From a friend’s FB wall:

“African proverb:
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter weather you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.”

(from The World Is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman)

It seems that the modern world is gradually becoming more and more ‘African’.
We’re so busy running ourselves out that we’re failing to remember the essential.

That we’re people.
Neither gazelle nor lion!
And that most of us have long ago left the jungle and now live in cities!

How about ‘taking five‘ from our incessant quest for trinkets and use the time to remember “togetherness”?
As in “communion”?

In the civilized world, ‘Dog eat dog’ was supposed to be an exception, not an everyday occurrence…

Ruthless acquisition or competition, as in With shrinking markets, it’s dog eat dog for every company in this field. This contradicts a Latin proverb which maintains that dog does not eat dog, first recorded in English in 1543. Nevertheless, by 1732 it was put as “Dogs are hard drove when they eat dogs” (Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia).”

PS.
After reading this, my son pointed out that lions are the only cats which hunt cooperatively on a constant basis.
Could this be the reason for which they are seen as the royals of the animal world?

Nu-i asa ca auziti foarte des expresia asta? ‘Oarecum’ peiorativa?

Fix acum 51 de ani, Peter L. Berger si Thomas Luckman publicau “Construirea Sociala a Realitatii“.

Simplificand la maxim, se poate spune ca cei doi ne explica cat de profund modificam noi realitatea care ne inconjoara – si in care traim, prin simplul fapt ca discutam intre noi despre aceasta realitate.

La o a doua lectura, vom intelege si cat de determinant este modul in care purtam aceasta discutie.

Pentru inceput, avem nevoie sa sesizam diferenta dintre limbajul diplomatic si cel uzual.

Cel uzual fiind cel pe care il utilizam in mod normal. Adica cel care nu are nevoie de ‘traducere’. Cel cu ajutorul caruia spunem ‘verde-n fata’ ce avem pe inima.

Spre deosebire de limbajul uzual – adica cel explicit prin excelenta, limbajul diplomatic are mai degraba menirea de a pastra deschis canalul de comunicatie. Și abia în secundar pe aceea de a preciza o anumita pozitie.

Cele doua limbaje sunt atat de diferite datorita circumstantelor in care au evoluat.

Cel uzual este folosit de catre interlocutori familiari unul cu celalalt. Atat de familiari incat dau exact aceiasi conotatie cuvintelor folosite, stiu foarte bine ce parere au unul despre celalalt si, cel mai important, stiu cu totii ca relatia dintre ei va continua aproape indiferent de rezultatul episodului de comunicare in timpul caruia este folosit respectivul tip de limbaj.

Ei bine, aproape toti dintre noi – indiferent de nivelul de educatie, stim – chiar inconstient, sa ‘schimbam foaia’ atunci cand macar una dintre conditiile de mai sus nu mai sunt indeplinite.
Indiferent de cat de familiari suntem cu interlocutorii nostri, incercam sa dregem busuiocul atunci cand sesizam ca celalalt chiar s-a bășicat. Iar primul lucru pe care îl facem în astfel de situații este să vorbim ‘frumos’.
Ca să nu mai spun despre cât de grijuliu vorbim cu o persoană ‘de rang superior’! Asta în special atunci când soarta noastră depinde de decizia ce urmează să fie luată de acea persoană în urma dialogului pe care îl purtăm. Și câtă grijă avem ca în timpul acestui dialog să transmitem informația pe care intenționăm să o aducem la cunoștința interlocutorului nostru…. dar mai ales câtă grijă avem ca dispoziția acestuia față de persoana noastră să devină cât mai favorabilă- sau măcar să rămână neutră,… fiind dispuși, la nevoie, să sacrificăm chiar și o parte din precizia comunicării…

