My life is just a long series of apologies. At my place of work, I apologize to hundreds of people every day for taking up their time, asking inane questions and tricking people who are generous of spirit into answering them. Socially I apologise often and profusely for my clumsy feet, inept manners and disappointments brought on by my poor economy. The less said on the subject of intimate relations the better, but there are many apologies involved, I assure you. Politically I often deny and almost always withhold my deeply held convictions in order to appease others.
I live in a country that has prospered by avoiding war and conflict, appeasing everyone else and walking down the path of least resistance instead of acting out of principle. A country where crime is blamed on social context, car accidents are blamed on the roads or on alcohol, suicides are blamed on social services, world poverty is blamed on free individuals freely dealing with one another, unemployment is blamed on employers and illnesses are blamed on food. In other words, society as a whole is blamed for all the ills within it, and we all accept blame, apologise and promise to do better next time.
I am not a masochist. Rather, the apologism that dominates my life is a result of lack of self-confidence. Or lack of self-esteem. I am unable to tell them apart, all I know is that I have neither. The solution is not to stop apologising, but to choose a life where I reach my full potential.
A cherry pic is a photo of fleeting and beautiful nature, usually linked with a season. A common example would be a picture of cherry blossoms, hence the name. Other possibilities are flowers, fall leaf colours, frost, freshly fallen snow, bear cubs and bikini babes.
Cherry pics are usually clichés that have limited artistic value, though they are pleasing to the eye. Amateur photographers like me take plenty of cherry pics, making the word even more suitable, since cherry also denotes beginner.
“You are welcome” is a very common phrase in West Africa. Most often it is used to invite someone to share your meal. In fact, it is really unusual for Africans not to invite whoever is in the vicinity to share their meal. I suspect that they are more generous with westerners than with locals, but I nevertheless find it a wonderful custom and I have tried to emulate it.
I wonder why this custom exists in Africa but not in Sweden. I suspect this behaviour naturally develops in places where people are not always able to feed themselves. Sweden used to be poor, and perhaps we had such customs two hundred years ago, but I doubt it. In fact, Sweden may the least generous country of all the twenty or so I have experienced.
I was again without mp3 player. In desperation I turned to the radio function on my cell phone, an interesting experiment not likely to be repeated. I haven’t really listened to radio for years and now I remember why.
It was truly frustrating that there is no radio in the Stockholm subway. I don’t understand how it is possible to have cell phone coverage in the whole subway but not even a single radio station.
My main gripe with radio of today is of course content. Babbling morons dominate the airwaves with their inane chatter, occasionally interrupted by annoying advertising or a mediocre song. The music may be old or new. If new, songs are repeated about once every hour until I start hating the songs, the artists, the stations and the record companies viscerally. If old, a very narrow range of once popular songs is played. These old song are of a higher quality than the average new song, but even classics become boring after a few listenings within a short time span.
How can radio change and appeal to me again:
At least one radio station should be functional in the subway.
Minimise small talk. Any DJ saying anything other than “That was … by …” or “And now … by …” should be fired.
Ads must be shorter; maximum 10 seconds every two or three songs.
Station IDs should be very short, just the name of the station which requires two seconds. No description or self-aggrandizement is acceptable since we are already tuned in.
A greater variation of both old and new songs is necessary. No new song should be played more often than once every 8 hours, no old song more than once a month.
SIFO Statistics show that radio listening is down, both number of listeners and length of time that listeners spend on radio. However, internet radio is growing by maximising music, minimising ads and DJ talk. If FM radio wants to survive, they know whom to emulate!
The first type of country is the historical country or H-type country. It is a result of long historical processes involving geography, ecology, demography, climate, culture and economic forces. Most countries are of this type. The H-type country has many of the following characteristics:
Easily defensible borders
A contiguous landmass with low transport costs and no need to change transport mode
Common culture, history and language
A ruling class that identifies with the prevailing culture
Immigration based on similar culture and language, emigration based on ideology
A legal code based on tradition and historical precedent
A common historical enemy neighbouring country
Historically, a low need for foreign trade due to complementary economic activities
A political discourse with heterogeneous givens, focused on details and pragmatism
The I-type Country
The second type of country is an entirely different species. It is a conscious creation with a specific ideology. I-type countries will succeed or fail to a large extent due to the ideology they are based on. If the ideology is in tune with human nature and the specific situation of the country, the country will prosper. If not, it will wither and fail. This type of country is something fairly new in human history, and has many of the following characteristics:
A common ideology that permeates all aspects of life, including the economy, culture and the law
A common enemy ideology
Migration based on ideology
A ruling class that identifies with the prevailing ideology
A legal code consistent with the prevailing ideology and with barriers to change
A converse ideology limited in its means of expression
A political discourse focused on universals and with implicit assumptions consistent with the prevailing ideology
As I-type countries develop over time they tend to drift away from strict adherence to the chosen ideology. A common culture and language will develop and eventually they tend to become H-type countries. Former colonies are not usually I-type countries. Anti-colonialism is a strong force, but once a country has become free of undue foreign influence, the ideology says little of how a country should be organised. The ruling class that embodies the culture of an H-type country or the ideology of an I-type country does not have to be a minority.
