So much debate, so little time. Should the government regulate executive compensation? I'll ignore, for now, whether such regulation is realizable (for all kinds of reasons), consistent with the American vision, and popularly supported. Instead, I conducted a thought experiment to determine whether there would be ANY condition under which it would be appropriate to regulate executive compensation. The answer is unequivocally yes: if executive compensation so undermined, so endangered, so threatened the common good and/or the welfare of the nation that it was a clear and present danger, then it should be regulated just as any other danger would be (including economic concerns), e.g., sale of methamphetamines, child labor, disposal of radioactive waste, indentured servitude, export of weapons technology, etc.
If that is the case, then the real concern is not the size of executive compensation packages per se. (The flip side of Jesus' "the poor you will always have with you" is that the oligarchs you will also always have with you). What seems much more problematic is that compensation mechanisms may have been a proximate cause of the financial crisis and the "great recession," and indeed may be at the root of a great many other economic pressures that are not in the public interest. There is, in fact, a great deal of compelling evidence for this. Many compensation schemes we have heard about handsomely, obscenely, rewarded executives and others for precisely those actions and decisions that precipitated, is precipitating the ongoing disaster: short term metrics at the expense of long term prospects, extreme leveraging of positions, IBGYBG attitudes, hedging against one's own positions, abandoning prior obligations to employees and retirees, cronyism, cowing regulators and buying legislators, ignoring blatant conflicts of interest. If it walks like a clear and present danger and quacks like a clear and present danger...
Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Does a Bear ...
Ooh, ooh, what's it called, when you "complicate" a well known saying? Kind of the reverse of a euphemism, but not quite. One occurred to me as I was putting together the last post - and got me all agiggle:
Does a bear increase the overall entropy of the universe while converting energy from one form to another in the woods?
On second thought, it's too obvious - surely that saying or a close variant is already out there, right?
Update: circumlocution or periphrasis? Not quite - they don't seem to carry the intentional humorous connotation that is always an element in these sayings.
Update: Proposed T-shirt for physics students:
On the front: "Do I like physics?"
On the back: "Does a bear increase the overall entropy of the universe while converting energy from one form to another in the woods?"
Update: Proposed tee shirt for chemists, engineers, biologists, oh, hell, anybody:
On the front: "Do I like thermodynamics?"
On the back: "Does a bear increase the overall entropy of the universe while converting energy from one form to another in the woods?"
Does a bear increase the overall entropy of the universe while converting energy from one form to another in the woods?
On second thought, it's too obvious - surely that saying or a close variant is already out there, right?
Update: circumlocution or periphrasis? Not quite - they don't seem to carry the intentional humorous connotation that is always an element in these sayings.
Update: Proposed T-shirt for physics students:
On the front: "Do I like physics?"
On the back: "Does a bear increase the overall entropy of the universe while converting energy from one form to another in the woods?"
Update: Proposed tee shirt for chemists, engineers, biologists, oh, hell, anybody:
On the front: "Do I like thermodynamics?"
On the back: "Does a bear increase the overall entropy of the universe while converting energy from one form to another in the woods?"
Testing the Emergence Hypothesis
In considering the hypothesis of emergent phenomena there is, from a science perspective, a need and a responsibility to test the hypothesis, and so a singularly important question to be answered: what are the distinctive observable characteristics that an emergent phenomenon would display compared to one that is reductive. As I have already pointed out in this blog, there is a perfectly lovely historical example of such an approach in Einstein’s development of the Special Theory of Relativity. As Einstein exemplified in that case, it is one of the responsibilities of a scientist advancing a novel hypothesis to identify how it may be tested.
