April 2, 2021: Policy, Prejudice, and Human Agency

Brought to you by Blah, Blah, Blah, a division of Book-In-A-Drawer Publications. ©2021 All rights reserved.

We have the agency to develop civil individual and public policies as opposed to an agency practicing individual and public prejudice.  Hoo-nōs

I was camping in the wilderness a few years ago and doing my evening meanderings, both wandering and wondering.  I noticed in a different way, that no matter how much I enjoyed my musings, I’d been there many times.  The bigger the circle, the longer it takes to realize one is circling?  How do I get off that hamster wheel without prejudice?

I realized I was weary of wallowing in the same circle, no matter how enjoyable it might be, yet there was clearly some unfamiliar “plane” I’d not been seeing.  That might be yet another circle, but as yet, it was unfamiliar.  I’d read once that “creativity is going beyond what was known and available” (Robert J. Sternberg?).  That seemed daunting, but absolutely necessary sometimes.  But does conformity have its place in stilling the individual and civil waters as opposed to creativity which can be an individual or civil aha or an “ahh shit”?  The concept of necrotic defense (killing off a part to save the whole) or apoptosis (a neurological self-destruct mechanism) does have its place in plants and cells, but a parallel practice within and between humans seems barbaric.  Perhaps the concept of “flow” (the art of not landing on this or that) can be the appropriate interrupter of familiarity whether we realize the propensity for familiarity or not?  But just going with the flow may sometimes sweep one out to sea.  Using the flow might be another issue all together.

And I am again circling.  Where is that unseen doorway? 

So, what’s the policy?  Are we offering a helping hand or a menacing fist?  Are we centered or circling?  Are we creating civil policy or practicing prejudice?  Are we helping and asking if it is?  Are we noticing it’s not just our notion of civil?  Have we observed that sometimes it may be appropriate to throw the tables and chairs out of the usurers’ tent?  But there better be antecedents involved, not just explosive reactions?

In any case, we have human agency—we are causes and we have effects. No thought, emotion, or behavior is without ripples.  And some are tsunamis.  We have a need for lots of stopping and starting over again.  Maybe that will help keep wonder alive and well and keep prejudice in that unorganized catch-all drawer?   

It is complicated.  Which is why I recommend that any person running for an elected office granting the agency to affect the policy governing our lives be required to take a battery of tests proving they are not completely full of shit.  I know that will mean a lot of vacancies to fill, but it’s time to stop and start again.  

Obviously the question-answer hamster wheel is still spinning. Warning: the following verse may cause nausea and vertigo. Read at your own risk, remembering that I do not hold nor will I be running for any public office—that will help calm you.

We Are and We Are Not (I Am and I Am Not)

We are the remembered and the forgotten,
We are the the swoon and the buffoon.
We are all long gone
And we are back all too soon.

We are levity and gravity
And party and piety
And laughter and tears.

We remain too far away
And yet we are all too near.

We are the lot, we are
And we are not.

Note to the two or three who may occasionally read this stuff:  Any comments and replies appear below the blog in question, usually about a month later.