Print Media

This week's topic is print media, a topic that became available some time after 1440 when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which sparked the printing revolution - the relatively unrestricted circulation of information and (revolutionary) ideas transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. That ages old conundrum was forever answered - When does power speak to truth? A - When it has to as knowledge is truth.

Of course that then laid the groundwork for the truth of the pathological liar - tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth - at least enough people believe it to be so. Does that sound familiar? Ask an American male about Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Davy Crocket or Annie Oakley  and virtually any hero or heroine of the wild west and you will likely hear tales spread by television series based on tales from books written in the time of their lives - “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”. That is what was known as yellow journalism - aka fake news and became largely responsible for our misconceptions about our early heroes.

It's time to sit back and take a deep breath - perhaps a heavy sigh or two. The difference between what I described above and what print media is largely about these days is as similar as a front yard fight between a couple of 7-year olds and George Foreman fighting Joe Frazier - Down goes Frazier. The difference? Print media today is weaponized. The divide between tribal camps is so significant virtually everything is weaponized and intended to inflict maximum damage to the other side. Examples? John Edwards vs the Enquirer; Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO and owner of the Washington Post vs the Enquirer); Catch and Kill of stories against Donald Trump paid for and then killed by the Enquirer. Those are just a few examples.

There was a time in the past when one of the most highly respected newspapers in this country was the Washington Post. Back then a couple of Post reporters named Woodward and Bernstein took down a corrupt administration. Now that newspaper is maligned constantly by 45, accused as a purveyor of fake news because the paper publishes stories calling out 45's litany of lies plus - and even more importantly - the Post is owned by a very successful multi-billionaire named Jeff Bezos. Speaking of Bezos - 12 years ago or so I engaged in a rather heated exchange with an Executive VP in my company who was then in charge of our Internet operations. He was questioning my intelligence because as he said it, Amazon had one foot in bankruptcy and one on a banana peel whereas we (RadioShack) were a highly profitable organization thanks to executives like him, and if I wanted our Internet presence to be more like Amazon then perhaps I would be happier elsewhere. Today, RadioShack closed 5,000 stores, eliminated over 10,000 jobs, VP Dave is trying to raise almonds, Bezos runs one of the most successful and innovative companies in the world - as masterful at the long game as the Chinese- and is worth 50 Billion dollars after a divorce that cost him half of his wealth. 

Consider this - Don't be fooled by media bias and fake news. Unbiased news does not exist. We provide balanced news and civil discourse (IMHO the best offer anyone can make), So says ALLSIDES.com. Don't hide your bias - tell your story. Allsides will offer a neutral counterpoint and the opposite side's point. You can then make an informed decision - or so they say.

ALLSIDES rates print media and labels it so when you read it you are reading it with a better understanding of their bias regardless what the print media itself says about being fair and balanced.My point is simple - regardless of your personal political bias only a fool does not read what the other side has to say. Chances are there is value in reading both sides of an issue - you might even learn something that allows you to refine your position.

I do not see the tribal nature of our culture changing any time soon so we will have to deal with media bias. It is as simple as reading and understanding both sides of an issue. The better informed you are the better qualified you are to make a decision and making informed decisions is better for everyone. Balanced input leads to better decisions.

This bears repeating - do not single source your input when researching an issue regardless of your source. Whether your source is the NY Times, Washington Post, Breitbart News - whomever, read an opposing piece along with it. Your decision will be better for it.

That's my take on Print Media, be sure to check my compatriots and see what they have to say about it.     Ramana, Padmum, Sanjana & Conrad

See ya next week.
 
PS - a couple of fun factoids - Bat Masterson was a journalist and timekeeper at heavyweight prize fights at the end of his life

Much  has been made of John Wayne's distinctive walk and vocal delivery - he copied them from Wyatt Earp when Earp consulted on a movie he did








 

Unplugged

Our topic this week is unplugged. What exactly does unplugged mean? 

1.  To be disconnected from the world of electronic gadgets.
2.  To be unreachable through electronic means and not part of the collective electronic. 

Occasionally in my Facebook newsfeed a serene, rather idyllic photo of a  cabin in the mountains appears - perhaps next to a rolling stream or a lake and a question is posed, 

something like this- Would you live here for a year without your electronic devices -  cellphone, laptop, etc. for one million dollars? The amount of the incentive will vary in correlation with the time requirement. Of course 9 out of 10 replies swear they could and would take that bet.