Până la urmă, vorbim despre două tipuri complet diferite de comunicare.
După un episod în care a fost folosit limbajul uzual, amândoi interlocutorii rămân cu informațiile schimbate cu acel prilej precum și cu sentimentul că lucrurile vor continua mai mult sau mai puțin neschimbate. Doi ‘dușmani’ vor continua să se dușmănească după fiecare schimb de invective iar doi prieteni vor ști că se pot baza unul pe celălalt chiar și după un episod de comunicare în timpul căruia au făcut mișto unul de celălalt – bineînțeles cu condiția ca miștoul să fi rămas în parametrii obișnuiți.
Ei bine, la sfârșitul unui episod de comunicare ‘diplomatică’ interlocutorii rămân cu mai puține informații și cu mai multe întrebări decât dușmano-prietenii de mai sus. Franchețea limbajului uzual îi face pe aceștia din urmă să pună preț pe informațiile vehiculate – tocmai pentru că cei doi știu la ce să se aștepte unul de la celălalt, în timp ce chiar ‘onctuozitatea’ limbajului diplomatic menține trează vigilența celor care îl folosesc. ‘Oare ce a vrut să spună cu adevărat?’ ‘Câte dintre vorbele lui au fost sincere și câte au fost spuse doar pentru a-mi face mie plăcere?’

Bine, bine… foarte interesantă ‘pregătirea asta de artilerie’… dar ce-ar fi să revii la cestiune? Care-i legătura dintre barbologia asta savantă și ‘interesele politice’ pe care te-ai pornit să contruiești colțul ăsta de realitate virtuală?

Șmecheria este că barbologia asta are sens doar dacă ambii interlocutori sunt cu adevărat conștienți despre ceea ce se întâmplă în jurul lor. Dacă amândoi interpretează la fel cuvintele care zboară dintr-o parte în alta.
Dacă unul dintre ei este setat pe modul diplomatic iar celălalt crede că episodul de comunicare face parte din cotidian… s-ar putea ca realitatea nou creată să fie atât de depărtată de cea precedentă încât să nu existe prea multă congruență între cele două…

Revenind la interesul de moment – acela de a concluziona într-un fel barbologia de astăzi, să despuiem ‘interesele politice’ de vălurile diplomatice care funcționeză ca niște perdele de fum.
Vorbind pe șleau, ‘interese politice’ este un eufemism folosit de ziariști pentru a spune, în mod politicos, “interese de partid”. Și mai precis, “interese înguste de partid”.’Profesioniștii în comunicare’ folosesc această locuțiune din nevoia de a păstra o relație funcțională cu partidele, din servilism sau, poate, pentru că ‘sună mai bine’.

Indiferent de motiv, prejudiciul adus comunității – în întregul ei, este enorm.

Repetat ad nauseam, termenul induce în conștiința populară sentimentul că politica este ‘o curvă’.
Iar când spun ‘conștiință populară’ mă refer la toată populația. Y compris întreaga clasă politică – că doar de pe malurile Senei ne-am învățat să “umblăm cu cioara vopsită”.

cioara vopsita

Oamenii de ‘rând’ s-au lăsat convinși că politica este o chestie extrem de murdară – așă că se țin departe de ea, în timp ce politicienilor – adică cei cărora nu le e frică de mizerie, li se pare din ce în ce mai normal să continue așa cum sau obișnuit deja.

Vorbeam undeva mai sus despre o lipsă de congruență. O din ce în ce mai acută lipsă de congruență.
Clasa politică este detașată de restul oamenilor. Adică realitățile în care trăiesc fiecare dintre aceste două categorii au din ce în ce mai puține lucruri în comun.

Cu toate că distanța dintre cele două realități a apărut ca urmare a ‘eforturilor’ – sau a ‘neglijenței’?, ambelor categorii de oameni…

Astazi am fost in vizita la o multinationala.

Care s-a mutat de curand intr-un sediu nou. Si destul de elegant.
Nu atat de elegant incat clientii sa-si puna problema ca banii lor ar fi aruncati pe apa sambetei ci doar atat de elegant incat sa te simti bine atunci cand te duci sa-ti platesti factura.
Sau sa intrebi una si alta.

