The polarization of my time.
Jun. 13th, 2020 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
myleskThese are our hours. This is our time.
Saturday, June 13, 2020 is the 90th day of our now self-imposed public health lock-down. 90 days is a milestone in itself, and launches the ten-day countdown to the much more auspicious seeming 100 day anniversary.
I have named this experience of the 2020 CoVid-19 pandemic The Countach after the Lamborghini sports car of the same name, which was itself named for one of its designers favourite curse words meaning "contagion". The Countach has taken on many aspects of a spiritual retreat for me, and I have benefited from the opportunity to disconnect from some of the pressures of my life, and re-introduce new reflective practices. I count myself among a fortunate group of people who have experienced the public health lock-down this way. Vast numbers of other people without similar security are having a much harder time.
Luck, blessing, and fortune: does anything distinguish the three? I am grateful for the good fortune I've experienced in my life.
A quick Google check suggests that I may have coined the phrase: the secret of happiness is a good attitude and a bad memory; which, I submit, is an improvement upon the quotation attributed to both Ingrid Bergman and Alberta Schweitzer: the key to happiness is good health and a bad memory. My misquote improves the notion because it allows for people who suffer from some health impairment to also experience happiness.
The Countach has given me a freedom to connect with people on more of my own terms. It has replenished my supply of solitude and given me opportunity to reflect on my existence. It has improved the convenience with which I carry out my livelihood. For all this I am grateful.
Many people remark on the CoVid-19 public health lock-down as being without precedent, and I am never sure if they mean that this precise disruption of life has never occurred before, and if so, then nothing really has a precedent and everything is new, or if they mean they have never experienced anything like it in their lifetime. Or, perhaps it is a combination of both.
Profound disruptions of societies are the primary subject matter of historiography: wars, pandemics, technological revolutions. Each one is unique in some ways (and without precedent), and at the same time, they have features in common. But the thing that is rarely the same is the people who experience them. To each of us, our experience is unique. The CoVid-19 pandemic might have features in common with the 1918 Spanish Flu, or the Black Death of 1348, or the Antonine Plague of 165. But for all their commonalities - my favourite being Marcus Aurelius' observation that "the pestilence around him was less deadly than falsehood, evil behaviour and lack of true understanding" - the truth is that this pandemic is unique for being the pandemic that affects me.
These are our hours. This is our time.
Out on the verge of the rest of our lives.
The Countach Reflection Time
I have been thinking about history, religion, stereotyping, and freedom. What do I think I know and why do I think I know it?
On Day 74 of the Countach, Minnesota police applied deadly force during the arrest of George Floyd for passing a counterfeit $20. Protests against police violence have convened in cities across North America despite the on-going need for public health precautions. Explaining the seemingly contradictory behaviour of multitudes of people is trying to untangle a Gordian knot of motivations and circumstances. Perhaps it is a fool's errand, but like the aspiring foresight strategist I am, I want to untangle it.
Perhaps that is my topic; the overarching theme of this writing: strategic foresight. I want to have a sense of the future with a rich complexity that is possible through study of the past. And I want to understand the rich complexity of other people that is possible through introspection; the study of myself. I should be my most valuable tool in understanding the world.
Saturday, June 13, 2020 is the 90th day of our now self-imposed public health lock-down. 90 days is a milestone in itself, and launches the ten-day countdown to the much more auspicious seeming 100 day anniversary.
I have named this experience of the 2020 CoVid-19 pandemic The Countach after the Lamborghini sports car of the same name, which was itself named for one of its designers favourite curse words meaning "contagion". The Countach has taken on many aspects of a spiritual retreat for me, and I have benefited from the opportunity to disconnect from some of the pressures of my life, and re-introduce new reflective practices. I count myself among a fortunate group of people who have experienced the public health lock-down this way. Vast numbers of other people without similar security are having a much harder time.
Luck, blessing, and fortune: does anything distinguish the three? I am grateful for the good fortune I've experienced in my life.
A quick Google check suggests that I may have coined the phrase: the secret of happiness is a good attitude and a bad memory; which, I submit, is an improvement upon the quotation attributed to both Ingrid Bergman and Alberta Schweitzer: the key to happiness is good health and a bad memory. My misquote improves the notion because it allows for people who suffer from some health impairment to also experience happiness.
The Countach has given me a freedom to connect with people on more of my own terms. It has replenished my supply of solitude and given me opportunity to reflect on my existence. It has improved the convenience with which I carry out my livelihood. For all this I am grateful.
Many people remark on the CoVid-19 public health lock-down as being without precedent, and I am never sure if they mean that this precise disruption of life has never occurred before, and if so, then nothing really has a precedent and everything is new, or if they mean they have never experienced anything like it in their lifetime. Or, perhaps it is a combination of both.
Profound disruptions of societies are the primary subject matter of historiography: wars, pandemics, technological revolutions. Each one is unique in some ways (and without precedent), and at the same time, they have features in common. But the thing that is rarely the same is the people who experience them. To each of us, our experience is unique. The CoVid-19 pandemic might have features in common with the 1918 Spanish Flu, or the Black Death of 1348, or the Antonine Plague of 165. But for all their commonalities - my favourite being Marcus Aurelius' observation that "the pestilence around him was less deadly than falsehood, evil behaviour and lack of true understanding" - the truth is that this pandemic is unique for being the pandemic that affects me.
These are our hours. This is our time.
Out on the verge of the rest of our lives.
The Countach Reflection Time
I have been thinking about history, religion, stereotyping, and freedom. What do I think I know and why do I think I know it?
On Day 74 of the Countach, Minnesota police applied deadly force during the arrest of George Floyd for passing a counterfeit $20. Protests against police violence have convened in cities across North America despite the on-going need for public health precautions. Explaining the seemingly contradictory behaviour of multitudes of people is trying to untangle a Gordian knot of motivations and circumstances. Perhaps it is a fool's errand, but like the aspiring foresight strategist I am, I want to untangle it.
Perhaps that is my topic; the overarching theme of this writing: strategic foresight. I want to have a sense of the future with a rich complexity that is possible through study of the past. And I want to understand the rich complexity of other people that is possible through introspection; the study of myself. I should be my most valuable tool in understanding the world.
So-called anti-racism is all the rage these days. My take on the "conflict" is that it is between those who are unabashed racist and people who abhor racists that, for the moment, I'll refer to as the progressives.
Yes, I want the 'good guys' to win, but they are at the disadvantage of being divided against themselves. This inner conflict is best exemplified by an affirmation sounding meme that showed up on FaceBook last week which reads:
No matter how open-minded, socially-conscious, anti-racist I think I am, I still have old, learned, hidden-biases that I need to examine. It is my responsibility to check myself daily for my stereotypes, prejudices, and ultimately discrimination.
The implication seems to be that stereotypes necessarily lead to discrimination and are therefore bad. It is this implication that I want to discuss.
