As I sit here on a Friday morning watching Thursday Night Football a phenomenon comes to mind that I believe does not receive its proper attention. I believe this partly because now that I am past the years when I had the physical capacity to participate in most sports, I think there should be new ones. Not to say we need to invent new ones, I just think things we already do should be viewed as sport. To give you an example of one at which I believe I have surpassed amateur standing, let's talk about crastination. Forget about amateur crastination, I want to talk about professional crastination. There oughta be a league!
Using myself and today as a tailor-made example, I see plenty of resorts lined up for this day before I get to my last one, the pile of marking I have to do. And if I may wax metaphorical, I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping, while my guitar gently weeps. I look at my bed and I see it needs sleeping, while my guitar gently weeps. I look at my house and I see it needs keeping, still my guitar gently weeps. I look at my thoughts and I see they need... deep'ning? Yes and still my guitar gently weeps.
I'm pretty sure my guitar's gonna be gently weeping all day today. I'll do up the dishes, probably throw on a load of laundry, sweep the floor, maybe even wash it, dust, I've been meaning to try a new broccoli and chicken casserole, that'll require a trip to the market for supplies, and hey, just got a letter from Mom, maybe that means Korea Post is cooperating with Canada Post again and I can write her back. But things like these "first resorts" would only qualify as amateur crastinating. I can do better than that. As a pro, I have plenty of second resorts, third resorts, and even beyond that could be applied before arriving at my last resort, my work that needs to be done.
It's been a while since I've done maintenance on my computer. Also, staying with technology, I have to find out the password for my NON 5G wifi so I can use it on my new 4G phone instead of only using data. My computer and my old phone use the 5G, for which I know the password. And while I'm at it, I COULD go to a Samsung maintenance center and just get a new battery and get my sim card, along with all of my phone information, put back onto the old phone since the new phone can't do a lot of the things my old phone could. And, of course, this would require answering all the emergency messages from all of my regular websites telling me that there was a sign in from a new device, and changing, and recording the changes of, every password that must be changed. Then I'd have to write down, and promptly misplace, all of the new passwords. Afterwards, I'd try, and undoubtedly fail, to return the cheap-ass, low quality, probable knock-off of a phone I bought for what seemed like a fantastically low price. And since I bought my phone in Pyeongtaek, and since I also visited a doctor in Pyeontaek for pinkeye, twice, and got medicine, twice, that didn't work, twice, I could go in for round three. That's been making sleeping and waking up a bit harder and messier for a few months now. 7 different eye drops and 5 kinds of pills and it's hanging in there!
I could go into Seoul, the place I do my banking because they have a special place for foreigner banking that offers tellers who speak English well. My new credit card isn't working and I'm getting messages from the credit card company, in Korean, that I can't understand. I KNOW I COULD put them into Google Translate, but that is one of the many things my crappy new phone can't do. The reason I want to do this is because the chair I have, that I am sitting on now, is hard on my lower back and since I am working from home and using it an awful lot, I really want to get a good computer chair. One MADE for long-term use. Like a gamer chair. The best place to get something like that in Korea is online. But my card doesn't work. To make matters more of an ordeal, cuz that's the way she goes, my card is fine. It's just a complicated card certification and registration process that most sites in Korea require for credit card usage, and I am nowhere near proficient enough in the Korean language to tackle that. So I could go all the way to Seoul to get the bank teller to do all that for me. I could also study Korean, but that would probably qualify as a second to last resort.
While in Seoul, I could get some dental work done. Or maybe a massage. Might help my sore back. I'll definitely visit the foreign food stores and probably have a beer at some regular places with the regulars at those places. My shoes are wearing out too so I probably should go to some areas, and they are by NO means easy to find for a guy with wide feet like mine, where they sell shoes made for non-Korean sized feet.
Friends could be visited, sights could be seen, trips could be taken. For a pro, Covid shouldn't limit that crastination much.
Orrrrr... I could write a long blog post, leaving all that constructive crastination undone like the consummate professional I am. And now for the highly strained segue into the topics I am following that necessitated a chest-unburdening blogpost today, I've noticed some other pro crastination that might not be viewed as such.
