We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
We are witnessing the second great era of speech repression in academia, the first coming during the “culture wars” of the late 1980s and early ’90s. One force behind the new wave is a theory of truth, or a picture of reality, developed the first time around. This theory, which we might call “linguistic constructivism,” holds that we don’t merely describe or represent the world in language; language creates the world and ourselves. A favorite slogan of our moment, “Words have power,” reflects that view.
Yes, it is interesting. I remember dorm room bull sessions, often pot-smoke- filled, on such topics. Also, beer cans, pizza boxes, Haagen Dasz. Very difficult to separate the social construction of reality from propaganda.
Anyway, this is all kid stuff. Reality is when you stub your toe on a rock and enlightenment occurs.
"To Europe, America has always been a bad man." That is insightful. They like to condescend to us God-and gun-loving barbarians and only love us when they need some rough guys. Otherwise, they only want American dollars and banks.
The people who have an explicit legal obligation to work not on our behalf but on behalf of their shareholders do a pretty good job of giving us what we want; the people who vow to work on our behalf do not. That is a paradox only if you do not think about it too much, and not thinking about it too much is the business that politicians are in.
If capitalism – which is to say, human ingenuity set free to follow its own natural course – is a kind of social machine, then politicians are something like children who take apart complex machines without understanding what they do or how to put them back together. (At their worst, they are simply saboteurs.) When they rail against capitalism, automation, trade, and the like, they resemble nothing so much as those hominids at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey, shrieking hysterically at something that is simply beyond their comprehension.
Of course, most politicians really do know better. They are just bullshitting people, which is their mission if they want to keep their easy job.
A sample post on that site about being rich: Scraping By On $500,000 A Year. Of course, as he points out, what is a rich income depends entirely on where you live, how you live, and your attitude towards life.
Mrs. BD thought you might like to see some of her snaps from the annual Philadelphia Flower Show (since 1836) this week. This is a show put on by professionals, not amateurs.
The stuff is too much with us. You only need one of everything you need and, sometimes, less than one. Except for money, less is more.
Every two years, we do a deep Spring Cleaning. Step one is getting rid of things. Step 2 is deep cleaning with cleaning helpers and fresh painting afterwards, as needed. Some years it takes a dumpster, some years our yard guys with a truck, and some years it's just throwing trash bags full of clothing into the back of the Suburban to go to Good Will, Salvation Army or, if really good stuff, Thrift Shop.
We do have a "storage room" in the cottage. Four antique and beautiful andirons. A "brown", once thought elegant, dining room table. Spare brown dining chairs. Extra bookshelves. Spare beds and bedframes, etc. Why? Waiting for what? Death and the Final Dumpster, the Dumpster of Doom? Or the Garage Sale of Death?
One of our projects this year is to convert a college kid's room into a lovely guest room. This means the kid's books into boxes to the attic, the kid's childhood desk and furniture to charity, a new Queen bed, and painting/redecorating.
Projects:
- Any book in the house never to be re-read by us or wanted by kids: Recycling or donated
- Any old surplus furniture not tagged by kids (esp old "brown" furniture): Dumpster if yard guys don't want it Can't give that stuff away.
- Carpets: We have enough antigue oriental carpets to furnish a palace. Mostly in a closet with mothballs. Some won't fit in there. Entirely out of fashion and unwanted but we love them and they once had value. We will not buy another house just to use carpets and paintings. Maybe consign them? Probably not worth the trouble.
- Closets of clothing: If not used in one year, it's gone. If ugly, gone. How many sweaters do you need? It is a liberating experience.
- Boxes of old photos and photo albums: Dumpster if nobody in the family wants them. Seems like a shame, but past is past.
- Knick-knacks, goo-gaws, and misc. decorative items and things kids made in grammar school out of clay - dumpster. It's not immortal art. Getting rid of stuff is painful, but the good, cleansing pain like having a wart removed.
- Excess kitchen and serving items: Unload on your kids, donate, or dumpster.
Not really a cult, but it's on most skiiers' bucket list to ski Tuckerman's Ravline. No lifts - except your legs. It's a serious workout. The snow up there on Mt. Washington can be great deep powder in early April.
There is no such thing as reliably nice weather on Mt. Washington, but most New Englanders have vowed to climb it in summer if not winter. Hiking to the top of Mt. W in winter is an ultra-macho and dangerous adventure, but hiking up the ravine is do-able with skis on your back. Hike Mt. Washington Via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail
A friend skied it last week with his 7 year-old son. He ended up carrying the kid's backpack and his skis up. Just one torturous hike up and one wild and hairy run down. Pick your ski route down carefully. It's rugged, lots of rocks. Hiking up Mt. Washington in summer is a good outing, much easier but still a leg challenge.
