Astrology - commentary

Comments to a young adult on the topic of Astrology.....

I know you saw my eyebrows go up (or down, or sideways?) when you mentioned Astrology.
This was an involuntary response. Not conscious. But I acknowledge, a window into my head.

Allow me to explain better.
I'm pretty big on 'science' - and the scientific method, and rational thought, and all sorts of related concepts.

And it just seemed to me that astrology is at odds with science.
Wikipedia seems to think so too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology
They call it a pseudoscience. Look up pseudo.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pseudo
Actually I found the Wikipedia entry to be pretty good, and can commend it to you.
It does a far better job than I could of conveying my views.
And as you might imagine, the Wikipedia entry tackles head on the conflict between astrology and science, complete with all sorts of academic references, for you to explore at your leisure.

Most interesting are the references to commentators who have tried to explain why astrology does indeed get traction with folks - these last few thousand years.
My spin - well, of the 3,000 years that astrology has been around, meaningful science has only been around for a few hundred years - say the last 500 - and only really taken off in the last 150 ( or the last 5% of the time astrology has been around.) So for the first 2,500 years of astrology, it had no/little competition in the marketplace of ideas.

In any event, the confounding issue is:

how can I reconcile what I learn about astrology (coupled with my own personal observations on a day to day basis that give some credence to astrological principles) with the naysayer science / academic types????

Ahhhh now - that is a good question.
Happily, others have made some pretty good attempts to answer that question using the scientific method.
I encourage you to check some of that stuff out.
(for instance the work on 'confirmational bias')

My sense is that you may come to look at things in a slightly different way.
And importantly, not just looking at astrology in a different way, but looking at human behaviour in all its beautiful, crazy manifestations, in a slightly different way.

Which reminds me of one of my favourite aphorisms:
from philosopher mathematician Alfred North Whitehead - dead these last 50 or so years,
"Wisdom is a function of the breadth of your experiences".
Meaning you are wiser by reading up on astrology than if you hadn't.
And you may be wiser still if you read up on what the naysayers say.
And for the record, I believe wiser is better.

BTW - my own key problem with astrology is the emphasis  on linking the alignment of the constellations (and other celestial masses) with the moment of birth of an individual. It just seems so, to use a word that's overused these days, Random.
If you were born a week earlier or a week later, how could that be linked to your personality or your prospects?

On the flip side, I ask myself, why has astrology had such a great run over all the centuries past, seemingly transcending different civilizations and cultures.
Part of the answer I've already suggested - the lack of science for most of that time to offer alternate views.

But another part of the answer must be:
the very human, hard wired, totally ingrained, compelling interest
To Know the Future, and To Know what Path to Take,
which particularly afflicts young adults in the throes of big life decisions,
and the inclination to latch on to any clues (from others) that resonate with you.
 
I observed this human need and human response in a fairly profound way when in my mid twenties I messed about with palm reading. For me it was all in fun. Well mostly. I did think that there might be some predictive aspect of the shape of hands and fingers and joint and nails, as opposed to the creases on the skin of the hand. Still do. As in a stumpy, squareish, muscular, short fingered hand, might suggest more someone inclined to manual labour than rocket science or philosophy.
But the fascinating thing was how, sometimes, the subject of my amateur palm readings were utterly convinced that the make believe shit I was espousing had validity. What a lesson / experience. I felt myself so much the wiser for it. Mindful always, that there was some possibility that I was deluding myself.

Oh well.... enough already.
just personal views - I claim no monopoly on truth.
Like a lot of others, I continue on a voyage of discovery - LTD living the dream sort of.
thanks for your attention

Doin' What comes Naturally.

I note that the last couple of posts have included stuff about 'the long now', and the merit of keeping the long view in mind. I now add a complementary notion - taking guidance from Nature.

As I would have 4500 Aspdin Rd. considered a physical safe haven of sorts, a reliance of the ways of Nature is a conceptual or mental refuse,  (of course not in the sense of garbage). Who of my readers would deem to challenge the Wisdom of Nature, and should not our conduct be wise?

