Category Archives: Society

Baby’s First Mosh Pit

I like going to concerts every once in a while.  It reminds me of how much I dislike going to concerts.  Unless, of course, we’re talking about Osaka Orangeade Concern! Bring them back, bring them back! (Know your audience.)  It’s not because I dislike the music that I hate concerts.  It’s because concerts are mostly just noise.  If you don’t know the lyrics, you’re lost because you can’t hear a word.  I was able to hear one word all night last night and that was “Chicago”.  I just don’t understand paying money for something when the music sounds so much better at home.

Pop quiz, hotshot.  How do you get 4,500 white people to congregate in one place?  Throw a Flogging Molly concert, apparently.  I have never seen a more homogenous mass of humanity since the Tea Party rallies.  What is it about Celtic punk music with its foot stomping beats and its mosh pits filled with shaved headed, jackboot wearing, tattooed, young white kids that keep people of color away?  Oh…

I usually stay as far away from mosh pits as possible when attending a concert.  This time, though, the mosh pit opened up right next to me.  There is a really strange honor code that goes on in a mosh pit.  The goal seems to be to flail around wildly and run into other people as much as possible and as hard as possible.  People on the sides of the mosh pit are responsible for pushing the moshers back into the pit.  And by pushing, I mean elbowing.  When someone inevitably falls down, though, a fellow mosher is usually there in no time flat to help the man up.  Its as if they want to hurt each other as much as possible but only if they are standing.

The concert was also attended by the two year old godson of the lead singer, Dave King.  I can only assume that his parents really don’t want him to hear anything past five years old.

Sit Up Straight, Elbows Off The Table

In order for polite society to remain polite society, we have developed a set of rules that make no sense whatsoever.  We call these rules etiquette.  Why the heck are there two forks for my place setting?  I suspect that the cutlery industry had a hand in starting that etiquette rule.  Either that or it harkens back to the time when having two forks instead of one was the only thing separating life and death.

And just when we think we’ve made sense of all of these stupid rules, we do something even more idiotic like go to another country.  That country’s etiquette rules are likely drastically different than yours.  So if you try to insult someone in Italy by giving them the middle finger, you are actually wishing them a full and prosperous life (results may vary).

I am pleased to say that the good people at Swisotel (purely out of the kindness of their black multinational conglomerate hearts, I’m sure) have a handy online guide to etiquette from around the world.  It’s a little simplistic, but it does cover the bare minimum nicely.  How to greet people, tipping, basic dining tips, and various dos and don’ts.

Despite the fact that etiquette rules almost universally don’t make sense, these things are important when travelling.  Don’t be that rude American who can’t do even basic research before travelling to another country (or State for that matter!).

I remember when I was travelling in Italy and this obviously well-to-do couple from the U.S. joined us in our train car.  They were doing one of those all around the Mediterranean cruises and were either just finishing or had a few days in Italy to kill between hops so they were heading to Lake Como.  The entire train ride there, they were expressing their shock that there were all these people that didn’t speak English.  It wasn’t in a way where they were travelling for the first time and were coming to terms with the variety of humanity either.  It was more indignation.  How dare the rest of the world not speak English!  I assume that they kept previous vacations to safe tour group sojourns.  Don’t be those people.  Please.

The Law Of Least Harm/Most Good

A friend, when commenting on my new-found vegetarianism, asked me half jokingly, half snarkily when I’m going to stop buying clothes that are made in sweatshops and when I’m going to stop buying vegetables picked by cheap immigrant labor.  He has a point.

The problem is, you can’t step outside your home without causing harm to someone or something.  Heck, you probably couldn’t touch anything in your house without causing harm to someone or something.  Those appliances don’t build themselves and they ain’t built in America by well treated employees.

What’s a globally conscience individual supposed to do?  You try to follow the law of least harm/most good.

This makes things like becoming a vegetarian an easy choice.  Meat production in the United States can be said to follow the law of most harm/least good.  Meat provides you with nothing that you can’t find somewhere else so there absolutely no necessity in eating meat.  That, by itself, isn’t enough to say that you shouldn’t eat meat, but in order to justify eating that meat, it better be a fairly humane process.  And it is not.  Wow, is it not.  The law of least harm/most good is easy to follow in this case.

