Today is a look at political polarization, some of the reasons and if there is anything that can be done about it. Before we get caught in the trap that polarization is somebody else’s problem to solve, we need to think about our role and what we can do about it.
Tag: politics
June 18, 2024 – REI’s Re-supply and Gear
I have long had a love/hate relationship with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI). Founded in the Pacific Northwest for serious outdoor aficionados in 1938. I am a member and I do occasionally shop there. In today’s world of internet shopping, anything and everything is available. But nothing substitutes seeing, feeling and holding gear before buying.
I should say, it is more a love relationship than a hate one. They carry serious, performance gear (mostly). I do find that the prices are at a premium but the service is impeccable. It is nice that members get a cash rebate each year to ease the sting of over-paying. But members also have access to equipment rental, classes and group events if so inclined. I have always wanted to get into snow-shoeing or cross country skiing but it really doesn’t make sense to invest until I know something about it.
The hate part is no doubt related to politics. After Sandy Hook (2012), REI discontinued relationships with any brands related to firearms, like Vista Outdoors. I think this is a large reason why Vista has already split the company and is selling all of those brands. I definitely think twice before putting them as a first choice. I prefer to spend my money almost anywhere else than to support this stand.
Ultimately, I am not a purist. My boys and I were sent to REI recently to spend my son’s rebate of almost $70. Technically, this was all money that I spent, we reimbursed him for money that he spent for Boy Scout stuff. Always looking for a deal, I like to check the Re-Supply area. This is gear that was returned for some reason. Some of it is nearly new and some of it might be missing accessories or packaging.
As I am putting my gear list together for my hiking trip next year, I am on the lookout for deals. I found a sleeping pad for $36. It was used, but everything was there. The best part is that the list price (@REI) was $200. I checked online afterward and found it running $140-170 depending on the source. Whether I really needed it or not, I am taking that.
This is a full length pad. My actual preference would have been a partial pad. These are about 2/3 the length of a normal pad. The reason is less length, less weight and your feet get very little benefit compared to the back and spine. The older I get, the more I find that the ground is really hard. Multiple nights on the ground is downright painful. Having a proper sleeping pad is one of the few luxuries on my short list of things I wanted.
It wont be long and I will be putting up my initial packing list. The truth is, I may not have everything that I want, but I certainly have everything that I need. The one other thing notwithstanding is I am in the market for a one man tent that is ultralight. I want to be able to get away from bugs and rain if the need arises.
Don’t expect to find everything or even anything in Re-Supply. This is the first time I have ever found anything there that I actually wanted to buy. But when you do find something, take it because you are unlikely to find something equivalent again or at least before you need it.
As I stated earlier, we went to spend my son’s credits. We were actually buying bear spray for a camping trip my boys were taking after graduation. The one thing that I wanted to look at were the one man tents. Believe it or not, they had zero inventory. While that was bust in terms of research, it is a data point. It is highly unlikely that will be buying the tent from REI if I have to order it online. I don’t need it yet and I am not in a hurry but if I cannot see it or hold it, I am not going to spend $400 on it.
End Your Programming Routine: Even if I choose not to shop at REI, many of these high performance brands also have corporate ethics that do not resonate with me. For that reason, I am not sure that it really matters whether I take some sort of ethical stance. I will continue to go in the store and I will continue to make my purchases carefully when I am there. Sometimes a deal is worth the compromise.
August 15, 2022 – Keep Your Enemies Close
I don’t have much to add that I haven’t already said in the podcast. Shoot the Breeze with Paul Evans was a campaign fundraiser that I participated in a little over a week ago. I will let you draw your own conclusions from the podcast.
End Your Programming Routine: Just like Jack Spirko says, just because you don’t agree with the systems doesn’t mean you don’t try to use it to your own benefit. So, I definitely don’t support Oregon Democrats, but my neighbor that is also a member in my fraternal order and willing to help with causes that I am involved is probably worth keeping a relationship with.
January 27, 2021 – We Didn’t Start the Fire… But We Are Fanning the Flames
Hello world. This is a famous introduction in programming where the output of running a program displays text on the screen with the words ‘Hello World’. It is pretty universal, no matter the language and I the syntax on how you do it.
As you all can tell, I have been pretty busy. I am still delivering for Amazon and when I do, it is an all day affair. I leave the house at 9:30AM and I usually get home between 8:30 and 10:00PM. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things. I have also picked up another handyman client which leaves me working that around my days off.
In some ways, I have been holding back writing because I am resisting jumping into what is clearly a mess and it is counter to my mission here which is teaching skills with a little commentary. The heat is getting turned up from different sources on exposing the ‘Great Reset’. ‘Cancel Culture’ is becoming an often used and successful strategy to further divide our population. It feels like we have yet to see the big event because tension is building on both sides.
