Rage Is Not a Strategy

13:31 Monday, 4 November 2013
Words: 993

An expression often heard when discussing challenging problems is, "Hope is not a strategy." When the problem is "too hard," we often rely on "hope." But hope is just a palliative, not a solution, as the expression seeks to remind us.

These days, as one surveys the news, it seems that when we are confronted with challenging problems, rage is the most likely response from too many quarters. As useless as hope might be, rage is worse.

I live in a condominium. It's a conversion project. A get-rich-quick scheme by well-heeled developers. If you ever want to buy a condo, you should talk to me. I love living here, but there are a lot of things I wish I knew before I bought it. Things are pretty good now. We still face challenging problems, but we've faced many before and solved them. We'll solve the next ones too. But it wasn't always so.

Shortly after the developer turned over control of the condominium to the residents and its board of directors, several things happened. Perhaps worst, Florida was hit by four hurricanes in one year, and property insurance rates skyrocketed. Second, the association discovered the developer had been artificially keeping the assessments low, using their own resources to make up the difference. Third, the real estate bubble began to pop, and a lot of folks who bought their units expecting to flip them and pocket a tidy profit were left with mortgages that would soon balloon and be unaffordable, just as the value of their property was beginning to decline precipitously. Finally, there were some structural problems with the buildings the developer was hiding from the association.

The executive summary on understanding the source of anger is, "I'm not getting what I want, when I want it," or "Someone is doing something to me that I can't control." We had both conditions, but mostly the latter one.

Anger feels empowering, because the fight or flight response energizes you. Angry residents found like-minded others to join together to "take action." Anger gives you tunnel vision and the solution to every problem often seems very simple. Many letters were written, meetings disrupted, board memberships and offices overturned. Lawsuits were threatened, lawsuits were filed. Lawyers made money. There was bitterness and acrimony, shouting, and stomping out of meetings. Management companies were hired and fired.

All of which did nothing to solve any of our problems. The simple solutions weren't solutions at all, and the problems remained.

Fortunately, anger has a weakness, and that is that it is often difficult to sustain that level of rage without some external source constantly feeding it. It's exhausting, and without support it will burn itself out. We didn't have an external source. It was just us, and like it or not we were all in it together.

The angry people got tired, they realized they didn't have any real answers, and that finding solutions takes calm, rational thinking, and effort. Most of them went away. Some even abandoned their units to foreclosure. Some of them calmed down and began to help. Once the turmoil and distraction of all the anger went away, we were able to come up with real solutions to our problems, and things began to get better.

Today, things are pretty good.

We still face challenges. People still get angry. But, in general, we know how to work together to solve problems.

Not so much, I'm afraid, in the wider world outside my little condominium.

The recent debacle in our House of Representatives regarding the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling is a product of rage. Worse, it is the result of a deliberate effort to exploit fear and anxiety for political aims. While my condo association didn't have an external resource to sustain the anger, there are powerful entities within our country who possess both the will and the resources to do so.

The formation and continued existence of the Tea Party is a product of fear and anxiety, stoked by deep-pocketed political and commercial interests into an ongoing rage manufacturing effort.

Much of the conflict we're witnessing within the Republican Party is a product of this. Perhaps too late, they are being reminded that "who sows the wind must expect to reap the whirlwind." Well, tornadoes are bad for business. Which is why you see some of the corporate interests and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce backing off on the inflammatory rhetoric many of the rising Tea Party stars are using.

I'm afraid it's too late. Things will get worse before they begin to get better. Much worse.

Unlike my little condo association, the country is too big for a working majority that realizes the reality that we're all in this together. At least, not in the near term.

The problems we face stem from change, and how we manage it. People fear change. Powerful people are exploiting that fear. The resulting anger and rage are destructive, not constructive. We've seen the first examples in the ongoing dysfunction of our government. It will get worse. They will stoke the furnaces of the rage machine for as long as they can, to diminish the capacity of the government manage change, or to compel changes favoring their interests. I think they understand their ability to accomplish the latter will diminish as the electoral demographics change, so they're concentrating on destroying government.

Change will come, whether we like it or not. The world is growing smaller, hotter and browner.

It must also grow more just.

Justice does not arise from fear. It can only arise from faith.

Ultimately, the powerful reveal themselves as powerless, as their fear leads them to take actions that will ultimately lead to their undoing. Irony is the fifth fundamental force of the universe. But the cost will be high, and the destruction vast.

The emotion I struggle with the most these days isn't anger. It's despair.

I'm still here...

