Controversial non-political opinions

[pbrower2a]

(05-01-2022, 02:30 PM)beechnut79 Wrote:

(05-01-2022, 11:15 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(04-30-2022, 11:51 PM)JasonBlack Wrote: In general, people in their early 20s are more insufferable than teenagers. In particular, people in the moderately high IQ range (say, 115 to 125) who are smart enough to begin theory, but lacking either
a) the education or experience to comment on what works in the real world
or
b) the more advanced intelligence required to make the more meaningful nuances that allow people to understand the complexities of reality rather than over-simplifying that reality into convenient narratives and black and white games of hero/villain.


I have observed this characteristic across people in that age range for a long time, as well as looked at several historical examples, and it doesn't seem to correlate well with generational theory (ie, people in that age range tend to be annoying to deal with whether they're from an idealist, reactive, civic or adaptive cohort).

Smart, young people are the bulls in the china shop. The people that you want in a china shop are the ill-paid people who see the prices of the china and  recognize that they are in deep trouble if some pricey trinket breaks. 

It's the dumb people in their early twenties who do the worst. Among them are the outright criminals whose athleticism makes them menaces. They are the robbers and rapists. They are the ones who see the payout on a loved one's insurance policy and think someone holding that policy worth more alive than dead dead than alive. Criminals on the whole are dolts low in intellect and emotional maturity. They are dumb enough to believe that they can lie their ways out of a problem.

I can't say how general it is, but most people in their twenties need to spend some time doing domestic service, warehouse work, farm or industrial labor, or sales-clerking with the fear that such will be their permanent lot if they muck up in any way. They mist know that their employer sees a piece of fine glassware more precious than their employee.  Or they must work 60 hours or so a week doing miserable white-collar jobs such as cold-calling or customer retention. I've been a substitute teacher, and I can tell you that I learned more lessons applicable to teaching from sales-clerking and even factory work than from any academic study (aside from some philosophy and psychology). As for teaching -- many teachers have no idea of what the real world -- the ugly world in which people are expendable tools and material objects are precious, and in which one must remember at all times that the customer's payment is the source of one's meager paycheck -- demands of people. Knowing this can break one. Who said that capitalism is nice to workers? You can hate that all that you want, but the people who really rule believe that what Karl Marx said was wrong about capitalism is wonderful because they enjoy great power, indulgence, and gain. Such people believe that their tennis elbow is more horrific than someone else's pancreatic cancer.

Paragraph by paragraph response:

P1:  All I really say here is having seen the sign in many stores saying "If you break it; you bought it." Needless to say I have always been very careful not to run roughshod in such a place to cause a breakage. Don't wish to forcefully buy anything I don't intend to. Breakage can also happen in transit on the way home or other location of deposit.

The optimum employee recognizes his worthlessness as a person in the grand scheme of things (think of cannon fodder in warfare) in contrast to some hill or forest. I know enough to watch myself around fragile and expensive stuff, including glassware, including the cheap glassware that contains expensive wine or liquor. Humanistic values would be nice in America, and although I recognize that certain glassware, alcoholic beverages, and china are extremely valuable, they are not worth knocking over. 

"Bull in the china shop" is a metaphor for the sort of person whose potential for disruption is far higher than his ability to create value or make things work better. Maybe we simply need to treat the proles far better than we used to. America used to have more social mobility for people with good work ethics, imagination, and latent competence once they had paid their dues. We had lots of college-degreed people who didn't want to get their hands dirty, get muscle aches from work, or bow and scrape to customers who have far more income than they do.     

Quote:P2:  As regards the insurance policy, can't help but wonder if you meant to say worth more dead than alive. I don't have a life insurance policy for mainly those reasons. Saw too many murder mysteries where the subject was killed strictly over an anticipated insurance payout. And, where criminal tendencies are concerned, violent crime tends to peak between the ages of 16 to 25. Serial killers such as Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, however, were quite a bit older.

I made the correction without hiding the error. The commandment "Thou shalt not kill", meaning that one must not kill deliberately or through reckless application of deadly force, is as absolute as it gets. In societies that move away from the death penalty, the last crimes to be subject to capital punishment are homicidal offenses; secondarily such offenses are those that threaten national sovereignty (treason, espionage, treachery) or perhaps bring lethal drugs. I'm going to make it clear: I consider the death penalty so barbarous and capricious that it mocks American justice. Sure, there are monstrously-evil people. This said, I wonder whether Charles Manson knew that he was the butt of many jokes and that people would take delight in his death from natural causes. 

I doubt that even the fear of Hell scares people adequately. I remember hearing a Greek Orthodox priest say that he had only one fear -- of Hell. All other horrors are temporary because we are temporary. I wonder how often a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp warned a brutal guard or administrator that he would burn in Hell for some obscene act of cruelty. Such might have hastened one's demise, but as hopeless as things could be. I can only imagine what pigs (which really are smart critters) think as they go to the slaughter of those monstrous creatures that can do something so horrible as... you know. In my case, may God not be a literal pig!     

Quote:P3:  This one brings to mind the plight of the paycheck to paycheck crowd. Many are made up of folks who formerly had good jobs but were forced to take jobs paying much less than their former ones did. Many are in extreme debt, with their only means of escape a stroke of luck such as a lottery win. An unexpected expense such as a major car repair can totally wiped them out. In one article I read they were describe as Generation LIMBO due to being more or less stuck in place. I wrote in all caps because I was able to come up with the perfect acronym based on the information provided. LIMBO=Lower Income Mostly Beyond Overhaul.

Cruel leaders of politics, commerce, and religion know well that fear works as a motivator. It also degrades people so that they eventually become wrecks. Perhaps all that the powerful people can do is to escalate the dread. Belong to the wrong religion, and in Roman times you could be cast into an arena with bears, lions, or tigers. In the Third Reich, sadistic guards could have dogs attack a helpless prisoner. Did Humanity really progress from Roman times except in technology? 

America did better when unions were stronger, and when people making union wages were able to afford paying manufacturer's suggested list price (the high price) for what they got from a small-business owner who better knew his wares than does some clerk working for minimum wage and can never  afford the wares that he sells. Something is valuable because I recognize its value and not because of a high price tag. 

I make one basic note about the relationship between debt and political orientation. Creditors are almost always on the Right side of the political spectrum because they have the talons of debt in the souls of their employees whether sharecroppers or industrial laborers. People heavily in debt for sustenance when sustenance is offered at nest grudgingly and capriciously are on the Left. They want a more vibrant economy that gives them more choices, and they want inflation to trivialize their debt. This seems to apply across culture and time. 

The Master Class of 'our' economic order wants people to live in fear of job loss, sicknesses, and severe and sudden costs. They oppose a welfare state because such turns people away from loan-sharks who can turn huge profits. Maybe this is simply a phase of our history that we will grow out of. Maybe we would be better off buying less stuff and buying less entertainment and appreciating what we do have. Less kitsch, and more culture. 

This is culture:



It may sound much the same because of the same ensemble (two violins, a viola, and a cello) but even if most are similar in form, Haydn has enough musical imagination to make it all attractive and pithy. One of the tests of one's quality of life is that one can listen to great music with generic titles and get great enjoyment because the music is that good.  

... I have my prediction of the next High. It will be visually austere because clutter will be out of style in a time of prosperity, or because much stuff will have to be deferred to recreate the means of prosperity after much is destroyed in an apocalyptic war.