The HARRY POTTER movies have earned more than $6 billion. That exceeds the entire annual GDPs of more than 50 countries. Something to give us pause. A triumph of imaginative art or mostly an example of desperate escape?
The World Health Organization's research may help address the question. Their counter-intuitive conclusion is that residents of rich countries are more likely to be depressed than those in poorer. For example France and the US were the most depressed (21% and 19% respectively). Mexico and China the least (8% and 6%). The study concludes, "Depression is strongly linked to social conditions, aside from any cultural differences."
With women twice as likely to be depressed as men, could this help explain the popularity of HARRY POTTER among women in rich countries...? Children love escape too, but for different reasons than adults. Perhaps our richer, rowdier cultures exact an emotional price that makes escapism necessary as well as simply ancillary.
When we look closer, these profiles-in-escape among today's richest democracies include politics as well as movies and television. To really fulfill the role of citizenship calls for a lot of work -- reading, researching, weighing all sides of the scale. How much simpler to just escape into one of a dozen different fantasies -- handy headlines, simple soundbites, one-note blogger rage, and the ever-popular 24/7 babble from the cable punditry.
Pick any channel, choose any newspaper, check any blog and there it is...! Escape into easy-to-love-and-hate casts of characters. Volderot, Dumbledore, Longbottor, Sarkozy, Cameron, Putin, Obama. Oh, those last four? Right, they're not fictional characters, they're actual flesh-and-blood leaders of rich-and-complicated nations. Well, no matter, we master escapists find it jolly-well easy to see them in the same simple black and white, good and bad, brilliant and stupid that we do in our escapist lands like HARRY POTTER.
To again be counter-intuitive, would it be too much for us to distinguish our mind-numbing fantasies from the hard-headed facts? To stop pretending that even our dis-informed bitching is democracy in action? I mean, just long enough to do our homework, thereby realizing that sometimes the problems our leaders seem unable to master have something to do with the size of the problems at least as much as the limitations of the leaders?
Put it a different way. What might the Monday Morning Quarterbacks have to say after actually playing quarterback for a few downs? If nothing else, at least there might be more a restrained respect for the guys out there taking the hits for us. Whattaya say team...???
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
OMG -- UNSEEN PEOPLE & UNFATHOMABLE SYSTEMS
Every one of us has approximately 3000 a day....!
That's how many thoughts neuroscience tells us we have every 24 hours. If true, it's safe to assume many have to do with love and fear. Two human fundamentals unchanging and eternal throughout our species' history. Well, only the first can really make that claim.
While we humans continue to love much as our ancestors did, we fear in some very different ways. Ancient fears were mostly immediate and tangible. The beasts from outside the cave. The storms from the skies above. The spears from the tribes across the river. Our fight-or-flight response kicked in, and we either survived or we didn't.
Today's fears are far more complex. And ironic. For while we have conquered so many of our ancient fears, we have somehow created even greater ones. Created...? Yes, behold what the genius of humanity has wrought in our 21st C. Wondrous electric power grids which serve our needs until they suddenly fail and all life screeches to a frightening dark halt...dramatic air travel which can sweep us across continents in hours yet destroy us in a fiery instant....enormous medical networks that have prolonged our lives but often only to let us linger longer...massive global financial networks which make modern life possible while at the same time making that life so complex that its bubbles explode in ways that we don't even understand as we are crushed under their Olympian weights.
The ancient fears provoked us into high-adrenalin action. However, the new fears often simply paralyze us into staring eyes in front of nightly-news screens. Unseen people and unfathomable systems beyond our sight or senses seem to now hold our fate in their hands. Yes, we still shop and sleep, picnic and pray in the same ways. Yet somehow we each know in the inner sanctum of our fears that our fears have metastasized into a paralysis of terror we dare not even admit.
Wait...! There is still one admission we can all make. Even now. While fear has changed, love has not. Catch it if you can. On the next summer night under God's twinkling skies, hold their hand. Look into their eyes. Say along with the sweet night winds, "I love you and I'm so glad you're in my life...." Go ahead, say it. Private heart-to-heart love is still one thing the unseen people and unfathomable systems can't yet change. But be quick about it!
