Owning Up

When I was at primary school I collected stamps - life was much simpler in the 1950's. It wasn't anything to do with the value of the stamps, it was because I wanted a complete set, or because I loved the design. Children then compared eachother's collections, whatever it was, from cigarette cards to stamps. I have to own up to taking a stamp from a friend because it completed a set. It wasn't particularly beautiful or worth anything. But I took it & I never owned up. I don't think my friend even realised. The memory & the shame has stayed with me for 75 years.

"Losing Face" is a concept is deeply rooted in East Asian cultures, where "face" is a crucial part of social order and reputation. It means to be publicly humiliated, lose respect, or have one's reputation damaged, a loss of social standing, prestige, or honor. 

If we do something wrong, or if we fail to do something we should have, there are consequences. Owning up to mistakes or failures can be very difficult, but it is the right course of action. However individuals ability to own up is determined by their moral compass & their self interest. A big factor is also how serious the misdemeanor is. It is harder to admit to something with serious consequences for others and / or ourselves. 

We seem to be living in a less morally responsible era. People with a lot to loose seem to be less able to take responsibility for errors & failures. Particularly people with power & wealth. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it does seem to me that there are sometimes collusions in keeping major failings hidden. Particularly politically & in commercial companies. I have blogged about that before, so I won't repeat. There is a worrying pattern though. 

 

I doubt I'm likely to commit a major sin & given that I have short term memory problems associated with age, owning up to failures, omissions & mistakes isn't hard. But I really do wish that those who do fail in consequential ways had the balls to accept that failure openly. 

The only way we become the best humans & the best societies is if we learn from our mistakes. We can't do that if we don't own up to them.  

 

Forgiveness

Blues music is full of "you done me wrong" songs.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzlHw5lNTt0&list=RDVzlHw5lNTt0&start_radio=1

The human condition is prone to blame rather than accepting that the balance of probability is that it takes two to make a quarrel. Misunderstandings & arguments are normal in relationships. The important thing is how we deal with them. Do we react emotionally or rationally? Do we feel hurt in some way & let that determine what we say & do, or do we look for reasons and solutions? I know what I think.

I can't do the god thing, there are so many things you need to believe that I can't accept. But I do think that there are things beyond our current understanding & we should all try to live according to the basic tenets of all religions. So we should try to be forgiving & accept that we ourselves are not perfect, we all make bad choices & behave unacceptably.

There are two diametrically opposite ways of thinking & behaving, blame & forgiveness. We seem to have become a blaming society. When individuals are able to forgive, even huge wrongdoing, we are quite surprised. But holding on to anger & hatred does so much harm to the person doing it. Anger has physical, emotional, and mental effects on us. It increases the heart rate & muscle tension & contributes to negative emotional states & relationship problems. 

Our expectations of what others can & should do have become unrealistic. This is particularly evident in politics. Watching parliament in action & political commentary is now completely unedifying. Our parliament is a bear garden of an almost complete lack of realistic & honest discourse. It is point scoring, yah booing & is unlikely to solve any of the deep problems we are facing as a country & as individuals. 

There is an almost complete lack of honesty & willingness to take responsibility for errors of judgement or failure to act appropriately. Goodness knows why anyone would want to become a politician. Possibly we have reached the point when the people we would want to be in charge look at the way we run this country & think why on earth should I do that? There is an almost complete lack of trust in politicans or belief in what they say & do.

Someone needs to get a grip & I can't see any evidence that we have many people in any of the UK political parties capable of doing that. So it's up to the public to force their views to be listened to. Where are the real changemakers, the moral leaders who put what is right above pure self interest? Mandela lived this & really understood about forgiveness. 

 

He isn't a lone voice, but infortunately there are not many charismatic & selfless people whose voices are heard. So maybe we the populus have to shout louder & together to force real change & more understanding. 

Sick Society

Approximately 9.1 million people of working age (16-64) are not working in the UK. That is the unemployed and the economically inactive. The majority, (9.11 million) are economically inactive, meaning they are not actively looking for or available to work. That includes students, those who are retired, stay-at-home parents, or people unable to work due to long-term sickness or disability. This represents a total non-working rate of around 25% of the working-age population.

Previously the highest rate of unemployment in the UK was 11.9% in 1984, peaking during the economic recession of the early 1980s. Another major peak was in 1993, at 10.7%, during the recession in the early 1990s.  