01:56 Sunday, 4 November 2018
Words: 530

The 2018 mid-terms were largely a disappointment for Florida. For those who like drama, I suppose Florida delivered. It's like we flip a coin to decide these things, and it lands on its edge far too often. How Florida can be so evenly divided is a mystery to me. Either Republicans aren't suppressing enough votes, or Democrats aren't submitting enough fraudulent ones. Take your pick.

The bad news is, Florida and the nation will likely do nothing meaningful on either the state or national level about climate change. And that's really bad news. At the "grass roots" level, the "little people" like me are going to do what we can.

There's a debate going on between climate scientists and journalists about climate change communication. Why isn't the message getting through? How should it be framed? On the one hand, we're facing the end of civilization; on the other hand, we don't want people to give into hopelessness and despair.

It's a tough question, and I don't know the answer any more than anyone else seems to

It's impossible to predict with certainty what's going to happen, and the uncertainty seems to be all many people need to just ignore the whole issue. While it's impossible to say with certainty exactly what's going to happen, we can be certain that the effects will be disastrous, they will be widespread and they will destabilize international relations.

We know that nations under stress often turn to authoritarian rulers. We see that happening in many places in the world today, even here in America. We know that authoritarian rulers often turn to violence to control their internal population, or to create nationalistic fervor by provoking old enemies and engaging in aggression.

We have enormous challenges just trying to rebuild a world economy that is carbon neutral in a decade, it makes the Apollo Project look like a weekend hobby effort. Add in widespread violence, the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons, and the problems just seem insurmountable.

What do we think we know?

We think, if we can get to a carbon-neutral energy infrastructure within ten years, and begin net-negative emissions shortly thereafter (that means carbon sequestration in some fashion, pulling CO2 from the atmosphere), we can keep the rise in global average temperature below 1.5°C.

We think we can maintain a world civilization that keeps most of the world's population alive and with some basis for believing in a better future in a climate that is 1.5°C warmer than the pre-industrial period. That's a guess, because it's possible that even 1.5°C is too much to prevent the emergence of positive climate feedbacks that continue to add warming, chiefly the release of methane from melting permafrost. But 1.5°C is far better than 2°C.

We will still have to cope with huge economic and population movement disruptions in getting to an adapted civilization. This will call for strong, resilient governments and international relationships. Something we're not doing very well right now.

So, the challenge is enormous. And our politics and our methods of communication don't seem to be up to the scope of the threat.

Cheese Sandwich

12:32 Wednesday, 4 November 2020
Words: 870

Old school bloggers will get the reference; but for the uninitiated, this is the textual equivalent of Instagram's "picture of my food."

It's really just me trying to orient myself in space and time again, post-election, post-campaign, mid-apocalypse.

When we last met, Mitzi was enjoying the retired life with me. Since then, she's gone back to work! Yikes!

It's cool. We don't need the money, but I think retired life kind of bored her and a perfect opportunity came along and she seized it. Of course, it kind of screws up the idea of living with only one car. But since it's dangerous to go anywhere in Florida, it hasn't been a problem so far.

I had hoped to get out into "the preserve" and do some photography immediately after the election, but the weather wasn't great and then last week I had what Billy Crystal called "a procedure" in City Slickers. Spent a couple of days at Mayo Clinic, had to have general anesthetic. It was nothing big, but I wanted to get it done this calendar year since I've already met my deductible, and before COVID blew up again. Just in the nick of time, it seems. >10K new cases announced Sunday. Those were the kinds of numbers that were showing up when we fled Florida back in June. Alas, there is no escape now.

So, I've been sitting around on "light duty" as we used to say. I'm reading a book about the lives of Michael Farraday and James Clerk Maxwell. Farraday was a remarkable man, and if you're into biographies or the history of science, this is a fascinating read. I'm in the latter portion of the book about Maxwell just now. It's great because it's not politics, and it's about smart people thinking about things, which also seems to be not about politics.

On the photography front, I bought myself an early Christmas gift, an Olympus OM-D E-M1x. As you may or may not know, Olympus is exiting the photography business, and they've sold that portion of the business to a private equity firm. Early indications are that they intend to focus on the high-end OM-D line (E-M1x, E-M1 Mk3, E-M5 Mk3) and exit the lower tier, meaning the PEN series and perhaps the OM-D E-M10 series.

I found this to be very sad news, as I've become invested in the Olympus system (micro four-thirds lens mount), and have a lot of good experiences with their cameras. But the E-M1x is a "pro" body, and it was priced that way at introduction in January 2019 - $3000! The body is larger because it has an integrated portrait grip and duplicate controls. It's also built to a higher standard of weather resistance and has a shutter with some ridiculous anticipated life of 150K actuations. It's a beast.