Then there are things like tomatoes.  To eat tomatoes or not to eat tomatoes?  That is the question.  It is issues like whether to eat tomatoes or not where it becomes difficult to tell which side to fall on.  Tomato farming has some of the most unfair labor practices in the United States.  Tomato picking is done exclusively by immigrants who are easily taken advantage of because of their illegal status.  At the same time, though, these are jobs that the people might not otherwise have.  What little money is made often gets sent home to families that desperately need it.  Not eating tomatoes would mean a loss of jobs for those immigrants and a loss of those jobs could be deadly to their families.  Good is being done despite evil intentions.  That makes an issue like this prime for vigorous activism to push for better conditions and better wages for the pickers while at the same time continuing to eat tomatoes.

Speaking of activism, if you want to follow the law of least harm/most good you should be volunteering.  It doesn’t matter for what.  No, you are not too busy.  No, it doesn’t take a lot of time to make a difference.  Under 30% of adults above the age of 16 currently volunteer.  That’s around 60 million people.  Those volunteers average 51 hours a year volunteering.  That’s 3 billion volunteer hours a year.  Imagine if all 200 million people over the age of 16 gave just 40 hours a year ( under 4 hours a month!)  to volunteering.  That would be 8 billion volunteer hours a year.  Think of the good that could be done with that.  All it takes is one simple step.  Call an organization whose cause you agree with and offer to volunteer.

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you are only one person and one person can’t make a difference.  It’s true, you are just one person and it’s true, you might not make a difference, but it is guaranteed that you won’t make a difference if you do nothing.  You will be amazed at what just a little bit of effort following the law of least harm/most good can accomplish.

By The End Of This Book, I Will Be A Vegetarian

Willfully ignorant is not a phrase that anyone would use to describe me.  When it comes to eating meat, however, that is really the only phrase that can apply.  I have known about the horrific state of animal husbandry in the United States for years.  I have heard many stories about the abysmal conditions in which animals are kept in factory farms.  I am aware of the vast ecological destruction that occurs from industrial fishing practices.  I have known that the meat we eat often makes us sick, the people who work in the industry sick, and the people who are unfortunate enough to live nearby a factory farm sick.

These are all facts that have been fed to me little by little over the years.  I have known about them the way I know about the fact that the sun rises in the morning.  Very little thought was put into it.  That has all changed because of a book.

I am currently reading “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I’m about half way through the book and I’m finding that nothing I’m reading is new to me.  There are no new facts and no new conclusions.  What there is is everything I have known as disparate facts all condensed into one book.  And it is devastating.  There really is something incredibly powerful about reading page after page of how awful factory farming is to force you to come to terms with your complicity in perpetuating mass suffering.

99% of all meat and animal byproducts consumed in the United States comes from factory farms.  They live in inhumane conditions from the day they are born to the day they die.  They live in pain from the day they are born to the day they die.  They are killed in ways that are inefficient and often lead to fully conscious animals being skinned and gutted.  And that’s if they live that long.  Male chicks are almost all killed after hatching.  Unhealthy pigs are taken by their hind legs and swung against the ground bashing their heads in.  None of the meat that comes from these animals can be considered healthy because of the conditions in which they are processed.

Terms like “cage free” and “free range” and “grass fed” are merely marketing ploys and are all but meaningless.  “Cage free” can mean that the enclosure the animal is placed in doesn’t meet the definition of a cage even though the animals are packed in just as tightly.  “Free range” can mean that the animal can look through a screen window and see the outdoors.  “Grass fed” can mean that a minimal portion of the animal’s diet is grass.  If you do not have first hand knowledge of the conditions in which the animal was raised, you must assume those terms are a lie.

Seafood, alas, isn’t much better.  One pound of caught shrimp can cause over 20 pounds of bycatch (sea creatures that are not the intended target).  The world average is 6 pounds of bycatch for every pound of shrimp caught.  Almost all this bycatch dies and is thrown overboard.  “Dolphin friendly” tuna is anything but.  All it means is that they don’t specifically target dolphins when looking for tuna.  All tuna fishers end up with dolphin bycatch.

There are much more humane alternatives, but they are difficult to find and require research that is really not possible for big city dwellers.  And even if you can find them, they are only more humane.  There is no such thing as a humane way to kill a living animal.  There is only more humane and less humane methods.  Even the most humane current standard causes suffering.