If you happen to have a scullery maid on your household staff, great. Otherwise, silver flatware and silver bowls and platters are a serious pain.
We have lots of sterling platters, bowls, and dinner sets. Also, lots of old silver plate stuff which does look pretty at times but really it all tarnishes so fast that there is no reason to use it. Garbage, basically, even if it has an ancestor's initials engraved in it. We have no scullery maid at present, alas.
A "get over it" segment of Prof. Peterson's presentation. Good fun. It's secular, but almost religious. He does not quite get to the idea of laying at all at the cross, so he is dark and misses the joyful part. With a bit more Jesus, he'd be a heck of a preacher. He's right: It is a miracle that the lights are on.
An ex- Middlebury prof wrote last week about the stunning lack of intellectual curiosity among the pampered and privileged Middlebury students. That might very well be nothing new, and we all know that all education, in the end, is self-education.
On a related topic, Prof. Deneen is struck by the lack of knowledge about the fundamentals of history and culture among his students at elite institutions, HOW A GENERATION LOST ITS COMMON CULTURE. I suspect he is talking about the common elite culture, because I don't think the average guy or gal on the street in 1950 could tell you much about Magna Carta, Saul of Tarsus, or John Milton. I might be wrong about that.
In any event, the democratization of culture and of higher ed has resulted in the loss of basic cultural knowledge among the educated such that the numbers of those able to transfer the knowledge, as citizens and parents, shrinks. Or does it? Maybe it was always like that. I remember being confused once in high school social studies when the teacher joked that nobody cared about Plato's Republic and nobody read it. Confused because my Dad often referred to it. A quote from Deneen:
It’s difficult to gain admissions to the schools where I’ve taught – Princeton, Georgetown, and now Notre Dame. Students at these institutions have done what has been demanded of them: they are superb test-takers, they know exactly what is needed to get an A in every class (meaning that they rarely allow themselves to become passionate and invested in any one subject); they build superb resumes. They are respectful and cordial to their elders, though easy-going if crude with their peers. They respect diversity (without having the slightest clue what diversity is) and they are experts in the arts of non-judgmentalism (at least publically). They are the cream of their generation, the masters of the universe, a generation-in-waiting to run America and the world.
But ask them some basic questions about the civilization they will be inheriting, and be prepared for averted eyes and somewhat panicked looks. Who fought in the Peloponnesian War? Who taught Plato, and whom did Plato teach? How did Socrates die? Raise your hand if you have read both the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Canterbury Tales? Paradise Lost? The Inferno?
I had the advantage of attending a college where the cultural foundations were required, and came first. The result was that every grad knew the Inferno - and the Bible too. There are a lot of basics that the highly-educated youth that I interview know nothing about.
A good interview with the evil Charles Murray. He discusses social capital, industriousness, civic culture, community, and the stifling of civic life by government.
Anybody can stroll for a few hours as long as there are things and people to look at, and almost anybody can walk all day, or at least for 6 hours, unless they are post-op or disabled. If out of shape, it is fatiguing but do-able. Tourist walking and urban "hiking" are no problem for most.
Hiking is not walking. Hiking is mainly about speed to destination, and hills at the least and gravelly scrambling at the most. Except for the steeps, hiking takes endurance and the steeps demand leg endurance if not strength too, especially with a pack.
We have two hiking trips planned in the next few months, one in Georgia (USA) and one in the Outer Hebrides. With 2 years of hard training, Mrs. BD and I are probably fitter than most people of our ages and life habits, but I am not sure about 6-7 hours of up and down the Highlands. Hills or mountains, whatever - serious hiking with poles and packs every day for ten days with no rest days.
The leg strength we build from deadlifts and barbell squats is great and useful, but it's not endurance. Our cardio intervals are probably most relevant for efficient endurance-building, but I think we ought to add to that plenty of stairmaster time and a weekly weekend 4-6 hr uphill hike on top of our usual fitness routine. Speed hike, not casual hike.
I think we ought to do Mt. Washington (if and when the snow melts). I am the rare outdoor person in New England who has not tackled the Presidential Range, and I should do it. Several pals of ours love to do the hut-to-hut thing up there, but I admit that I like a good bed and a good shower daily, and real good "unhealthy" food. Sheesh, I am the person who loves Urban Hiking because there is more to look at than trees and rocks, and there are fun food trucks with Falafel and stuff.