Am ajuns pe la vreo 8 si ceva. Office hours de la 7:30. Pentru cine nu vede bine, sapte impartit la treizeci. Ora Romaniei!
Bineinteles ca eram singurul client.
Atat de singur incat atunci cand am intrat pe usa, angajatele s-au raspandit precum potarnichile…

Ajung eu la casa, care e chiar langa usa, … ma holbez la un scaun gol… si incep sa sper ca macar una dintre ‘potarnichi’ va ajunge sa se aseze pe scaunul respectiv.
Dupa vreo 15-20 de secunde se aude o voce. Din spatele unei coloane. Care se afla dincolo de ‘tejgheaua’ dintre mine si scaunul cel gol. Vocea vorbea la telefon. Ceva banal, intr-o tonalitate foarte degajat-familiara.
Trag si un un ‘buna-ziua’. Destul de apasat, in speranta ca posesoarea vocii va afla de prezenta mea.
‘Ma scuzati’ spuse vocea si, imediat dupa aceea, posesoarea se retrage inapoi dupa coloana.
Conversatia mai dureaza vreo doua minute, fara sa fie atinse cine ce subiecte arzatoare. Vreo inundatie de la vecinul de sus, vre-un copil cu rosu-n gat… nimic de genul asta.

-Vreti sa platiti factura?
-Daca oi avea ceva de platit… nu am primit nici o factura de mai mult de o luna.
-Sa ma uit… nu aveti nimic de plata, nu a fost emisa nici o factura.
-Cum vine asta?
-Nu stiu, asta intrebati alaturi, la colega mea.
-Aveti un sediu ca la Paris.
-Se poate, eu n-am fost acolo.
-Mai ramane sa va invete sa va purtati ca la Paris.
-Pai mi-am cerut scuze, nu? Vorbeam cu sefa mea!
-Cu atat mai mult ar fi trebuit sa-i spuneti ca a intrat un client si ca veti reveni dupa ce pleaca. Orice sef ar aprecia chestia asta!

Mi-am dat seama ce prostie imensa am spus chiar inainte ca ecoul vorbelor mele sa se fi stins.
“Ma scuzati” fusese rostit tare si direct in microfon. Sefa respectiva nu avea cum sa nu fi auzit….
Sa ma fi mintit casiera? Vorbea cu altcineva?

Ma duc la colega de alaturi si o intreb care e situatia.
Ma gaseste, se uita si imi confirma:
-Nu a fost emisa factura.
-Asta stiu deja de la colega dumneavoastra. As vrea sa stiu si de ce.
-Nu stiu, ma duc sa intreb.
Inainte de a apuca sa plece, fizic!, am un moment de inspiratie.
-Dupa cate stiu, ultima factura a fost facuta pe baza unui consum estimat, nu pe baza unei citiri.
Se intoarce, se mai uita un pic si:
-Aveti dreptate, indexul citit acum 10 zile este inca mai mic decat cel pe care vi l-au trecut, dupa estimare, pe factura de acum o luna si jumatate.

-Multumesc. La revedere.
-La revedere.

Ce bine e sa lucrezi la o companie, cat se poate de ‘privata’ – asta este chiar unul dintre subdomeniile ei de activitate, care exploateaza un monopol natural…

 

Fake news

“Federal lawmakers on Wednesday released samples of 3,000 Facebook ads purchased by Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential campaign. The ads conveyed the wide range of influence Russian-linked groups tried to enact on Americans…”

Let’s zoom out in order to gain some perspective over all this.

Fake news are defined by Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries as “false reports of events, written and read on websites“.

The way I see it, “fake news” have a lot in common with counterfeit currency.
In more ways than one!

