knockoff the "apathetic shoes" we were all wearing. This event is far from over and only time will tell how everything will play out. 

But globally I find myself feeling a little better knowing that people can stand together and take action. I was beginning to lose hope a tiny bit in the human race. But this is proven people still can do great things for those around them, as well as the larger community of humanity.

There is a silver lining. And it is nice to see.

Patrick