Viewing humans as primates-mammals-animals-life forms, the concept of “enlightenment” and of “enlightened” beings seems strange to me. If enlightenment exists, could animals other than humans become enlightened? Why? Why not?
We know that a lot of people will die because of the havoc wreaked by climate change. The (WHO) estimates that between 2030 and 2050, climate change will cause roughly 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.
Denmark draws the lines differently. Pro-union doesn’t mean anti-business. Having a strong safety net doesn’t mean squeeze the rich. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that the lines are not there to begin with- that the ideal of ending poverty, facilitating economic mobility, and making sure everyone has access to the basics – healthcare, education, and family services – doesn’t have to pit Most of Us against a Despised Other (or at least an Undeserving Other).
Between “toxic” thoughts and feelings, unawareness, cancer-prone personalities, and just plain ol’ stress*, the unmindful among us are in mortal danger. Delicate homeostatic inner balance has been put to the service of New Age fear-mongering.
Climate change action priorities, simplified version: reduce green house gases, protect habitats, protect wildlife and protect humans. For this post, I’m going to focus on protecting humans – operationalized as reducing the extra deaths caused by climate change. A huge factor in reducing climate-change related deaths is economic development. Specifically, as GDP increases, mortality rates decrease. Mean death rates fall by 15% for every 10% increase in GDP. And we’re not just talking about old people getting a couple extra years: on average, a 10% increase in income means a 5% fall in infant mortality.
... Instead of thinking about political differences in terms of values, think of these differences in terms of priorities. Priorities are informed by multiple, often competing, goals based on multiple, often competing, values. Since multiple goals and values are involved, at least some are likely to be shared across the political spectrum.
The world places conflicting demands on our brains. When we are intentionally paying attention to sense impressions or tasks, “stimulus-independent-thought” (aka “tasked-unrelated-thought” aka “mind wandering”) is unable to proceed. This is because focusing on something taps into the same general cognitive resource, one which can only “handle only one coherent data stream at a time” (Teasdale et al 1995, p 38).
This is a continuation of the Denmark explorations. This time around, we’ll be checking out Denmark’s pension system.
...from the website Science or Not?
Cherry picking: “In cherry-picking, people use legitimate evidence, but not all of the evidence. They select segments of evidence that appear to support their argument and hide or ignore the rest of the evidence which tends to refute it.”
"Climate change could kill more than 500,000 adults in 2050 worldwide due to changes in diets and body weight from reduced crop productivity, according to new estimates. The research is the strongest evidence yet that climate change could have damaging consequences for food production and health worldwide." - Springmann et al (2016)
Summary so far: Denmark has an extensive safety net and high taxes. As per usual, the situation is a lot more complicated than the buzz. Last time we looked at the health care system. Now we’re going to take a closer look at unemployment benefits.
Self-control operates much like a cybernetic feedback system and includes 3 interacting components: the setpoint, a discrepancy, and the correction (or reduction of discrepancy).
To “accept” a thought that just unfolded and then to redirect attention to something else is a type of shallow processing. It’s like listening to the first few notes of a song and then turning your attention to something else – all you can really say is you heard a few notes, not the entire song. What you’re really doing is accepting little notes of thoughts. If you’re already pretty sure where those notes lead to and you don’t want to listen to the rest of the song, then there’s no need to listen to the whole thing. But acknowledge that this is “acceptance” writ small.
Kelly McGonigal defines willpower as "the ability to do what you really want to do when part of you really doesn’t want to do it." It consists of three competing elements: 1) I will – the ability to do what you need to do; 2) I won’t – the other side of self-control; the inability to resist temptation; and 3) I want – your true want, the ability to remember the big picture of your life.
This chart is from the USDA Economic Research Service. It shows that US farmers consider the environmental effects of agricultural production, e.g., soil erosion and the loss of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides to water, and have adopted conservation practices to mitigate these effects. Use of such practices has increased substantially over the past 20 years.
Stressing status and appealing to authority: “People who use this tactic try to convince you by quoting some ‘authority’ who agrees with their claims and pointing to that person’s status, position or qualifications, instead of producing real-world evidence. The tactic is known as the argument from authority.”
Think of thoughts as guests at the party of your mind. Imagine being at a family gathering and the relatives are a talkative bunch. You are “observing” the scene not as a detached bystander but as a loving, involved family member. You catch snatches of conversation, some not that interesting, some best to ignore.
Denmark has an extensive safety net and high taxes. As per usual, the situation is a lot more complicated than the buzz. So we’re going to take a closer look, starting with the health care system. As previously advertised, Denmark provides “universal health care”. What does this mean?
The many attractions of Denmark include a generous safety net that provides unemployed workers 90% of their old salary up to 2 years. Parents receive up to 52 weeks of leave per child and daycare is heavily subsidized. Overall, working-age families receive more than three times as much aid, as a share of G.D.P., as their U.S. counterparts. Danes enjoy the world’s shortest work week and have the right to 5 weeks of paid vacation a year. College students not only have free tuition but get a stipend of over $900 a month.
A lot of mind wandering does seem to be on a mission of sorts: rehearsing, planning, rehashing – as if trying to achieve resolution to some sort of unfinished business. Unfinished business implies a goal – something has not been achieved. Of course, many of these mental missions are aborted mid-stream, as life and other missions intervene.