Well, Oly reduced the price by $1K, to $1999 and then offered an additional $300 off if you offered to trade in a body you already owned to a third-party reseller. You had to submit an offer to trade to get the discount, but you don't have to actually make the deal. The reseller gives you their best offer for your trade-in, and you can accept or reject it as you wish; it makes no difference to Olympus, you still get the discount code.

Since I think this is likely to be the last truly flagship camera ever produced by the storied Olympus brand, I wanted to have one. (Some will say the E-M1 Mk3 is the last, but, while it is a remarkably good camera, it's not the same as the 1x.) So, now I own one, brand new from the factory. Looking forward to using it, hopefully this week.

Because this is my blog, and this is a blog post, I feel I should link to another blogger. This morning's choice is Rob Fahrni, longtime blogging friend and twitter interlocutor. Here's his most recent post on the iPhone 12! Here's a link to his iOS app Stream. (Weirdly, this web page links to the Mac App store - perhaps because I'm on my iMac - and not the iOS app store. It's an iOS app.)

My experience on Facebook this past election cycle was unpleasant, to say the least. And I'm thinking about deleting my account (again - didn't work last time). Blogging got a bit "unpleasant" during the run-up to the Iraq war, and many people who got along swimmingly before the war had serious falling-outs as it inevitably, inexorably and inexcusably materialized. But I don't think it ever descended to the level of vitriol and spite that Facebook tolerates and foments.

But, "everybody's there!"

Which is perhaps the problem. So maybe this is a better fit for me.

Anyway, that's probably enough about all that. Until next time, remember, we're on our own. Take care of yourselves. Stay well, wear a mask, keep your distance. The prevailing policy seems to be that once enough of us have died, everything's going to be just fine. Don't see that changing anytime soon.

It's going to be a dark "winter of our discontent."

The Huxleyan Warning

03:19 Thursday, 4 November 2021
Words: 113

What I suggest here as a solution is what Aldous Huxley suggested, as well. And I can do no better than he. He believed with H. G. Wells that we are in a race between education and disaster, and he wrote continuously about the necessity of our understanding the politics and epistemology of media. For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Gator 11-3

05:13 Thursday, 4 November 2021
Words: 8

Haven't seen one of these for a while.

Courage

18:51 Saturday, 4 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 59.2°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 344

Mitzi watched the Diana Nyad bio-pic on Netflix yesterday, and I saw the latter half. As I recall, "courage" was something of a war-cry or motto for her. I also admired her "resilience" and "never quit" attitude.

I think we can all find something inspirational in Diana Nyad's example, especially in the effort and sacrifice she made to achieve her dream.

Because, while we're supposedly beginning to confront the reality of our situation, it isn't clear to me that we really have.

I watched this TED Talk last night. It's from back in April of this year. It's worth a listen.

Sounds great, right? It does. But, it's a gloss. I liked her formulation that any sustainable solution must allow for a decent life for all people.

She doesn't go into any specifics about how we would go about delivering a decent life to all people, using entrenched institutions and economic systems that are founded and predicated on the notion of persistent inequality, and which incentivize the worst characteristics of human behavior.

Here's a much shorter read, which is more honest and accurate about the genuine scope of the challenge that confronts her generation.

I'm not saying that her generation is incapable of meeting that challenge. I hope they are. But they will never even try, unless they understand what it really is.

And that's why I think it's important to talk about not only the climate, environmental degradation, inequality and systemic inequity, but how we got here as well. Because we can't rely on the mechanisms that created the problem to solve it.

And it's going to take all the courage and sacrifice they can muster to meet that challenge.

And never quit.

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Unconventional Thinking

19:14 Saturday, 4 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 58.78°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 3mph
Words: 95

Since I'm in a TED sort of mood, here's one I watched last night and it speaks to the challenge the current generation is facing. The challenge of "conventional thinking."

Conventional thinking isn't going to meet the challenge.

An idea worth spreading.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer

20:55 Saturday, 4 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 58.28°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 170

I was unfamiliar with the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so I did a little digging. This piece is perhaps a useful capsule summary. I had often seen references to the Confessing Church in books about Germany under the Nazis, so I suppose I may have seen his name before.

The article includes this:

On the other hand, the theological section of the essay also contains the traditional antisemitic teachings that for centuries had characterized Christian understandings of Judaism, and Bonhoeffer argued that the “Jewish question” would ultimately be resolved through the conversion of the Jews. He never explicitly abandoned this view.

To which I would offer that he was hanged at 39 years of age, less than a month before Germany surrendered, still a young man. We will never know how his views might have evolved. I think it's important to note his thinking at the time; but I think it's possible that such a man might have changed his views, and indeed may have.

