The Electoral College system mitigates the excesses of majoritarian rule by giving less populated states a bit more influence in election outcomes. The Electoral College system forces candidates and presidents to attempt a transregional appeal because no single region of the country is sufficient to guarantee victory.
We all know who won in 2012. But did you know Obama actually won by the lowest number of counties in modern US history? Just 712 counties out of 3007 voted blue – that’s less than a quarter of all counties in the US.
“To do this may be to be a mere technocrat, rather than a complete human being concerned with the moral implications of what I say and the greatest good of society…” (Solomon M. Fulero and Lawrence S. Wrightsman-2008: Forensic Psychology)
“We’ve forever altered the Earth, and so now we cannot abandon it to a random fate. It is our duty to manage it.” - Emma Marris; Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World
There’s this cool measure called the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status. It was developed to capture self-perceived social status by means of a pictorial9-rung ladder. The Scale asks individuals to place an "X" on the rung on which they feel they stand.
I've been thinking about ocean acidification, the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans due to global warming. What to do? Last post considered the possibility of adding iron in the ocean to stimulate phytoplankton, which consume CO2 and ultimately reduce acidification. In theory. Risky. All sorts of unknown unknowns. Likely unintended consequences.
For the sake of argument, I'm reducing the value of social status to its effect on widening the "field of eligibles" - that is, increasing the quality and quantity of potential mates. When in mate-seeking mode, we look around to see who’s available and who we think we can attract. Social comparison is the game. Inequality of mating opportunities is built into this game.
Should every generation be “better off” than the previous generation? What does “better off” mean? Looking only at the middle class and above, I’m assuming recent generations have been able to meet their core needs (sufficient housing, nutrition, healthcare, and education), so what should the current middle class be getting to reflect that they’re doing better than their parents?
Anthropologists scramble to show that the Other’s beliefs aren’t irrational – they make sense and do good explanatory work ... in context. Therapists labor to point out the irrationality of beliefs – that they do not obey strict rules of logic or evidence.
Explicit beliefs are mostly attempts to justify or explain an intuition. Intuitions are the result of implicit processes in our mental basement. Explicit beliefs are interpretations of intuitions – for the benefit of an audience (anthropologist, psychologist, self).
If a proposition taps into our neurocognitive proclivities, it’s likely to be vivid, intuitive, plausible, and relatively easy to remember. The idea that there are weird but still person-like supernatural agents, who care about what we do, is one such proposition.
Oceans are my biggest worry. Covering 70% of the earth’s surface, oceans absorb a huge amount of CO2. A few chemical processes later and we have ocean acidification, scourge of coral reefs and who knows what else. We’re not sure what else, but such quick change will surely challenge the capacity of sea life to adapt. Evolution’s not used to working on such short time scales.
I once belonged to a cult where awareness, non-attachment and being present were highly valued and practiced. Being aware didn't protect against craziness, though: cult members observed the panorama as it unfolded in the moment and yet remained deluded fools...
If one acquires insight and loses attachment in conjunction with years of meditative practice, how much credit goes to the awareness and how much to the teachings that promote a specific worldview?
Growth in global GDP increases energy consumption in the near term but reduces GHG emissions over the longer term. Economic growth promotes urbanization, education of women, delay of childbearing, lower fertility rates, improved agricultural productivity, and technological innovation. ...
I would imagine that many people who commit criminal acts are victims of abusive caregiving, awful environments, or at least genetically-influenced traits that facilitate criminal behavior (e.g., impulsiveness, mental illness, substance abuse, cognitive impairments). As victims, should these offenders get special treatment in the criminal justice system?
In several posts I have supported a modest Basic Income Guarantee (BIG), with the proviso that it be sufficiently miserly not to disincentivize work or add to the federal budget.
Global population growth is not slowing down fast enough.
In a recent post I wrote how Vietnam’s stronger land tenure rights have contributed to reforestation in the countryside by giving smallholders a greater stake in maintaining their woodlands, which have economic value. But context is all: Secure property rights is not a cure-all for environmental degradation.
The Copenhagen Consensus Center does research on the costs and benefits of various policy approaches to global problems and provides information on which policy targets will do the most social good relative to their costs – acknowledging that factors other than cost/benefit ratios are also important.