Not that it's an easy matter to know what Nature would do in a given circumstance. There are so many complexifiers at work. But having an appreciation of some of the key tenets of Nature's ways, especially at biological levels can give one a big step up.

And if one can find a parallel situation in the encyclopaedia of Nature then one can enjoy some comfort that the path is defensible, if not downright appropriate. That said, we should be ever mindful that Nature is not some static ideal. Rather it is in motion, or at least seems that way. And in a forward time direction. With some of the grand Code being more fully revealed, and confirmed or validated by scientists the world around on a daily basis.

Sanctuary part 2

So, the plan is to develop a space that might serve as a refuse, a respite, a safe haven for the long now, say a thousand years.

My motivations include many of the motivations of the folks at thelongnow.org
But there is more; other dimensions.
They are mostly concerned with advocacy and education - in what for me is an entertaining fashion.
Me, I fancy I go beyond that. I would have a place that operates as a sanctuary in times of trouble. Or times when the infrastructure that we now take for granted is no longer available. Infrastructure like the electrical grid that supplies virtually unlimited power (for an individual or family) at insignificant cost, almost anywhere, 24x7xanytime. Or the road/car infrastructure including the gas that powers the whole shebang.

I thought if those things go for the big crapola, and are no longer available, how is one to stay alive. How will you stay warm? What will you eat and drink?
These are the difficult questions, that the Rosseau Project is intended to address. And by the plan, to realize a solution for. A place where you can stay warm, and you can eat and drink, independent of the complex machinery of today's society in full operation.

It matters not much what catalyst might bring about the troubles where the infrastructure things we rely on at all times go bust. It only matters that one recognizes the meaningful probability, as best as it may be estimated, of some form of collapse. Once you are there, then it is only natural I say, that you would want to provide some form of insurance policy, some sort  of safety outlet, where you and yours - through a few generations, might continue.

I occasionally recognize this last angle as a variation on a fairly familiar theme espoused by some crackpots called "survivalists". They tend to have a rather short view of the long term. So that's one distinction anyway. (As Hein says: A cow is not a horse. A horse is not a cow. That's one similarity anyhow.)

Project sanctuary

Don't read too much into the title; consider it provisional.

I wish to write about a project I have started and hope to build on significantly in this last decade or so of my productive life; fates and God willin'.

The centerpiece of the project is to be a structure for living purposes. Chief amongst its design objectives is to serve a small but changing group, directly, for a 1,000 years. And indirectly a much larger number of folk.

A 12 hectacre +/- plot, on which I hold the fee (ancient English /French? legal term meaning as full ownership as a body can get in a plot of land) is where I have started. It's about 12 km east of Rosseau, in the Township of Muskoka Lakes. How's that for a petty township name.

I am inspired in this effort by a project headed originally by Danny Hillis, renowned computer scientist and all round genius. He is building a 10,000 year clock, with more seriousness than I'll bet you imagine.
Check it out at thelongnow.org

Who cares if he succeeds. The project may be seen as an exercise with many dimensions, most of them eminently meritorious, and most of them providing value even at these early stages.

The big message I suppose is that it is right and good to keep the long term in mind, and that it should contribute to how one lives one's life.

That's a start for tonight. Got further than I thought I would. Back at'er soon I trust.


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Midnight Reflexions

It's midnitght.
At 277 Elm (45N78W)
Curling season just finished with loss in 3rd game of annual Men's Industrial spiel (I've over 20 consecutive of them under my belt.)
It is, he says, Ed's last came with the Barristers.
Sad really, but we've had plenty of warning, which is the most you can expect.

By tuyping this little intro I lost the main thought, brief as it was.
Gone.
Trying to recall it but all the while typing.

It was a curmudgeonly thought, as I recall.
Rather cynical.
But with the potential to be humourous.

Oh yeah,.
I think it had to do with having everything I want.
I got it all.
As much, in any respect, as I ought to have.

Oh yeah, here's the slogan that occurred to me.

I'm a species kind of guy.
Not so much a Canadian.
Or an Ontarian.
Or a Sudburian.
Or a Northerner.
Or of European ancestory. (Gaelish or Gaulleish or a mix).
Or should those 'Or-s' be 'Nor-s'., save for the last.

