Voting and Bake Sales

I've become ashamed to see how unprofessional the voting hall is run. It seems less organized than the ever present bake sale in the anteroom. The small knee high handwritten signs taped to the chairs and tables that are supposed to lead you to the signature table give a clue as to how this is going to go; for a national election, the President of the country! The route through is not thought out, a back and forth walk to get your vote counted, surrounded by some confusion. The paper ballot given is to be marked by a pen in a relatively open cubby, ok, fine. Then you take your ballot to a scanning machine while a friendly gent looks things over, this to make sure you got it right. So much for your privacy of vote.

My sense is that this is one of the better venues. I can only imagine what it is like to vote in other places. Long lines should not be a test of your will to cast your vote. Nor should identification or the myriad other excuses used to suppress. We can do better. Maybe we should spend less time and money campaigning and more time on making the act of voting easy and trustworthy- in the 21st Century no less.  

Parrots and Lemmings

The conversation is deadened by repetition and lack of nuance. A topic not expanded or informed by more voices, is a problem remaining, not a problem solved.

The preachers have provided the model our leaders follow. After all, preaching brings the flock/tribe together in faith, based on conjecture and blindness. Heal by magic, not by deeds. The flock, in ignorant rapturous sway, is more in peril, while the preacher lives well and looks good.

The tribe is a defensive stance. Expand the tribe. No defense is needed.

Sandy

Ahead of Sandy the Hurricane we (our leaders) are dredging the ravine. Once again I have made the point that the problem should be solved at the source, not the bottle neck. But...

We need to look like we are doing something. We need to be sure that the local TV station sees us doing something. We could care less if it really solves the problem. We are doing something... our eyes are so distant and vacant.

We are in crisis mode! Always. Good excuse to do something. Maybe FEMA will provide the funds. It is after all, a crisis!

We look so good doing it...

Genetics

I am finishing E. O. Wilson's incredible book Consilience. He is best known for his work on societal constructs of ants. Published in 1998, it is about the confluence of the major areas of knowledge and behavior- political, social, the humanities, and how they are all dependent on the epigenetic process within evolution, that is, the underlying core role that science (biology) plays in determining our behavior. It is not a call for strictly secular explanations nor a condemnation of religious faith. In fact, it makes an argument that considers faith to be an evolutionary response. This would be quite the irony if it was not so inflammatory to those who dismiss science in the name of faith! But that is not an intended target. The point is greater and much more germane to the human condition.

His argument is for rational thought and reasoned, verifiable answers in all realms through science. As we come closer to a fuller understanding of the evolutionary process and the key role our genes play in our behavior, we just might better understand our purpose and reach. More importantly, we may, in the end, learn to appreciate each other or at the very least be tolerant of different views. Better yet, we may realize our interconnected, common heritage as leverage to dampen the tribal instincts found in our DNA. Our future depends on it.

There is room for all bodies of knowledge in this approach. It expresses the need for cross pollination with science (through method and trustworthiness) as the glue to understanding these realms. It is about the whole, not just the parts. 

One of the very pleasant surprises in the book was the argument for the necessity of the arts and the role they play. The arts have been with us ever since we could communicate. It (art) was communication and explanation- about the world around us and how to survive it.  It was and is an innate response to understanding the world we live in, a world we are increasingly influencing, but with disturbingly short sighted behavior. We simply cannot survive the effects of ignorance and narrow minded views. The arts are telling us what we are and what we are doing in real time and in the whole; and what is important. We, individually and collectively, give life meaning and express it in many ways. Meaning does not come from some external force; a force is directive only. And if force did somehow imply meaning, we would have nothing to do let alone explain. Life's meaning would be evident and provable, not mysterious. What a waste of DNA that would be.

In a world were many of us are worry about educating our children, Wilson exposes the old hackneyed sham position by some leaders that certain subjects should be taught at the expense of others. Math, science and increasingly, business as the core curriculum of our educational system seems very timid, incomplete and outright fraudulent. And it seems driven only by a convoluted sense of competition with the other tribes. Once again, we see the faux liberal/conservative dualistic argument wrought on a naturally non controversial realm. A realm that by it's very nature is "liberal." Education must be all inclusive in content and based on fact, not myth, to be an honest exercise.  Education is a complete endeavor. You can't stake out what are otherwise perfectly honest and necessary ideas for understanding the whole as polar positions to the "other" and claim them as equivalents. They simply are not. There is no "other." There is only the whole.

I have always felt you could make an argument for the arts and humanities as the core of a sound educational system. The arts are about the whole. In teaching art, I have always stressed to my students that artists need a knowledge of science, the social sciences, math and history to have any idea of what they are doing and saying in coherent context. My own interest in science has led to nothing short of astonishment in the nature of the universe. It has informed much of what I do in the studio but more importantly it has changed how I think. I have no reservation in bringing the sciences to the core of education. In following Wilson's thinking, we would see a structure that is inclusive and informed by all realms of knowledge- math, the socio-political arena and the arts with the sound underpinnings of a biological drive we are still learning about and the humanity therein expressed. It is something this artist could easily embrace.