Vanity

The young man selects the prefect smooth, round, flat stone on the shore of the lake.  He brushes it off with his hand and examines it carefully. Needless to say that the stone is very excited with all the attention.  It had heard of rocks having been picked up by such creatures and taken away from the lake, it overheard words like ‘aquarium’ and ‘flower garden’ and ‘bookends’ and it could hardly wait to discover that brave new world away from the lake.   After all, it had spent the last 10,000 years working its way to the shore for just this opportunity. 

The young man examines the surface of the water, extends his arm and flings the stone with the force and ease of someone who has done this many times.

“I’m flying!” exclaims the stone,  “I’m freaking flying!” It’s an incredible experience for the stone, it had never heard of flying stones before. It had heard of precious stones, broken stones and once it heard some horror story about something called gravel, but it had never heard of a flying stone.

“I am the most powerful, the most awesome, the most amazing stone in the world”  it shouted as it soared through the air a few inches above the water. Below, it could see the water shimmering and the blurry outlines of other stones on the bottom of the lake.  “Hey guys! Look at me!” it yelled at the rocks on the lake bottom. The angle of its trajectory started descending and the surface of the water came closer and closer.  Suddenly the rock skipped on the surface of the water and continued its flight.  For a moment it could clearly see other rocks on the bottom of the lake and imagined they were awestruck by its magnificent powers. “I can float! I can actually float! I’m the only floating rock in the world!” The second time it ascended into the air, the rock was giddy with its new-found grandeur.  By the time it skipped on the surface once again it was convinced it was the most magnificent rock in the universe. “I am the culmination of geological formation!” it shouted.

Then it skipped no more and quickly started to sink. Sinking was also a curious new sensation, but rather unpleasant when compared to floating and flying. As it landed on the bottom a moss and grime covered stone welcomed it with a “hey, whassup?” as the sediment that had been disturbed by its landing slowly settled on top of the newcomer.

Magnificence is an illusion of circumstances, in the end you’re really just a rock.

hypocrisy is the core of all convictions

If you live in the modern world and you have convictions you are a hypocrite.  You are, you just never stopped to think about the subject.  It’s an unfortunate fact. Allow me to illustrate:

 Do you think the mining industry is evil and is damaging the environment for future generations? If so, you must not be reading this on a computer that used silicon in its microchips, right? Or a cell phone, or satellite service, or a modern car or a microwave or a remote control, staples, aluminum foil, frying pan, canned goods… You can’t shake your fist at the anti mining protest rally and then drive away in your new car, that would make you a hypocrite.

Are you a vegetarian and against animal testing? But do you have leather shoes and a matching purse, leather seats in your car, a leather couch? An eiderdown comforter, fur trim on your coat, blue suede shoes... no? good for you.  So how certain are you that the glycerin in your soap isn’t from animal fat? Completely sure? Good for you.  Gelatin in anything you eat…  Collagen in any of your foods cosmetics or creams?  Ever had a diet drink, with an animal tested sweetener? Any diet drink, ever, would have been tested on animals.  No diet drinks, nice! But still, most processed food ingredients and medications are tested on animals before being released to the market.

So are you anti logging and all of your furniture is from salvaged wood?  Save our forests! What about your picture frames, toothpicks, chopsticks, paper, cardboard boxes, envelopes, buildings, window frames, the dashboard on your new car, pencils, drywall, baseball bats…  The books you own, the s’mores over a campfire, your fireplace, xmas trees, you enjoy the products of the logging industry, don’t you? well then…

So you are anti Wall Street and think those fat cats who ruined the economy should be taken out and hung? Do you have a bank account, a mortgage, car financing, a credit card?  But they are all from reputable institutions you claim… fine.  Who owns that reputable institution? What institutions is it connected to? Did you know that the top 700 share holders in the market have the potential to control 80% of the market value through their influences? Do you seriously think your credit card, mortgage and car payments are not in one of those pockets? Right…

Oil companies are evil giant conglomerates that are ruining the world.  Nothing around you, not one thing around you, hasn’t been through oil to get to you. (you in oil post)  From the fresh fruit you bought at the farmer’s market to the shampoo you used on your hair, to the picture you took of your child.  It all used oil to get to you.  And think about this, nothing in your life has ever been plastic free.  It was either packaged in plastic (or coated cardboard) when you bought it, it was shipped on a pallet that was wrapped in plastic, it had a plastic tag, bubble wrap, etc.  and plastic is oil. You can’t live in your house and claim oil companies are evil without being a hypocrite.

Religion, are you religious? Do you subscribe to a religion that claims to be benign and all caring but everyone from other faiths will burn in hell for all eternity?  Think about the hypocrisy behind that. 

I don’t have to point out the hypocrisy in politics, it’s self evident.