Despite all that, I still find it really difficult to say that I will give up meat.  It is a completely unnecessary food item to consume in a first world country with a vast agricultural distribution network.  I don’t need meat’s nutritional content and I get plenty of pleasure from other non-meat food items.  There is really only one logical, moral, and ethical choice in the matter, though, and that is to give up eating meat.

The Matryoshka Doll Fantasy

One of the big arguments against taking guns away from individuals is that we need them just in case the big bad federal government comes to take away our rights.  This is a grown men playing Dungeons and Dragons fantasy, but it’s worth addressing in greater detail.

If you truly believe that the federal government may eventually come to take away your rights, the only logical solution is a well organized, well trained, well regulated state militia.

If you truly believe that the state may eventually come to take away your rights and the federal government won’t stick up for you, the only logical solution is a well organized, well trained, well regulated county militia.

If you truly believe that the county may eventually come to take away your rights and the state won’t stick up for you, the only logical solution is a well organized, well trained, well regulated town militia.

If you truly believe that the town may eventually come to take away your rights and the county won’t stick up for you, the only logical solution is a well organized, well trained, well regulated neighborhood militia.

If you truly believe that the neighborhood may eventually come to take away your rights and the town won’t stick up for you, the only logical solution is a well organized, well trained, well regulated household.
If you truly believe that your household may eventually come to take away your rights and the neighborhood won’t stick up for you, the only logical solution is a well organized, well trained, well regulated individual.

Here you are, the smallest matryoshka doll alone with all your guns.

In this fantasy world where someone is coming to take away your rights, at some point, you have to trust someone or you are going to have your rights taken away.  If you don’t trust your household to protect you, you should probably move to a different house.  If you don’t trust your neighborhood to protect you, you should probably move to a different neighborhood.  If you don’t trust your town to protect you, you should probably move to another town.  If you don’t trust your county to protect you, you should probably move to another county.  If you don’t trust your state to protect you, you should probably move to a different state.  If you don’t trust your country to protect you, you should probably move to a different planet.  Because if any bigger matryoshka doll decides to take away your rights, there is a zero percent chance of you keeping those rights.

The Unhinged Ramblings Of A Syphilitic Mind

Imagine there was a mass shooting in which scores of 6 and 7 year olds were killed.  Imagine the country reeling from such a tragedy and coming to terms with what it all means.  Imagine grasping for answers to try to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in the future.

What solutions would you come up with?  Would you want to ban assault weapons?  Would you want to improve our mental health capabilities?  Would you suggest that 6 year olds should all run and hug any mass murder assailant that happens to walk into school?

Wait, what was that last one again?  Yes, Megan McArdle is back to bring her special brand of stupid.  She wants to train children to charge at the assailants instead of hiding.  Think of how many less children would have died if they all ran straight at him instead of him having to actually seek them out!

That would be a great premise for a horror movie, though.  A bunch of six year olds who hug their victims to death!  Kind of Village of the Damned meets Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

If you ever use Megan McArdle to support your argument, you lose.  She’s like a stopped clock that happens to be right twice a day.

Paranoia Runs Deep

Continuing with my “Grown Men Playing Dungeons and Dragons” theme, there is another strange psychology at play here in the United States.  That is the belief of just about every group, no matter how large, that they are an oppressed minority.

Many Christians think they are an oppressed minority.  Here’s future Senator of South Carolina Tim Scott talking about how Christians are the most oppressed group in the country:

 

I have news for you, Christians who think you are being oppressed, being prevented from pushing your views onto others through government is not oppression.  Yes, you’ve gotten away with it for many years without much blowback.  That’s normal when a vast majority controls just about everything.  What you’re seeing is not you being oppressed.  It’s minorities finally sticking up for their rights to not be bullied through government.  You are simply finally not being allowed to get away with things that have been always been unconstitutional.  You still control every branch of government in every state.  You still outnumber every other religious denomination by a very large margin.  So quit acting like the spoiled kid that always got his way until someone finally confronted him about his behavior.

