An extreme illustration occurred today. A woman went from 'no luck' to superb luck in just a couple minutes, as we went to find her an open campsite. Based on actual experience, most people would have been delighted with her luck.
But the woman kept dragging her feet, finding something wrong with the postcard-perfect campsites we found. What was she looking for?
Since I have taken other people to these campsites, it was easy to laugh off the woman's quirks by rolling my eyes and thinking how sorry I was for her boyfriend, husband, or sons. What is worse than a woman who is impossible to please?
The difference is between a statistical (or 'diversified') approach to a person and being trapped in an 'all your eggs in one basket' situation.
As society has 'progressed', we have devolved from well-balanced and diversified situations to over-concentrated, tense, worrisome situations:
1. Imagine a folk dance in olden times compared to a couple waltzing 50 years later.
2. Extended families versus a nuclear family, followed by a nuclear family with only one or two children, followed by single-parent families.
3. Knowing neighbors and church members versus the soul-less modern suburb where you never speak to neighbors, and where secularized people no longer go to church.
4. The decline of legislatures and congresses to a rule by 9 supreme justices or EPA bureaucrats, all nominated by a president.
5. The war-making power going from congress to the white house.
6. Self-sufficiency on a farm, supplemented by a cash crop, compared to a paycheck-to-paycheck life, all dependent on one employer, and one boss to suck up to.
7. The sole and supreme importance of happiness on earth in the Here and Now, compared to balancing it with a belief in an afterlife.
8. No longer being a 'nation of shopkeepers' who satisfy dozens of people most of the time, but now a cubicle rat whose day can be poisoned by ill relations with two or three cubicle mates and one supervisor.
9. The collapse of local newspapers into opinion-makers controlled by just a few global 'News' corporations.
10. Have heard of the book with the excellent title, "Bowling Alone," but haven't read it yet.
A healthy diversification is so important to approaching anything in a truly rational way. The world doesn't make it easy. I am afraid it has been getting even harder over the last couple centuries.
But the woman kept dragging her feet, finding something wrong with the postcard-perfect campsites we found. What was she looking for?
Since I have taken other people to these campsites, it was easy to laugh off the woman's quirks by rolling my eyes and thinking how sorry I was for her boyfriend, husband, or sons. What is worse than a woman who is impossible to please?
The difference is between a statistical (or 'diversified') approach to a person and being trapped in an 'all your eggs in one basket' situation.
As society has 'progressed', we have devolved from well-balanced and diversified situations to over-concentrated, tense, worrisome situations:
1. Imagine a folk dance in olden times compared to a couple waltzing 50 years later.
2. Extended families versus a nuclear family, followed by a nuclear family with only one or two children, followed by single-parent families.
3. Knowing neighbors and church members versus the soul-less modern suburb where you never speak to neighbors, and where secularized people no longer go to church.
4. The decline of legislatures and congresses to a rule by 9 supreme justices or EPA bureaucrats, all nominated by a president.
5. The war-making power going from congress to the white house.
6. Self-sufficiency on a farm, supplemented by a cash crop, compared to a paycheck-to-paycheck life, all dependent on one employer, and one boss to suck up to.
7. The sole and supreme importance of happiness on earth in the Here and Now, compared to balancing it with a belief in an afterlife.
8. No longer being a 'nation of shopkeepers' who satisfy dozens of people most of the time, but now a cubicle rat whose day can be poisoned by ill relations with two or three cubicle mates and one supervisor.
9. The collapse of local newspapers into opinion-makers controlled by just a few global 'News' corporations.
10. Have heard of the book with the excellent title, "Bowling Alone," but haven't read it yet.
A healthy diversification is so important to approaching anything in a truly rational way. The world doesn't make it easy. I am afraid it has been getting even harder over the last couple centuries.
Comments
Chris