Author: Captain Obvious

It may be going out of style, but I have lived my whole life being graded against a standard: getting the right answer.  Yes, there have been many times when you need to ask more questions before answering a seemingly obvious question, but at the end of the day you are either right or wrong.

I was always taught to “show my work” meaning that as I wrote out the problem, I was to state assumptions, show logic, and be especially careful not to skip steps.  It was not at all unusual for points to be deducted if you did skip steps, even if you got the right answer.

We engineers do skip steps, especially when we communicate to other engineers.  We use many forms of intellectual shorthand often described as ellipsis for those with large vocabularies.  We can sit with each other and muse about very complex systems and ideas … intellectually jousting one might say.  By the way, that … I just used is defined as ellipsis.

To those sitting around us, they probably think we are speaking another language.  To some, we sound like we are showing off.  No, we are not.  We are honoring each other’s time.  We know what is “intuitively obvious to the casual observer” as we were trained to consider.

But what if there is no right answer?  What if the questions are mysteries of the universe?  What if we are on the edge of the known and are seeking something entirely new?  Are we so arrogant that we think what we don’t know now can be known by just studying it?

Think about what we now call cancer.  There is no one cancer.  Some we think we know.  Others baffle us completely.  Yet, we create the appearance that we do know through scientific sounding labels.

Take for instance multiple sclerosis or what we commonly call MS.  It is defined as a chronic, typically progressive disease involving damage to the sheaths of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, whose symptoms may include numbness, impairment of speech and of muscular coordination, blurred vision, and severe fatigue.  It is often fatal.

Is that a definition of what it is?  Not at all!  It is a description of what it seems to do to us.  If you talk to medical professionals, they will admit they still do not know what it is. They only have some ideas how to help us cope with it.

As I hear the polarization of today’s advocates for this or that, I wonder if we could step back for a moment and consider first what problems we are really trying to solve.  Anyone who has been trained in this area knows that defining the problem is the first and most critical step.

It isn’t as easy as it sounds.  You keep asking “why” or “what” we define as this or that.  Let’s take a very simple example like energy sustainability on the planet.

Today’s pundits claim the answer is solar and wind.  But, following my logic, we should first ask why we say we need the energy in the first place?  Is there a better solution by considering the definitions of housing, mobility, and productive workplaces?  Should we redefine nutrition rather than just proclaim we want to solve world hunger?

We seem all to prone to want easy answers to questions that are, quite frankly, poorly defined.

Perhaps you are a perfectionist … someone who will just not stand for anything less than the best. Is that a good or a bad thing? Well, that depends now doesn’t it. Anyone who has been around this personality type can feel a bit at odds when nothing they do is good enough. However, when it comes to other things, we kind of expect it.  As when we consider excellence in such things as in musicianship, workmanship, etc.

If I described someone as a sexist we probably will conclude that person does not respect the opposite sex. Perhaps they are condescending or insensitive to the humanity of that person. If I then call them a humanist though you would conclude they just have some kind of bias in the way they treat the opposite sex.

The suffix “ist” generally denotes a person who practices, is an expert in, or is concerned with something, or holds certain principles, doctrines, etc.: apologist; machinist; novelist; or a socialist to name a few. The intent with the label is to be descriptive.

A misogynist is someone who is strongly prejudiced against women. Misandrist is someone who hates boys and men. So, it seems clear today that the media are racist misandrists since they portray white men and boys in the least favorable light. After all, if we are going to resort to labels we should call a spade a spade.

No, I don’t think so. It is just not helpful.

We really have to look at the intent of the label in the first place. I play bassoon so I am a bassoonist. I have been paid to play in concerts at my church, so I guess that earns me the title of professional.  However, I am far from a professional bassoonist … as much as I wish I played that well.

I am a member of a Baptist church that professes the priesthood of the believer, so I guess I am technically a priest … but no, I am not. I am a follower of Christ and just one more person trying to figure out what I should and shouldn’t be doing in my life and in relationships with others.

Therefore, perhaps we shouldn’t use labels like this. They seem to fail to do anything helpful. Perhaps we should just seek to understand the person and their intent. We can all look pretty elitist, classist, exclusivist and downright arrogant applying labels.

