War is Fun?

Maybe General Sherman was mistaken.

War is only "hell" if you're one of the people getting maimed, killed, or driven out of your home. But if you're one of the heads of state, senior generals, diplomats, promoters, facilitators, arms dealers, arms makers, or suppliers of war materiel, war can be a lot of fun. Even if you're a soldier, it's fun if you come back in one piece and have some great stories to tell. If you're a reporter, you get to have fun making stories about it. If you're an historian, you get to write books about it. War has something for just about everybody - except the ones on the receiving end of it.

Maybe that's why we've had so much of it for so many centuries.

The wheel? No big deal

We often hear people refer to the wheel as one of the important inventions of all time. But think about it: what good is a wheel? What can one do with it? Stand on top of it and try to roll it along?

Actually, the truly significant invention was not the wheel, but rather the axle - or more accurately, the concept of the wheel and axle as a system. This must have been a profound realization for the early humans. The wheel & axle system was probably discovered - or invented - simultaneously by many humans, but for each of them the experience of perceiving a systematic relationship between two completely different objects may have been hugely exhilarating.

They could immediately make grinding wheels, wagons and carts, waterwheels, windmills, pulleys, pottery wheels - a vast number of energy-transducing systems. But the wheel all by itself? No big deal.

Outsourcing war

Business experts are fond of advising companies to "outsource" - i.e. have somebody else do - everything but their "core competencies." This has led to a global shake-out as various business functions get outsourced to countries (and companies in those countries) who are able to do it cheaper (and sometimes better).

This leads to an intriguing proposition: all countries could outsource their warmaking efforts to the United States. After all, the US is clearly the leading military force in the world, with the latest technology and the most highly trained, expert fighters. No other country makes war as well as the US does.

If all countries outsourced their warmaking to the US, they could be sure of getting the best operations for their money. Where would this lead? For one thing, the country willing to put up the most money would always win, because both sides would be buying military operations of identical quality.

The drawback, one might say, would be that Americans would be fighting against each other. But, if the best-funded side would always win, then Americans could simply scale down the battles to make sure the right sponsor won, but with minimum casualties - and higher profits. In the end, maybe the wars could be fought with computers, and the losing side would have to pay money to the winning side.

Would this work?

Studies show ...

An often-used phrase, typically used to supply support for an opinion or a view, is "Studies have shown that ..." What - or who - are these Studies? Maybe there's a family of people named Study, whose members are all researchers? They must be really smart; it would be interesting to meet them and find out what else they know.

In my book...

We often hear people use the expression "In my book..." to express their view of something. What is this "book" that everybody supposedly has? Where do you get one? What's in it? I've looked, and I can't seem to find mine. Is it the same one that has all those tricks in it?

A strange wager

Doesn't buying an insurance policy seem like you're betting against yourself? Basically, you're betting the insurance company that you'll die before your time, and they're betting you that you won't. The only way to win the bet is to lose your life.

Fear of too many moving parts

For the first time in the history of our species, our environment is evolving faster than our brains. Within one generation, we've gone from a world of clear and simple patterns to a world of chaos, dilemmas, and unanswerable questions. Possibly the greatest cause of stress, anxiety, worry, pessimism, anger, and hostility in Western cultures now is ambiguity and complexity - particularly since the famed "9/11" event. Many people grieve for the loss of a simple world. They carry around a sense of paranoid fear, and a kind of impotent rage that goes with it. Those who fear ambiguity and complexity tend to need simple answers, simple solutions, polarized choices, and rules that don't change. They tend to be the natural prey of demogogues and hate-mongers who tell them what to think, what's right and what's wrong, who their enemies are, and whom to hate.

Write it down!

A popular stage comedian in Ireland, one Hal Roach, often encouraged the people in his audience to write down any jokes they particularly liked, especially because most of them would quickly forget the jokes after the performance. "Write it down - it's a good one!" he'd cajole them. If most people wrote down their own best ideas, instead of depending on their faulty short-term memories, they'd realize how many good ideas they actually have. Probably 90 percent of people are convinced they have a "good memory," in the face of abundant evidence that they do not. A great idea pops into someone's head and he or she says - "Wow! That's a good idea; I've gotta remember that." Or, they think of something they need to do, and tell themselves that they'll somehow remember to do it - "later." An hour later, they may vaguely remember - at most - that they had some kind of an idea. The idea - and its possibilities - have evaporated from their short-term memories. By keeping a pen and some note cards within easy reach - in the car, the kitchen, beside the bed, in every bathroom - one can accumulate a surprising number of good ideas, and remember lots more of those useful and important "things to do."

