February 12, 2017

Phil Beaver works to establish opinion when the-indisputable-facts-of-reality have not been discovered. He seeks to refine his opinion by learning other people’s experiences and observations. The comment box below invites sharing facts, opinion, or concern. (I read, write, and listen to establish my opinion as I pursue the-objective-truth.)
Note:  I often connect words in a phrase with the dash in order to represent an idea. For example, frank-objectivity represents the idea of candidly expressing the-objective-truth without addressing possible error or attempting to balance the expression.

The Advocate:

Our Views Feb 10. To: Charles Foster Kane: I appreciate your nudge. I erroneously started using “nudge” to express opposition to force and coercion. I’ll start writing “influence by example,” until something better comes to my attention.

While I do not know the-objective-truth, I work to influence neighbors to iteratively collaborate for the-objective-truth rather than struggle for dominant-opinion.

Mark Ballard column. How appropriate to cite blame game: Gov. John Bel Edwards blames the legislators before the special session gets started. It’s a tactic he learned from Barack Obama, perhaps.

George Will column. Will must have taken a refresher Mass Comm course wherein the professor taught that the media determine public opinion, which determines public policy like presidential decisions. 

 

What folly Will’s word-jumbles seem these days; perhaps he's turned liberal democrat. I’m not certain I’d be interested in his opinions about baseball anymore.

Jeff Sadow column. My first hope for the special session is that AG Jeff Landry’s reserves are retained and his operating budget is increased. He is an independent elected official that the people of the Great State of Louisiana are counting on for Security.

Teacher pay (Page 2B). The Advocate is trying to pull a fast one with the caption “low nationally” and comparison with pay in the USA’s Siberia.

Louisiana taxpayers need to pay attention to Wisconsin’s teacher-pay reforms. Louisiana teachers get $48,587 compared to $45,919 in La Crosse or $53,112 in Madison. In Madison, teachers are judged on student improvement.

  

Endowment investments (Page 1B). There ought to be something beyond firing losses come from high risk investments. In general, higher-education administration seems like high-waste expenditure.

Blight (Page 1A). Natural disasters are bad enough. However, the worst thing that can happen is to become dependent on the parish government, the state government and the federal government.

 

The flooding brought $8.7 billion in losses, $1.7 billion was approved and $0.4 billion paid, and seven months later many of some 300,000 people are still in limbo.

 

Now there is shift in focus to 183 incremental blight reports, a fraction of which are houses?

Tax credit (Page 1A). I like all the prior comments and would add my complaint that The Advocate published so much detail about $4 million of a 1100 million problem: That's 0.36%!

 

But I agree with the commenters: Stop spending 0.0154% of Louisiana's budget on Angel Tax Credits.

Other dialogues:

 

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-being-unkind-a-norm-in-society/answer/Phil-Beaver-1

 

To answer your question directly requires agreeing with your premise: society is unkind. I often want to change the language. Some people say I change words to hide thoughts, but I think I am unlocking thoughts, so bear with me.

 

First, I think your question is born of a desire for civic morality rather than social morality. (Either way, you have stipulated legal morality according to statutory law, which cannot be overlooked.) Let me explain.

 

In civic morality, persons meet in broadly-defined-civic-safety-and-security, hereafter, Security, and tentatively appreciate each other. Perhaps the encounter is for a necessary transaction like buying a cake. Perhaps they meet at an association, church, civic celebration, or eatery. Perhaps they merely pass in a park. Regardless, the two parties are willingly connected by living in this space. If the encounter transpires with Security, they depart in mutual appreciation. Neither party required anything from the other . . . beyond Security.

 

But how is Security determined? Willing people iteratively collaborate to discover the-objective-truth and how to benefit from the discovery rather than compete for dominant opinion or beliefs. When the-objective-truth is undiscovered, the interrelated theory built on extant discoveries is used to establish a rationally derived agreement. For example, statistics may predict that extraterrestrial intelligence (ET) exists. However, an ET society’s expenditures to offer communications with speculative beings may not be imposed on the people.

 

Now I’ll consider social morality. In societies or civilizations, some people think the other should offer more than Security: a proper greeting, stylish apparel, the desired product or service, like-minded opinion, sexual distinction, cultural recognition, tolerance, unity, etc. People are expected to be both social and civil with little thought to Security. Social morality may function within a civilization, but can hardly be expected to suffice in diversity. (Recall that we assumed legal morality, so don’t overlook law enforcement to constrain errant-will.)

 

Many cities in the world have diverse populations and therefore many cultures, each having a social morality. However, Security is willingly offered by inhabitants who behave according to civic morality. Thus, within the diversity of the city, there is an overarching society of those who are willing to collaborate for Security. For example, the Aborigines in Australia have maintained a culture of deep spiritual contact with ancestors for at least 80,000 years. They live in a modern country with diverse, trading-cultures. Yet most people in Australia offer Aborigines mutual Security.

In the USA, many people behave according to the civic agreement that is stated in the preamble to the constitution for the nation. My paraphrase of that sentence for 2017 living is: We the civic people in our particular state—-in order to accomplish the goals stated herein—-trust, uphold, and maintain justice in the constitution for the USA. The subject of the preamble is the totality: We the People of the United States. However, the people are divided into those who behave for Security and the dissidents. I often write We the Civic People of the United States to make the distinction.

 

Based on many evidences, I think the US split is 2/3 a civic people and 1/3 dissidents. First, in 1787, 2/3 of representatives of the original states signed the draft constitution with its preamble, unchanged through now. In 2017, 2/3 of the people think a woman’s privacy in deciding whether to remain pregnant or not should be generally upheld; see 5 facts about abortion . In 2014, over 2/3 of the people claim a real-no-civic-harm religious-affiliation; see Religious Landscape Study . (My opinion that these are evidences of civic morality has not been iteratively collaborated in a public meeting. I do not know the-objective-truth.)

 

What’s missing is institutional commitment to Security. Every real-no-civic-harm association may encourage its members to iteratively collaborate for Security, hoping for 2/3 cooperation yet knowing there always seems to be dissidents. By tradition, many institutions strive for totality: everyone should yield to theism/atheism, tolerance, unity, liberal-democracy, etc. Mutual appreciation among diverse, harmless persons cannot be expected except in one realm: Security.

 

So far, mutual appreciation for Security-with-statutory-law-enforcement has been overlooked by society. There’s an urge for 100% change to something. As a consequence, many individuals are not satisfied to willingly collaborate for Security while pursuing private liberty.

Phil Beaver does not “know”. Phil trusts and is committed to the-objective-truth of which most is undiscovered and some is understood. Phil Beaver is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, an education non-profit. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com.