Post Friday January 13, 2021:
We are following the California holiday lock down rules, and for Christmas we have traditionally invited all the family members to our house,, including several that live on the East coast. That not being practical, we just invited those in the area, which still consisted of 16 people. How do you get 16 people together and allow them to have an uproarious day without breaking the social networking rules? A partial answer is by breaking the group into small groups, A final one is by careful control of presents. Another is to not think you are going into cramming it into one day. Here it is well past New Years Day, and I am still looking forward to celebrating with a couple of my sons, who will hopefully be delighted with some rather large machinery, which will not only make them happy, but help me in my ongoing (but failing) attempt to gain more space in my shop and garage. But the Covid and that are not the only reasons I have been delinquent in adding to my blog.
My computer system is seriously screwed up, and there seems to be nobody available to help me figure out what is wrong with it. I am able to send messages and other things, but it is acting like there has been another upgrade that I have missed (consciously).
And finally, I am at least temporarily stumped on the issue of creativity in large populations, I have been reading my head off and talking to lots of people. but remain baffled. The last book I have read (re-read actually) is Ill Winds; Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency., written by Larry Diamond a year or so ago. He is a brilliant and very likeable Senior Fellow at both the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford, and has spent his very successful career studying and comparing different national governments. He has consistently come down as a fan of democratic ones. But after a sharp increase in the number of countries that at least claimed to be democracies in the past, there is a distinct fall off. And he fears that at least some of this is because the U.S, which has for years acted as a model for many countries, is having problems, one glaring one being Trumpism, which has recently sunk to new lows. Trump will lose the presidency in a few days, but will not disappear nor will his fans. To me the fact that almost 1/2 of the voting public voted for him in the last election is a worry for U.S. democracy, and a threat to creativity.
The Diamond book is an easy read, and if you are really interested in what is happening to us, I definitely recommend it. After being the flagship for democracy for many years, the U.S. seems to be falling behind in many ways. The Covid19 virus is definitely not helping, but the increasing complexity of technology, the inequality between the very rich and very poor, and the increasing recognition of ethnic and gender unfairness are major players.
I have been slowly feeding you characteristics of us humans that while useful 10,000 years ago, are now dangerous. I do not know of any pills that can make them go away. The only way is for us is to be more aware of our limitations —Homo Demi Sapiens, rather than Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Also that we who live in the U.S. are only a tiny fraction of the world’s population. One I have not dropped on you is that we want simple answers,even to difficult problems. A good exercise is to pick what seems to be a simple problem in the U.S., and think of a realistic answer to it. Tell the problem and answer to your spouse. a couple of friends and a few people you work with. Notice some disagreement even among people who are close to you?
You (and I) have a rare opportunity to watch creativity in large groups. The world will probably never return to its previous self. The shake ups that it seems like most countries are going through right now and the Covid-19 pandemic are bound to result in rethinking many aspects of our lives. This is not necessarily all bad. We have going through a large period of relative calm in the U.S. Maybe it is time to contemplate some changes . But there will be resistance! Talk it over with your friends, and then with people who have often disagreed. I sure don’t know the answers, but I will be watching and learning a great deal more about creativity in large groups.
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