Addicted to Risk without a backup plan

The BP oil spill was one of the more recent examples of overconfidence, according to Naomi Klein. Also consider the financial collapse and overconfidence that was rampant prior to our military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Klein states that we are addicted to risk. Instead of asking how how to proceed prudently, we ask bizarre questions such as these: - What is the latest possible moment we can act to remedy a major problem? - How much hotter can we let the planet get? These questions are being driven by economists rather than scientists. Greed and hubris are factors in this mindset, and fear of failure seems to be lacking. Klein gives the illustration of a 35-year old banker who is taking home more than 100 times as much salary as a brain surgeon. That banker seeks a narrative other than thinking that he is a good scammer who gamed the system. He will likely start believing that he is a genius and that he is somehow contributing to society, or at least not hurting others. But he does absorb the narrative that he is a genius, and being told that you are a genius who is born to rule is a "peril of privilege." People in these positions adopt traditional narratives that enhance their feelings of superiority over others. These archetypal narratives include the following "fairy tales": - Newly discovered frontier and conquering pioneer; - Manifest destiny; - Endless growth; - We don't need to change our lifestyles; - Apocalypse and salvation. We will be "saved" in the end with technology. They also embrace deep narratives that Mother Nature is there to be conquered and yet she is always forgiving and resilient; there will always be a frontier. Klein argues that these are lies, and we are running up against severe physical limits. We have already exhausted easy energy and we are now into the era of "extreme energy." This means we ravaging the earth to get to dramatically diminishing returns. Exhibit A is the tar sand region of Canada which, to produce oil, requires ripping away the trees and contaminating huge amounts of water. Vast landscapes are being decimated (see the video for some of these dramatic images). It takes three times as much energy to produce a barrel of oil this was as it takes to produce conventional oil. In terms of greenhouse gases, this is "insanity." This is how civilizations "commit suicide." Klein states that we need new heroes with new kinds of stories that will replace the current linear narrative of endless growth with circular narratives of what goes around comes around.

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The illogic of Atonement

Over the years, many well-meaning Christians have tried to convince me to give Christianity "another chance." All such people have walked away frustrated with me. I don’t reject religious beliefs because I’m stubborn (but it probably looks like it). Rather, I reject such stories because I insist on credible evidence, especially fantastic stories about ghosts. I also insist that stories should have internal consistency. I insist on a tight underlying logic before I'm willing to believe extraordinary claims. What is illogical about Christianity? The following story is not meant to offend, but rather to illustrate some traditional Christian beliefs in an unfamiliar way. I offer it to all of those people who have tried to convert me over the years. Imagine that you heard the following Assimulated Press story on the radio. What would you think?

Today, we are reporting on a bizarre story. Until last month, an old man had been living with his numerous children in his sprawling mansion, which included a vast garden. Last month, he kicked all of his children out of his garden. Since then he has been threatening to slowly burn some of his children in a big pit in his basement—the ones at risk are those who have misbehaved or otherwise upset him. One week ago, this unusual man committed suicide by nailing himself to a tree on a small hill in his backyard. Since he died, some of his friends have written a book of 66 sub-books describing the old man in megalomaniac terms. Many passages of this book are vague and self-contradictory. For instance, in these letters, he is described as having insisted that he committed suicide to "save" his children from being burned by him. According to the stories, the old man was purportedly trying to save his children from himself. Police contacted the children's mother recently, and she claimed that the old man was the true father even though she had never actually had sex with him. Neighbors have been complaining that she often spoke of her husband as her "son." The most amazing thing, though, is that after this purported "sacrifice" of killing himself on the tree in the backyard, some of the 66 books indicate that his children are still at risk of being burned in the basement. Some people are questioning whether the suicide was necessary at all. Nonetheless, the old man is currently being called a hero by many in his community for having “atoned” for the moral deficiencies of his children by committing suicide, so that he would burn fewer of them.
-- See also, the four other “Assimulated Press” stories at Dangerous Intersection. Here, here, here and here.

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Americans are pie in the sky regarding economic and social mobility

Based surveys by the Brookings Institute, Americans fervently want to believe that hard work pays off in America. They believe that you are not locked into a particular strata of social and economic mobility by the lot of your parents. Yet the evidence doesn't bear this out.

While cross-country comparisons of relative mobility rely on data and methodologies that are far from perfect, a growing number of economic studies have found that the United States stands out as having less, not more, inter-generational mobility than do Canada and several European countries. American children are more likely than other children to end up in the same place on the income distribution as their parents. Moreover, there is emerging evidence that mobility is particularly low for Americans born into families at the bottom of the earnings or income distribution.
The truth is that the United States is a low-mobility country:
In the United States and the United Kingdom, about half (50 percent) of parental earnings advantages are passed onto sons. If trends hold consistent, it would take an average of six generations for family economic advantage to disappear in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Paul Krugman sums it up: "[T]he right is winning economic debates because people believe, wrongly, that there’s something inherently moral about free-market outcomes." We Americans are dreamers, even when it blinds us to the need for real change. "American children are more likely than other children to end up in the same place on the income distribution as their parents." The real numbers contained in the linked report are real eye-openers. All of this was predictable. The Economist wonders where the anger is:
It's striking how little inchoate public rage has actually boiled to the surface in the rich world. Rising inequality, especially at the top end, combined with stagnating middle class incomes, has been a feature of the world for at least the past ten years. It's been two years since the biggest bail-outs and the rise toward double-digit unemployment. And the anger is...where? Europeans are demonstrating against budget cuts, but these are rarely explicitly directed at national plutocrats. In America, the language of the angriest is very similar to that of the plutocrats themselves. Indeed, the complaint that today's elite lack the noblesse oblige of the aristocrats of old, and are therefore risking public anger, seems to badly misread American public opinion. The middle class doesn't want hand-outs from condescending rich people. They want moralistic language and complaints about deficits.

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Barack Obama does nothing to stop the Comcast-NBC merger

At Huffpo, Josh Silver of Free Press points out the utterly painful trend we've seen regarding the President of "Hope" and "Change."

President Obama is being squeezed by a corrupt Washington that is run by industry lobbyists, fake grassroots groups, massive political spending and PR machines that make the most basic public interest protections impossible to advance. But rather than tell that story, dig in, and fight like a true leader would, Obama has chosen to hire corporate-friendly advisers, compromise on the most crucial substance, and attempt to eke out weak, symbolic, half-victories gift-wrapped in flowery oratory and spin. It's a losing strategy that has become brutally transparent.
But what about all of those protections of the public that the FCC built into the merger terms.
This merger will touch all corners of the media market, and you won't be immune. Comcast will jack up the prices that other cable and online distributers pay for NBC content, and those prices will be passed to you. That means higher cable and Internet bills, even if you don't subscribe to Comcast. Comcast and the FCC Chairman argue that there are "conditions" applied to the merger that protect the public, (details about the conditions are not out yet) but they fail to mention that the key provisions are either voluntary (no, that's not a typo), or expire after a few years. Then, all bets are off, as the merger squeezes out what's left of independent, diverse voices from television dials, and forever changes the Internet as we know it.

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