 

I'd be betting against those who quickly assumed they could enjoy a brief respite from their normal daily routines. That's  simply not true. We inhabit a highly plugged-in world. So plugged in I doubt our bodies and minds could stand the shock of unplugging regardless of the financial reward.

 

I 'd take that bet against almost anyone - regardless of the ample food supply and available library, most people could not survive unplugged long enough to pocket the promised reward and the younger the person the greater their chances of failure. Someone approaching my age just might be able to pull off the challenge but there are no sure things.  We inhabit a highly plugged-in world. So plugged in I doubt our bodies and minds could stand the shock of unplugging regardless of the financial reward.

Now that is not to say we couldn't all benefit from going unplugged once in a while. We older folk are already schooled in the art of conversation and civil discourse, and if the cellphone were to suddenly fail we could easily fall back into the habit of looking someone in the eye while talking to them. Many of us more life experienced folks (ya gotta admit that sounds better than older folk) even prefer that type of communication. Occasionally circumstances prevent a true face-to-face conversation so when thousands of miles separate us - as we 5 members of the 5-on-1 blogger team with one in California, one in North Carolina and three spread around India- being plugged in allows us to communicate face-to-face although the 12-hour time difference certainly does make things interesting as we madly surf What's App.

Some of us are slowly leaving self-quarantine (whether that is smart has yet to be determined but it is happening daily nonetheless).  After having been sequestered with family for one to three months I suspect many folks wonder what was so appealing to face-to-face communication and are looking forward to sitting around a table with friends, with thumbs and fingers working overtime catching up on texting to the friend now sitting substantially closer than the recently mandated 6 feet, mask be damned.

I have been plugged in since 6th grade when I'd take my transistor radio to Mr. Shandera's class to sneak a listen to my beloved San Francisco Giants play baseball. Luckily he too was a baseball fan. Things basically took off from them with rapid technological advances leading to stereo transistor radios to AM/FM Cassette portables to boom boxes to the Sony Walkman and finally to the ubiquitous Apple iPod which then morphed into the iPhone and then even Dick Tracy's wrist watch phone/radio became a reality. It now even counts the number of steps you take daily and how many calories you burn. Give all that up?

I recall the days when there were 3 networks broadcasting to  our television sets and the broadcast day ended at midnight when the stations displayed a no signal pattern and played the Star Spangled Banner. Now we get up to 500 channels via satellite, cable, streaming sources - and there are still times when there is nothing good to watch unless you jump to Pay-Per-View. Sigh -the snowball keeps rolling downhill faster and faster and I haven't even mentioned scanners, HAM radios, FRS Radios - the selection is endless. Unplugging is tough to do. But I strongly encourage you to try it from time to time. Life is about balance and unplugging helps with that balance.

Now you do realize that unplugged also refers directly to music and the use of acoustic instruments. You didn't think I'd skip that one did you? First up is a song done in quarantine with acoustic instruments - this is something of a hybrid but very well done.

And lastly there is this spectacular version of Leonard Cohen's classic Hallelujah

Thus ends my quick shack take on unplugged.  Be sure to check my compatriots and see what they have to say about Unplugged, suggested by Padmini.     Ramana, Padmum, Sanjana & Conrad

The Virtues and Toxicities of Popularity

The Virtues and Toxicities of Popularity  - this week's topic - is the product of The Old Fossil aka. Conrad's rather fertile and robust mind. Perhaps he has been quarantined so long he is looking to stretch his limits a bit but it has been my experience with him that his mind is virtually limitless. Fossil is not so much an old thinker as he is a thoroughly robust thinker.

Popularity - some people max theirs out in high school, some later and some never achieve it. I once had a very heated conversation about high school with a very close friend who hated her high school experience. She claimed it was only natural would like high school - I was a big-time jock, which caused me to laugh heartily. I tried to explain to her that being a defensive lineman on a team that won one game in two years was no ticket to popularity but she would not hear it. No matter what I said, she was convinced I was Mr. Popular.

Popularity is an interesting beast.  Some people spend their entire lives seeking it, some people never seek it and some people have it thrust upon them suddenly out of the blue. People that constantly seek popularity are the unhappiest people I know because they are so busy striving for popularity they do not realize they forget to live. The level of narcissism required to always strive for popularity can be disastrous if the individual has a massive ego. He/she can easily begin to think more highly of themself and even believe they know more than the experts - folks like Generals and scientists whose jobs are to advise the leaders. Egos get in the way and dangerous suggestions can magically appear - stuff like injecting one's self with Lysol to kill a  virus. Or one can be so keen to win an election and he/she makes decisions that can cost people their lives but what the hell - they are old and no longer useful to society and they are not fans of the leader. But that is what can happen when you vote for change and hire a pathological liar to run things. Nothing that has happened in this country should be a surprise to anyone that was paying attention when the current administration was taking office. They were very upfront about deconstructing the administrative state.