While I am right behind the American drive to oust the current president and replace him with almost anyone, and, make no mistake, I see Joe Biden as fully fitting the bill of "almost anyone," I have concerns. My concerns are the same ones I've had for Canadian politics and world politics since the time, somewhere late in my university days, I really began to understand politicking for the professional crastination it actually is. Maybe it takes a pro to recognize a pro. At least that is my seemingly negative, but in actuality, highly optimistic political point of view. Let me splain. No, is too much. Let me sum up.
There are two courses for humanity - harmony or doom. I believe, maybe against all my better judgment, and definitely against signs the world over, that we are destined for a world in which of necessity we practice principled, scrupulous, meritorious behaviour across the board. I foolishly believe that this is possible through cooperation. Maybe the best word for it I've heard is "Ubuntu."
Compare the meme above to the American teacher who used the "chocolate scramble" to illustrate savage capitalism and how it compares to refined and orderly socialism. The selfish, who want more than everyone else, and more to the point, who think they DESERVE more than everyone else, are the only disappointed students when chocolates are handed out evenly. Outside the classroom a highly concentrated form of capitalism is practiced in which people are directly and indirectly killed for the "chocolate" of the world's wealth. Yet, the fear of the far more civilized system has been fostered by politics over the years. That has, indeed, been one of its main purposes. Just say the word "socialism" and Americans, like so many Pavlovian dogs, think of Russia, China or Venezuela, countries where socialism is blamed for drastic failures. They won't think of Scandinavian countries, Canada, or even THE U.S.A., where socialist principles have succeeded. It's probably the word. Maybe Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could get elected if they formed a new political party called the Ubuntu Party. Any state that chose them would be called a "green" state.
Sadly, it seems that in countries with the most wealth, greed is more prevalent, and politics, with its primary purpose of protecting the opulent classes and thereby legislating division, is an impediment to our international evolution. Regardless of whether we have the monstrous leadership of Trump, or the monstrous-light leadership of anyone else, the problem is the system. Voting is supporting the system, thereby perpetuating it and keeping us from doing what we should be doing. Voting IS professional crastination. And what I see coming in a couple of weeks is something that may have been cleverly planned for years for all we know. Trump will be crushed and America will give the credit to the vote, something that had been evolving out, and rightfully so.
Is it possible that after Americans suffered through the presidency of Bush the younger, who they didn't vote in, and a long string of disappointing leaders before that who did so little of what they'd promised, that the whole country was losing faith in their "democracy" and their votes? And, as you can tell from my quotation marks, I think they were right. In the past 4 elections, voter turnout has been around 55%. Or at least, that's what we're told. No possible way of verifying that, but let's move on. No matter how that was divided between the ruling parties, let's say 27.5% Republican and 27.5% Democrat, if just two thirds of the 45% of non-voters decided on ANY third party, like the Ubuntu Party, or worse, some wildly popular private interest party, the Chinese American party or the Marijuana Smokers of America Party for instance, that party would have a great chance to win! And that is absolute disaster for the politicians from the two parties who've ruled the U.S. for so long. Why do you think the Chinese Communist Party puts people in jail for practicing Falun Gong? It's too popular. And for that matter, why do you think so many Chinese people are living in Canada? Watch out for the Chinese Party of Canada. I'm not kidding!
So would it be absurd to suspect that the Dems and Republicans collaborated to save their careers? They needed to re-establish faith in the vote (and while at it, maybe have a villainous presidency during which many of the bills the opulent class paid so much money to be turned into laws are hammered through) so wouldn't it be a good compromise to let the GOP have 4 years of Trump's shoring up of all the corporate legislation and tax breaks and whatnot, while in exchange creating heroes of the mediocre at best Democratic reps that will follow, all while re-legitimizing the vote and the fake democracy that postpones the evolution of America into the proper democracy the majority has longed for since the country's inception?
How many people on the supreme court? Nine. Did you know that Trump, a president who received a reported (and again there's really no way we should believe this) 46.1% of the popular vote, and again that's of the 55% who voted, so that means 25.3% of the voters in the U.S., has put 3 of them there? Let's assume quite accurately that all three of them will do exactly what he wants, with a quarter of the actual U.S. voters' support, he's now got a third of every supreme court decision... for LIFE!
