Tag: 2:4

October 7, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 2:4

October 7, 2022 /

The fact that I am already looking at the other Ayn Rand books leads me to believe that I am going to be reading more from her. I can say that I am astounded at how astute she was and how this all dovetails together with today. Look closely, this is social justice at work. It is just cloaked in a less, in your face manner.

The chapter starts out at Thanksgiving which happens to be the night before the Reardon trial. The family members behave as poorly as normal with their normal snarky platitudes. Henry listens to one last jab and lays down the line for his brother.

This is human nature. It also seems to be the way that ungrateful dependents act. Having raised a number of other people’s (adult) children, they either get it or they don’t. And when they don’t, they are pretty self righteous about how their problems are someone else’s fault.

But when you look at it objectively, you can understand. They wouldn’t be ungrateful dependents if they didn’t have some sort of deficiency. A lot of it is the lack of ability for self-reflection, accountability and a drive to do better. This causes them to be deluded into the fault of the problem. Of course, they forget about how they got into a shouting match with their boss because they were doing something they weren’t supposed to do which got them fired.

I almost feel sorry for them until I remember what indignant assholes they are when they are in this mode. At some point, you have enough with their pity party and get tired of them not taking a wiser counsel. After being threatened with violence or just tired of confrontation and volatility, you just have resolve yourself that you have done what you can. It is time for them to leave. I don’t consider that a major theme of the chapter, but clearly it struck a nerve in me.

So, now the real theme, the Reardon trial strategy. During the trial, Reardon offers no defense for his trial. That tactic befuddles the judges, who cannot comprehend the situation. Now, as a quick aside, I do not believe that this would ever work in some sort of trial. But, it is an allegory for life.

When you are in the pool, it is customary that when someone yells ‘Marco’ the other people respond with ‘Polo’. If you don’t respond, you have broken the object of the game and it doesn’t work. I talk a lot about the left/right dichotomy and this is the perfect strategy. Picking a side puts you in the game and no matter what side it is, you are involved. Once in the game, the only way to play is with the established rules.

Naturally, if you want to break the game, you cannot operate within the boundaries. You have to stay outside of the game to change it. If you catch my drift, you cannot elect the right people out of the game because they are all playing it right along with you. I suppose that if it your desire to win ‘Marco Polo’, then you have to play in order to win.

Using something more colloquial, imagine a fantasy football league. Assume the premise that all of the players are motivated to win, all are ostensively educated in the rules and ‘game pieces’. What are your chances to win? What happens when someone quits actively playing mid-season and how does that effect the overall outcome?

There is some skill but also luck in winning. If I was tied for first place and lost to the guy that quit earlier in the season, yet my competitor is playing the guy that quit and I am playing the second place guy, he will likely win and I might lose, My point with all of this is we can’t go into a season and know the outcome because we can’t predict how the other players will act, let alone injuries, etc from our teammates. Enough fun and games, I think that you get the point.

End Your Programming Routine: Some very interesting revelations in this chapter. I debated even cutting the enough is enough comments before I started writing. Then, I thought I would just mention it but once I started writing, I debated writing the entire post about that and cutting the second section out. Not playing the game is a theme that was too important to not give full attention. I think that the enough is enough is on my mind, because that is the podcast on that I talked about on Monday.

June 4, 2021 – 1984 2:4

June 4, 2021 /

Sorry all you 1984 fans, I kind of punked out last week as I had this stubbed out already. I just kind of gave up in the middle of the week. I thought about doing this Monday, but I thought I would get too out of cycle. So here we are.

In this chapter, we have Julia and Winston taking up a more permanent residence at the antique store where Winston bought his diary and paperweight. My grandfather would have said ‘playing house’ or ‘shacking up’ because it is not really fully committed (of course circumstance has a lot to do with it). The old term ‘flop house’ might be a better description.

Up until now, I would have said that everything in the book has been plausible, how the characters would act given the situation. This seems clearly to be a mistake. No longer is there an only meet at one location twice strategy, this is the place that they will make their stand. It is interesting how the mind works because when I wrote my notes on this, I had written successful risk taking leads to more risk taking as one of today’s concepts from the chapter.

Last night as I was thinking about what I was going to write I had forgotten I had written the above and I thought my concept was going to be delusion becomes reality. In many ways, the two statements are saying the same thing with two different twists. The words in the book didn’t change but my analysis and view did. I suspect that it is influenced by environmental factors.

As we wander way off the path today, I will say that the project I am working on for my job is making many of the same mistakes I have seen other failed projects make. I am not at the right level to influence, nor do I have the social capital to get close. When I do talk at the level that I am at, I am told that it not my concern. As an aside, I am OK with it as I understand my position but I am simultaneously frustrated because I know where this is leading.

Consequently, my outlook on the chapter has changed since I first wrote the notes. No longer am I cautiously optimistic that Winston and Julia are living happily ever after, they have made a Type 1 Error. Because I have read the book before, euphemistically I was in no mood to beat around the bush with what was happening in the story.

End Your Programming Routine: For a little while, there was a podcast for the Gambler 500 which was supposed to explain how to get involved in the event. What it turned out to be was more of the philosophy of the people that started the event and by proxy understanding them would lead the listener on how to participate. They ended every show with ‘ABG’ (Always be Gambling) which is supposed to mean always live by your values.

This is a light chapter in terms of story and concepts. I don’t think that it takes a lot of analysis or relational stories to get across that Winston and Julia are now in dangerous territory because of complacency. Instead, I would say understand that there is always bias in interpretation of the data, know and understand yours.