That's how many thoughts neuroscience tells us we have every 24 hours. If true, it's safe to assume many have to do with love and fear. Two human fundamentals unchanging and eternal throughout our species' history. Well, only the first can really make that claim.
While we humans continue to love much as our ancestors did, we fear in some very different ways. Ancient fears were mostly immediate and tangible. The beasts from outside the cave. The storms from the skies above. The spears from the tribes across the river. Our fight-or-flight response kicked in, and we either survived or we didn't.
Today's fears are far more complex. And ironic. For while we have conquered so many of our ancient fears, we have somehow created even greater ones. Created...? Yes, behold what the genius of humanity has wrought in our 21st C. Wondrous electric power grids which serve our needs until they suddenly fail and all life screeches to a frightening dark halt...dramatic air travel which can sweep us across continents in hours yet destroy us in a fiery instant....enormous medical networks that have prolonged our lives but often only to let us linger longer...massive global financial networks which make modern life possible while at the same time making that life so complex that its bubbles explode in ways that we don't even understand as we are crushed under their Olympian weights.
The ancient fears provoked us into high-adrenalin action. However, the new fears often simply paralyze us into staring eyes in front of nightly-news screens. Unseen people and unfathomable systems beyond our sight or senses seem to now hold our fate in their hands. Yes, we still shop and sleep, picnic and pray in the same ways. Yet somehow we each know in the inner sanctum of our fears that our fears have metastasized into a paralysis of terror we dare not even admit.
Wait...! There is still one admission we can all make. Even now. While fear has changed, love has not. Catch it if you can. On the next summer night under God's twinkling skies, hold their hand. Look into their eyes. Say along with the sweet night winds, "I love you and I'm so glad you're in my life...." Go ahead, say it. Private heart-to-heart love is still one thing the unseen people and unfathomable systems can't yet change. But be quick about it!
Friday, August 5, 2011
IF IT BLEEDS MAYBE IT DOESN'T HAVE TO LEAD
The daily newspaper endures even in this digital age! Why? Because it offers a wide-lens view of the news rather than the single-lens view bellowed from today's blogosphere. Most bloggers can't, don't, and won't.
But there's still a problem. The way newspaper editors allot their space. Everyone knows if-it-bleeds-it-leads. OK, no use arguing with human nature. Still, there was still a lot to smile about in this week's back pages.
While the market was taking another nosedive, a bright local talent (Jessie Mueller) is about to hit the heights co-starring on Broadway this fall with Harry Connick Jr...while the critics were mauling the President for having an expensive birthday bash in town, the voters still remember his election night here when he made another American Dream actually come true....while the reports from the neighborhoods continue to feature teen murders, even more teens were proudly getting ready for the college education that was once only a wish...even the deaths in your obituaries include little known facts about these lives that can still make you believe life is worth living.
So, Mr Editor, bring it on. The bad, the bold, and especially the beautiful....!
But there's still a problem. The way newspaper editors allot their space. Everyone knows if-it-bleeds-it-leads. OK, no use arguing with human nature. Still, there was still a lot to smile about in this week's back pages.
While the market was taking another nosedive, a bright local talent (Jessie Mueller) is about to hit the heights co-starring on Broadway this fall with Harry Connick Jr...while the critics were mauling the President for having an expensive birthday bash in town, the voters still remember his election night here when he made another American Dream actually come true....while the reports from the neighborhoods continue to feature teen murders, even more teens were proudly getting ready for the college education that was once only a wish...even the deaths in your obituaries include little known facts about these lives that can still make you believe life is worth living.
So, Mr Editor, bring it on. The bad, the bold, and especially the beautiful....!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
LOGIC? AIN'T NO SUCH ANIMAL IN THIS ZOO!
Attention students-of-life. Have you noticed in your research that Effect does not always follow Cause...?
This may shock the left-brained empirical thinkers who usually have this journey known as living all neatly mapped out. Guys like Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, and our genetics teachers are famous for this. However, on the actual trip itself, things are never that neat. Some examples....