I don't think we'll ever know.

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The Gyre

21:13 Saturday, 4 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 58.84°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 691

On Thursday, Mitzi and I went to Jacksonville University to hear Dr. Helen Czerski speak at an event where she received the Jacksonville University Marine Science Pioneer Award. (You can read about that here. Ignore the privacy warning from Safari, you'll have to click through two warnings.)

I follow her Mastodon account (@helenczerski@fediscience.org) and saw a toot that she would be in town on November 2nd, speaking at an event sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville. I knew Mitzi had signed us up for something like this, and thought this might be one of those events. So I asked her, and it wasn't.

But she wanted to go see it anyway, so we did.

Loved it. She's a young, energetic and inspiring speaker. She received two standing ovations from the audience. One for her talk, the other for her award.

Dr. Czerski's talk was about the old chestnut that we know more about the moon than we do about the ocean. We do know plenty about the ocean. As a retired naval officer, who was educated as an ocean engineer, and whose career was spent, to a significant degree, understanding oceanography in order to find submarines (alternatively, to hide from them), I appreciate how much we know.

In any event, this post is about the "strange loops" that seem to go on in my head. A gyre is a feature in oceanography that describes large rotational currents. I installed the TED app on our AppleTV last night, specifically to look for Dr. Czerski on TED. You can find her here, great talk, btw.

That reminded me of two other talks I'd read about, or someone had mentioned to me, but I hadn't seen them yet. I had to do a little searching. The first was the one about the "first sustainable generation," which I posted earlier today. The second was about "unconventional thinking," which is also posted below.

I enjoyed Hannah Ritchie's talk about sustainability, but it left me uneasy. I subscribe to a Florida-focused climate RSS feed, The Invading Sea, and it often features posts from young Republicans advocating "market-based solutions," which are appealing to young Republicans but otherwise inadequate. Ms. Ritchie's talk felt very much in the same vein.

I also subscribe to an RSS feed from Resilience, which is where the link to Cheap Grace came from, which is in the same post as Ms. Ritchie's TED talk.

Resilience doesn't offer full-text feeds, so I have to click through and open them in Safari, and I often don't visit the page immediately, just leave the tab open until I get around to going through my tabs. It's not a great system, but it's how I roll.

I'd opened the Cheap Grace post yesterday, but hadn't read it until this morning, which, together with watching Nyad, is what prompted this morning's first post.

So, saw Dr. Czerski on Thursday. Watched the last half of Nyad on Friday afternoon. Installed TED on AppleTV to look for Dr. Czerski on Friday evening. Watched Hannah Ritchie because I recalled something about a TED talk by her and I'd just installed the app. Then watched David McWilliams because I also recalled something about "unconventional thinking." Then read the Cheap Grace post this morning.

And here we are. Four posts that somehow were connected, or related, at least in my mind. Contingent though they may be, "free will" being something of a misunderstanding.

Anyway, all these things happened in close proximity to one another, and the route by which they all came to my attention resembles, in my mind, a gyre. That image was brought to my mind by David McWilliams' reference to Yeats, and its meaning in oceanography, which brings us back to Dr. Czerski, and Diana Nyad, and sustainability, which is all about "closing the loop," eliminating externalities.

Anyway, I seem to recall that someone once had a blog called "I thought these might be clues." That also comes to mind.

There's more here than meets the eye.

Which I suppose is a bit of "unconventional thinking" itself. And a small bit of comfort too.

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The Veneer of Civilization

07:11 Monday, 4 November 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 72.72°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 60

"People can turn on you because of a label."

Watch the whole thing.

"Permission is very important."

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Seeing Spots

10:41 Monday, 4 November 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 79.79°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 663

Working around a cluster of aura that just popped up. Significant enough to cause me to consult Dr. Google. This, from the University of Washington, kind of reassured me.

“Just one night of poor sleep can increase a patient’s likelihood of having a migraine attack,” Murinova says.

And I haven't exactly been sleeping well. Did okay last night, but I think I'm still in something of an overall deficit.

For those just tuning in, I've had aural migraines for many years, not knowing at all that's what they were. They come and go, usually after a few minutes. I've mentioned them to my doctor, who sent me to the eye doctor and my retinae are fine. This episode got my attention because there were three of them and they came on rather suddenly, as these things go. (They're fading now, one still active.)

Anyway...

To do something productive tomorrow (I've already voted for Harris and the straight Democratic ticket here in deep-scarlet St Johns County.), I'm giving blood. I figure it might relieve some of the pressure and reduce the likelihood of having a stroke. But maybe that's not how that works.

