Isn't interesting how thoughts just arise out of nowhere? All too frequently, I happily observe this endless bubbling up of random ideas, half-baked notions, and the occasional valuable insight. I thought I'd share with you what goes on upstairs, hope I don't thoroughly embarrass myself. 1. I'm increasingly worried about the behaviors I see in the classroom. My sense is that too many children are not the priority that they should be for their parents. I believe ever-present devices, social media (especially for the girls) and access to deeply inappropriate material is profoundly harming children all over the world. Additionally, given the acting out, inability to concentrate, and all too frequent disrespect, teachers desperately need to be taught how to manage a classroom. I'm a 6'5" male, with almost 20 years experience, and I struggle. It's THAT HARD TO MAINTAIN ORDER, and I'm in the suburbs! 2. The Clash were the greatest cover band ever as evidenced by I Fought The Law, Police On My Back, Police and Thieves, Brand New Cadillac, Junco Partner, and Time Is Tight. 3. The simple pleasures really are the most meaningful: conversations with loved ones, reading, Mexican food, and music. Playing gracefully with ideas, or playing not so gracefully with them! I derive enormous pleasure each weekend as I drink copious cups of coffee reading the Economist and the secular humanist magazine, Free Inquiry. My younger sense would be shaking his head thinking, WTF happened to me! 4. The DBIS, thanks to Dan, has made me a better writer and therefore a better thinker! It's comforting to know you all, you too, Mick, really! No honestly, Mick! And to tap into DB's interests, very cool. 5. Collecting facts, including statistics, has made life more enriching. I've filled 8 spiral notebooks with article summaries, statistics, quotes, my own musings, and surely some trivial shit that is relevant as yesterday's newspapers, but it helps me to retain information, and hopefully make some sense out of this increasingly wacky world. Here's hoping when I die my daughter will thumb through them and occasionally reconnect with the journey I've been on. 6. A rock and roll hall of fame has always felt a bit like it betrayed the rebellious spirit that for me is at the heart of the music, but, if you're going to have one, there HAS to be a place for The Jam, Graham Parker and The Rumour, Paul Kelly, Paul Heaton, The Bottle Rockets, and yes, David Baerwald. 7. At the center of my epistemological bulls eye is the truth, and yes, I can't believe I threw out that $5 word, but it fits. I'm happy to jettison any preciously clung to ideas and beliefs if they can demonstrably proved to be wrong. I just want to be a member of the reality-based community. I just want to understand as much as I can while I still can. 8. My favorite two songs from the last 20 years are: I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous by Frank Turner and Constructive Summer by The Hold Steady. You need to read the lyrics to feel the impact, the beauty, the inspiration. 9. The Book of Revelations is the Marvel Comics of its time. Bart Ehrman is my main when it comes to New Testament history and understanding. 10. The Dunning-Kruger effect surely applies to yours truly! 11. Has any actor ever had a greater output than Robert DeNiro did from Bang The Drum Slowly, to Mean Streets, The Godfather Part 2, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, and The King of Comedy? I was quite obsessed with his work, even saw him in person in NYC when he was in Cuba and His Teddy Bear. Mesmerizing when he had a script but such a struggle in interviews. So many poor choices in his mid to later years, but perhaps a good script is hard to come by. I think the parallels with Springsteen are there at times. 12. I see myself as a cranky liberal, sometimes left behind by those to my left. Can't imagine ever voting GOP but I am willing to listen to those on the center and center right even. I mentioned to my brother that I listen to Andrew Sullivan and read David French, and he reflexively responded that they are assholes. We have to challenge ourselves, leaving our political comfort zones, and ridding ourselves of ideology and dogma. 13. I didn't know that water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and it increases as the atmosphere warms! 14. When talking to a Christian, ask them how they embrace a book that supports slavery in both the OT and NT. Is this really the work of omniscience and benevolence? Are they aware that certain sections were excluded for centuries and other sections used to be included but were subsequently discarded? Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus is a great place to start. 15. A key and often unreported fact about the January 6th insurrectionists, it was not their socioeconomic status, or education or whether they were from a rural or urban area, it was they were white people from counties where the white population was declining with the corresponding share of non-whites rising. 16. Have I lost you yet? 17. It's interesting how Vietnam splintered Democrats and the end of the Cold War, the Fiscal Crisis, and Iraq splintered the GOP. 18. In 1800, the world's population was 1 billion and now it's 8 billion. If our species has been around for 250,000 years, it took 249, 800 years to reach 1 billion and 200 years to add 7 billion more. Capitalism gets you out of the bed so you can have healthcare, agriculture, clean water, air-conditioning/heating, etc. But boy there are disparities! 19. The role of LUCK can't be overstated, or being born with BAD LUCK! I had absolutely no control about where I would be born, my health, my brain chemistry, my parents, my drop dead good looks, my IQ, my sex, my height, and did I mention my drop dead good looks and height? Honestly, we pretty much aren't the authors of our lives (see Sam Harris and Robert Sapolsky about our lack of free will), and then explore John Rawls, the political philosopher, and his Veil of Ignorance. Even the most hard-hearted libertarian types should see merit in Rawls view of what constitutes a just society. 20. As horrible as we think things are, and yes, we have so many real challenges, check out Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, as you'll see how far we have come thanks to the Enlightenment and humanism. 21. I never appreciated our relatives from tens of thousands of years ago until I read Sapiens. Now those were some tough, tough people who suffered in so many ways that we simply can't comprehend. Thomas Hobbes quote about the life of many being solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, really packs a punch and makes me think that I have no problems and no reason to complain. Perhaps no one is reading this, or maybe these ramblings will spark a response. Peter T.