Are you an honest person who never lies?  Really?  Not even to smile broadly at someone and say “hi, how have you been?” even though you don’t remember who the hell he is?  Or to nod your agreement with the group/boss/priest/judge/parent/friend/coworker though your opinion may be different.  Or to say “I’ll workout extra tomorrow to make up for today”.  Ever call in sick to work when you weren’t?  Ever make any new year’s resolutions? Keep them all? Lying to yourself is still lying… and hypocrisy is still hypocrisy.

So you donate to UNICEF, charities and save the fillintheblank because you want to make a difference. But then you don’t neuter your dog.  But the gas in your car comes from countries where women are treated as property.  But your iPad comes from a factory where workers are treated as slaves. But much of the textile you wear and use is produced by people who live in misery and squalor. Most of the modern consumer goods in your home were manufactured or assembled by people who have a standard of living that would kill you in less than a month. You can’t enjoy the benefits of slave labor/contribute to animal overpopulation/contribute to the development of misogynistic economies, turn around and donate some cash and say you’re not a hypocrite.

Your convictions are not compatible with the modern world. They simply are not.  It’s not possible, in today’s world, to have convictions and not be a hypocrite. 

So be the best hypocrite you can be. It's all any of us can do.

Here's how you fix the world

“Mommy, mommy, I throwed the ball”
The mother smiles at her three year old’s absolutely adorable and intuitive conjugation of the verb to throw, but still she corrects him.
“It’s ‘I threw the ball’ dear, not ‘I throwed the ball’”
“Why?” is the immediate response, and the standard retort to almost any statement she makes these days.
“Because it’s an irregular verb,” she explains. But by the time she finishes her explanation his mind is already concentrated on other things and the notion of an irregular verb is much too abstract to even ask why.

 In all languages around the world that interaction is nearly ubiquitous.  But what exactly did that child learn from that interaction? Did he learn to conjugate an irregular verb? Probably not.  He did however, learn that there is right and there is wrong and there is a reason.  He learned that he should opt for what is right even if he doesn’t understand the reason. He learned that opting for right is a path to self improvement.   It’s a basic lesson for a developing brain: there is right, there is wrong, choose right and you’ll be better off. There, at that moment a synapse is formed in his brain to distinguish right from wrong and opt for right in order to be a better person.

As I walk around Porto Alegre, I frequently eavesdrop in the conversations of passersby,  (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, it’s infinitely more entertaining than anything on TV)  and I’m frequently dumbfounded by the incorrect use of the language, in this case Portuguese.  The phenomenon is more glaring here than it was in Mountain View or Sunnyvale (CA) where I lived before.  But I’m certain that if my life had been less sheltered and I had spent more time in less privileged communities, the phenomenon would have been just as glaring in English. These people are usually very poor and uneducated. When these people were 3 years old no-one told them “this is right dear, that is wrong, choose right,” because no-one around them had enough of an education to know the difference.   On a daily basis these people are exposed to media that demonstrates to them through examples that their use of the language is different for the use of the language made by ‘successful’ people.  But it’s too late.   At the age of 3, while their brains were forming synapses that would serve them for the rest of their lives, no-one around them had enough command of the language to teach “right, wrong, choose right,” “right, wrong, make the choice that improves you.” By the time that person is 6 years old and finally goes to a public, underfunded, violent school for an indifferent education, it’s too late, his brain is already formed.  The critical period in brain formation is before the age of 3 and that critical lesson will never be ingrained and instinctive in his thought processes unless it is taught from birth.  He will learn right from wrong, and he may improve his life, but it will not be instinctive.  It will not be part of his brain’s physiology.

Underprivileged communities everywhere in the world are characterized by the improper use of their local languages, along with criminality and a complete lack of opportunity for social mobility. And everyone believes that poverty propagates a lack of education and social mobility.  It does, absolutely. But there may be a very basic underlying reason for that.  It’s not just that people in these communities can’t afford better schools, it’s that children under the age of 3 in these communities are never taught awareness of self improvement through these basic lessons a mother gives when she herself knows the difference.   It has been shown that in extremely poor communities, the children of women who receive the most rudimentary education are more likely to leave abject poverty and lead productive lives.  This is because they are able to teach their children from birth that there is right and wrong and a choice must be made.  And that lesson teaches her child self improvement, and an awareness of self improvement gives her child opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to him.

There is right, there is wrong, I must chose and the choice I make improves me. It’s simple, but it can’t be taught in school, it must be learned from a caregiver before the age of three.

Do you want to fix the world?  Here’s the solution, it’s surprisingly simple:  give each woman the most basic, rudimentary education and the miniscule amount of power needed to protect and teach her child.  Mind you, it’s not about correct grammar and a literary education. Basic grammar is just one of the foundations the society where I live and where you live.   A Massai woman isn’t going to correct her daughter’s grammar, she’s going to show her to proper technique for making flour from the grain they harvested. But if she knows that when her daughter is 7 years old she will become the fifth wife of a 40 year old man in exchange for a cow and five chickens… she may be less emotionally invested in the child’s early education. 

Name a current social problem in the world: a rudimentary education and a miniscule amount of power to protect her child is the solution to the root cause of that problem.