Post July 23,2020
Many of the changes we face, or at least should face, do not have a single right answer. Yet we individuals develop strong beliefs on what should happen. Should we change at all? What directions should we take? If we are going to change, should the change occur rapidly or slowly? If relatively few people are involved, decisions like this are comparatively simple. With large populations, they are not, since we are equipped to reach decisions and hang on to them because of our beliefs. If there is little or no data to back up these decisions, we sometimes become even more passionate.
Since I am reporting on my present truck restoration as well as talking about human characteristics that make it difficult for large groups to sometimes be able to agree on decisions, let me begin by describing a decision that is easy. The truck project is going well. The first photo below shows another fuel tank that has joined the “restored” category. But much remains. The next two photos show a detail of the back end before and after I removed a damaged cross member made of aluminum, which is consistent with seeking light weight, and adds rigidity to the frame. It became damaged because over time the drivers have occasionally not jacked up the trailer enough that the hitch on the trailer clear this cross member when the truck leaves it parked and moves away . What to do? I must do something because I hate looking at it.
For a number of reasons, I am sure the truck will never be put back into service. But I have several choices, ranging from doing nothing, which would cost some rigidity in the frame, to making a duplicate of the original out of aluminum. My options include welding a steel cross member to the frame, which is steel, cleaning up the torn edge of the existing piece, straightening it, and welding on a replacement aluminum top piece, or a myriad of weaker solutions (bolt a replacement piece to the frame and fill the resulting crack with something like JB Weld, or even Bondo). I have gotten inputs from a number of people, ranging from people who question “why are you wasting your time on that big pile of junk” to “come on, you owe it to the truck to make a new replica of the old piece from aluminum. People seem to come rapidly to a direction I should take, and the directions differ widely. But reaching the final answer is easy, since it is my truck. After thinking a bit, I have decided I am going to build an aluminum replica, mostly because I like to do true restorations and to build things in my shop.
But now think about the worlds’ response to the Covid 19, or even that of the U.S. This is a very large problem with many people many unknowns, and urgency involved due to the costs of a pandemic, both in terms of lives and economies. With large groups of people, there is no single owner. Although some people ranked highly in governments act like they are, they are fooling themselves because the number of people who will disagree with their decision is uncomfortably large to those highly ranked people. They may even be able to cause these people to lose their ranking. Often people search for solutions to complex problems that are cheap, easy to put in place, and please everyone, but changes do not tend to be that easy. There are hopes, such as the present search for a vaccine that is affordable, quickly discovered, effective for all, and therefore solve the problem. But history implies things won’t be that easy. In fact there is already a reaction against such a break through by people who are against vaccination in general, and those that are not about to take a vaccine that has not been tested in many usages over time. And there are extremists who feel that the individual should be free to do what they want in life. You can identify them in a crowd, because first of all they are in a crowd, and secondly they are not wearing masks.
The result of all of this is that decisions are slow and controversial, and some times pushed off because people don’t want to face the downside, especially those who must make the decisions. Consider global warming, nuclear weapon development, medical care, and the effects of the internet on society. There are no simple answers to problems such as these, so people create a simple answer, or borrow one from others, and may end up in a situation in which these problems become more severe, but nothing happens. The longer action is delayed, the worse the problem becomes, and at some point such things as deadlocked governments and outrageous expenditures can no longer be avoided. But unfortunately, at that point taking the wrong action may be worrisome enough that adequate resources are not available to solve the problem.
TRUCK PHOTOS
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