Now I suspect that some with a weaker grasp of the principles and practice of science would propose a straightforward test of demonstrating that an emergent principle correctly predicts a phenomenon where reductive principles were incapable of making the prediction. But I think most practicing scientists would recognize that this is not a sufficient test of the emergence hypothesis. Reductive principles may still correctly characterize a complex phenomenon in spite of the fact that we do not have the capability to apply them to predict it. Let’s take an extreme case to make the point: our capability to “predict” phenomena with quantum field theory is based on an infinite perturbation expansion – that is, everything, literally everything you can actually “predict” with it, is intrinsically an approximation; and yet no emergence proponents, not a one, has ventured to claim that the magnetic dipole moment of the electron is an emergent phenomenon even though we know we do not have the capability to predict it exactly. (Some folks just seem to go all wobbly over agreement to one part in ten billion.) So, let’s recap: even if a hypothesized emergent principle correctly predicted a phenomenon that reductive principles couldn’t because of our capability to apply them, this is not, I repeat not, a sufficient test of the emergence hypothesis.
Because of the capability dilemma, we are forced to apply a weaker and admittedly much less satisfying test of reductive principles for complex phenomena: examining whether the phenomena are consistent with the reductive principles, that is, examining a complex phenomenon looking for evidence that it violates the reductive principles. (Giraffe composed of atoms from the periodic table of the elements – check. Giraffe accelerates at 9.8 m/s^2 when dropped – check. Giraffe increases overall entropy of the universe when converting energy from one form to another – check. Etc., etc., etc.) Of every test of this kind of which I am aware (save one) there has never been a single instance that provided even the remotest evidence of violation of reductive principles. (The one instance that I am genuinely puzzled by is “dark energy”, which, oddly, seems to draw little attention from emergence proponents. That dark energy is some creepy weird shit, man!) And so here is the kicker for the emergence proponents: If a phenomenon is correctly described by an emergence hypothesis and yet the phenomenon is still consistent with reductive principles, then Occam’s Razor strongly suggests, if not demands, that the emergence hypothesis be considered unnecessary.
So, a challenge to emergence proponents: clearly and unequivocally identify the distinctive observable characteristics that an emergent phenomenon would display compared to one that is reductive and in a way that satisfies Occam. If you cannot or will not do this then it suggests that you are not doing science.
Update: OK, for the purpose of the challenge, let’s say reductive phenomena are those that are solely the consequence of the standard model of particle physics + the general theory of relativity + any as yet undiscovered components of the universe consistent with these [Higgs boson, dark matter (? – see NPR 13.7 Blog post @Mgleiser: Dark Matter), dark energy(?!?)] + any underlying reductive structure that subsumes these. Yuk. Not so pretty. But that’s still part of the problem: a claim of emergence could appear to offer clarity simply in contrast to murkiness in parts of our reductive understanding.
I know someone is going to call foul on this because we don’t know what the undiscovered components are and what the underlying reductive structure is. But turnabout is fair play: it’s just as much of a foul for emergence proponents to exclude these, because there are a number of very strong indicators that they are there. Without a knowledge of the undiscovered components and understanding of the underlying reductive structure a claim that a phenomenon is emergent cannot genuinely be tested against a competing reductionist claim, and as I have argued, if a phenomenon can be understood in terms of both an emergent hypothesis and a reductive hypothesis, Occam’s razor says reductive wins.
The posts on the NPR 13.7 blog suggest a range of interpretations of what constitutes emergence. For the purpose of the challenge, let’s say emergence is behavior which is demonstrably not solely a consequence of reductive phenomena as defined above.
Update: I hadn't noticed before I wrote this, but in the comments to one of the NPR 13.7 blog posts (see @SAK42: Breaking the Galilean Spell), there is indeed some heady discussion of a possible (extraordinarily speculative)relationship between dark energy and emergence. Like I said, that dark energy ...
Now I suspect that some with a weaker grasp of the principles and practice of science would propose a straightforward test of demonstrating that an emergent principle correctly predicts a phenomenon where reductive principles were incapable of making the prediction. But I think most practicing scientists would recognize that this is not a sufficient test of the emergence hypothesis. Reductive principles may still correctly characterize a complex phenomenon in spite of the fact that we do not have the capability to apply them to predict it. Let’s take an extreme case to make the point: our capability to “predict” phenomena with quantum field theory is based on an infinite perturbation expansion – that is, everything, literally everything you can actually “predict” with it, is intrinsically an approximation; and yet no emergence proponents, not a one, has ventured to claim that the magnetic dipole moment of the electron is an emergent phenomenon even though we know we do not have the capability to predict it exactly. (Some folks just seem to go all wobbly over agreement to one part in ten billion.) So, let’s recap: even if a hypothesized emergent principle correctly predicted a phenomenon that reductive principles couldn’t because of our capability to apply them, this is not, I repeat not, a sufficient test of the emergence hypothesis.
