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"It's not what we don't know that's the problem, it's what we know that ain't so." Attributed to Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and others. (The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations, 1987, suggests Josh Billings. He'll do.)
[ I've tried to articulate my half-baked thoughts on topic a couple of times already, and it's not quite coming together. Oh ,well. ]
No one is truly an original thinker- and those who get too original in their thoughts and expressions don't do well in society. What we accept as original thinking (I see this as distinct from formal logic, scientific or other empirical discoveries) is mostly the putting together of established idioms and something to react to into a new-sounding sentence.
There's a benefit, as well as a cost, to conventional thought and expression. The benefit is, you fit in with other people who are talking. Folks on Fox News sound like folks on Fox News; those on MSNBC, etc. Sportscasters use an idiom, some of them very well. So does everyone. There's nothing usually wrong with that.
The cost in incurred when we allow our common frames of reference and expression to get in the way of either finding something new to say, or when it impinges on our ability to change our minds in the face of new data.
Thinking about this recession may provide an example. Given the ideas of the Chicago School of Economics, the employment numbers should be patiently waited for. They are thought of as a "lagging indicator" and the eventual rising tide of production, and new businesses, will bring up the number. Those are expressions of a certain school of conventional opinion.
On the other hand, there are features of this recession we've not encountered before in our lifetimes. Not only may the Chicago School be wrong about important things -- Krugman certainly thinks they are -- but assuming that the conventional wisdom holds in this circumstance may be very costly indeed.
It seems to me that the United States has been, for many years, a status quo power and a middle-class country. Given our adventures in the MIddle East, and given the hollowing-out of the middle class (and massive expansion of the wealth at the top), arguably neither of these are true (except in legacy-thinking, i.e. conventional speech).
"Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth." - Mark Twain, Following the Equator.
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I just felt like writing that headline.
OK, here is a little more, just to try these half-baked ideas on.
I've read or skimmed all the most significant amicii on the ASA for Google Books which were filed yesterday. (By "most significant" I mean strictly, the ones I heard about which I felt like reading; I think I am not alone in feeling my degree of interest exhausted by this whole business.)
- Both contain good ideas which help public policy interests, but whose popularity has suffered through a long-drawn out process.
- Both serve private interests, and arguably also serve a public interest. The action is all in that "arguably." Some folks are arguing that their private interest ox is being gored. Others that their public interest ox is suffering a similar gory fate. Jeremy Bentham etc. notwithstanding, such calculus is hard to make with a reasonable degree of confidence.
- Both envision a change to the status quo, and we find it easier to pre-perceive loss and risk in such imaginary worlds than to envision gain and benefit. This is a fact about our minds, not a fact about politics (except inasmuch as our minds inform politics).
I do come down on the issue somewhere on both of these questions, but that preference is not my present point. What I am saying at the moment is: Hey, in the abstract, look at what they have in common!
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"Following the failed Christmas Day bombing, the U.S. has flooded Yemen with intelligence resources and stepped up military strikes from the air against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, officials said. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will release a report today warning about radicalized American citizens operating in the country."
 Horses, pls shut the Barn Door on your way out.
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So, what have we learned? Well, Jon Keller, ARE we still the Bluest State? We'll see tonight.
Here are some learnings to be had, whatever comes down this eve:
- Don't take things for granted
- Run like the devil was chasing you
- Don't depend on the nationals to bail you out
- Relentlessly explain how your values meet those of the electorate you seek
- Out-organize them...
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Berkshire Eagle: Lenox breathes life into wind turbine plan
"The town of Lenox is showing renewed interest in a plan to put wind turbines on municipal land, the Berkshire Eagle reports. "
[So here's my question. Why is this so hard? The Cape Wind people have been driven from pillar to post, and for what? Everybody knows that wind is better than coal. Given rising demand, you can't have less coal until you have more something else. The something else has to go somewhere. But whenever a somewhere is proposed, the locals in my fair state find some way to shoot it down. C'mon People! Get serious! ]
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