Examples of I-type countries:
Country
Ideology
USA
Freedom
Switzerland
Subsidiarity
Pakistan
Islam
Hong Kong
Capitalism
USSR
Communism
Israel
Judaism
Kampuchea
Marxist agrarianism, the “Anka” doctrine
The Scale
Clearly there are many nations that do not fit exactly into either category. Therefore it may be useful to instead describe countries as being somewhere on a spectrum or scale. At one end is the pure I-type country, at the other a pure H-type country. It should be possible to place all countries somewhere on this scale. Most would be toward the historical end of the scale.
This is a very interesting word and its usage over time speaks volumes about our language, those who use the word and our society in general. The word comes to us from the Greek pathos, a well known concept in drama. Pathetic in contemporary English usage has two diametrically opposed meanings. From Wiktionary:
1 Arousing pity, sympathy or compassion.
The old man’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.
2 Arousing scornful pity or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.
You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.
You're almost 26 years old and you still can't hold a real job? That's pathetic.
So the word has two meanings, the first almost forgotten except among scholars. The second with the converse meaning, annoyingly overused among teens half a generation ago and still quite popular. How is it possible for a word to suddenly turn into its opposite? I am very curious to know when the second definition started to be used, I imagine it was sometime in the twentieth century, not before. The development of the word pathetic mirrors that of bad, another word that suddenly has inverted its previous meaning, at least if you believe Michael Jackson.
What does all this say about our post-modern society? Is failure and suffering nowadays the result of conscious choices, leaving no room for real pity? Has the world become an essentially just and comfortable place without real victims? Is it so important to seem successful that any hint of weakness is an unsightly social more and has our language consequently been amended? Have we lost our sense of community and our solidarity for those less fortunate than ourselves?
I don’t know the answer to these questions but I intuitively see this small change in our language as a bad sign that our society is not developing in a healthy manner. Our increasing wealth is leading to the instant gratification of every desire and changing our bodies in ways unmatched in history. The free flow of information is leading to the abolition of mystery and the complete understanding of every cause for every effect. Neither we as individuals nor our culture is adapted to these new circumstances of existence. I see rough times ahead.
Generosity is the habit of giving without coercion and is widely understood to be a desirable trait, even Wikipedia says so. Everyone should at some point examine themselves and their lives to see how generous they are.
One kind of generosity has to do with material things and money. In this regard I am fairly generous, and I usually share what I little have with those around me. However, I have yet to participate in charities and take responsibility for the wider world, something I see as an essential part of becoming a grown-up.
Another kind of generosity deals with time. I am quite generous with my time, helping others whenever they ask and generally being supportive. This type of generosity develops the spirit of both the giver and the receiver more than simply giving things.
The third and final type of generosity concerns sharing yourself with others, letting them partake of your thoughts, emotions, insights, experiences and creativity. This is my Achilles heel, as I am very secretive and I typically do not share the most central parts of my life with others. I prefer to keep my acquaintances separated, to keep them from gaining a full understanding of who I am and what goes on in my head. This is what I need to work on.
John Rawls was a moral philosopher who developed a new idea regarding redistributive politics. He said that the level of redistribution of means in a society should be based on what people would agree on before they know their own abilities and situation. He thus postulates an original position, where people must decide the level of redistribution of a society under a veil of ignorance of their own life, skills etc.
Rawls argued that people in this hypothetical situation would choose to minimize the risk of being destitute and redistributive forces in society would be based on a rule of maximin, meaning that those whoever becomes worst off would be helped considerably by the state. Redistributive politics would be tempered by the wish to maximize liberty and the possibility of self-improvement.
Surprisingly, Rawls did not wish for his theory to apply to redistribution between countries. In his work The Law of Peoples, he argues that international development aid should be at a fairly low level, much lower than implied by the original position, because aid might otherwise enrich corrupt and oppressive regimes. I suspect that Rawls’ background, growing up and living in the USA, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, has affected his moral philosophy quite a bit so he was unable to see the contradiction between his arguments for strongly redistributive policies nationally and in his stance on international redistribution of means. I believe that the original position should also include a geographic aspect. People should not know which country they will be born into, only the chances of growing up in free or oppressed, wealthy or poor countries. This would lead to quite strong policies of international aid and international interventionism.
Another criticism of Rawls comes from proponents of laissez-faire, who argue that economic freedom will increase prosperity in the long run for everyone, thus limiting the usefulness of Rawls’ theory. However, I would argue that the dynamics of economic growth and societal development can be incorporated into the Rawlsian original position in a very revealing and useful way. Thus, the original position should have a veil of ignorance not just about individual aptitudes, family, wealth and geographic location but also about when in the course of human history people will be born. Assuming that societies that have strong incentives for work also tend to have high rates of economic growth, people will see that their chances of leading a rich and fulfilling life are greater if redistributive politics are decreased to improve growth.
Also regarding specific economic policies, the static model of Rawls would imply particularly high taxes on inheritances. If the Rawlsian original position is amended to also include not knowing which time period people are born, there is a stronger logic in for example allowing people to inherit larger amounts of money with few taxes as this tends to increase growth, people typically wanting to leave some means to their surviving kin. This increased growth is something desirable as it improves the lot of everyone except a few members of the first generation who do not receive as much redistributed wealth as they otherwise would have in the static Rawlsian original position.
The original position that also includes a veil of ignorance about time assumes that all societies will not come to some abrupt end. To account for the uncertainty that humankind even has a future, it might be necessary to adjust the original position so that future wealth is discounted according to how far in the future the wealth is created.
I search for deep shadows of the past, vague shapes of the present and murky outlines of the future.
I am too lazy to translate, so I have a Swedish blog at Skuggjagaren with different material.