Because of the capability dilemma, we are forced to apply a weaker and admittedly much less satisfying test of reductive principles for complex phenomena: examining whether the phenomena are consistent with the reductive principles, that is, examining a complex phenomenon looking for evidence that it violates the reductive principles. (Giraffe composed of atoms from the periodic table of the elements – check. Giraffe accelerates at 9.8 m/s^2 when dropped – check. Giraffe increases overall entropy of the universe when converting energy from one form to another – check. Etc., etc., etc.) Of every test of this kind of which I am aware (save one) there has never been a single instance that provided even the remotest evidence of violation of reductive principles. (The one instance that I am genuinely puzzled by is “dark energy”, which, oddly, seems to draw little attention from emergence proponents. That dark energy is some creepy weird shit, man!) And so here is the kicker for the emergence proponents: If a phenomenon is correctly described by an emergence hypothesis and yet the phenomenon is still consistent with reductive principles, then Occam’s Razor strongly suggests, if not demands, that the emergence hypothesis be considered unnecessary.
So, a challenge to emergence proponents: clearly and unequivocally identify the distinctive observable characteristics that an emergent phenomenon would display compared to one that is reductive and in a way that satisfies Occam. If you cannot or will not do this then it suggests that you are not doing science.
Update: OK, for the purpose of the challenge, let’s say reductive phenomena are those that are solely the consequence of the standard model of particle physics + the general theory of relativity + any as yet undiscovered components of the universe consistent with these [Higgs boson, dark matter (? – see NPR 13.7 Blog post @Mgleiser: Dark Matter), dark energy(?!?)] + any underlying reductive structure that subsumes these. Yuk. Not so pretty. But that’s still part of the problem: a claim of emergence could appear to offer clarity simply in contrast to murkiness in parts of our reductive understanding.
I know someone is going to call foul on this because we don’t know what the undiscovered components are and what the underlying reductive structure is. But turnabout is fair play: it’s just as much of a foul for emergence proponents to exclude these, because there are a number of very strong indicators that they are there. Without a knowledge of the undiscovered components and understanding of the underlying reductive structure a claim that a phenomenon is emergent cannot genuinely be tested against a competing reductionist claim, and as I have argued, if a phenomenon can be understood in terms of both an emergent hypothesis and a reductive hypothesis, Occam’s razor says reductive wins.
The posts on the NPR 13.7 blog suggest a range of interpretations of what constitutes emergence. For the purpose of the challenge, let’s say emergence is behavior which is demonstrably not solely a consequence of reductive phenomena as defined above.
Update: I hadn't noticed before I wrote this, but in the comments to one of the NPR 13.7 blog posts (see @SAK42: Breaking the Galilean Spell), there is indeed some heady discussion of a possible (extraordinarily speculative)relationship between dark energy and emergence. Like I said, that dark energy ...
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Dr. Kauffman’s Challenge
The discussion between Dr Kauffman and Dr. Goodenough seems to me to pivot on what is admissible as natural law. Dr. Kauffman, at least in my reading, appears to be advancing a position – really, a postulate – that in order for a principle to be admissible as a natural law all, phenomena associated with it must be deducible, e.g., for the principle of evolution to be admissible as a natural law one must, at least in principle, be able to deduce the giraffe – no deducible giraffe, “no law”. Dr. Goodenough, though, is advancing what in my experience is the much more common view within science, one that has proven at least empirically successful, that a principle is admissible as natural law if some phenomena are deducible from it and the remainder of the relevant phenomena are at least consistent with it, e.g., evolution is admissible as a natural law because from it one can deduce that some species that are subject to a rapid change in their environment will suffer extinction, and because giraffes are consistent with evolution.