You'd assume (well, I assumed) watching MTV's smarmy "The Jersey Shore" would have a negative effect on Americans' view of New Jersey; but according to TV Guide, it hasn't...! You'd assume (well, most kids assume) parenting would have an important effect on children; but according to economist Bryan Caplan in the National Review, it has "little or no effect on overall personality and happiness in adult life"....! You'd assume (well, Tea Party ideologues assume) cutting $12 billion and 200,000 jobs in the US Postal Service would yield the improvements promised from "smaller government;" but the stats show the Service continues to lose money....! You'd assume (well, anyone in the Midwest would assume) this year's 66 new all-time heat records would convince decision-makers that climate change is real; but the doubters in DC still outnumber the believers...!
Oh, here's another failed cause-and-effect dynamic, You'd think in a nation where the vast majority say they believe in God, they would give Him better ratings. But according to the latest Pew Survey, only 52% of Americans "approved God's performance," 40% hedged their bets, and a vociferous 9% gave the big guy failing grades.
At this confusing point, you sometimes turn to a smart philosopher to make sense of it all. All right, what about the ever-popular Kierkegaard? "Life can only be understood backwards, but it has to be lived forwards....!"
This may shock the left-brained empirical thinkers who usually have this journey known as living all neatly mapped out. Guys like Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, and our genetics teachers are famous for this. However, on the actual trip itself, things are never that neat. Some examples....
You'd assume (well, I assumed) watching MTV's smarmy "The Jersey Shore" would have a negative effect on Americans' view of New Jersey; but according to TV Guide, it hasn't...! You'd assume (well, most kids assume) parenting would have an important effect on children; but according to economist Bryan Caplan in the National Review, it has "little or no effect on overall personality and happiness in adult life"....! You'd assume (well, Tea Party ideologues assume) cutting $12 billion and 200,000 jobs in the US Postal Service would yield the improvements promised from "smaller government;" but the stats show the Service continues to lose money....! You'd assume (well, anyone in the Midwest would assume) this year's 66 new all-time heat records would convince decision-makers that climate change is real; but the doubters in DC still outnumber the believers...!
Oh, here's another failed cause-and-effect dynamic, You'd think in a nation where the vast majority say they believe in God, they would give Him better ratings. But according to the latest Pew Survey, only 52% of Americans "approved God's performance," 40% hedged their bets, and a vociferous 9% gave the big guy failing grades.
At this confusing point, you sometimes turn to a smart philosopher to make sense of it all. All right, what about the ever-popular Kierkegaard? "Life can only be understood backwards, but it has to be lived forwards....!"
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
IQ + EQ = YOU!
Our intelligence quotient (IQ) has traditionally been considered the mark and measure of a person. Especially in our Western cultures where rationality reigns supreme. And yet is there not an entirely unique and other half to our whole? Are there not crackling bundles of feelings and instincts and intuitions at work as well? Motivating, shaping and driving our behaviors in ways somewhere outside and considerably beyond intelligence? Neuro-scientists are starting to call these bundles our emotion quotient (EQ).
IQ's have the advantage of being quantifiable. EQ's much less so. And yet have there been any seriously important decisions in your life -- in the lives of nations -- that have been entirely rational? We feel as well as think our way through life. Sometimes to our disadvantage, but often to our extraordinary benefit. Perhaps this is why psychiatrists and clergy and directors are continually asking "what do you feel?" as much as "what do you think?"
Psychiatry aside, our Western cultures tend more to preserve and praise the products of the mind than of the heart. Our secular histories meticulously record what our collective intelligences have wrought (great governments, laws, inventions, machines, art, architecture, things we can see and touch). These same histories rarely devote as much attention to what our collective emotions have wrought (great dreams, visions, prophecies, premonitions, matters of the mystical, imaginary eve hallucinatory).
Oh, humanity's EQ is recorded, but not in secular histories or museums as much as in off-beat writings and late-night cable documentaries about the peculiar realms of ancient seers, mystics, Coptic writers, and Inca calendars. Interesting stuff. Strange and peculiar stuff. But more to be considered as the raw materials from which Hollywood blockbusters and Dan Brown novels are crafted.