First of all, most money in current use is ‘fiat money’.
We are dealing with either printed pieces of paper or otherwise useless pieces of metal.
We ‘trust’ them for trading purposes simply because we are convinced that the institution which stand behind them – Central Banks, free(ish) markets and law enforcement, will do what they are meant to do. We trust that the Central Banks will not print too many of those pieces of paper, that the free(ish) markets will set a reasonable price to everything and that the police will manage to weed out (most of) those who try to circulate fake money.
Not even a return to ‘real’ money – a.k.a. gold,  wouldn’t insulate us from crooks. Gold coins can be, and had been, tampered with in so many ways. Human greed is a very powerful motivator but not necessarily a good mentor.

Which brings us to the reason for why fake money came to be.
Simply because some ‘industrious’ people ‘make’ them and some other, equally greedy, people knowingly distribute them.

In conclusion, we wouldn’t have to deal with fake money if money wasn’t essential for an efficient free market and we would have a lot less of it if greed were not such a widespread attitude. And no, a cash-less economy would not solve the problem. A printing press is no longer essential for faking money. Hacking skills have become  a good enough substitute.

Let’s translate this rationale to (fake) news.

We need to know what’s going on around us so we’ve developed an equivalent to the financial system. The mass media.
Which has a more or less equivalent set of ‘guardians’.
The ‘printers’ are responsible for the equivalence between their ‘product’ and the reality it represents while the market (readers, that is) is responsible for ‘setting the price’.

Of course, there are also differences.
‘Law enforcement’ has indeed a role to play in the news industry but its scope is a lot narrower than in the first case. And rightfully so. The ‘information’ market needs to be a lot more ‘flexible’ than the one dealing in ‘economic goods’. There’s a lot to discuss on this subject, I’ll leave it here.
There’s also no Central Bank to ‘tug at the sleeves’ of those who ‘jump the shark’.

As a consequence of these two differences, the ‘counterfeiters’ have an easier life and the consumers/victims a far greater responsibility for what’s going on. Simply because the consumers/potential victims cannot rely on any third party to do their job. To sniff out the ‘bad thing’.

But what if ‘it’s the thief who plays the victim’?
That very much depends on who the ‘thief’ is!

Let’s go back in time for a short while.
First to the American Revolutionary War. During which the British attempted to crash the American economy by injecting in it enough counterfeit money to cause hyperinflation. “No economy, no more war.” The British did manage to produce and distribute a huge amount of fake money yet the outcome was not the intended one. “Even when at one point the amount of counterfeit currency in circulation may have exceed the amount of legitimate currency, the economy hung on by its eye teeth and never fully collapsed.”
One and a half centuries later, the British had found themselves at the receiving end of the same game. “…during World War II the Nazis almost destroyed the credibility of the British pound sterling by producing near-perfect forgeries, The Telegraph reports. By the end of the war the forgeries were so rife that Bank of England notes would not be accepted by any neutral country on the Continent “except at a very large discount…”.
Hitler was even less successful than the British had been but the inflicted injuries were huge nonetheless.
Now, would Hitler have attempted this on his own, without the British establishing a precedent?
We’ll never know… Sufficient to say that the US has also used fake money, obviously fake this time. For propaganda reasons and not as an attempt to ‘crash the economies’ of the countries they were fighting.

To close the circle, we must ask ourselves how successful would Putin’s trolls have been if Trump wouldn’t have beaten so hard the ‘birther’ drum…

Seriously now, propaganda is a very efficient weapon. Maybe more efficient than guns.
But, and in total contrast with a gun, propaganda is useless against really determined people.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me” is true. But only as long as those being called names are in the right state of mind. As soon as they start feeling hurt, all hell comes loose.

If you think of it, Trump’s birther campaign, fake as it was – he had admitted that much, eventually, was a very successful ‘fake news campaign’. It had established Donald Trump as  shrewd  media manipulator.
Unfortunately, it had an even worse outcome. It had very much helped those who wanted the American public split into warring parties.

And who are now pushing these parties further and further apart.

PS. While researching for this post, I found out that “fake news” has been declared ‘word of the year’ for 2017. A fitting development… last year’s ‘champion’ was “post truth”…
What next? Doublethink?