Because of the more commonly accepted and empirically successful understanding, I would suggest that the onus is genuinely on Dr. Kauffman to do more than ask us to simply accept as given his postulate about what principles are admissible as natural law. Finally, I claim that this is not an insignificant point: we have an historical/scientific precedent that bears on this issue so, even though I deeply apologize for the apparently tangential nature and length of the following paragraph, please humor me.
In my experience most people very seriously misunderstand the true nature of what Einstein proposed in the special theory of relativity (STR). It is the first postulate, considered so unglamorous that it is rarely even mentioned in popular treatments of STR, that is perhaps its most profound insight. The first postulate of the STR was, in fact, a postulate about what principles are admissible as physical law: principles that take the same mathematical form in all inertial reference frames. At the time Einstein was developing the theory, there were two different mathematical representations of a single electrodynamic phenomenon, and which representation was used depended on the inertial reference frame in which the phenomenon occurred. Both representations worked flawlessly in experiments, but Einstein’s key insight, the reason he was unwilling to let this status quo stand, the burr under his saddle if you will, was what principles he considered admissible as physical law. He found that the two different representations could be shown to have the same mathematical form in any inertial reference frame provided one accepted the painfully counterintuitive assumption that the speed of electomagnetic radiation (light) is the same in all inertial reference frames. Thus, the second, sexier, postulate of the STR is, in some sense, simply a deduction following from the first postulate and the flawless experimental results associated with the two electrodynamic principles. From this point, Einstein went on to predict a number of consequences (e.g., E=mc^2) in terms of the specific observable (and, again, often painfully counterintuitive) behavior of physical systems that contrasted with the competing view. The point (yes I do have a point) is that tests of the special theory of relativity, such as experiments investigating the constancy of the speed of light and the equivalence of mass and energy were, in fact, tests of Einstein’s postulate about what principles are admissible as physical law against a competing understanding.
Dr. Kauffman’s challenge: Using the historical/scientific precedent of the STR model outlined above, if you are proposing a postulate about what principles are admissible as natural law, as it clearly seems to me you are, a postulate that contrasts with a commonly used and empirically successful understanding, I maintain that it is incumbent upon you as a practicing scientist to identify what the consequences of that postulate would be in terms of the specific observable behavior of natural systems that constrasts with the current understanding and, further, to propose a realizable test of the postulate. In conclusion it is, I suspect, pertinent to this dicussion, that a part of the reason I am so sensitive on this topic is that a fatal flaw of ID “theory” is its failure, its unwillingness really, to meet these minimal requirements.
Because of the more commonly accepted and empirically successful understanding, I would suggest that the onus is genuinely on Dr. Kauffman to do more than ask us to simply accept as given his postulate about what principles are admissible as natural law. Finally, I claim that this is not an insignificant point: we have an historical/scientific precedent that bears on this issue so, even though I deeply apologize for the apparently tangential nature and length of the following paragraph, please humor me.
In my experience most people very seriously misunderstand the true nature of what Einstein proposed in the special theory of relativity (STR). It is the first postulate, considered so unglamorous that it is rarely even mentioned in popular treatments of STR, that is perhaps its most profound insight. The first postulate of the STR was, in fact, a postulate about what principles are admissible as physical law: principles that take the same mathematical form in all inertial reference frames. At the time Einstein was developing the theory, there were two different mathematical representations of a single electrodynamic phenomenon, and which representation was used depended on the inertial reference frame in which the phenomenon occurred. Both representations worked flawlessly in experiments, but Einstein’s key insight, the reason he was unwilling to let this status quo stand, the burr under his saddle if you will, was what principles he considered admissible as physical law. He found that the two different representations could be shown to have the same mathematical form in any inertial reference frame provided one accepted the painfully counterintuitive assumption that the speed of electomagnetic radiation (light) is the same in all inertial reference frames. Thus, the second, sexier, postulate of the STR is, in some sense, simply a deduction following from the first postulate and the flawless experimental results associated with the two electrodynamic principles. From this point, Einstein went on to predict a number of consequences (e.g., E=mc^2) in terms of the specific observable (and, again, often painfully counterintuitive) behavior of physical systems that contrasted with the competing view. The point (yes I do have a point) is that tests of the special theory of relativity, such as experiments investigating the constancy of the speed of light and the equivalence of mass and energy were, in fact, tests of Einstein’s postulate about what principles are admissible as physical law against a competing understanding.