To make matters worse, here's what I think happened: Bernie Sanders supporters, who really WERE the deserving winners of the DNC vote and probably the presidency in 2016, got pissed off when Bernie got shafted by the Democratic party, a party that proved their NON-democratic nature by overlooking the clear favourite for their party leadership and using "SUPERcandidates" to try to force (gender equality?) a woman into the Whitehouse. So many of the angry Bernie supporters either didn't vote, or gave their mutinous party a big fuck you by voting for Trump, who, come on, let's face it, has no possible chance of winning. This and probably a little Russian interference won the day for Trump. Or, didn't, but with the electoral college...
Even though this year Bernie AGAIN was the true Democratic rep, he got shafted again all because of the national blind spot when it comes to this scary word, socialism, and Biden won't do as well as Bernie would have, the same thing won't happen again and Biden will still win. And still, in my opinion, in a crushing landslide. But all this will do is postpone the proper trajectory of American politics further. I think the time has come to vote on ideas, not people.
Now immediately, like so many Pavlovian dogs, people will jump to the proper arguments: "Why, that's just not cost-effective." "Not everybody will be represented and that's CLEARLY not a problem with the current system. ahem." "It's logistically not possible!" Ummm yes, it is, yes, it is, and yes, it is. Again, all of these arguments were established long ago to protect the prime objective of politics: to maintain the rule of the opulent class. But all of these arguments have been rendered spurious by technology.
Let me ask you this: If the election is challenged, and it will be, no matter how big a landslide, and the decision reaches the supreme court, which by then will have 3 Bushes, 2 Obamas, a Clinton and 3 Trumps, what do you think will happen? Let me also ask you, given the mockery of democracy that supreme court stacking, not to mention house and senate stacking, super-candidates, the electoral college, massive under-representation, and perennially impotent candidates have made, what kind of a world class professional crastinator do you have to be to put off the comprehensive system reboot that is so drastically overdue?
And don't be mislead by the above, the majority of the political decisions made that are horribly against what the majority of people in today's "democracies" would vote for, if they could, are made without the knowledge of the people upon whom those decisions have the greatest effect.
This pro crastination is extended year after year by a small number of filthy rich scumbags who just want it to continue until they have claimed all of the resources of the world for themselves... at the vast expense and most likely the demise of the rest of mankind and possibly even the planet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm going to glory in the embarrassing defeat of that turd sandwich who is the current president, but what I'm not going to be happy about is people breaking voting records and being encouraged by what they can do with their vote when they get the better leadership of Biden/Harris in the Whitehouse. This will further put off the even stronger encouragement in what they can do with their vote if it were properly placed on issues and not highly flawed people.
But... maybe someday the world'll get around to it. If the greedy take that long to destroy the whole world. I guess we'll see...
I told the blogger above that I'd done a similar experiment and had to access my old blog to post it for her. While doing so I got a bit nostalgic and started reading old posts. I actually found a blog entry of mine from 2006 that I think I should tack onto the end of this. Yeah, I've been blogging for 14 years! I actually DID the Hershey's Kiss experiment with my HUFS classes too and got very GOOD results meaning most weren't selfish and realized that if they worked together, they'd get unlimited Kisses. Here's the post:
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Progress?
"The Wise Woman's Stone" A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone." Author Unknown
Those are ALWAYS author unknown stories! Probly because the author wasn't selfish enough to publish it for personal profit.
My topic today my little cheeky monkies is selfishness. Or really selflessness, and how the further we "progress" as a species, the further behind we leave it. And before you cast any stones, I'm thoroughly guilty of selfishness myself. I count it as my worst vice, yet am perfectly happy to try to practice selflessness passively. I'll do unto others... if the opportunity should arise.
Excuse me whilst I wax religious: The golden rule is not so much a trite tidbit of advice we should think of occasionally, but a commandment that, being golden, should be foremost in the lives of good people. I believe there is a golden rule in all religion that is pretty much the same, and indeed this is a sentiment I have found to be innate in all good people religious or not. No matter how it's said, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." is the answer to all the world's problems. If we could all just DO it, we wouldn't need Heaven. Or for that matter, Hell. Or Nirvana or Valhalla or Enlightenment or the thousand virgin party or whatever.