Random Thoughts: The Good, The Bad, and The Surely Tedious and Nonsensical
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Isn't interesting how thoughts just arise out of nowhere? All too frequently, I happily observe this endless bubbling up of random ideas, half-baked notions, and the occasional valuable insight. I thought I'd share with you what goes on upstairs, hope I don't thoroughly embarrass myself. 1. I'm increasingly worried about the behaviors I see in the classroom. My sense is that too many children are not the priority that they should be for their parents. I believe ever-present devices, social media (especially for the girls) and access to deeply inappropriate material is profoundly harming children all over the world. Additionally, given the acting out, inability to concentrate, and all too frequent disrespect, teachers desperately need to be taught how to manage a classroom. I'm a 6'5" male, with almost 20 years experience, and I struggle. It's THAT HARD TO MAINTAIN ORDER, and I'm in the suburbs! 2. The Clash were the greatest cover band ever as evidenced by I Fought The Law, Police On My Back, Police and Thieves, Brand New Cadillac, Junco Partner, and Time Is Tight. 3. The simple pleasures really are the most meaningful: conversations with loved ones, reading, Mexican food, and music. Playing gracefully with ideas, or playing not so gracefully with them! I derive enormous pleasure each weekend as I drink copious cups of coffee reading the Economist and the secular humanist magazine, Free Inquiry. My younger sense would be shaking his head thinking, WTF happened to me! 4. The DBIS, thanks to Dan, has made me a better writer and therefore a better thinker! It's comforting to know you all, you too, Mick, really! No honestly, Mick! And to tap into DB's interests, very cool. 5. Collecting facts, including statistics, has made life more enriching. I've filled 8 spiral notebooks with article summaries, statistics, quotes, my own musings, and surely some trivial shit that is relevant as yesterday's newspapers, but it helps me to retain information, and hopefully make some sense out of this increasingly wacky world. Here's hoping when I die my daughter will thumb through them and occasionally reconnect with the journey I've been on. 6. A rock and roll hall of fame has always felt a bit like it betrayed the rebellious spirit that for me is at the heart of the music, but, if you're going to have one, there HAS to be a place for The Jam, Graham Parker and The Rumour, Paul Kelly, Paul Heaton, The Bottle Rockets, and yes, David Baerwald. 7. At the center of my epistemological bulls eye is the truth, and yes, I can't believe I threw out that $5 word, but it fits. I'm happy to jettison any preciously clung to ideas and beliefs if they can demonstrably proved to be wrong. I just want to be a member of the reality-based community. I just want to understand as much as I can while I still can. 8. My favorite two songs from the last 20 years are: I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous by Frank Turner and Constructive Summer by The Hold Steady. You need to read the lyrics to feel the impact, the beauty, the inspiration. 9. The Book of Revelations is the Marvel Comics of its time. Bart Ehrman is my main when it comes to New Testament history and understanding. 10. The Dunning-Kruger effect surely applies to yours truly! 11. Has any actor ever had a greater output than Robert DeNiro did from Bang The Drum Slowly, to Mean Streets, The Godfather Part 2, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, and The King of Comedy? I was quite obsessed with his work, even saw him in person in NYC when he was in Cuba and His Teddy Bear. Mesmerizing when he had a script but such a struggle in interviews. So many poor choices in his mid to later years, but perhaps a good script is hard to come by. I think the parallels with Springsteen are there at times. 12. I see myself as a cranky liberal, sometimes left behind by those to my left. Can't imagine ever voting GOP but I am willing to listen to those on the center and center right even. I mentioned to my brother that I listen to Andrew Sullivan and read David French, and he reflexively responded that they are assholes. We have to challenge ourselves, leaving our political comfort zones, and ridding ourselves of ideology and dogma. 13. I didn't know that water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and it increases as the atmosphere warms! 14. When talking to a Christian, ask them how they embrace a book that supports slavery in both the OT and NT. Is this really the work of omniscience and benevolence? Are they aware that certain sections were excluded for centuries and other sections used to be included but were subsequently discarded? Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus is a great place to start. 15. A key and often unreported fact about the January 6th insurrectionists, it was not their socioeconomic status, or education or whether they were from a rural or urban area, it was they were white people from counties where the white population was declining with the corresponding share of non-whites rising. 16. Have I lost you yet? 17. It's interesting how Vietnam splintered Democrats and the end of the Cold War, the Fiscal Crisis, and Iraq splintered the GOP. 18. In 1800, the world's population was 1 billion and now it's 8 billion. If our species has been around for 250,000 years, it took 249, 800 years to reach 1 billion and 200 years to add 7 billion more. Capitalism gets you out of the bed so you can have healthcare, agriculture, clean water, air-conditioning/heating, etc. But boy there are disparities! 19. The role of LUCK can't be overstated, or being born with BAD LUCK! I had absolutely no control about where I would be born, my health, my brain chemistry, my parents, my drop dead good looks, my IQ, my sex, my height, and did I mention my drop dead good looks and height? Honestly, we pretty much aren't the authors of our lives (see Sam Harris and Robert Sapolsky about our lack of free will), and then explore John Rawls, the political philosopher, and his Veil of Ignorance. Even the most hard-hearted libertarian types should see merit in Rawls view of what constitutes a just society. 20. As horrible as we think things are, and yes, we have so many real challenges, check out Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, as you'll see how far we have come thanks to the Enlightenment and humanism. 21. I never appreciated our relatives from tens of thousands of years ago until I read Sapiens. Now those were some tough, tough people who suffered in so many ways that we simply can't comprehend. Thomas Hobbes quote about the life of many being solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, really packs a punch and makes me think that I have no problems and no reason to complain. Perhaps no one is reading this, or maybe these ramblings will spark a response. Peter T.