Dr. Kauffman’s challenge: Using the historical/scientific precedent of the STR model outlined above, if you are proposing a postulate about what principles are admissible as natural law, as it clearly seems to me you are, a postulate that contrasts with a commonly used and empirically successful understanding, I maintain that it is incumbent upon you as a practicing scientist to identify what the consequences of that postulate would be in terms of the specific observable behavior of natural systems that constrasts with the current understanding and, further, to propose a realizable test of the postulate. In conclusion it is, I suspect, pertinent to this dicussion, that a part of the reason I am so sensitive on this topic is that a fatal flaw of ID “theory” is its failure, its unwillingness really, to meet these minimal requirements.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Reduction, Kauffman, and (presumably this is where its going) God
Examining his biographical information it is clear that Dr. Kauffman is an extraordinarily accomplished and widely respected scientist. This suggests his insights are worth considering and, further, that I am well out of my element in critiquing them. And yet, “fools rush in …” There are a number of oddly questionable elements evident in the presentation of his argument in this (apparently) first in a series of essays. Here is a sample:
He at least insinuates that it is appropriate to lump together with no distinction, under the rubric of the aspects of a reductionist approach that he is criticizing, the efforts to identify “natural laws” associated with the Galilean inclined plane experiment, the “biosphere, human economy, human culture and our historicity”. For anyone with an even passing understanding of the utterly divergent methods and analyses applied to understanding the principles in these different areas, such a broad brush representation seems at least disingenuous, applied merely to bolster his position. Indeed, there is a very strong case to be made, of which Dr. Kauffman must surely be aware, that the extraordinary, unparalleled, stunning success of the reductionist approach in some of these areas – e.g., the physical sciences – is what has prompted its incorrect, incomplete and/or inappropriate application in others – e.g., historicity. The failure of the approach in one of these areas does not and should not be used wholesale to indict its application to another as he seems to be doing.
He resorts to a shameless straw man argument and even then his conclusion from it is patently and demonstrably wrong: the physicist who has no mechanism in the tools of the trade to “pick out pumping blood as of special interest” from the properties of the heart. The root of this determination by Dr. Kauffman seems to me to arise from an assumption that our straw physicist is only capable of a completely literal interpretation of an abbreviated three step version of the “scientific method” taught in 7th grade science class. But, of course, there is a vast literature that unequivocally demonstrates that the true practice of (even reductionist) science goes well beyond this limited and ineffective approach. Finally, I hope I really do not need to list the nearly endless litany of advances and insights the reductionist sciences have achieved that lie outside Dr. Kauffman’s tightly circumscribed interpretation of its practice.
Also, I have become extraordinarily skeptical of philosophical arguments that venture into, or worse, rely on appeal to quantum theory. There are, of course, many intriguing and puzzling consequences of quantum theory but I’ve just seen too many appeals to it that are gross misrepresentations and nothing more than quantum woo. In fact, I feel disposed to venture a new principle: Futzinfarb’s corollary to Godwin’s law is that “any general philosophical argument that degenerates into an appeal to quantum theory must be ignored”. I’ll have to give Dr. Kauffman a narrow pass on Futzinfarb’s corollary, as his assertions about the implications of quantum mechanics for evolution are probably fundamentally correct: that its principles (laws) preclude a reproducible time evolution of the universe. The fatally flawed conclusion drawn from this, though, is that since the principles of quantum theory cannot be applied to reproducibly predict the time evolution of various systems, that there is “no law.” This is little more than an a priori assumption, really a prejudice, about what kinds principles are admissible as natural laws. Dr. Kauffman appears simply unwilling to entertain even the possibility that we may inhabit a universe governed by specific reductive principles (laws) that have intrinsically irreproducible consequences. It’s just the icing on the cake that this position contrasts with his critique of an a priori reductionist approach to understanding.
There are other things that deeply bother me about this piece on which I will not elaborate here. Though he may have profound insights about the nature of the universe, this gravely flawed introduction is troubling has left me deeply skeptical.
