Stories of My Life II

One day, when I was living in Stillwater, I stopped in at the supermarket to pick up a few items. I came to the register with a package of mouse traps, a can of spray paint, and a frying pan. When the clerk had rung them up, I discovered that I was a bit short of money. The clerk said, "I guess you'll have to put one of them back."

I said, "Yeah, but if I put one back I can't use the other two."

I remember the look of confusion on her face as she studied the three completely disparate items, wondering what the heck I was going to use them for. But I can't remember whether I ever told her I was just kidding.

Four Ad hominems and Me

I read something the other day that I liked: "Very Serious Narrative (VSN) will be trumped by Easily Checked Facts (ECF) every time." Ideally, that should be true, but I've bumped up against a couple of difficulties while pondering this.
My Dad, as I have mentioned before, has a proclivity toward chain emails. Usually, these emails contain a lot of Culturally Pervasive Misinformation (CPM), and CPM can often be dealt with using ECF. But the question always comes to mind: If the truth is so easily found, why does the false keep popping up in my inbox?
But what caught my attention this morning was that somehow I have been lumped in with four other blogs, the writers of which say things like

"Anyone who has read a newspaper or paid attention to world events–even only occasionally–in the last ten years knows that the Muslim world is a savage place that will never be civilized and whose only version of “democracy” is to elect fellow savages. Anyone who needed the Muslim invasion of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, last week as a wake up call should go back to sleep. You simply haven’t been paying attention . . . "

and

"These's protests, like the supposed "anti-war" protests, are usually a bunch of children of upper-middle class families who convince those who've never made anything of themselves that capitalism is to blame for their sorry condition. Yeah right! Just another excuse to find drugs and maybe a hook up for tonight. Dumb hippies!"

In these kinds of cases, it's not just a matter of misinformation and lack of fact-checking. These are expressions of deep-seated prejudices which they justify using current events. It would take a book -- or several books, perhaps -- to explain that these current events have long histories going back decades, and even then they would fail to understand the motivations of the people they are judging.

No, people are going to believe what they want, and they will seek out others who will confirm or justify the things they believe regardless of the data, the numbers, the history or the evidence. To do otherwise would take too much effort.

Inside Job Insider

At the Oscars back in February, the movie that won the award for best documentary was a film by Charles Ferguson called "Inside Job," which detailed the causes and effects of the 2008 economic crisis. By coïncidence, I had begun trying to understand the whole crisis and macroeconomics through my own reading. One book, which I am currently in the middle of, is entitled "All The Devils Are Here," which covers the same topic.
I really wanted to see this film with my Dad, but I missed it in the theater when it was showing at Quail Springs. Later I found the DVD at SunCoast, and then at Target, but I never had the money to buy it when I was there.
Then last Wednesday I found four copies at the Edmond Library. I checked it out and watched it that same morning. It blew me away.
Saturday night I took it over to my parents' house, and we watched it as a family. When it was done, my Dad said, "Everyone in the world needs to watch this movie." The next morning, my Mom called to ask what the title was again because my Dad was going to Target.
The movie, essentially, is about how deregulation over the last 30 years has allowed powerful banks to grow more powerful by breaking basic rules of sound finance. So I thought it was funny, and I know my Dad would think so too, that The Financial Times reported in a front page article that Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, was balking at new banking regulations, calling them "un-American." Too bad, Jamie.
Tonight I saw on my blogroll that Paul Krugman has something to say about it, too:

"September 12, 2011, 9:32 am
Satire Is Dead

"Last month I had a little fun with Jamie Dimon, putting in his mouth the words of the corrupt, embezzling banker in John Ford’s Stagecoach:

"I don’t know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they’re even talking now about having *bank* examiners. As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books.
"I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!

"But today I read this: Jamie Dimon, CEO Of JPMorgan Chase, Calls International Bank Rules ‘Anti-American’.

Satire is dead."