None of those qualities seem to be loving of one another … and in fact, they all seem to be clear indications that we love ourselves a bit too much for our own good and for the well-being of others.

I remember that line from President Jimmy Carter’s April 1977 speech about the energy crisis.  We had gasoline rationing and a string of powerful government incentives to reduce energy use, including lowering speed limits on highways to 55 mph.  We all realized that our energy independence was foundational to our present and future national security.

Many things changed after that … too many to mention in a short blog, but for those of you who want to Google them, you might check on PURPA and the Fuel Use Act.  It is fascinating to see how worrying about energy security moves the energy supply portfolio around.  And to be fair, you should also check out Three Mile Island, which occurred two years later and basically shut down plans for the nuclear power business in the United States.

It is sobering to realize how energy planning and policies shift as we face world situations.  We have had another seismic shift now that Russia has invaded Ukraine.

Please read this excellent summary from the New York Post here.

Societies cope with scarcity in many ways … and often cope well when their backs are up against the wall.  We admire the Ukrainians in their search for freedoms.  We tend to be generous when people are being oppressed.

Yet the average citizen wants easy answers to complex issues.  We want quick fixes to problems created over decades by neglect or ignorance.  Most of us have little patience or curiosity about truly understanding how and what we all must do.  Frankly, most of us automatically reject someone telling us what to do … even when it is in their best interests or the law of the land.

Politics doesn’t help with the needed education … we tend to vote for people who say they are going to fix something even when they can’t.  We always want a hero to save the day.  Seldom are we willing to “tough it out” as our previous generations have.

We have serious questions to face and need serious public dialogue about securing our country and the world at large.  The last thing we need is ideological nonsense at a time like this.

Have you ever been around someone who sings out of tune?  Do you realize they can’t tell they are doing that?  It is not deliberate on their part … that is unless they are trying to do something to make us all cringe.

As an amateur musician I have encountered people who are truly tone deaf … some to a worse degree than others.  The extreme case I ran into was a flute player who played any and all music without regard to the key signature!  Yes, she played everything in the key of C.  Fortunately, she played very softly.

There is another definition for tone deaf that relates to the broader contexts of life:  it relates to showing insensitivity or lack of perception in matters of public sentiment, opinion, or taste.  We are seeing glaring illustrations of this in so many public institutions that it prompted me to highlight it.

The Catholic Church recently invalidated several thousand baptisms because the presiding priest say we instead of I.  The church has clearly become tone deaf on the spirit of the law over the letter of the law.

More recently, John Kerry proved he is tone deaf with his comments on the war in the Ukraine.  Read that for yourself here.

Perhaps all this points to a greater need for the pursuit of harmony and wellness in the world.  Could it be that anyone who pushes an agenda that can’t be harmonized is tone deaf?

You decide.

 

Modern society seems awash in a news cycle that gives airtime to almost anyone who states they are a whistleblower.  Many “come out of the woodwork” when someone claims damages for unwelcome sexual advances, perceived racial inequity, corporate actions or inactions, etc.

They get the microphone with very little due diligence.  If it is salacious it sells.  So, much like everything else they see on TV it becomes a soap opera.  Conspiracy theories trump the search for facts.  And, with websites such as glassdoor.com and others, they get to dump their buckets further justifying their rants.

We have been slandered so many times and in almost every case you can trace it to malcontents.  They were either unhappy being held to a standard of excellence or when terminated felt they could get even with us.

When I grew up this was considered illegal.  Not only is it dishonest, it was punishable by seeking damages.  Hard to prove in many cases, and in today’s whacked out woke world even harder if you have a jury trial.

But today, as Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are prone to say you “fake it till you make it!”

Unfortunately, the origin of the term whistleblower was to describe a person who had the courage to stand up to power.  We all remember that Chinese citizen standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen.  Or, more recently, that Russian news reporter alerting Russians that Putin had lied to them.

I don’t see her as a snitch.  I see her as a modern-day hero.  Ralph Nader is given credit for making the term whistleblower a noble activity.  He led the revolt against corporate irresponsibility in product quality and safety.