He at least insinuates that it is appropriate to lump together with no distinction, under the rubric of the aspects of a reductionist approach that he is criticizing, the efforts to identify “natural laws” associated with the Galilean inclined plane experiment, the “biosphere, human economy, human culture and our historicity”. For anyone with an even passing understanding of the utterly divergent methods and analyses applied to understanding the principles in these different areas, such a broad brush representation seems at least disingenuous, applied merely to bolster his position. Indeed, there is a very strong case to be made, of which Dr. Kauffman must surely be aware, that the extraordinary, unparalleled, stunning success of the reductionist approach in some of these areas – e.g., the physical sciences – is what has prompted its incorrect, incomplete and/or inappropriate application in others – e.g., historicity. The failure of the approach in one of these areas does not and should not be used wholesale to indict its application to another as he seems to be doing.
He resorts to a shameless straw man argument and even then his conclusion from it is patently and demonstrably wrong: the physicist who has no mechanism in the tools of the trade to “pick out pumping blood as of special interest” from the properties of the heart. The root of this determination by Dr. Kauffman seems to me to arise from an assumption that our straw physicist is only capable of a completely literal interpretation of an abbreviated three step version of the “scientific method” taught in 7th grade science class. But, of course, there is a vast literature that unequivocally demonstrates that the true practice of (even reductionist) science goes well beyond this limited and ineffective approach. Finally, I hope I really do not need to list the nearly endless litany of advances and insights the reductionist sciences have achieved that lie outside Dr. Kauffman’s tightly circumscribed interpretation of its practice.
Also, I have become extraordinarily skeptical of philosophical arguments that venture into, or worse, rely on appeal to quantum theory. There are, of course, many intriguing and puzzling consequences of quantum theory but I’ve just seen too many appeals to it that are gross misrepresentations and nothing more than quantum woo. In fact, I feel disposed to venture a new principle: Futzinfarb’s corollary to Godwin’s law is that “any general philosophical argument that degenerates into an appeal to quantum theory must be ignored”. I’ll have to give Dr. Kauffman a narrow pass on Futzinfarb’s corollary, as his assertions about the implications of quantum mechanics for evolution are probably fundamentally correct: that its principles (laws) preclude a reproducible time evolution of the universe. The fatally flawed conclusion drawn from this, though, is that since the principles of quantum theory cannot be applied to reproducibly predict the time evolution of various systems, that there is “no law.” This is little more than an a priori assumption, really a prejudice, about what kinds principles are admissible as natural laws. Dr. Kauffman appears simply unwilling to entertain even the possibility that we may inhabit a universe governed by specific reductive principles (laws) that have intrinsically irreproducible consequences. It’s just the icing on the cake that this position contrasts with his critique of an a priori reductionist approach to understanding.
There are other things that deeply bother me about this piece on which I will not elaborate here. Though he may have profound insights about the nature of the universe, this gravely flawed introduction is troubling has left me deeply skeptical.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Economic Best Interest
Background: A recent piece on NPR reported about a woman near Washington, DC, who has decided to walk away from her mortgage in spite of the fact that she was financially capable of continuing payments. Her decision was made, as the piece expressed it, on “business considerations”, on her economic best interests. As you might imagine, some of the commenters excoriated her for this decision. In nearly every case, either explicitly or implicitly, the morality of this decision was given as the reason for this treatment. Ha! Seriously?
Haven’t you people been paying attention?!? For decades now, corporations and their executive elite have been handsomely, handsomely rewarded specifically for exercising an unending litany of immoral actions and breach of contractual obligations, not the least of which is the social contract: socializing risk and privatizing profits, gutting functioning companies for quick profits in leveraged buyouts, creating and selling securities while betting against them, extorting tax breaks, charging usurious interest and fees, engaging in environmental destruction, monopolizing markets, externalizing costs, delaying resolution of judgements against them through endless litigation, creating a casino economy, seeking the cheapest labor at any price, undermining taxpayer and citizen interests through lobbying and funding of transparently mouthpiece “think-tanks” and political organizations, offshoring profits in tax havens, mismanaging and abandoning contractual obligations for worker retirement, and on and on and on, ad nauseum, ad infinitum not to mention plain old walking out on their obligations bankruptcy.