Yeah, right…

boogeyman

Like each time after you’ve just finished eating it, the Boogey Person will come out of nowhere and rip it out of your stomach!

This is a stub.
Thinking meat is how Alan Winfield described the human brain in a HARDtalk interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n3ct2km5

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/10/artificial-intelligence-will-not-become-a-frankensteins-monster-ian-winfield

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ffv2l

Cica pe lumea asta sunt doua feluri de legi.

Cele care formalizeaza realitatea de pe teren.
Legea gravitatiei, de exemplu.
Sau Codul Penal. Societatile care respecta un cod penal bine pus la punct o duc mult mai bine decat cele ai caror membri isi fura caciulile intre ei.

Si legile care incearca sa adapteze realitatea la dorintele celor ce pot sa le emita. Nu are nici o importanta daca legile respective sunt adoptate democratic – legea anti-fumat, de exemplu, sau impuse de un autocrat – codul civil al lui Napoleon.

Legile

Plato, without actually saying so, was planning to ‘kill’ it.
A society run by his king-priests would have been ‘perfect’. Hence in no need of improvement. Not exactly dead but how would you describe something that doesn’t change in time? Anything but alive, right? And since ‘no change’ means ‘no history’…

Four centuries later, Jesus Christ had warned us about the ‘Final Countdown‘. Last Judgement, sorry. But what difference does it make? Final… Last…

Fast forward to the XIXth century, when Karl Marx was breathing new life into Plato’s ideas.
The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.” (Karl Marx et al, Manifesto of the Communist Party),
Which very able and extremely wise communists were supposed to solve all past, present and future problems through a very simple measure. Abolition of private property and of the state needed to protect such property.
And since not everybody was yet ready to receive ‘the good news’, the communists were given a free hand to use revolutionary force in order to accomplish what they had to do.

To finally bring order to the World. To end history, that is.

Am I thick headed or the difference between Marx’s and Plato’s words is small enough to be insignificant?

You have again forgotten, my friend, said I, that the law is not concerned with the special happines of any class in the state, but is trying to produce this condition in the city as a whole, harmonizing and adapting the citizens to one another by persuasion and compulsion, and requiring them to impart to one another any benefit which they are severally able to bestow upon the community, and that it itself creates such men in the state, not that it may allow each to take what course pleases him, but with a view to using them to the binding together of the commonwealth.” (Plato, Collected Dialogues, The Cave)

A short century later, another optimist announced that ‘now, after the communist gulag had finally imploded, liberal democracy – a system flexible enough to absorb/solve any input/problem – will take over the entire planet. And, of course, bring over “The End of History” “.

Three decades later things are going on, as if nothing had happened.

There are still plenty rulers who behave as if “L’etat c’est moi” was coined yesterday and, even more sadly, too many people who look up to them.

The end of history has been postponed. Indefinitely.

 

We were discussing ‘worst possible scenarios’ on Facebook and somebody mentioned ‘climate change’.
I must add here that the exchange was ‘framed’ by ‘skin in the game‘, a concept used by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his rather don-quixotic quest for more responsible decision makers.

OK, the whole domain of climate change is riddled with epistemological holes.
Linear models are used to approximate processes we barely know anything about.
‘Starting points’ have been, again and again, been proven wrong.
I could go on for hours.

I’ll make a small parenthesis here and inform you that according to a fresh study things might be far worse than we’ve reckoned. This paper, published by Nature.com, suggests that Earth’s oceans used to be far cooler than we’ve previously thought they were.

In this context, one of the participants made the following remark:
the burden (of proof) should fall on those calling for changes, for the rather obvious reason that we could suggest changes all day long. Only a few can be implemented.

Hard to argue with that, right?

But which changes are we talking about here?

A change in our manner of interacting with Mother Nature?
Costly, indeed, financial wise, but nowadays technologically possible.