I hate myself when I need a sit-down on a serious hike.
What would you do to prepare for serious hiking trips?
I believe that I have no talent and no skills at management. I wish I had. We had an after-church brunch last Sunday with pals, and my friend who is a management consultant challenged me to complete the %s on his simple matrix where R/W means Right Thing Done The Wrong Way, W/R means Wrong Thing Done The Right Way, etc.
I filled in the %s with my guesses, and he explained that my hypothetical business took a 70% cost in poor management. He said that my guesses were probably not too far off for many organizations but I might have the categories wrong. He said one reason for it is that, in organizations, most people have little real skin in the game and just hope to keep their paychecks coming but, in general, organizations are inefficient and one can only hope to keep it as low as possible.
Part 1 by Dr. Norman Doidge is thorough and smart but a bit dull. His error, I think, is in missing a crucial component of the Speech and Thought Police which is their destructive rage and desire for control. In a sense, he gives them too much credit for genuineness. Believe me, they are not hurt when they claim victimhood. They are victimizing.
If you only have a little time, skip Doidge. Prof. Peterson is a fascinating speaker and is able to identify human evil. He has been victimized and he is pissed and passionate. This is dynamite and I urge all of our readers to listen:
Signaling, for better or worse, is an important part of what humans do in societies. Signaling can convey what one wants to be, or what one is. Educational signaling is an interesting case.
I have always said that, as a rule of thumb, your education can get you your first job, but that, after that, you are mostly standing on that first job.
It's streamable or whatever via Amazon. Detective series, based in Shetland Islands. It's called "Shetland."
Mrs. BD and a daughter say that the protagonist, Jimmy Perez, is their dream male. They both binge-watched it on their laptops, and I am certain now that I must be inadequate by comparison. Bummer.
To me, the term refers to perseverance against daunting obstacle, daunting resistance, laziness, self-indulgence, or compelling temptation. Finishing what you start. It used to be called "character strength."
Studying late at night for a Chem exam, resisting a donut, keeping climbing when your legs say "No," doing one more bench rep when your arms say "I can't", saying "Hi" to a pretty girl who is too good for you, giving your exasperating guitar practice one more half hour, bucking up for one more damn intimidating job interview, getting through a pile of paperwork. A doctor once told me that the toughest person he knew was a agoraphobic and social phobic who by sheer willpower forced herself to leave her house and re-enter society despite her terror.
Everybody wants to fight against his own limitations, fears, flaws, and weaknesses, and nobody wants to feel mentally or physically weak.
When I consider mental toughness I think of warriors facing a wall of spears or machine guns, but in our (or my) pampered and decadent American life we often have to go out of our way to seek out character tests and character challenges. We can easily avoid most of them if we wish to, but our life is diminished by it.
I think shame, self-disgust, and self-disappointment are some of the unpleasant consequences of confronting some of our weaknesses and limitations. It is failure, and we know it.
My genius trainer and I were discussing the topic a while ago. I told him that part of his added value to me was lending his mental strength to me. When my arms say "No," and he says "Two more - you can do it" - I do it. Alone, I "couldn't." That's my mental weakness. So we can gain strength from relationship. That's part of why marriage is so valuable. Friends, too.
He said that group exercise training works well not so much because of the competition but because of the combined spirit of effort, the esprit de corps. Of course, that group effect is an essential part of military training too. He says the reason most people fail in fitness programs is for lack of spirit and determination, not muscle.
I suppose good habits of toughness and perseverance can be nurtured from within from practice and from without with support and cheerleading. My mental toughness is not good enough to make me happy with myself, and probably never will be.
Here's a Grit Quiz.Not sure if such personality traits are measurable really, or whether they are even traits. Sometimes I have plenty of grit, sometimes very little.
A note to you people who walk on the side of the road, or cross the road, between dusk and dawn in black coats, dark pants, and dark hats: One of these days I will hit you with my car, and it will ruin both of our lives.
Please stop it. You are invisible to me. When I am driving, I am not looking for people in the road. You road people have to make yourselves obvious to me. Cars have rear lights for a reason. I have already had a couple of close calls this winter and when roads are slippery it is even more dangerous. If you must wear black, all it takes is a strip of reflector tape or one of those light things to keep yourself safe and to keep me from a mess.
Mrs. BD thought you might like to see some of her snaps from the annual 
It's a practical course in management of any organization, large or small: Caplow's How To Run Any Organization.