Tornado outbreaks in Oklahoma over the weekend seemed to get lost in the media coverage of the election. Hard for me to say, exactly, since we don't get network television anymore. Maybe it didn't. But another clue that we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

My brother lives in a tornado-prone area of Alabama, and he's had a shelter installed in his garage. Keeps all his important papers in there.

New York, historically, hasn't experienced a high incidence of tornados, though that may be changing. Nevertheless, I think that, given a choice, I'd rather prepare for the risk of a tornado than the risk of a hurricane. While a tornado may be more destructive in the immediate term, the scale of the damage is more limited and permits more rapid recovery in the affected area, I think. Just as bad individually, but collectively more resilient.

Pick your poison, I guess.

Getting out of Florida came up a few times while we were up in Georgia. Mitzi pushed back pretty hard, but I didn't debate her. I know the seed is planted. The house across the street sold a week or so ago, and the one two doors down is on the market. Mitzi was talking about the kinds of people that would buy those two, different, floor plans. Then she added, "Some couple is going to buy this house, and love it."

So I know the idea is still germinating.

It's all a matter of timing. Ideally, we will get out before we experience a hurricane loss. That's the whole idea. Doing so avoids the trauma of loss and "recovery." It also eliminates the requirement of disclosing whether the house has ever been flooded, and permits the continuing self-delusion that this region is somehow immune from hurricanes. So the sooner we sell and get out of here, the better. Ideally, before next hurricane season; but I suspect I may have white-knuckle it through 2025. Moving is an unwelcome challenge.

I've told her we wouldn't necessarily have to move to New York, but I would insist that we relocate to someplace with a low climate risk.

I spoke to another neighbor who I see frequently walking her dog. She said her husband has been looking for property in Connecticut. She's not enamored with moving because of northeast winters. Winter and no state income tax are Florida's two biggest draws. And maybe fascism for those so inclined. I know I wouldn't exactly welcome either (or any) of those, but I can deal with winter and taxes better than dragging all my shit to the curb and "starting over." Especially the sense of defeat I'd feel, because I know I could have avoided it if I'd gotten out of here in time.

Not exactly how I'd have envisioned my "golden years."

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This Morning's Bird

11:30 Monday, 4 November 2024

Current Wx: Temp: 80.47°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 63

Not a bird, and not this morning's.

Shot this back on the 30th. There are two blooming from this plant now. Other folks seem to have better luck with theirs than we do. These are dwarf or miniature, apparently. Mitzi's the gardener, so I don't know.

Anyway, a photo.

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Not This Morning's Bird

11:36 Monday, 4 November 2024

Current Wx: Temp: 80.47°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 83

But it is a bird. Red-shouldered hawk we spotted back on the 1st when we were out for a walk. I'm walking more slowly for now, so I'm bringing a camera along. The OMDS OM-5 with the mZuiko 14-150mm mounted. Edited and cropped in Photos. The little light spot to the left of the hawk's eye is the sunlight focusing from over the bird's (red) shoulder.

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Deep Breath

10:59 Tuesday, 4 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 51.19°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 51% Wind: 16.73mph
Words: 340

I'm checking in though I really don't have the time. I've got family inbound and more stuff to do, but this is what happens when this stuff grabs hold of me.

For the moment, I'm metaphorically taking some deep breaths. As a contractor, one of the active duty LDO commanders I worked with said, "I admire your passion. You're very passionate."

He was being polite, because I can get rather, um, assertive when I think I'm right, and when I believe it's important. Which isn't necessarily a positive character trait.

I'm taking a pause here, because I don't want to just give up. Well, I kind of do, because it just feels so frustrating. Nauseating.

Someone suggested that I write a piece for a publication that deals with naval affairs. I rejected that idea, and still reject it, because this is not a matter for polite debate.

This is a crime in progress.

Treating it as something we can "discuss," in measured, academic tones normalizes it. Dignifies it.

I can't do that, and I can't understand why more people aren't screaming about it.

And there's something else, and that's ADM Holsey. We don't know why he laid his stars on the table. We can speculate, and I think we can be pretty confident about why he did.

And when the story is eventually told, I hope America honors him in a way befitting his service and his sacrifice.

ADM Holsey is an honorable man. He has kept faith with the men and women under his command, in ways that so many others are failing to.

There are moments in each individual's life when the choices we make leave an indelible mark on our character.

It is crushing to me to witness how many are failing to meet the moment. Failing to honor the trust that our men and women in uniform place in us. To employ their service honorably. Meaningfully. In good faith.

This is a profoundly sad moment in the history of our country, and the United States Navy.

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