Clearly, that ranks as severe toxicity from a man who proved popular enough to win an election - and immediately began deregulating things  - what the hell - polluted rivers be damned. Nor should the toxicity that has led to a tribal society that is at times downright scary. Anyone not concerned when armed militia members showed upon Michigan - IMHO there is a well-armed faction in this country actively seeking to revive the Civil War. Coupled with the greatest discrepancy in levels of wealth and a conservative class that sees it as their patriotic, civic duty to make as much money as possible, we may yet see shooting conflicts erupt in several states.

One might get the impression reading this ditty that I am not optimistic about our future. One would be correct to think that.

One thing is certain - things are changing and we all know change is inevitable, but change has not been as toxic as we are witnessing at any time in my memory. The upcoming elections the most important in our history. Perhaps - since the country was really built by robber barons, we should not be surprised where we have gotten ourselves. Maybe we deserve the new normal to be a return to the wild west.

Simply stated, there is little difference between the virtues and toxicities of popularity when it comes to our politics. The egos involved virtually guarantee conflict in these tribal times. Be sure to check the other members of the 5 on 1 team and see what they have to say about the topic chosen by our pal The Old Fossil -   Ramana, Padmum, Sanjana & Conrad

Overconfidence

This week's topic is overconfidence - an affliction that has visited us all probably more than once in our lifetimes. It is simply a case of unwarranted arrogance and the result of the affliction can be minimal or catastrophic. The course of history has been changed many times because of the overconfidence of players in the game of life. Imagine the difference if Nazi Germany had not underestimated the resolve of Russia in World War II, or the USA had not underestimated the  resolve of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. What if Hillary Clinton and her team had not been plagued with a severe case of unwarranted arrogance in the 2016 presidential election. How different would our lives have been had the master of disaster not  prevailed in that election?

On a smaller scale, what if I had not been overconfident in a baseball championship game I participated in and lost in spite of pitching a no hitter? What if I had not tried  for a long ball on my last at bat when the left fielder played left field about 400-ft. deep  thereby making the result of my at bat a long out rather than a base hit that would have tied the game?
 We face events daily - some major, most minor when our level of confidence is often the primary factor in the outcome of the event. Did you ever get a speeding ticket because the traffic light turned yellow and you lead-footed through the intersection or how about that infamous Hollywood stop you made at a stop sign and were ticketed? Did you ever take a midterm exam in school, confident you were perfectly prepared and were lucky to get a C in place of the expected A? I had a few of those.

Interestingly enough, we exist in a world where success can be counted upon 30% of the time, for example, when batting in baseball and rather than being considered average a batting average of 300 (30% successful)guarantees a MLB player what I call stupid money. Stupid money is multiple millions of dollars to place baseball for a season? Or football, basketball or hockey?  Truth is, while the average MLB salary in 2018 was over 4 million dollars a year, the minimum salary was a mere $545,000.00, some players made much more, with Mike Trout earning a lofty 35.54 million per year on his 12-year contract.  That, dear reader, is the epitome  of stupid money. Alas,in our capitalist society we are often offered salaries that the market will bear. Basketball and football offer vastly different salary ranges with spreads into the stupid money ranges. Even the NHL offers stupid money, and they manage without the benefit of large television contracts - their salaries are largely the result of paid attendance at games.

Confidence and over confidence - yin and yang. A balancing act if you will. We juggle them all the time. Both play large parts in our successes and failures. Nothing replaces preparation but confidence and overconfidence can defeat even the most adequate preparation. Take a look at this Wikipedia article -Biggest Box Office Bombs.

My favorite example of overconfidence comes from the annals of Olympic Hockey when in 1980 the USA collection of college kids defeated the best hockey team in the world at the time - the USSR in the game called The Miracle on Ice. Sports have been called the opiates of the masses but in 1980 a hockey game made an entire nation feel better about itself when we defeated the USSR 4-3.

And yes Al  - I believed in miracles. My favorite story came from a USAF pilot who was flying his mission and a Soviet interceptor flew up next to him, wagged his wings and saluted the American pilot.

There are numerous examples of overconfidence in life - be sure to check the other members of the 5 on 1 team and see what they have to say -   Ramana, Padmum, Sanjana & Conrad