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I assume most of my readers care about the wellness of our planet and are committed to leaving it in better shape for our children and grandchildren. Some believe the emphasis on carbon dioxide and methane in our atmosphere is the key to that. My premise is that a focus on fossil fuels themselves misses the key point: we must reduce the need for fossil fuels – in part by appropriate development of renewables, but more importantly by changing our demand for energy itself.

Several of my blogs have disclosed what drives that demand, which of course depends upon the things the planet produces and consumes under the seemingly inarguable banner of what people need to be comfortable, safe, and healthy. These are not givens for much of the world beyond the wealthy nations, and most of us know that we routinely export our sins to these god forsaken areas, often in the name of noble ideas like EVs and PVs sickening and killing people in our insatiable desire for rare earth elements.

So, you would expect that our largest corporations would be responding to this in ways we can all support. Perhaps not. Susan and I watched the Netflix documentary, Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, that pulls back the curtain on the world’s top brands, exposing the hidden tactics and covert strategies used to keep all of us locked in an endless cycle of buying – no matter the cost. The recent articles about the health challenges in our food chain point out UPFs … ultra processed foods, that are enhanced with unhealthy ingredients to drive up consumption.

Here is an excellent article on this from the New York Times: The Healthier Eating Challenge: The Healthier Eating Challenge: Why You Crave Ultraprocessed Foods – The New York Times  You will learn that you are being deliberately deceived into thinking you are still hungry … so you eat more! Do you remember the ad for Lay’s potato chips: “Betcha you can’t eat just one!” You guessed it … food processors are deliberately and intentionally designing foods this way. And it’s no surprise to most that bars intentionally provide free salty snacks to drive patron’s thirst for their profitable beverages.

We are in a vicious cycle of deception and greed that deliberately deceives us into believing that corporations are doing the right things for all citizens and are responsible for their products from production through ultimate disposition. I was suspicious of course, but little did I know just how devious this all was, and that it had even penetrated almost all the food we eat. This is certainly why, in part, we are seeing the rise in cancers, obesity, etc.

Yes, we are more sedentary for sure, but more importantly, we have been drugged into a coma of indifference about so many things. The cumulative effect is going to be much worse for our children and grandchildren if it is not acknowledged and addressed.

Please do take some time to watch Buy Now! on Netflix. You will be outraged. That’s a nice beginning to engagement. Then, consider processed foods in your life … read the labels … if there are more than three or four ingredients in them, your health is probably being compromised. Check the ones you eat most online. Do your part. Eat healthily!

Perhaps you saw the movie A Few Good Men with its famous ending scene where the of the Guantanamo Army Base commander bellows at the prosecuting attorney, “You can’t stand the truth!” Yes, the base commander had done something terrible. Yes, it was good theatre to watch the plot work out. And, once again, we learned that there are often many levels upon which to try to understand the truths’ leaders live with.

The recent death of Jimmy Carter has brought forward retrospectives both good and bad, and most of us just want to remember the good when someone dies, especially when we believe in our hearts that they were good people. After all, what’s the point of criticizing a person when it can’t change situations, even if that criticism is deserved on some level.

History is hard to reconstruct fairly because it is most often written by the victors. So, they tend to color the record, forget to tell the other side of the situation, and often exaggerate the claims. Here is an excellent summary of the public views of Jimmy Carter at the time and over time: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jimmy-carter-retrospective-public-opinion-cbs-news-poll-analysis/

The summary I most often hear now is that Jimmy Carter was a good man but a lousy president. This article concludes the same. We did have a second oil embargo causing an energy crisis that transformed the world. Out of that, he was the first president that set us on a path to energy independence, which we now are close to achieving. He was right insisting we all had to “do our part individually,” but that wasn’t popular then and remains unpopular now.

Are we fair when we use public opinion as the criteria for good or bad? Carter was right on our personal accountability, and it is even truer today. Today’s electorate does not want any accountabilities … they want others to simply make problems go away. As a result, we are overweight and lazy in almost every dimension of life. Perhaps we have replaced needs with wants because we don’t want accountability at all.

Yes, the interest rates under Carter were crushing. I literally couldn’t afford to sell our house and move into another one at the same price because my mortgage was at 8% and the mortgage rate then was about 16%. But I never thought I should blame him for that. The world situation was unsettled in the middle east … just like it is today … but actually a bit safer back then even though we didn’t know it … yet.

Somewhat serendipitously, Susan and I have started watching an Amazon Prime four-part series covering Winston Churchill on how he led Britain through wars, somewhat by the skin of his teeth, but largely because of his incredible talent as a speaker and leader. He was a realist in his remarks, recognizing it was going to be brutally tough on everyone, but the goal was worth the sacrifices. Where is that kind of leadership today? Could it even exist?