Still....we read horoscopes, study peculiar cloud formations, discover Marian signs, buy Ouija boards, thrill to the mesmerizing lyrics of concert balladeers, seek out unauthorized medical cures, invest enormous amounts of attention to vampires, zombies and ET's. What's going on here...?
Is it not humanity's ancient yearning to make some sense out of this enormously problematic and dangerous universe which our textbooks and teachers alone seem unable to do? Religions? Yes, of course, but even they have grown increasingly more rational over the centuries. Behold the rise of the fundamentalist religions, the prophets, the doomsayers, the apocalyptic voices who speck in tongues.
Academia sniffs in contempt -- our species has struggled to leave behind the primitive and pagan. And yet.....
IQ's have the advantage of being quantifiable. EQ's much less so. And yet have there been any seriously important decisions in your life -- in the lives of nations -- that have been entirely rational? We feel as well as think our way through life. Sometimes to our disadvantage, but often to our extraordinary benefit. Perhaps this is why psychiatrists and clergy and directors are continually asking "what do you feel?" as much as "what do you think?"
Psychiatry aside, our Western cultures tend more to preserve and praise the products of the mind than of the heart. Our secular histories meticulously record what our collective intelligences have wrought (great governments, laws, inventions, machines, art, architecture, things we can see and touch). These same histories rarely devote as much attention to what our collective emotions have wrought (great dreams, visions, prophecies, premonitions, matters of the mystical, imaginary eve hallucinatory).
Oh, humanity's EQ is recorded, but not in secular histories or museums as much as in off-beat writings and late-night cable documentaries about the peculiar realms of ancient seers, mystics, Coptic writers, and Inca calendars. Interesting stuff. Strange and peculiar stuff. But more to be considered as the raw materials from which Hollywood blockbusters and Dan Brown novels are crafted.
Still....we read horoscopes, study peculiar cloud formations, discover Marian signs, buy Ouija boards, thrill to the mesmerizing lyrics of concert balladeers, seek out unauthorized medical cures, invest enormous amounts of attention to vampires, zombies and ET's. What's going on here...?
Is it not humanity's ancient yearning to make some sense out of this enormously problematic and dangerous universe which our textbooks and teachers alone seem unable to do? Religions? Yes, of course, but even they have grown increasingly more rational over the centuries. Behold the rise of the fundamentalist religions, the prophets, the doomsayers, the apocalyptic voices who speck in tongues.
Academia sniffs in contempt -- our species has struggled to leave behind the primitive and pagan. And yet.....
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
IT'S THE PICTURE, STUPID!!
History is something like a puzzle. Unless we can figure out how to fit the pieces together, it make no sense. With Washington's latest game of brinkmanship, seems we still haven't learned the real secret to working this puzzle. And yet the secret is all right there on the cover to the box. It's the pretty picture, stupid....!
That picture is what this democracy thing is supposed to look like once we've all finally put all the crazy pieces together. Don't know about you. Or about Congress. But here's how I see this picture. I see a scene made up of all kinds of different minorities (our many feuding political, racial, financial interests) somehow fitting together to make a pretty good looking majority (you know, the way we all look together cheering a Fourth of July celebration). Don't laugh, because the picture has happened before. And it can happen again.
But here's the lesson we keep forgetting. In the game of puzzles, the manufacturer has designed the jagged pieces to eventually fit. In the game of democracy, WE'RE the manufacturer. Which means, sometimes we have to shave or bend our particular little piece in order to make everything fit. Fit into that pretty picture we all want.
Now, players, was that so hard to figure out...??
That picture is what this democracy thing is supposed to look like once we've all finally put all the crazy pieces together. Don't know about you. Or about Congress. But here's how I see this picture. I see a scene made up of all kinds of different minorities (our many feuding political, racial, financial interests) somehow fitting together to make a pretty good looking majority (you know, the way we all look together cheering a Fourth of July celebration). Don't laugh, because the picture has happened before. And it can happen again.
But here's the lesson we keep forgetting. In the game of puzzles, the manufacturer has designed the jagged pieces to eventually fit. In the game of democracy, WE'RE the manufacturer. Which means, sometimes we have to shave or bend our particular little piece in order to make everything fit. Fit into that pretty picture we all want.
