Post #222,766
9/4/05 5:00:48 PM
9/11/05 8:10:51 PM
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The fly swatting mentality
"The answers are so simple and we all know where to look
But it's easier just to avoid the question"
- Kansas, "On The Other Side"
When people are faced with a recurring problem that has persisted for years, they usually respond to it in one or more of three ways. The very stupid ignore it and hope it will go away. The moderately stupid try to manage it. That is, every time it manifests itself, they deal with that manifestation. The wise look deal with the problem as such, and try to solve it. Solve the problem, and its manifestations go away.
To put it another way, it's a choice between denial, treatment and cure.
What's behind these three choices? Breadth of attention. The denier has a narrowly restricted range of attention, as narrow as he can make it. His response to unpleasant stimuli is to withdraw ever further from engagement with the world outside his head. Carry this far enough, and he starts to push away from his consciousness things - feelings, desires - that are already inside his head. At this point we have full blown neurosis.
The treatment guy doesn't deny what is right in front of him, but he refuses to see the big picture. This sort of person is a manager. He doesn't solve problems, he manages them, with one quick fix, workaround or band-aid after another. He lives from annoyance to annoyance, until something comes along that he just can't cope with this way.
The problem solver has the widest scope of attention of all. He thinks ahead. He sees the big picture. And he acts.
Why wouldn't everyone want to be a problem solver? Because it's hard, that's why. You have to put up with a lot of short term inconvenience, and defer a lot of gratification, and all the while the managers and deniers are heckling you from the peanut gallery.
(There are also cases where you simply don't know how to solve a problem, and you settle for managing it, until you can come up with something better. In a charitable mood, I might classify the cold war doctrines of containment and Mutually Assured destruction as such. But the true manager type isn't buying time in hopes of a solution coming along. He can't conceive of anything beyond management. He thinks that *is* a solution.)
Problem solving only works in the long run. In the short run it's a lot of aggravation. Treatment works in the short run, but only in the short run. Denial doesn't really work, but it seems to, and that's all the denier cares about.
So why would anyone want to be a problem solver? Because things that only work in the short term, sooner or later stop working. And then where are you? If you're lucky, you're still alive, and maybe you can try a different strategy.
The alcoholic or a drug addict is a denier. He does what makes him feel good, but it's ruining his health and his life. Sooner or later, he "hits bottom." Denial stops working, and he has to try something else. Maybe he'll try not to drink so much. That's the management mentality. If that doesn't work, he might eventually address the real issue and just quit cold turkey. Or he might just keep going until he dies in the gutter of liver failure.
See next:
[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/appease.mentality.html|The appeasement mentality] and [link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/swatting2.html|The mosquito-swatting mentality]
Case study: [link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/swatting.gwot.html|The Global War On Terror]
Case study: [link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/swatting.virus.html|The antivirus non-solution]
Case study: [link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/swatting.neworleans.html|New Orleans]
[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/swatting.html|Angelfire link] (turn off Javascript to avoid popups)
Freenet: /SSK@jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/marlowe/swatting.html
[link|http://marlowe-essays.blogspot.com/2005/09/fly-swatting-mentality.html|Comment at blogger.com]
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If you don't like my posts, don't click on them.
Never mind the AP. Here's the real Iraq reporting: [link|http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/|http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/]
"The period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resort, decide the contest." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Edited by marlowe
Sept. 11, 2005, 08:10:51 PM EDT
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Post #222,775
9/4/05 5:20:56 PM
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well I am glad you decided to quit drinking
"the reason people don't buy conspiracy theories is that they think conspiracy means everyone is on the same program. Thats not how it works. Everybody has a different program. They just all want the same guy dead. Socrates was a gadfly, but I bet he took time out to screw somebodies wife" Gus Vitelli
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 49 years. meep
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #222,778
9/4/05 5:26:28 PM
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Right after I stopped beating my wife.
She kept hitting me over the head with the checkerboard, so now I just let her win.
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If you don't like my posts, don't click on them.
Never mind the AP. Here's the real Iraq reporting: [link|http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/|http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/]
"The period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resort, decide the contest." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense
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Post #222,796
9/4/05 6:34:45 PM
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sorry, I thought the post was about your understanding
that your drinking was harming you and the steps you took to overcome that issue, if it wasnt I apologise.
thanx,
bill
"the reason people don't buy conspiracy theories is that they think conspiracy means everyone is on the same program. Thats not how it works. Everybody has a different program. They just all want the same guy dead. Socrates was a gadfly, but I bet he took time out to screw somebodies wife" Gus Vitelli
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 49 years. meep
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #222,800
9/4/05 6:57:56 PM
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Well, I don't know what Box has been drinking . . .