History is written by the victors, and I hope it is kind to Jimmy Carter. What point is there in pointing out the flaws of a very good man, who upon hindsight might appear to have made errors in judgement? I like our pastor’s approach to funerals. He captures the wonderful and humorous stories about their lives and does include what we can all learn from their challenges but avoids outright criticism. After all, what’s the point?

How many things do we do each day vs. how many things are we being forced to do because others aren’t doing what they should? Are our lives being run or are we running our lives?

I have always found it a bit funny when some of my retired male friends talk about their “honey do lists,” which by the name need no explanation. Most of the time, I sense these were truly important family priorities … often needed repairs.

One can always put off things like this, claiming we don’t have the time or the resources, and that may be true. However, I am increasingly feeling that the clutter in our lives is largely a distraction from things that really matter.  I call this the tyranny of the urgent.  Let me poke at your conscience by asking how many times you fail to return a phone call or answer an email because you think you are too busy?

Really? … it is one thing to respond by alerting the calling party that you have something that is getting in the way, but that you will get back to them by this or that time or date. No, you are being rude and frankly damaging the trust formula in a relationship when you simply fail to respond. Let’s face it … once you simply ignore the message, your day will fill to the brim with other things, and in most likelihood, you will completely forget the call within a day.

Take stock of how your day is consumed and evaluate what it says about your priorities. Are you mindlessly watching the unending political nonsense as a result of the last election? Are you obsessed with video games? What about Facebook or Instagram?

I am not trying to ruin your fun … just asking whether the time is being managed or you are being managed by others or distractions. Be aware, the biggest influence on your life today is social media and that is being driven by Artificial Intelligence, aka, AI.

Devious people are at work trying to distract you, minutes at a time, from what you are trying to do, and every time you click that link to check out some audacious idea, you are giving these agents the specific insights they want and need to continue distracting you.

I covered the term “click bait” in a prior blog, and that is probably the most obvious. But every time you try to buy something you need, you are also giving these agents just what they want so they can blast you with the media trying to get your attention.

One of the most insidious temptations today are the false social media posts who claim to be interested in your ideas. As a male, these are often seemingly beautiful, lonely young ladies who seem to be wanting to start a conversation by just asking to have you friend them. Women are being targeted as well. The scammers will make you feel you have found a soulmate and gobble up your time. Plus, as you do waste away your time, they will set their hooks and drain your bank account.

Warning to any scammers reading this post: I report you immediately.

So, given that most of my readers have more sand in the bottom of their life’s hourglass than the top, please consider every hour you have left. Enjoy the time with recreational ideas and do stay on top of issues that matter to you. But, most of all, pay closer attention to the people in your life … all of them.

A recent event with one adult male in my life struck straight to the heart when he said that I was the only adult male role model for him. Scary thought you might rightfully say. But, no, his life was being consumed by the endless chatter and distractions, and he needed someone to show him they cared and would offer him a safe place to share his frustrations and challenges.

Be that special person by showing people in your life you truly care.

There are times when you listen to something and pause because it strikes you as profound. That happened when Susan and I were watching an old episode of Madam Secretary where a reporter was writing an exclusive article about the Secretary of State and was shadowing her through a few days of her work and personal life. He attends dinner at her home, interacts with the kids, and then enters this conversation with her husband Henry who is a theologian and professor of theology at the War College in DC.

Henry McCord: “You know, I’ve read a lot of your work. You’re very good at uncovering injustice.”

Reporter: “It keeps me busy.”

Henry: “Let me ask you something. Do you ever think that sometimes you find dishonesty and hypocrisy because you’ve already decided it’s there?”

Reporter: “Well, I prefer to think of my work as a search for the truth, right?”

Henry: “Well, then, as a Catholic, I would have to say we’re both searching for something elusive, unreliable, and prone to bias for a story we’d like to believe.”

I asked Susan to pause the video after exclaiming that this was profound, we rewound it several times for me to write the interchange above down. Please reread this carefully.

I think we are all searching for the truth, but how often do we remind ourselves that it is elusive, unreliable, and prone to bias? How often do we consider carefully the testimonies of so many in the world, in our lives, and within ourselves and admit that we see through a mirror dimly as the apostle Paul says and that we are looking at the knotted side of the tapestry in Corrie Ten Boom’s model of life’s mysteries.

Social media coupled with AI are feeding us things that we want to see and hear. The result may be good for the marketers and politicians behind these actions, but they are driving us away from carefully listening to one another.

