Insight: The average person can't comprehend he complexities of our times to be able to make a reasoned decision on what governs them.

That's why there is an education gap.

I don't have a solution.
But I think that this is the problem of continuing with democracy in its current form to determine our leaders.

The election is not YOU!
Don't internalize it
This not a football game.
You are in control.
Always.

2 minutes until shit-show time!

Stay calm.
Carry on.

Unless you are knocking on doors today, don't internalize the events happening outside of yourself.

Those events are not "you".
They are outside of "you".
You control what gets inside to "you".

Spend time today making the circle around you a little better.
- Clean up around your desk.
- Finish up that task you've been putting off.
- Do something nice for a friend or neighbor.

You control that.
You are always in control.

Well, that's it.
Kamala's last speech for this campaign.
I got chills as she wrapped it up.

Enjoy the last day of normality.

Assume the worst is about to happen.
No need to stress about the unknown if you start from that premise.

Then accept the pleasant surprise when that doesn't happen.

America has been changing. You can't change that. It's who we are at this point in history. It's not your fault. Don't feel a responsibility to fix those massive forces. You will not be held accountable.

And all will be as well as you allow it to be.

JFC, it's November.

What happened?

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Oh shit. I've just been asked to give a speech tonight at an anniversary party. I don't know enough to say anything meaningful.

And I need to be in a costume.

We still have brains that are structured to live 100,000 years ago. Anecdotes were all we had to make judgements with. It made sense back then.
Now we have abstractions. Data. Trends. Concepts. Complexity.
Some of us know how to use abstractions in our thought process.
Many still do not and so they revert to the transactions.
That is at the core of many failed political arguments.

When we can't comprehend the concepts, we revert to the transactions and the anecdotes.
"A car got broken into in my neighborhood. Crime is clearly going up!"
"But the data says car break-ins are declining."
The concept is "data" and "trends".
The transaction is the tangible incident you saw.
We too often argue using the transactions.
And the news amplifies the anecdotes.

New insight: When we don't think using abstractions like "people" and "geographies" and instead think using tangibles like "women" or "Puerto Rico" we are using faulty concepts in our thought process.

Using People as our thought-object enables us to add in attributes like "man", "tall", "brown" and still retain their primary definition as "Human" or "Person".

When we start with "man", "negro", "Mexican", or "immigrant", we allow our logic to ignore the characteristics of "person".

New insight: "Family" is an abstract concept. It's not tangible. While we use the term in conversation we use it differently in our minds.

Family is reinforced by the parents or through explicit effort by siblings and relatives. If no effort, no "family". This is different from the legal construct. That happens via birthright. But the emotional connection called "family" must be built and maintained or else it decays back to a mere legal label.

When someone says, "my black friend" they are, without exception, a racist.

If they are not racist they would say "my friend".

The "My black friend" is a black 'object' that is your friend.

I have a dog that is a friend. It's not a person.

If you look at a woman and think "woman" and not "person", you might be sexist.
If you look at a black man and think "black-man" (or something worse) and not "person" you ARE racist.

"Person" is the abstraction.
"Woman" is the tangible.

When you don't or can't consider the abstraction you devolve into bigotry, ignorance, ideology and, ultimately, authoritarianism.

You would be categorized as a person with the attribute "sucker".

Funny thing about AI:

I just finished interviewing a group from my client. I'm using a transcription tool built into MS Teams. I'm watching the transcription.
I say, "Thank you Ellie."
It transcribes "Thank you, darling."

Yikes!

Wow.
Looks like I wasn't the only one:

Over 200,000 subscribers flee 'Washington Post' after Bezos blocks Harris endorsement

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5168416/washington-post-bezos-endorsement-president-cancellations-resignations

The wife has COVID.
I may have had it, but never tested positive.
Could be that we have 2 viruses eating away at us.
Glad I got the vaccine. She didn't.

New view of my project.

Fuck.
This is how I feel, too.