At the risk of being politically incorrect I just don't understand this. We are not currently in a recession. Long-term sickness is the reason for 28% of all economically inactive people. More than 1.35 million people who are inactive due to long-term sickness report depression, bad nerves, or anxiety as their primary condition. So I have to ask are we a sick society & if we are why?

I remember working when I was quite ill with bronchitis & even pleurisy. I certainly remember working when I was overwhelmed & depressed. I'm not saying that is a good thing, it isn't. Not least because you will undoubtedly infect other people with contageous diseases & you can't function well if you are depressed. But teaching & being a headteacher means that you are in a caring profession & you tend to put the job first, even if that is misguided & supply teachers were difficult to get.

Having had a lifetime of co morbid chronic conditions I am a believer in distraction technique & the benefit of socialising. I can be in pain or feel significantly under the weather, but if I can take my mind off how I feel I do feel better. For me swimming or meeting friends & family is the best cure. If you are diagnosed with something there is evidence that the expansion of disease definitions and advanced technology contribute to overdiagnosis. I'm not saying that it is good to ignore symptoms, it definitely isn't, but mental health diagnoses have grown exponentially. The rate of common mental health conditions in 16- to 64-year-olds went from 15.5% in 1993 to 22.6% in 2023/24. The elephant in the room is Covid of course.

However I do think that my generation & previous generations were more resilient. They coped with massive problems & the NHS only came into existance in 1948. If we over medicalise we are almost conditioning, especially the young & impressionable, to not be able to cope. 

 

We must not become a sick society. We are better than that. We all need to live full lives & meet the challenges. 

Extinction

Extinction is the complete disappearance of a species, either naturally or due to human activity. Given the announcement this week that Russia has developed a nuclear powered missile that NATO calls Skyfall, which flew at Mach 10 for 8,700 miles & can pierce any defence shield, it seems that we are in another dangerous cold war, with unstable, undemocratic, leaders in charge of several well armed & powerful countries. This obviously threatens mass extinction.

Human-caused extinction rates are currently thousands of times higher than natural rates, driven primarily by habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, and over exploitation. Darwin showed that variations in a species may make some individuals better suited to their environment, while less-adapted individuals may fail to reproduce - survival of the fittest. So extinction is, to an extent, normal. 99% of all species that have ever lived are now extinct. Challenges like habitat fragmentation, climate change, natural disasters, disease, or competition for resources may outpace ability to adapt. But you can't adapt to nuclear weapons.

The geological record shows five major mass extinction events in Earth's history. The first was 443 million years ago. The fifth was 55 million years ago. Many scientists believe the planet is currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction event, driven largely by human activity. This extinction rate is estimated to be 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates.  

A 2019 report by the IPBES found that 1 million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction. There is a knock on effect of an extinction. The loss of a species, particularly a keystone species, can unbalance an ecosystem and trigger a cascade of further extinctions, that could take millions of years to recover. 

We humans are literally fighting a battle on two fronts to stop extinction. We need to stop unstainable exploitation of the earth & seas. We also need to learn how to co-exist with other nations & not use devastatingly destructive wars to settle disagreements over territory & culture.

 

Unfortunately I can't see much evidence of that happening. Essentially we humans are selfish rather than altruistic. Historically there are 10 civilisations that have gone extinct due to environmental changes, internal strife, warfare, or a combination of factors. This time we are talking about a world mass extinction. 

We don't seem capable of learning the lessons of history. We are in serious danger of being the agents of our own destruction. 
  

 

Reasons to be Cheerful

One of the pieces of music I have on my funeral playlist is "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". I'm nothing if not eclectic, I also have the "Dies Irae" chorus from Verdi's Requiem mass, which is the choral depiction of the day of judgement. If I'm ever at the pearly gates I'm really not sure how the scales of justice will fall. But then I think heaven & hell is within each of us, not an ultimate destination.

At the moment I am finding it quite difficult to focus on the many & varied reasons I have to be cheerful. There are so many things happening in my small world, but mainly in the world generally, that do not generate cheer. I don't think I need to enumerate them.

But in order not to sink into gloom I think that we all need to try to focus on the positive. 

Yesterday I wrote the draft of this listening to a playlist of the most beautiful piano solos. I was sitting in my study, in my home, looking out onto a street bathed in sunlight shining from a clear blue sky. Two of my neighbours boys popped over to give me a huge box of apples because they are all going on holiday. That means I will bake an apple cake & pass most on to my daughter who is a better cook than me. We went to a ceramic fair in Oxford in the morning which showcased the most inspiring collection of human creativity in clay. That was just one day in the life of.....