Or about the changes we’ve already – unwittingly, most of them, imposed upon our ‘spaceship’?

We’ve dramatically changed the ‘use of land’. Agriculture and transport – yes, roads and railways have a huge impact – have changed the very nature of what’s going on on a considerable portion of the Earth’s surface.
We’ve dramatically changed the composition of the atmosphere. And I’m not talking about CO2 yet. CFCs, pesticides, NOx and SOx gases, etc., etc….
And, last but not least, we’ve reversed a trend which had been going on for hundreds of millions of years. Photosynthesis used to transform atmospheric CO2 into organic matter, some of which has been steadily accumulated as coal and crude oil.

So, about which changes should we worry first?

Or, in SITG terms, whose skin should bear the brunt of change?

Ours or our children’s?

“Between 1970 and 2010, the number of administrators in health care grew more than 3000%, while the number of physicians grew about 200%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that same 40 years, U.S. health-care spending rose 2300%. Doctors’ fees account for only 8 cents of the health care dollar. Where do you think the other 92 cents are going?”  (Marni Jameson Carey, Focus on Health Coverage Misses the Point, Forbes.com, Oct 24, 2017)

A few years ago I was arguing that profit was overrated.
It seems that Forbes, a magazine which cannot be accused of any socialist tendencies, has reached a somewhat similar conclusion.

Even more interesting is the solution proposed by Forbes to the health care problem.

A return to the free market!

Free from what? Who says the American health care market is not free?
Well, click on the quote above and see what Forbes has to say about this…

But what happened? How did we get here?

Well, the free market described by Adam Smith was an environment where people used to fulfill their needs by selling their wares.
The butcher sold meat and bought everything else he needed, the brewer sold beer and bought everything else he needed, the baker… and so on!
OK, there  was a certain kind of competition which kept the things in check. The butchers competed against other butchers, the brewers…
And because of this competition, all traders – those who wanted to survive, anyway – streamlined their operations and became more and more efficient. Hence profitable.

I mentioned the link between the survival of a commercial enterprise and its ability to generate profit.
Apparently, it doesn’t make much sense to elaborate on this. Bear with me, please.

The whole point of the free market is the division of labor. Besides its freedom, of course.
Each of us does what he knows better and then we trade our respective wares. This way all of us fare better than if each of us would have had to produce everything each of us needs to survive.
In this scenario, competition – between ‘bakers’, for example – is actually a tool which makes it so that the market, as a whole, doesn’t waste resources. When the less efficient bakers are ‘encouraged’ to find something else to do, the entire market is better off. And so on.
In this sense, profit is only one indicator – and a very good one – of how able to survive is a certain commercial venture. But not the only goal of the entrepreneur who started/runs the enterprise. What he wants is to make an as good as possible living by doing what he knows best, in close collaboration with the other participants to the free market.

Adam Smith had written his books some two and a half centuries ago.
And the free market had served us well, for a while.
Just look at what we’ve accomplished in these two and a half centuries.

But, just as Forbes points out, things are no longer going in the right direction.

Why?

Simply because the market is no longer free!

Not only because some of the participants have become ‘heavy’ enough to crush all competition. This is only the lesser part of the problem.
The really big one, and so well hidden that it’s almost invisible, is that too many of us have become obsessed with the same thing. Money!

Life-of-modern-people

Profit has become THE absolute goal of everything we do. Too many of those who participate in the free market no longer want to collaborate with the others but simply want to get rich. By any (legal) means.

Some say this is a good thing.
They invoke Adam Smith’s words as a justification for their beliefs.

I beg to differ.

The simple existence of our current obsession has profoundly altered the very nature of the market. Which is no longer free.

Because WE are no longer free. When too many of us are obsessively concentrated on the same thing, they will necessarily disregard all other options. And the rest have no other option but to follow.

This is not freedom!

Mesmerized people can not be described, by outside observers, as being free.
Regardless of how they consider themselves.