That's who I'm pulling for.
Leastwise in the short run.
I'm pulling for good ol' Homo Sapiens.

With a longer run view that a new, improved species will eventually emerge,
at which point I'll be pulling for that new species

That's my job.
Or my 'raison d'etre'.
My grand purpose in life.
To ensure we Progress.
And with certainty, the conventional wisdom about Progress,
on an evolutionary time scale,
involves  a preferred species.

Well Intentioned Misdeed - The Idling Bylaw

Ask a pharmacist (or general medical practitioner for that matter) how to treat back pains and chances are good that medication for pain relief and muscle relaxation will be prescribed. Ask an acupuncturist for advice on the same back pain, and don't be surprised if a course of acupuncture is prescribed. Ask a chiropractor and the answer is sure to be a series of chiropractic spinal manipulations. Ask a physiotherapist and you're in for a rigorous exercise regimen, otherwise called physical therapy.
Can you see a pattern developing?

Now take the concern of idling motor vehicles, going nowhere yet spewing noxious fumes that contribute carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and worsening prospects for climate change. If you ask a legislator, say a municipal councilor, how best to solve the problem you can safely wager the answer will be let's make a new law that prohibits idling.

It occurs to me that the revealed pattern is a variation on the old joke about a down and out drunk looking for something late at night by the curbside. A sober gentlewoman happens by and sees the poor fellow on his knees under a streetlight. She asks with genuine concern "what is it that your doing good man?" The drunk replies "I'm looking for some coins that I must have dropped." Without aforethought the woman says "Well where do you think you dropped them?" Also without much thought, the drunk answers, his arm extended and his finger pointing to the other side of the street "Over there." Surprised the woman says "Why then are you looking here?" Perhaps you know the punchline: "Well this is where the light is".

Ah yes, looking where the light is, is a familiar pattern. But it is not that clever a strategy, and we may frankly conclude it is rarely an effective strategy.

My thesis is that while the solution the law makers offer was bound to be anticipated, it is a wrong headed solution, and indeed no solution of any consequence. It is looking for a solution where the light shines. Municipal councilors have few tools available to them, bylaw making being the obvious one. But merely because the law making option is open to them does not mean that law making is an appropriate solution.

In a general way I argue that legislative solutions (read: New Laws), and especially laws of prohibition  to influence or control human behaviour  are almost always misguided and ineffective, if not counterproductive. Perhaps more importantly, laws of prohibition invariably have unintended consequences that undo any benefits the new law might have yielded. More on this later.

Admittedly there are some citizens who would readily and promptly change their behaviour because the law makers have prohibited something that was their habit to do. And one may also imagine that the number of these citizens who would change their behaviour to conform to the new law increases with the increase in enforcement resources, and an increase in penalties for noncompliance.

But where the enforcement plan is modest or minimal, and where the penalties are not especially onerous, law makers ought not to expect much uptake by the citizenry. The behavioural changes will tend to be equally modest or minimal.

And what about the unintended consequences? For openers, it is quite likely that a whole new group of law breakers has been created. These people may have been good law abiding folk before the new law, but once the prohibition comes into effect, for those that don't immediately change their behaviour, they have now become violators, or scofflaws. And absent extraordinary enforcement of the new law, most of these law breakers will simply continue their now illegal conduct.

Worse yet, there is a real chance that some of these otherwise good folk will lose some respect for the Law. And when that happens, it is to be observed at once that this is a bad thing in the larger societal context. Our society functions as well as it does in no small way because there is widespread respect for our laws. It does not take a superior imagination to appreciate that when a society has widespread disrespect for its Laws, that society is headed in a wrong direction.

So a question emerges; if a new law of prohibition is not an effective way to change people's behaviour, what alternatives might be preferred?

The better path for my money might loosely be called 'advocacy'. Others might call it 'education'. In other contexts it has been called 'jawboning'. This option can allow legislators and do-gooders to join forces in an effort to modify human behaviour towards socially desirable outcomes. But these efforts do not invoke the power or force of the Law, including all the of the  government's arsenal of sanctions - fines, or in default of payment confiscation of property or potentially even jail.

