Wisdom

I wrote the below sometime in 2019 but didn't publish it until now.

"They" say that with age comes wisdom, the ability to discern truth. I'm now 77 and I don't feel in any way wise. Take religion. Is there a God? I don't know. But I do know that pajama bottoms for those with male genitalia should have flies. Regarding climate change, I don't know.

Shorts 2

I wrote this in 2019 and failed to publish it until now.

Once in a while you need to walk to a different corner of a familiar room and view it from that angle.

Most would think that 77 years is a long time. I don't feel that it is. Possibly because I see my life in four phases, or 'acts' might be better. There was that that ended with high school, then there was the Army as an enlisted soldier followed by the Army as an officer and finally the longest (in years), yet the shortest period followed retirement from the military. The older one becomes the faster one gets older. And there will be no fifth act.

"This delayed frontal cortical maturation means that adolescents aren’t at adult levels of expertise at various cognitive tasks, like recognizing irony or Theory of Mind—the ability to operate with the knowledge that someone else has different information than you do." This quote from the magazine, Nautilus, kind of explains the bad behavior of college students but doesn't explain that of the administrators and professors.

Free Will

The existence or essence of free will continues to be discussed, argued and studied by philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists, among others. Even laymen like me seek a final answer. So I'll throw my druthers into the game and say that superficially free will doesn't exist as we understand it: the decision to think or act in one or another way or not at all. I do not believe that we are controlling how we act or think, rather that the end result is merely the summation of our memory of historical experiential evidence.

Patriotism

Originally written in 2019 or 2020 but not published.

Patriotism - a confusing concept, not so much in theory but in action. We tend to say that those who volunteer to serve in the military or another government branch that requires some degree of sacrifice or at least considerable discomfort or risk are patriotic. I suspect that many of these "patriots" are so only in appearance having in addition to love-of-country other good reasons for choosing to serve. Typically, the longer they serve the more their reason for continuing to serve is to support the country. Nothing confusing about that. Where it gets confusing is where politics gets involved.

Many in government today are experiencing a patriotic cognitive dissonance not unlike that experienced by many soldiers who fought in (or escaped fighting in) the Vietnam conflict. When you enter the military or accept a civilian position as a federal employee, you swear to serve and support the country. Later you may be asked to perform an act inconsistent with your value or belief system, an act directed from and informed by a political perspective with which you disagree.

Evil

Does evil exist supernaturally or is it integral to humankind?

From AI on 12/29/2024:

The philosophy of evil is a complex and multifaceted topic that explores the nature, origins, and implications of evil. Here are some key aspects:

1. The Problem of Evil: This is a central issue in the philosophy of religion, questioning how to reconcile the existence of evil with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God. The problem is often divided into two forms:

   • Logical Problem of Evil: Argues that the existence of evil is logically incompatible with the existence of an all-powerful, all-good God.

   • Evidential Problem of Evil: Suggests that the presence of evil makes it improbable that such a God exists.

2. Types of Evil: Philosophers distinguish between different types of evil:

   • Moral Evil: Evil resulting from human actions, such as murder or theft.

   • Natural Evil: Suffering caused by natural events, like earthquakes or diseases.

3. Theodicies and Defenses: Various responses have been proposed to address the problem of evil:

   • Free Will Defense: Argues that evil is a necessary consequence of granting humans free will.

   • Soul-Making Theodicy: Suggests that experiencing evil is essential for spiritual growth and development.

4. Secular Perspectives: Some philosophers explore evil from a secular viewpoint, focusing on its ethical and psychological dimensions without invoking religious explanations.

Justice

• Mueller Investigation
• Steele Dosier
• FBI & FISC
• The Dreyfus Affair (see article in Quick Notes)
• Just Mercy
• Richard Jewell
• Rich/powerful/celebrity v poor/not powerful/unknown
• FISC appointment of David Kris (see article in Quick Notes)
  
  
  Socially blind

https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/02/14/nolte-media-approved-hate-crimes-against-trump-supporters-explode-post-acquittal/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=best_of_the_week&utm_campaign=20200215

Causality

The human experience is grounded in cause and effect. We insist that every observed effect have a cause. When a cause is not recognized we shrug it off as hallucination, illusion, sensual failure, or requiring more investigation or knowledge. Our existence and that of the universe is one such effect. Consequently, God was invented to satisfy the cause requirement. Seems huberistic, in that in a world supposedly at leasst 13.8 billion years old, we were a 13.7999999999...etc. billion year afterthought. Probably not. And purpose? What could possibly have been the purpose for creating both the universe and homosapiens? Assume that the universe began. Scienctists have discovered how it could have begun by the interaction of a few particles within a previous nothing. Why would we rather think that than that the universe just always was? Well, because there is evidence of a big bang. inflation, and expansion that leads us to believe that maybe it wasn't (didn't exist) before then. Then, of course, we have to ask, "Where did the particles come from?". According to the Schwinger Effect, strong electric fields can create particle-antiparticle pairs from a vacuum. And the strong electric fields came from? Still looking for a cause.

What impact does causality have on free will. Every decision is the result of the mind whether consciously, subconsciously, or unconciously. The mind is influenced by a number of factors: genetics and brain chemistry, mental states, experiences and memories, environment, and circumstances.