. . (or smoking) lately but it's made him coherent - now that's scary.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #222,809
9/4/05 7:23:11 PM
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I think he listens to what people say to him
and hearing a lot of people say "I find it so difficult to read you when you write in your speaking voice that I don't bother" caused him to decide to tighten it up a bit.
That is the big problem with colloquialisms in writing (outside of actual written dialogue, of course); if someone doesn't know the argot, they will have a hard time figuring out what is meant.
--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #222,813
9/4/05 7:45:57 PM
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youse guys takes the fun outta everything
as I splained earlier sometimes I right but the rest of the time Im talking
thanx,
bill
"the reason people don't buy conspiracy theories is that they think conspiracy means everyone is on the same program. Thats not how it works. Everybody has a different program. They just all want the same guy dead. Socrates was a gadfly, but I bet he took time out to screw somebodies wife" Gus Vitelli
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 49 years. meep
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #222,816
9/4/05 7:48:51 PM
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Yeah, yeah, I saw that . . .
. . but it was a moment of weakness and I just couldn't resist.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #223,101
9/6/05 11:16:16 AM
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We could all chip in and get Box a copy...
...of Dragon Naturally Speaking....
(But I fear it wouldn't help Ashton.... :-( )
jb4
shrub●bish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #223,071
9/6/05 8:25:34 AM
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Hey, his speaking voice is fine
I can attest to that from BeepBash. It's his writing voice that's "colorful" :)
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179. I will not outsource core functions.
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[link|http://omega.med.yale.edu/~pcy5/misc/overlord2.htm|.]
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Post #222,827
9/4/05 9:00:23 PM
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Box, they be no way ta pleeze the syntax Sin-taxers -
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Post #224,227
9/11/05 1:25:58 AM
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your 3 step solution ignores some major philosophical points
Since you are dealing with "what is a government question" vs "what is a religious solution" lets review a few things.
1. The Best form of government is no response at all.
Quite often what looks like a crisis that government should undertake is usually a social problem. If left alone the situation changes, the original problem morphs into something else and social constructs develop to ease the situation. Governments should be slow to react unless the following symptons exhibit
threat to said government
threat to governed
In the first case a government must decide if the threat is internal or external. If internal see point one. This means that a threat to government by the governed must be examined to see if a societal change mandates the threat. If so it is benign as government is a created institution to handle social friction of the governed, if a large (not nescessarily a majority) of the governed find the deeds of the government to be onerous then the government must adress those issues. In all cases the adressing of the problem should reflect the underlying beliefs of the goernment pact with the government, IE our constitution.
Threat to governed should be addressed by the government as a whole, they must move quickly and decisivly to respond to the safety and security needs of the governed placing primary interest in food, water and physical security of same. Followed by expiditing material needs based on security of the person, material for safe housing and medical needs if the local situation does not adress those issues.
2. Decision making in tims of need.
Decision making should be made as close to the localality of need. First should be locally elected people, followed by state oficials then federal. In cases where local facilities are overwhelmed then local officials should drive federal responses. In the aftermath of Katerina, local official fuckups aside, FEMA should have put boots on the ground with resources identified by local officials. We need "X" feds supply "X" unless they identify a valid reason not to suppy "X" in that fashion in that time period.
Governmental decision making should include the historical perspective
Problem Solvers are great folks, they make stuff hum right along while disregarding the facts on the ground. Without a historical or precedent fact finding problem solvers often solve the same problem wrongly time after time. Our present problem in Iraq is directly attributed to not securing munitions after invasion. Day one in west point they should be taught that to beat an enemy you have to remove the enemies ability to arm. Or rearm. This was not done because the boots on the ground were only enough to take territory, not hold it. Consequently American's are dying because the folks in charge thought it would be a cakewalk.
Religion
States that wish to be viable must be religious neutral, unlike the empire of the past adopting every gawd of every people we conquered we decided that only the people can deal with religion, the government must, by law ignore it.
This only woks if the Government actively ignores Religion, having elected leaders promote certain brands of religion over others (atheism and humanism included) only aggravates the religious. Actively ignoring religion should include ignoring the symbols. Having a masonic pyramid on the dollar bill and hosting the cross at easter should not only be allowed but encouraged as well as hosting pagan prayer days on city hall lawns. Only by enjoying and displaying all belief patterns may government be above such issues.
will decr\ufffd more later
thanx,
bill
"the reason people don't buy conspiracy theories is that they think conspiracy means everyone is on the same program. Thats not how it works. Everybody has a different program. They just all want the same guy dead. Socrates was a gadfly, but I bet he took time out to screw somebodies wife" Gus Vitelli
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 49 years. meep
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #224,244
9/11/05 8:19:25 AM
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Nicely said
>applause<
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George W. Bush and his PNAC handlers sent the US into Iraq with lies. I find myself rethinking my opposition to the death penalty.
--Donald Dean Richards Jr.
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