Monthly Archives: August 2008

Self-Imposed Complexity and the Ratchet Principle

7 Replies

The portfolio of laws that American citizens are subject to seems to grow without bounds. Every year our congress drafts a new collection of laws to submit to the process of enactment. State legislatures, county and city governments all are able to add new rules and constraints on our degrees of freedom. As if that weren’t enough, people willingly move into convenant controlled communities where they sign away basic freedoms like the freedom to choose house paint or to leave the garage door open.

We are gradually fencing in all of the free space where conduct is unregulated. Our Nanny State leaders are scaring the bejeebers out of us through defense initiatives and dire warnings about what could happen if terrorists took an interest in disrupting industry and infrastructure.

Our town of 6,000 has to comply with Homeland Security requirements by fencing in the town water tank in a certain way.  Some terrorist could poison the water. In fact, that fiend would probably be a psychotic local citizen bent on retribution, not a Shiite saboteur in sandals. Collectively, we are at much more risk from fellow citizens than from foreign bad guys. Perhaps that is the hidden agenda.

Citizens are turning over priceless freedom artifacts in exchange for promissory notes claiming to protect the bearer. Once we give up degrees of freedom in the conduct of our lives, we can never get them back. Govennment will not refund units of control.  As we increase the complexity of our world through an ever increasing statutory web of control, we forfeit degrees of freedom. It is like a ratchet. You can click forward, but there is no going back.

New subject. Read Jim Kunstlers post “Reality Bites“.

Geriatric Body Art

5 Replies

The number of young adults walking around with piercings, tatoos, and those curious discs in their ear lobes continues to grow. Whereas tatoos were once popular only among cannibals and sailors, todays suburban tatoo fashionistas come from all walks of life and sport technicolor displays of fantasy art that make a point of in-your-face incongruence. And with much of it on locations where the wearer can’t view it themselves.

I can’t help but imagine rest homes of the future where geezers and codgers will dodder in their twilight years, festoons of ear hair sprouting over gaping holes in their pendulous ear lobes like Amazonian witch doctors. The urine scented hallways will be populated with crones and the occasional geezer sporting once provocative tats, now blurred with age, protruding from private locations and shared only with the floor nurse.

It seems to me that the tatoo money would be better spent on a round of antibiotics after a trip to Phuket. At least it would have been a genuine experience of life on the edge rather than just an illustration of one.

Klaatu Berada Nicto

2 Replies

Looks like I may have found the perfect fraternal organization from which I can express my need to contribute to society. E Clampus Vitus, or ECV, even has a chapter here in Colorado- Alferd Packer Chapter 100.

Somehow I managed to miss Imperial Week in San Francisco. I’m told the view of the Death Star above SF was specatular.

Th’ Gaussling was thrilled to discover that the Theremin was used for background music on the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, one of the greatest SciFi movies of all time. You can hear the Theremin in the scene where the robot Gort exits the saucer to rescue Michael Rennie. It has a menacing, other worldly sound. No word if the upcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves uses the Theremin. Seems doubtful.

Bacevich on Consumerism and the Imperial Presidency

2 Replies

While I have been struggling in my usual caveman way to express my frustrations with our national governance, whom should I stumble into but Andrew J. Bacevich, Boston Univ professor of history and international relations, who has been working on this matter for some time. Bacevich has written a book called The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.  This exceptionally articulate fellow was recently interviewed by Bill Moyers on public television. 

His thesis comes down to the notion that American demand for consumer goods and credit has resulted in a kind of consumer imperialism. To facilitate this “domestic disfunction” or “crisis of profligacy”, the executive branch has acquired an excessive reach that exists only by the wither and atrophy of congress. By fiat of the executive, and the mumbling consent of a passive congress, our military adventures have distracted Americans from an examination of our continuous and undisclipined consumerism and indebtedness.

GymNastia

2 Replies

It was gratifying to watch the American womens performance in the all around gymnastics round in Beijing. I think China needs a little bit of push back in this area. Congratulations to Liukin and Johnson for their outstanding performances.

Even as the father of a gymnast, I have only the slightest grasp of what it takes to do these things. I fully understand that if I tried gymnastics, I would be on the fast track to quadraplegic status.

Georgia on my mind

5 Replies

I’m glad that the USA is able to scold CCCP Russia for its invasion of Georgia from our lofty position on the moral high ground. I suppose that the irony of our warning to Russia could be discounted as the delerium of a petroleum besotted empire in decline. While it may not be that bad yet, we certainly have been driven by our political leaders to a remote location in the desert and abandoned.

Western Civilization classes of the future will note that the inability of the USA to constructively engage post-communist Russia was perhaps one of the greatest opportunities lost of the 20th Century.

A Plague of Consultants

8 Replies

Just like most heaps of dung have an ad hoc ecosystem of insects living on or in it, many companies seem to have a few consultants buzzing around feeding and laying eggs.  These creatures are attracted to the smell of budget allocations, pending or recent disaster, or the need for highly specialized skills on a temporary basis.

Consultants are almost always highly specialized critters, having highly evolved senses and proboscises for the collection of nectar from deep within the treasury organ of the corporate flower.  It is common for consultants to tap into upper level management having budgetary authority.

The infestation stage of their life cycle can begin in many ways.  Consultants are not often seen unless they are in the feeding stage of their lifecycle. When they are looking for a blood meal, they can descend on the unwary manager and dazzle her/him with their flashy appendages.

The infestation can be deleteriously parasitic or genuinely symbiotic. Some consultants plant themselves on an artery and pull blood until the host expires. I will include law firms in this savage group, since lawyers really are a type of consultant. Not all lawyers will draw down the resources of the host to a dangerous level. Many are able to sustain their relationship indefinitely through the exchange of useful services in exchange for a draw of blood now and then.

A company can become infested in many ways. Executives at trade shows are particularly vulnerable to picking up consultants on their legs as they muck around in the fetid swamp waters of business development. It is important for business development managers and executives to check one another for puncture wounds indicating the implantation of consultant larvae.

Consultants find their host organism in many other ways. Business associations, fraternal organizations, and chambers of commerce are known venues for infestation.

Having a consultant glued to your leg isn’t all negative. There is occasional need for their services. The trick to using a consultant profitably is to define the need very carefully and work with them to develop a structured plan so that their work product is well defined. Resist the temptation to turn over the keys to the company while they do their work. It is important to manage consultants very carefully since they are usually quite expensive. If executed properly, consultants can be quite useful as highly skilled temporary specialists.