Maybe it's "webs," more than "chains"

We often use the metaphor of a "chain" to describe relationships. In some cases, the metaphor of a web might convey a clearer impression of reality. Business executives often speak of the "supply chain," as a series of stages or relationships that get raw material from somewhere far away to the finished form of the product. Many businesses receive and exchange resources with a whole constellation of business partners, so it would seem more enlightening to think of them as enmeshed in a web, rather than sitting at one end of a chain. And maybe the metaphor of a web implies that there is no one "most important" link, i.e. the firm whose leaders are doing the describing. Maybe all of the actors in the web deserve equal respect.

A picture is worth ...

One of our traditional slogans is "a picture is worth a thousand words." Possibly so, but the situation can have a big effect on the trade-off. If a person is drowning, then a single word - "HELP!" - may be worth a thousand pictures.

Laughter communicates

The laugh might be the most versatile of all elements of human communication. Think of the many "meanings" - and implicative names - we attach to a supposedly simple interpersonal signal. The situation in which someone laughs, the timing, the nature of the interaction that's going on, the people present, their recent history, their shared experience - all give meaning to a laugh. A laugh can be playful, fearful, encouraging, sarcastic, snide, innocent, belligerent, placating, etc. In its simplicity - and its complexity - a laugh may be the most intricate of all of our methods of signaling.

Government

Maybe Will Rogers had it right: "Just be glad you're not getting all the government you're paying for." Or, maybe we are?

Disguised blessings?

People often refer to "blessings in disguise." "Well," they say, after the house has been blown away by a tornado, "maybe it's actually a blessing in disguise." On the other hand, it seems like very few people ever say, "Maybe this is a curse in disguise." What's the ratio of disguised blessings to disguised curses?

A case of Hannibalism?

Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who became famous for using elephants in his battles against the Romans, didn't actually make a very impressive case. The Roman General Scipio, encountering the formidable elephants on the battlefield, simply instructed his men to blow trumpets and beat their swords against their shields. The noise terrified the elephants, causing them to turn and stampede - trampling many of Hannibal's soldiers. Yet, on his death-bed, Hannibal insisted, "If I'd only had more elephants, I could have beaten them." Maybe his name deserves to become a metaphor for persistence taken to a perverse extreme.

Dangerous creatures

There is probably no creature on Earth more dangerous than a journalist armed with a statistic.

30 lies per second

Next time you're watching a TV documentary about people doing something dangerous or arduous - climbing up a mountain face, slashing their way through a jungle, or opening an ancient tomb - step out of the TV-induced trance for a moment and ask yourself "Who's filming this?" How did the camera operator get to the top of the mountain before the climbers got there, in order to film them from above, making that last heroic ascent? Then consider that there's not only a camera operator, but also a sound technician with a boom mike, a couple of "go-fers", a producer, and probably a retinue of people cooking their meals and driving them around. If you saw all of that - a wide-angle shot they never show - the drama and danger might seem considerably less compelling. TV, as they say, is "30 lies per second."

The most often-quoted philosopher

Studies show that the most often-quoted philosopher is a Greek:
Anonymous.

Age is just ...

An experience that can REALLY cause you to think about your age is the very first time you discover a gray hair below your navel.

How many did you communicate today?

Occasionally someone will knowingly remind us that "Studies have shown that only 17 percent [or some similar scientific-sounding value] of our communication is verbal - through words. All the rest is non-verbal, or meta-verbal." Hmm.. Does anyone know how they measure communication? What were the signals or events the researchers measured to figure this out? Words, syllables, eye-blinks, nods, winks, smiles, frowns, gestures, hand-clapping, foot-stomping, chuckles, belly-laughs, throat-clearings, yawns? Seventeen percent of what?

An eyebrow for an...

Why does plucking out a hair from your eyebrow sometimes cause you to sneeze? (Or, is it only me?) (And, don't ask why I tried it.)

The brain's "capacity"

It's a common expression: "Well, we only use X percent of our brain's capacity." Sometimes it's "fifteen percent"; sometimes it's a more scientific-sounding "seven percent" or a similarly precise number. Here's an inconvenient question: how do we know what the brain's "capacity" actually is? Has anybody measured it? What are the units of measure? Gigabytes? Gigahertz? RPM? Furlongs per fortnight? Could this be just another of those popular slogans that fall apart when you think about them?

The myth of free will

Maybe we're allowed to believe we have free will, even though we don't.

Perceptions of risk

Human beings are notoriously incapable of realistically estimating risk in situations involving emotions like fear or greed (e.g. the stock market). Immediately after the 9-11 bombing, millions of Americans swore they would never fly on airplanes again. With 6,000 + flights over the continental US every day, one's chances of being on a hijacked airliner - even if there were a hijacking every day - would be about 1 in 6,000. This is roughly the same as one's chances of getting run over by a bus. Yet thousands of people would drive to Las Vegas (or Atlantic City, etc.) in hopes of beating the odds against the casinos while cleverly cheating death at the hands of hijackers.

Evolution

If human beings descended from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

Maybe molecules have minds?

Do molecules have minds? How far "down" does intelligence go? Organisms? Organs? Cells? Molecules?