This song ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ by Billy Joel was released in 1989. It was the very end of the Cold War but I think that it was really relatable at the time to my generation (X) and I think that it was targeted to the Baby Boomers. It was an homage to this very scary era where we believed nuclear war was possible and we were inheriting a mess that we weren’t even sure that we wanted to participate.
The song was mostly a list of events in history that describe the Cold War. If I represent my generation, to me the song resonated because I had the ability to look at the facts without prejudice and form my own opinions of the validity of the current political beliefs. Obviously with hindsight, we can see what we thought to be true in 1985 and what we know to be true in 2021 were two different things.
If we take a look at the culture of today, we might get a pass to claim that we didn’t start the fire, but boy do we like to watch it burn. My father is one of the earliest Baby Boomers at seventy-four. If we look at leadership of business and politics, the who is leading the charge are the Baby Boomers followed by Generation X.
Traditionally, a generation would lead and enact policy to influence culture based on the events that shaped their experience. It seems a likely A to B connection that the people who fought in World War II would have strong, global military to prevent another repeat of the same circumstances. Even the Vietnam conflict, which was a misguided attempt to rebuke Communism is understandable under the World War II generation of leadership but the Baby Boomers who predominantly fought in the war seem to be just as hawkish today.
For some reason, we have lost the ability to be objective. No longer do we question our adherence to dogma. Once we are jumped into our gang, we become ‘lifers’ and there is no escaping no matter what our gang does.
Take for instance, former President Trump as a really good case study. I am pretty sure that most people (on both sides) never realized how masterful he was at manipulation. I do not believe for a minute that he ever intended to incite a mob storming of the capitol, resulting in at least two deaths. I also don’t believe that he was not stirring the pot of his supporters which indirectly lead to this happening. This incident went in a direction that nobody ever thought possible. Both sides are right and wrong at the same time.
Where does that leave us in the middle? You can’t or won’t as easily be manipulated if you don’t pick a side. Once you have figured out that the game is rigged and there is no way to win, you cannot play.
How do you get out of the gang? For me, it has been a slow evolution. I guess that it started with being repeatedly disappointed with my side of the electorate. Then, I got disgusted by my media of choice defending that group to the end, so much so that I turned it off. Then I started looking for choices that interested me which turned out to be more anti-establishment.
I am sure that most people are like me. There are issues that are important and those that are not. For instance, I still get suckered into the drama of defending the second amendment. I struggle because I see the writing on the wall for standard capacity magazines, semi-automatic firearms and such. I know that one party is better on those issues than the other but they are so bad at everything else including their platform issues. I cannot support the totality of loss of freedom despite my second amendment opinions.
But you see, I am being manipulated in that argument. My pull is to want to vote for the lessor of two evils because it will temporarily stave off what I now see as inevitable. So, I have to fight the urge to participate in a system that doesn’t care about me or represent me. It makes you feel used and disgusted. All of my programming through the years makes my stance feel wrong, but it is the way it has to be.
I think that if we boil it all down, we like the idea of Freedom more than we like the actual application. It is clearly evident in my routes delivering for Amazon. There are neighborhoods where freedom is embraced. I know that because I see the lifestyle choices. I see the houses that don’t have trash service, who own as many dogs/animals/cars/boats as they want. I see houses with Christmas trees still up and houses where Halloween decorations still up, believe or not.
I also see the neighborhoods where order is more important than freedom. Nearly every single one of those houses has a garage packed to the gills with stuff. That is a sign that they can’t or won’t ever be as free as their nature would permit.
With that, I will wrap it up. I will not make anyone submit to my way of thinking, that would be against my principles of supporting freedom. When I look at how much we have lost in my lifetime, I cannot help but worry for my kids experience and belief on what freedom means as they inherit the world in the next twenty years. Twenty years ago, I was throwing wood on the fire, but now I realize participating in that is a fools errand.
Finally, if you look at the American Revolution the timeline spanned much longer that our condensed look at history. The ‘Stamp Act’ was enacted in 1765, a full ten years before shots fired at Lexington and Concord. There was discord years before that occurred particularly relating to the end of the French and Indian Wars. Don’t be surprised if we are seeing the warning signs or an irreparable country.
March 13, 2020 – Follow up on politics
Remember back on February 26, I wrote about how things will happen whether we get wrapped up in them or not? Well guess what? Since the legislature was dismissed and the cap and trade bill could not be passed, the Governor has decided to accomplish it through administrative regulation.
For all those people who were worried about this bill being passed, fear not. This is the kind of state that we now live in. So, you can protest, write your representatives, post on social media and so on but you are much better off doing something better with your life than worrying about politics.
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