As always, a bit pressed this week, so I’ll keep my comment brief. Moving right along…
The uncertainty principle. It can be said that the uncertainty principle is a major talking point on the center-right particularly, but certainly present across the political spectrum. Why is the U.S. job market so weak? Uncertainty. Why are global stock markets in turmoil? Uncertainty. Why does gravity hold down large rocks and trees? You know the answer. I hear this all the time – uncertainty is keeping businesses from investing in new capacity, new labor, etc. The operative question is, though, what is certainty? Since when do investors expect certainty? Don’t we all deal with uncertainty every moment of every day, particularly on the margins of society where one’s very existence is subject to it? When has that ever not been the case for either individuals or organizations? Invoking uncertainty is merely an attempt to shout down any thought of raising taxes on rich people, on profitable corporations, and so on.
Primary numbers. Cousin Rick Perry seems to have a lot of trouble with ordinal lists, even with Ron Paul trying to throw him a bone. (Note to Rick: when someone gives you an easy out, take it.) He somehow managed to draw attention away from Herman Cain’s various troubles for a large portion of a news cycle, and not in a good way. Given cousin Perry’s seemingly drunken performance in New Hampshire last week and his puzzling lapse this week, one has to wonder if he really wants that Washington job. Cain, on the other hand, seems to want it badly enough to hire legal counsel to threaten women with litigation if any one of them dares step forward with yet another allegation against the pizza king. Now that’s the kind of message we want to send women, right? Spoken like a true CEO.
Field goal. Anyone who reads this blog knows I never, ever, ever talk about sports. This Penn State thing, though, is about as disgusting a story as I’ve heard in this vein since the Catholic Church scandal broke. Aside from the damage this has done to the victims, the most disturbing aspect of this is the culture of complicity that made it possible. Groupthink is a dangerous thing, and ordinary people are capable of doing extraordinarily beastly things, as Stanley Milgram demonstrated decades ago.
Three modest pieces of advice to those fans of Joe Paterno who flipped cars after seeing their coach fired: 1) Don’t conform. 2) Don’t conform. 3) Don’t conform.
Great war. It’s Veteran’s day. Don’t just thank a veteran. Apologize to them for being so clueless as to let them spend the last ten years in two pointless wars we civilians would neither fight nor pay for.
luv u,
jp
Such obfuscation is more effective with today’s all-volunteer military, but back when the draft was running at full steam, it was a much harder sell. When you are literally forcing people to go to war, your praise tends to ring a bit hollow. Of course, our volunteer military is forced, technically speaking – they have no choice but to go, even if they merely joined up for the promise of college tuition. But unlike the 60s and prior, this is not a broadly-experienced phenomenon. Back then, masses of young people were threatened with deployment and particularly in the case of Vietnam, many were sent against their will. In that circumstance, there’s a strong incentive to examine the policy very closely. Many did, and didn’t like what they found.