I found Kasia's wise woman story to be a pretty good test of how good a person I am. And I failed miserably. If a person is able to even imagine the woman being happier to have given the stone to the man than the man at having received it, that person is well on his/her way to being good, heavenly, enlightened, or whatever. While I was reading it I was saying, "No, no, no! What kind of a jerk asks for a gem from a woman who is kind enough to offer him food? He doesn't deserve the gem!" I found myself thinking, "How phony is this? What woman would part with a valuable gem, much less give one to a stranger?" I was even guilty of thinking, "HAH! Of course it's a WOMAN who gives the MAN the stone! And a WOMAN who sent it to me! Womanly wiles! Delete, delete, delete!" I certainly am not enlightened enough to understand how the woman could be the happier of the two after giving away something so valuable. What did YOU think when you read it? More to the point, what do you suppose led you to think that way?
I was recently watching 20/20 on my beloved AFKN and there was a story of a middle school teacher in the States somewhere who did a little social experiment in her classes. She divided her students into groups and gave them a jar full of Hershey's Kisses. She gave the jar to one member of each group and told him/her to take as many as he/she wanted and to pass it on. After all members got the same chance, the number of Kisses left in the jar would be doubled and they could do it again. So if they had six Kisses left, the teacher would give them six more and they could pass the jar around again. The teacher said that none of the groups had any remaining Kisses and most groups had one or more members who got no Kisses at all. The group members were thinking less about doing unto others and more about what they would have done unto them.
Now it could be argued that if they had thought long-term and stretched it out for several rounds, they could all have several jars full of Kisses and that THIS is the more selfish thinking. I disagree. I think "get all you can NOW" is the worst kind of selfishness and that's what is killing our planet. And, with all due respect to my American buddies, I haven't heard about this test being successfully replicated in other countries around the world. But then again, maybe it could be. What has brought us to this point? And can whatever has brought us to this point be accurately called "progress"?
Anyone ever heard of Martin Frobisher? He was an English explorer who visited the arctic in Elizabethan times. He found the "savages" living there to have some very "crude" and "uncivilized" customs. For instance, they had no concept of ownership. Anyone could borrow anything from anyone else, including wives, without being expected to repay it. Frobisher's crew had a field day with this custom. They took all kinds of Inuit goods and inventions like furs, kayaks, sleighs, mukluks etc. with no concern about how well the people could survive without them. They even picked an Inuit man, kayak and all, out of the water beside the ship and brought him back to England where they GAVE him to the queen as a present. He was treated like a well loved pet. Elizabeth enjoyed watching him hunt swans on the Avon in his kayak. He eventually died, (of a COLD for crying out loud!), far away from his family and his "uncivilized" land where many of his friends and family died off due largely to inequities in trade with the British.
The other natives in Canada had no concept of ownership when white men arrived either. Over the years they sure have smartened up haven't they? While I was living in Thunder Bay about 10 years ago, my neighbour, a native guy, unlocked my bike and took it. His wife had their car. I was almost late for work when he returned with the bike. I was really mad and told him he could borrow it any time but he had to ask me first. He challenged me to a fight because he thought I was saying he had stolen it. If I wasn't late for work, I may have taken him up on the fight offer. But I didn't. I just took the bike and rode it to work. I was late. Then one night my roommate and I were having a noisy party and guess who came over to complain about US infringing on his house owner's rights?
And then there's Ann Coulter talking about how some 911 widows are complaining about government officials, police, firefighters etc. all for personal gain. It seems to me if Ann Coulter is buying up 1.5 million dollar condos and 1.8 million dollar homes, maybe she's complaining about these women for her own personal gain. If she really just wanted to get her message out; if she really believed in it; if she really wanted to be like Jesus; she wouldn't charge for the books and may even leak the stories out like the story of the woman and the stone: author unknown.
The lyrics of an old song written by Kerry Livgren of the group Kansas come to mind.
Progress! We are marching backward,
Progress! as the captains of our fate.
Progress! We are marching backward,
Progress! We destroy and annihilate.
I'd better write a letter to my Gramma, or give some money to the poor, or send my sister some wedding cash, or do something nice in complete anonymity for somebody else today. I'm gonna try to give someone a precious stone. I think that's what the signs are telling me.
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