Shiny pennies grab our attention. Clickbait makes us click on things that are not what they were claimed to be. Our attention spans are shrinking as we are bombarded by messaging specifically designed to capture our time online.  I’d like to believe that a pill would restore my hair, flexibility, and strength of my younger years. It is hard to resign yourself to the reality that stories about that are false.

We should be approaching each day with a special sensitivity to those with whom we have important relationships. And as we face it with our eyes and ears wide open, we should be wise like Henry recognizing our limits to know the truth even though we seek it intensely.

For those of you who want an excellent explanation of the root problem, please take a close look at the graphic at the beginning of this blog which has two lights shining on a cylinder in such a way that one wall appears to show it as a square and the other as a circle.  Both views are true, but the best insights come when you step back and see the whole picture.  (And a bonus question for the geeks out there … email me and tell me what the true color is for the cylinder itself?)

The key to better conversations seems to rely on humility and a sincere interest in learning more by listening.  I was struck by a recent Frank Bruni article in the New York Times and the author of the book “The Age of Grievance.”  This snippet from the Times says it all in my humble opinion:

“And I’m going to repeat one phrase more often than any other: ‘It’s complicated.’ They’ll become familiar with that. They may even become bored with it. I’ll sometimes say it when we’re discussing the roots and branches of a social ill, the motivations of public (and private) actors and a whole lot else, and that’s because I’m standing before them not as an ambassador of certainty or a font of unassailable verities but as an emissary of doubt. I want to give them intelligent questions, not final answers. I want to teach them how much they have to learn — and how much they will always have to learn.”

I hope this holiday season offers you many opportunities to savor the elusive, unreliable, and biased world all around us as we remind ourselves once again of the “reason for the season.”

Do you remember the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin? It is an old fairy tale about a musician who was hired to rid the town of rats by charming them with his flute playing. But, when the townsfolk refused to pay him as they had promised, he exacted his revenge by leading all the town’s children away as well. Is Taylor Swift a modern-day Pied Piper? I suggest we take a closer look at Swifties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swifties

Outside of this group, it seems that most Americans don’t have the appetite for and interest in seriously paying attention to anything. We seem to be a sea of mindless and braindead citizens following whatever grabs our limited attention? The movie Idiocracy is on point. Our culture is so riddled with soundbites and frenetic messaging scientists now claim our attention span has dropped from about 2-3 minutes 50 years ago to something less than 8 seconds. Watch how short modern commercials are compared to when you were young.

I personally believe the lengthy exposure of screen time with its toxic soup of videogames, social media, and AI generated personalized content addicts us and capturing our eyeballs and is a part of why today’s children and young adults have higher incidents of ADHD and other difficulties. I grew up without TV since it hadn’t been invented yet. I had a radio and could read books. Of course attention spans then were longer and necessary.  Against this backdrop, I suggest you look carefully at the behaviors of Taylor Swift concert goers. The following extended video summary of her recent tour is chilling:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/12/05/taylor-swift-eras-tour-reporter-personal-journey/76711565007/

If you watched even a small part of the video segment, and you are a conservative older person you probably will say it reminds you of the Beetles Tour or Elvis Presley. Yes, in some ways that’s true, but the size of the crowds and the range of audience demographics should be a wake-up call to anyone in modern marketing. Plus, the way Taylor Swift creates community experiences is a Harvard Case Study in modern social interactions.

If you just watched the referenced video and shrugged your shoulders in disgust, you are vulnerable to those who know what has happened and why. If you can’t figure it out, hire the ones that have … or you are toast in this new world. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it is your key to success in how others are redefining brand identity, awareness, and loyalty. Her fans are fanatics. She has not merely upped the game … she has reinvented it.

Here is an article summarizing how fans felt about her 3.5 hour concert: https://wapo.st/4fi6dRq The formula she used to connect with such a wide-ranging audience not only delivered the experience of a lifetime, but it also moves these same individuals to be in an ongoing relationship to her.

Look at the financial impact of this. It is not just about her ticket sales that have redefined the online ticket selling business because of its intensity. Look at the impact on the local economy in the chart below summarizes. She generates about ten times more than the prices of her tickets … which are also incredibly high … bordering on the absurd:

If you are hungry for more economic impacts, take a look at this article in the WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/economy/taylor-swift-fan-economic-impact-eras-tour-revenue-a9c00005?st=E1Wonm&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

It is so easy to just dismiss this young lady or to chalk this up to an otherwise bored modern youth element. No … there is something profound going on here. Her fans know the words of her songs and sing along during the 3+ hour concert. Their antics actually create seismic impacts!  When I started my engineering career we studied the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure. Could a new rating for safety now include a Taylor Swift Concert rating?

So, if you don’t know what’s been happening and why … you may soon be “paying the Piper!”