 

My point is that hopefully most of us can find reasons to be cheerful because if we are really honest there are always people who are much worse off than we are. If I feel in the least sorry for myself when I am in pain or very fatigued, I can think of people who have far worse medical conditions than I do. If something goes wrong in my life, generally it isn't drastic or life threatening. I dread house maintenance issues, it's never easy to sort them out, but I have a comfortable house that I own. 

I've had 80 years of a really interesting & productive life. Happiness is a gift to be appreciated & acknowledged. I'm not given to joy, but I do appreciate contentment. Each new day is a bonus & a blessing now. 

That's a reason to be very cheerful. 

 

Opinion

You may well think that I am very opinionated. You would be right, I am. Over the 14 years I have been posting Blogs, "Senile Sealion" has become a commentary on the world today as I see it. Since I am not yet at the stage of senility when I talk to myself, this is my outlet. In the absence of a husband to bore with my opinions, I put them into print & publish them. Over the years my audience has grown from a handful of noble friends to a high of approx 6,500 in a week. So someone somewhere is interested.

But what is an opinion? Its a belief, perspective, judgement, sentiment, thought, attitude, feeling, conviction....  We are all allowed to have opinions, a right to freedom of expression, on anything. Free speech is important. But are we also allowed to voice those that are derogatory or offensive to others? No, unlawful harassment or unlawful incitement to hatred or violence, for example, does not constitute free speech within the law and is not protected.

I try to be careful what I write & what I say. I have no wish to offend. The difficulty is that speech or the written word are both open to misinterpretation. For example, however careful I am with emails or texts, sometimes what I mean is interpreted differently by whoever reads it. I cannot be responsible for the thought processes of my reader, or listener. They may be emotional or irrational or suffering from some sort of mental disturbance. They may just have a different perspective. I know what I mean, but they can read or hear it completely differently. That's life. It's out of my control.

So I am concerned to see the trend, in the press & media, to speculate wildly, to voice unsubstantiated opinions without any evidential context, to react over emotionally to situations, to not be balanced. It's even worse than that because we have become the post truth era, where half truths & lies are routinely published without challenge. 

The big problem is you can't know what someone is going to say until they say it. You do know what people have said before & can anticipate their opinions though. You also do know what someone has written before. So surely the public need to be informed if an opinion is questionable.

Humans are very diverse. Our intelligence varies hugely.

 

The press & media are there to inform, accurately. But they can manipulate & influence opinion. It is important that we all realise that & each take steps to verify that what we are reading or hearing is accurate. Unless we do we will forfeit democracy & choice. We need to be selective about the voices we listen to. 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-opinion/Mass-media-and-social-media 

 

Thoughtlessness - Cause & Effect

I once had a house with wood burning stoves in 3 rooms. We burnt all sorts of wood. It was in a very rural area & wood wasn't difficult to come by. We were very prone to power outages, which often lasted days, so the wood burners that had a hotplate were very useful. We thought we were being very eco.

Now we know that burning the wrong wood risks a fine, the life of your stove, or even a house fire if you burn irresponsibly. https://www.hetas.co.uk/consumer/advice-hub/advice-articles/16-things-you-should-never-burn-in-your-wood-burner/  The main thing to understand is the emissions can be very  harmful, releasing greenhouse gases. Burning wood releases more CO2 for the same amount of heat or energy than fossil fuels like oil or gas. It is not carbon neutral because trees take decades to regrow and absorb the carbon they released during combustion. 

It's cause & effect rather than thoughtlessness. The big problem we have in decision making, whether it's micro / individual, or macro / political & philosophical, is that we need to engage our brains before action. We need to try to look to the whole question of what our actions today might mean for the consequences down the line. But we tend to make decisions that are expedient.

We need to develop creative thinking skills. We need to effectively gather, analyze, & evaluate information to solve problems, make decisions & achieve goals. People need critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and reasoning in order to understand, apply, and create new knowledge. These skills are crucial for navigating the complex tasks the world today presents us with. 

In order to become people who make good choices & societies that do not push humanity towards oblivion, we need to first recognise that we have made poor choices in the past. Then we need to learn how to be more thoughtful & try to predict the outcomes of our actions & inactions.

We understand what cause & effect means, both individually & societally. But we are not yet prepared to take responsibility for outcomes & change in ways that are difficult. Until we do, thoughtlessness & expediency will take us down a path we really don't want to travel.