Felicitously, in our own times, and in our own communities, we have a real world example of a staggeringly effective 'advocacy' program to promote behavioural change on a rather grand scale. It is the Blue Box recycling program. The buy-in of citizens is quite remarkable. Not perfect mind you, but overwhelming in the proportion of folk who make recycling with the blue boxes a normal part of their quotidian pattern.

Developing the blue box program to get to its present state has been a relatively long process, measured in years if not decades. It has been a program that has taken considerable public resources, funded of course through compulsory taxation. But the program has never had the force of law as a backstop to compel compliance. No law breakers were instantly created. No judicial resources have been expended to deal with those who would not comply, nor for that matter to deal with challenges to the legality of the program. No work has been created for enforcement personnel, nor for lawyers. No freedom of individuals has been impinged. Yet who would deny that the program works well.

It may be that had the blue box program been legislated into being, rather than made optional, the change in behaviour might have occurred more readily, that is at a quicker pace. But that gain would have come at a cost, a cost that I judge too much. The primary cost as I see it is the restriction on the liberty of the individual. While it may be somewhat trivial to connect compulsory blue box participation with state sanctioned restricted individual freedom, I hold that the general principle applies.

Governments, be they at the federal, provincial or municipal level, ought to take the approach least intrusive to individual freedom. Allow individuals to make their own choices. Treat adults as adults, not as children who must 'do as they're told'. Give individuals encouragement to change their behaviour, and by all means use public resources to educate and inform, and even provide incentives.

Christmas Gift Exchange

Wally is the kind of fellow that would appropriately be on my Christmas card list. Our relationship had a bunch of dimensions. I had been his customer, he had been a customer of mine, and we had shared a few social occasions over the last couple of years.

So when mid December came around, and I pulled out a store of Christmas cards, Wally came easily to mind as a recipient. There was one minor obstacle though. Somehow my contact info for him lacked a home address. And since he was not a landline subscriber the phone directories were of no use. Ditto for the online directories. So the card got prepared, but the envelope only showed a name and no address.

In due course the cards I had completed got sent out by post. A handful though, being without addresses, were going to be delivered personally. And so it was that on Christmas eve afternoon, I was driving around finishing up the chore of getting all the cards to their proper places.

The last to be delivered was Wally's. When I arrived at his place I noticed that his vehicle was in the drive. But I had no real intention of stopping in. There were too many items unfinished on my list, and this would have to be a drop and run.

Not seeing a mail box I figured it would be best simply to put it between the storm door and the main entrance door. And that's what I did. But on opening the screen door, I saw that someone else had had a similar idea. There, between the doors, was a nicely decorated gift bag with a wrapped parcel neatly tucked inside.

In that transitory moment, and without any conscious reasoning, I simply slipped the envelope into the gift bag, and closed the screen door. The mischievous part of me wondered if that would cause him any confusion. And as I was driving home, I thought to myself that I could really have messed him up if I had found another card in the gift bag, and had spirited it away, if only temporarily.


Well it wasn't 2 hours later that my doorbell rang, and who should be standing there but Wally and Marilyn. And they were bearing some wrapped parcels. This set my head into overdrive in a flash. The coincidence in timing was too great too ignore. Had Wally come by with gifts triggered by getting a gift himself, which he figured had come from me?

Sure enough that had been the trigger. Turns out the gift bag did not have a card with it, apart from mine. After reading my card, and being a bit perplexed, he later noticed that the bag itself had a small tag on it showing just the names of some niece and nephew of his. Now he was truly confused.

But to be on the safe side he hastily scrounged around for a reciprocal gift for me and drove over to my place.

Well when our stories were exchanged, a good laugh was had by all. But it occurred to me that the symmetry was incomplete. I still had no gift for him. That was soon cured with a run to the back room fridge where I was keeping a number of Christmas hams that I had been encouraged to buy to support a local fraternal outfit.

And there is how our cultural values express themselves when it comes to gift giving at this festive season.