Kobayashi Maru as a metaphor for life

Perhaps because life seems especially rich with meaning and change is in the air, I'm in an existential mood tonight. When that happens, I'm often reminded of the Star Trek notion of Kobayashi Maru. Here's the description from Wikipedia:

The Kobayashi Maru is a test in the fictional Star Trek universe. It is a Starfleet training exercise designed to test the character of cadets in the command track at Starfleet Academy. The Kobayashi Maru test was first depicted in the opening scene of the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and also appears in the 2009 film Star Trek. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Dr. McCoy referenced the test as an example of the no-win scenario that he and Captain Kirk were facing.[1] The test's name is occasionally used among Star Trek fans or those familiar with the series to describe a no-win scenario . . . The objective of the test is not for the cadet to outfight the opponent but rather to test the cadet's reaction to a no-win situation.
Hmmm. No-win scenario? A test of character? Yes, each of us is part of a no-win scenario. We are each on a conveyor belt inexorably pulling us toward dusty death. Obviously, the "meaning" of life (to the extent that it makes sense to speak of "meaning of life") cannot be how to cheat the system, because there is no long term cheat. This is true, despite the efforts of many religious folks to conjure up afterlives. You "lose" even if you make a world-class contribution to your community or world such that people will talk about you for awhile after you die, maybe even for 100 years or more. You "lose" even if you have lots of offspring and they bear you grandchildren who will sometimes, decreasingly, mention your name. But eventually there won't be any people still living to talk about you. The conveyor belt will have dragged both you and your reputation to oblivion. That's the sad part: you are immortal, ephemeral. Many people suffer and struggle all the way to the end. Consider Shakespeare's words:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)
Just as the end of the movie Titanic, we can choose to see life as a test. Perhaps one of the best ways to approach life is to see whether you have the will and the courage to exhibit honorable character even though you know that you are in a no-win scenario. Hence, the Kobayashi Maru approach to life.

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WMD redux

From Semore Hersch in the London Review of Books:

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.
THIS is why we need a vigorous free press, which means active investigative journalism and protection for whistle blowers.

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Creative swan songs

Does Terror Management Theory (TMT) push creativity to a head in later life. I recently ran across an article that suggests exactly this in Adult Personality Development: Volume 2: Applications, by Lawrence S. Wrightsman, Mar 15, 1994. Here's the relevant excerpt:

Creativity can undergo a resurgence in the later years of life, and especially in life's last years (Simonton, 1990, p. 630). Sometimes during the late 60s and 70s an increase in output appears (Simonton, 1988). This secondary peak In output may be a manifestation of an Eriksonian final-stage contemplation of death and review of one's life accomplishments. Does any empirical evidence exist for the existence of such a "swan song" phenomenon? Simonton (1989) examined 1,919 compositions by 172 classical music composers, assessed each of numerous aesthetic qualities, and determined how many years before the composers' death the piece was composed. A clear pattern emerged: As the composers approached their final years, when death was raising a fist to knock on the door, they began to produce compositions that are more brief, that have simpler and more restrained melodic lines, and yet that score high in aesthetic significance according to musicologists and that eventually become popular mainstays of the classical repertoire. It is as if when the composers see the end approaching fast on the horizon, warning that their last artistic temperaments dwell among their current works in progress, they put their utmost into every creation, yielding truly noteworthy products. (Simonton, 1990, p. 630).

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Strategies of mentally strong people

Forbes has offered a list of 13 strategies used by "mentally strong" people. Seems like an excellent list: 1. Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves. 2. Give Away Their Power. 3. Shy Away from Change. 4. Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control. 5. Worry About Pleasing Others. Know any people pleasers? 6. Fear Taking Calculated Risks. 7. Dwell on the Past. 8. Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over. 9. Resent Other People’s Success. 10. Give Up After Failure. 11. Fear Alone Time. 12. Feel the World Owes Them Anything. 13. Expect Immediate Results. Bonus: Alternet has offered the 14 habits of miserable people:

So if you aspire to make yourself miserable, what are the best, most proven techniques for doing it? Let’s exclude some obvious ways, like doing drugs, committing crimes, gambling, and beating up your spouse or neighbor. Subtler strategies, ones that won’t lead anyone to suspect that you’re acting deliberately, can be highly effective. But you need to pretend that you want to be happy, like everybody else, or people won’t take your misery seriously. The real art is to behave in ways that’ll bring on misery while allowing you to claim that you’re an innocent victim, ideally of the very people from whom you’re forcibly extracting compassion and pity. Here, I cover most areas of life, such as family, work, friends, and romantic partners. These areas will overlap nicely, since you can’t ruin your life without ruining your marriage and maybe your relationships with your children and friends. It’s inevitable that as you make yourself miserable, you’ll be making those around you miserable also, at least until they leave you—which will give you another reason to feel miserable. So it’s important to keep in mind the benefits you’re accruing in your misery. Honing Your Misery Skills Let’s get right to it and take a look at some effective strategies to become miserable. This list is by no means exhaustive, but engaging in four or five of these practices will help refine your talent.
1. Be afraid, be very afraid, of economic loss. 2. Practice sustained boredom. 3. Give yourself a negative identity. 4. Pick fights. 5. Attribute bad intentions. 6. Whatever you do, do it only for personal gain. 7. Avoid gratitude. 8. Always be alert and in a state of anxiety. 9. Blame your parents. 10. Don’t enjoy life’s pleasures. 11. Ruminate. 12. Glorify or vilify the past. 13. Find a romantic partner to reform. 14. Be critical.

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