The next vastly oppressed minority is men.  That’s right, men.  Who are we being oppressed by?  Women, apparently.  Not just any women, though.  Feminists!  I won’t link to any of the websites, but look up Men’s Rights Activists if you’re interested in mucking through some real slime.  Seriously, it’s some of the most vile crap you will find on the interwebs.  On the plus side, their web sites make for great logical fallacy bingo games.

Another incredibly oppressed minority in the United States is white men.  I know this because Mitt Romney lost the presidential election:

 

Poor white men.  They only control 82% of the Senate and a similar amount in the House while only representing 33% of the population.  It’s so difficult to be a white male these days!

All of the above scenarios are really about not recognizing privilege.  Christians have it.  Males are up to their heads in it.  White males are swimming in an ocean of it.  The oppression these groups feel is merely their privilege taken away from them.  Slowly, but surely, the level of privilege in this country is being evened.  We have a long way to go, but like the wind eroding a mountain, our progress can not be stopped.

Grown Men Playing Dungeons And Dragons

Everyone wants to save the damsel in distress.  Everyone wants to slay the dragon.  Everyone wants to be the one to save the world from a great evil.  This desire can be seen in our movies.  It can be seen in our books.  And it can be seen in our gun culture.

I have a gun in my house so I can protect my family.  I carry a gun with me to protect myself from killers.  I will be able to use this gun to stop that mall shooter.  These are all the thoughts of an individual living out a Dungeons and Dragons fantasy.  Every single one of those scenarios only has a slightly greater chance of happening than you having the opportunity to slay a dragon.

That stranger in your house is not there to kill you.  That person robbing you on the street does not want to kill you.  You will never see a mall shooter.  Statistically speaking, those statements are all true.  If you confront and kill a burglar, chances are you’re killing someone who had no intention of killing you.  If you confront and kill a mugger, chances are you’re killing someone who had no intention of killing you.  You will never see a mall shooter.

It isn’t that you shouldn’t have these fantasies.  They are good fantasies to have.  I have them too.  It’s fun to imagine saving the day, protecting your family, routing evil.  But please, for the love of all that is good in this world, please recognize them for what they are.  And that’s fantasies!  Using these scenarios to justify owning a gun just shows you as a person who can’t escape from their fantasies.  And that makes you much more dangerous than the pretend person who is going to kill you.

Illinois Stands Alone…For Now

A federal court ruled today that Illinois’ concealed weapon ban is unconstitutional.  I’m not sure what part of “well regulated” people don’t seem to understand about the second amendment, but whatever.

Talking to a friend, he mentioned that Illinois was the only state left that absolutely prohibited concealed carry weapons.  I was incredulous.  It turns out he is right.  There has been a slow, steady push for right-to-carry laws in all states since about 1989.  Check out this Wikipedia map.  What surprised me the most is that Texas didn’t have a right-to-carry law until 1995.  Texas!

This is one of those cases that is almost guaranteed to go all the way up to the Supreme Court, so it’s going to be a while before it actually gets overturned.  But with the makeup of the Supreme Court the way it is, it’s almost certain that Illinois will join its brethren in arms.

The Child in Us All

Or as Ta-Nehisi Coates calls it, “The Seductive Dream Of Standing Your Ground“.  God, I love how he writes.  This is just beautiful:

The man in me knows how macho imaginings usually outstrip reality. He also knows that this may not have even been a threat. He further knows that kids, in general, do dumb shit. But that wasn’t the man in me talking. It wasn’t the father who knows he needs to be around for his child. It wasn’t the husband, who knows his wife is back in New York depending on him. It wasn’t the writer who hopes that his best words are still in front of him. It was some little boy who got jumped repeatedly more than two decades ago, back in West Baltimore, and his spent the rest of his days just “wishing a nigger would,” as my people say.
That boy is a damn fool. And part of any adults maturation must be keeping the idiot in them under wraps. But I can’t kill the boy. Nor should I. It’s that same boy who tells me not to punk out when I’m doing my miles, not to be a chump and take a day off from writing. The boy reinforces the man. But he needs guard-rails.

 

You don’t often see a man who made mistakes as a child and can both reflect on those mistakes and recognize how those mistakes still inform his adult life.  This requires a maturity that very few people possess.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, another man that I have a huge man-crush on.  That makes two.  Neil deGrasse Tyson being the other.  I guess the saying is true; once you go black, you never go back.