Miscellaneous Matters Matter

First, Madame, welcome back!  Our readers have missed your insights, as well your softening of my rough edges!

I have a good number of things in the grab-bag this week.  Many are random observations, and none of them are too large, so thought I would serve them up together for information and/or consideration.  And maybe they give an insight into the Prof’s head, where umpteen channels are on all at the same time! LOL

You asked a post or two ago what the ages of the men were that were doing the bullying:  40s and 50s.  Is that fitting of a pattern?  How many employees out there are silent because they report to someone, who, even if they don’t outright bully, dominate by veiled threat of going along or losing one’s job?

You also spoke of control.  Deep down, these "men" are not secure in themselves, and suppression is nearly always the answer for that.  Secure people don't suppress.

Why would dissatisfaction with the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue translate unthinkingly into support of the individual running against? 

My friend told me about a fantastic new book he read about how people make decisions: Thinking Fast and Slow.

“I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores.  The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about I was privy to the secret griefs.  Most of the confidences were unsought.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, in the Great Gatsby

Are we becoming a culture of the mannerless, of uncaring narcissism, of marked selfishness, even sociopathy?   For instance:  Make appointment.  Never show.  Never contact to let know that not showing.  Not think that’s important.  Not care.  Expect you to be fine with it.

I’ve never been able to understand how self-professed libertarians can square a hands-off government but demand a hands-on about women’s bodies.  I can only suppose that the rights of the forming override the rights of the formed?

When people say we don’t need regulation, are they saying greed will police itself?  Where is the evidence of that?  Why would there be any laws then?

We are pitted against each other way too much in this society.  It is manifested in so many things: Politics, sports blood rivalries, reality TV, etc.  Is competition really everything?  Who does that serve?

The House of Representatives is full of ironic things: Michelle Bachman is on the Intelligence Committee, Todd Akin is on the Science Committee, and Darrell Issa is chair of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee.

Only in a spectacle culture could cable and satellite TV companies increase their fees for channels at twice the rate of inflation.  And we tune in (and tune out addressing the country’s problems) readily, eagerly. 

“I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.”  Franklin P. Adams

There is a wide world out there.  A world with pain, to be sure, but with much joy too!