Charles Earle Funk’s book “A Hog on Ice & Other Curious Expressions” explains that long in the past the knuckle was the knee or elbow. “Thus ‘to knuckle under,’ meaning to submit to—or acknowledge oneself defeated by—another, carries back to the time when one knelt before one’s conqueror in token of submission…” I think references in other sources to putting the knuckles of the hands on the ground as you kneel in front of the conqueror make less sense.
The Arab Spring Has Become the European Flood
The Arab Spring was the hopeful term for a new beginning when there were anti-government protests and uprisings in the Middle East. I recall universal media support to the decision to provide air support to the rebels fighting Gaddafi’s forces in Libya until he was captured and summarily executed. The Obama Middle East foreign policy, which included the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and killing Gaddafi, has contributed to in a virtual flood of refugees out of the Middle East to Europe. One reporting site records that there are “…nine civil wars now going on in Islamic countries between Pakistan and Nigeria. This is why there are so many refugees fleeing for their lives. Half of the 23 million population of Syria have been forced from their homes, with four million becoming refugees in other countries…Some 2.6 million Iraqis have been displaced by the Islamic State—Isis…”
From a USA Today article, “A record 522,124 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe by sea this year, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday. The number is more than double the previous high set only last year. Of the estimated number of migrants who made the hazardous journey by sea, 388,000 arrived in Greece and 130,891 in Italy. They hail from countries that include Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Bangladesh, the IOM said. Last year, 219,000 migrants and refugees escaping war and poverty sailed to Europe.”
Many of the images of the flood of refugees are of women carrying or leading children to a safer place. However, many of the images are of young men who are of “military age.” My question is how many of them are Isis who are taking advantage of the situation to infiltrate receiving countries to create mischief or terrorism?
I would be curious whether President Obama thinks his Middle East policy has been a success. .
Addiction and Desire
Author Marc Lewis is a neuroscientist. He was with the University of Toronto from 1989 to 2010 and is presently at Radboud University in the Netherlands. He is also a former drug addict.
He stopped using at the age of thirty. “I needed to find out what had happened to me all those years ago. How had my brain become so addled for such a long time? How did I finally quit?” The Biology of Desire presents the stories of five addicts as well as research results.
I thought Lewis was repetitive and must admit I did not read the entire book. You’ll get the gist of Lewis’ argument from the Introduction and first and last chapters. The rest of the book is intended to prove his case and provide individual stories as “scaffolding” for the book to show “what it’s like when addiction takes hold.”
Disease Model is Wrong
Lewis’ goal is to argue that the dominant model of addiction as a disease is wrong. Addiction is an extreme example of normal brain functioning, a neurochemical feedback loop of desire (desire is not the same thing as pleasure) that is “an inevitable feature of the basic human design.” He presents lots of explanation of how dopamine acts in the brain to establish both normal and destructive habits – it’s the same mechanism for love and addiction.
The book isn’t as depressing as viewing addiction as the far end of normal might make it sound. “[Of the] heroin-addicted veterans of the Vietnam War, about 75 percent… kicked the habit once they returned home.”
The famous experiment in which rats, given a choice of water or morphine solution to drink, became addicted has a second phase I never read about in the popular media. Those addicted rats had been isolated in bare metal cages, but when they returned to comfortable cages with a rich environment and other rats to socialize with, they spontaneously preferred water “even when they were currently addicted. In other words, they ‘quit’ voluntarily.”
Lewis says the disease model does a good job of explaining why some people are more vulnerable to addiction than others – genetics, emotional problems, PTSD are factors – but doesn’t seem to lead to a “cure.” Rather addiction is treated as a chronic disease. But “the disease model probably does more harm than good for most addicts. Yet its benefits for other players are clear.” Rehab is a multi-billion dollar industry in the Western world “with much to gain and much to lose.” Continue reading
Pantywaist
Bill O’Reilly used this as his word of the day in one of his recent shows, and he said something to the effect that it merely referred to clothing babies once wore and was not an insulting term. The dominant theme from an internet search is that it is “…a mild slur, meaning someone who is weak; a sissy. It is almost universally applied to men.” The term originated with the clothing of babies “…in one piece suits, a shirt and pants with snaps or buttons around the garments’ middles to allow easy access to diapers.” It was a “union suit” if it had long pants or a “pantywaist” if it had shorts. It might be called the trademarked “Onesie” today. Regardless, the consensus (and I often think things determined by consensus don’t turn out to be all that accurate) is that the term “…is an insult, so should be used with care.”
College Scorecard
We have commented previously about the problem of student loan debt. One web site says that 69% of graduates from public and nonprofit colleges in 2013 had an average student loan debt of $28,400 per student, which was two percent higher than 2012.
I read recently about a government-managed web site that allows comparing the costs of colleges and decided to check it out. I struggled a bit at first with getting to a comparison of Colorado State University with Colorado University, but I persisted and saw that CSU costs $15,303/year and CU $21,249. CU wins with a 69% graduation rate versus 63% for CSU. CU also wins with a $48,000 annual salary versus $44,300 annual salary (I’m assuming for graduates). I was disappointed that the same information came up when I entered a four-year Bachelor degree in Computer sciences instead of searching for any field of study.
The “Institute for College Access and Success” site is easier to use and has more information. The home page has a map that allows you to scroll to see average debt per state. For example, there are 56% of Colorado students who have debt averaging $24,520. Click on the state and it takes you to a listing of all of the universities. It reveals that the Colorado averages are skewed by the fact that there are slightly more than 4,000 cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy who have no debt because there is no tuition.
When More is Less
The Paradox of Choice was a strange book to read. I thoroughly enjoyed the first third of each chapter, but Schwartz belabors his points. Chapter One contains an example:
- “I found 85 different varieties and brands of crackers” with descriptions of the variations – sounds silly, doesn’t it.
- “285 varieties of cookies.” Yeah – it’s funny to think about.
- “Across the aisle were juices – 13 sports drinks,’ 65 ‘box drinks’ for kids, 85… 75…” I see how choices can become overwhelming.
- “95 options” of snacks, “15 flavors” of water, “61 varieties of sunscreen… 80 different pain relievers… 40 car stereo systems…” Enough already. I get it.
Choice provides control and happiness until it doesn’t
Schwartz points out that choice is vital to a sense of control and therefore to happiness, but there’s a point where the benefits level off and begin to drop. If you’re dedicated to getting the “best deal” all the time, you’ll be stressed out and make yourself miserable by second guessing your decisions.
“A majority of people want more control over their lives, but a majority of people also want to simplify their lives. There you have it – the paradox of our times.”
Achieving happiness
Researchers have been learning how to measure happiness for decades. Poverty is misery, but there’s a point at which more money doesn’t yield more happiness, either for an individual or a society. How these studies are conducted is interesting. I thought about articles I’ve read that Millennials are less willing to pursue an “American Dream” based on acquiring stuff, and more interested in urban living for it’s social resources than my old generation – but these points were not in Paradox (unless they were buried in the sections I skipped.)
“What seems to be the most important factor in providing happiness is close social relations.” But these impose burdens, requirements for fidelity and support that reduce choice. Here less choice leads to lesser short term control but more long term happiness. I’ve read that just talking to anther person raises your blood pressure, so we’re motivated to avoid close relationships – I thought about the book Bowling Alone – but these points were not in Paradox (unless they were buried in the sections I skipped.) Continue reading