Now, players, was that so hard to figure out...??
Monday, August 1, 2011
BIGGER BEACH! BIGGER OCEAN! NOW WHAT?
Two celebrated generals saw their wars differently. Napoleon once said: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence." Patton often said: "Americans love to fight; all real Americans love the sting of battle." Bonaparte was a man of shadings; George was a man of blacks & whites.
Patton would have understood today's world much better. Despite the nuanced maneuvering of our diplomats, our countries think mostly in blacks & whites. I'm right; you're wrong. I'm peaceful; you're dangerous. And who is there to deny how seductive and deeply satisfying it is to function in a world devoid of doubt and ambiguity.
Now with the world wide web, this seduction of absolutes has grown exponentially. Notice how easily and comfortably these epithets slide off the tongue: All Muslims are terrorists...all Catholics are Papists...all bankers are rapacious...all Jews are bankers...all Republicans are heartless...all Democrats are spenders...all poor people are shiftless...all old people are draining the economy...oh, and Barack Obama is a Marxist on a mission to destroy the US economy after which he will establish concentration camps for all Christians.
Too silly? Not so. Check it out in the Norwegian bomber's 1,516 page manifesto, largely drawn from his world wide web research. Which, by the way, is available for your kids to read in their bedrooms tonight. Hey, but this is an age of free speech Wikileaki style. The best way to learn how to swim is, well, simply dive in.
Lifeguards....? Well, there are always the usual suspects: parents and teachers and clergy and cops. At one time they not only patrolled but controlled the beach of ideas. Today, not so much. Bigger beach, bigger ocean...! Which is why today's governments -- from West to East -- quietly spend billions to monitor citizen communication and maintain covert operations to trace trouble wherever they detect it.
So while governments throughout the world are seen by their public behaviors [GNP, laws, taxes, debit fights], they each have countless private agendas. None that make many headlines, nor would any make many fans. These private agendas are something like the unwritten code by which every police force in the world operates. It is not spelled out as much as lived out. And here's our dirty little secret. Virtually every one of us sanctions that code when in our hearts we whisper to our protectors: "Don't tell me how you do it, just do it...!"
Here's the question: After we deplore our sheepishness, is that enough? Here's a guess. Until the day the code applies to us, it probably will...
Patton would have understood today's world much better. Despite the nuanced maneuvering of our diplomats, our countries think mostly in blacks & whites. I'm right; you're wrong. I'm peaceful; you're dangerous. And who is there to deny how seductive and deeply satisfying it is to function in a world devoid of doubt and ambiguity.
Now with the world wide web, this seduction of absolutes has grown exponentially. Notice how easily and comfortably these epithets slide off the tongue: All Muslims are terrorists...all Catholics are Papists...all bankers are rapacious...all Jews are bankers...all Republicans are heartless...all Democrats are spenders...all poor people are shiftless...all old people are draining the economy...oh, and Barack Obama is a Marxist on a mission to destroy the US economy after which he will establish concentration camps for all Christians.
Too silly? Not so. Check it out in the Norwegian bomber's 1,516 page manifesto, largely drawn from his world wide web research. Which, by the way, is available for your kids to read in their bedrooms tonight. Hey, but this is an age of free speech Wikileaki style. The best way to learn how to swim is, well, simply dive in.
Lifeguards....? Well, there are always the usual suspects: parents and teachers and clergy and cops. At one time they not only patrolled but controlled the beach of ideas. Today, not so much. Bigger beach, bigger ocean...! Which is why today's governments -- from West to East -- quietly spend billions to monitor citizen communication and maintain covert operations to trace trouble wherever they detect it.
So while governments throughout the world are seen by their public behaviors [GNP, laws, taxes, debit fights], they each have countless private agendas. None that make many headlines, nor would any make many fans. These private agendas are something like the unwritten code by which every police force in the world operates. It is not spelled out as much as lived out. And here's our dirty little secret. Virtually every one of us sanctions that code when in our hearts we whisper to our protectors: "Don't tell me how you do it, just do it...!"
Here's the question: After we deplore our sheepishness, is that enough? Here's a guess. Until the day the code applies to us, it probably will...
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