In every case, we’re told of the path of destruction they leave behind: “don’t take it personally, it’s just a business decision, it’s just in the best economic interest of the company.” And yet some of those NPR commenters expect me to be horrified that one middle-class American has learned and is going to apply this all-American ultimate-Randian economic rationale to her own situation? Fergawdsake people, this is what all those Greenspan freemarketeers are always whispering into your ear: “when people act exclusively on the basis of their own economic interest, that provides the best outcome for society.” They are telling her to do this, virtually writing out an instruction manual – to act in her own economic interest. After all, it’s what gave us those wonderful outcomes of Enron traders chortling at their screwing over of granny on her utility bills, and financial executives slopping at the public money trough like so many hogs after being complicit in nearly bringing down the world economy, and the exporting of millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs to China including some under conditions consistent with slave labor, and the willful ignorance of the auto industry to the reality that their business model was unsustainable, and a decade of explosive growth in the incomes of the highest compensated one percent of the population while compensation for the poor and middle class has been stagnant or worse, and, of course, obscene compensation for executives at the companies who engineered the debacle of millions of homeowners in underwater mortgages. I could, of course, go on with examples, but I’ll spare you the gory details.
What could corporations want more – what could warm the greedy little cockles of their hearts more – than for people to listen to and live by the creed of these morality commenters? What could be better for corporations then the asymmetric warfare of consumers following a deep, unshakeable, moral and ethical code of financial responsibility, completely independent of considering what’s in their own best interests, in their interactions with sociopathic, greed-is-good, what’s-in-it-for-me, institutions? It seems pretty clear who will come out on top in that match-up every damned time.
The sad thing, the truly disturbing thing in this story is that this woman is actually likely to suffer more severe consequences than any of the obscene financial “wizards” who engineered the near implosion of the world economy many of whom are currently milking their taxpayer funded TARP bailouts to extract huge bonuses. I’ll take your offense at her actions seriously when you begin to express some real outrage at the sociopathic executives and corporations who have have vaporized tens of trillions (that’s trillions with a T) of dollars and truly undermined the long-term prospects of the nation and the world through their immoral behavior. Until then, meh.
Haven’t you people been paying attention?!? For decades now, corporations and their executive elite have been handsomely, handsomely rewarded specifically for exercising an unending litany of immoral actions and breach of contractual obligations, not the least of which is the social contract: socializing risk and privatizing profits, gutting functioning companies for quick profits in leveraged buyouts, creating and selling securities while betting against them, extorting tax breaks, charging usurious interest and fees, engaging in environmental destruction, monopolizing markets, externalizing costs, delaying resolution of judgements against them through endless litigation, creating a casino economy, seeking the cheapest labor at any price, undermining taxpayer and citizen interests through lobbying and funding of transparently mouthpiece “think-tanks” and political organizations, offshoring profits in tax havens, mismanaging and abandoning contractual obligations for worker retirement, and on and on and on, ad nauseum, ad infinitum not to mention plain old walking out on their obligations bankruptcy.
In every case, we’re told of the path of destruction they leave behind: “don’t take it personally, it’s just a business decision, it’s just in the best economic interest of the company.” And yet some of those NPR commenters expect me to be horrified that one middle-class American has learned and is going to apply this all-American ultimate-Randian economic rationale to her own situation? Fergawdsake people, this is what all those Greenspan freemarketeers are always whispering into your ear: “when people act exclusively on the basis of their own economic interest, that provides the best outcome for society.” They are telling her to do this, virtually writing out an instruction manual – to act in her own economic interest. After all, it’s what gave us those wonderful outcomes of Enron traders chortling at their screwing over of granny on her utility bills, and financial executives slopping at the public money trough like so many hogs after being complicit in nearly bringing down the world economy, and the exporting of millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs to China including some under conditions consistent with slave labor, and the willful ignorance of the auto industry to the reality that their business model was unsustainable, and a decade of explosive growth in the incomes of the highest compensated one percent of the population while compensation for the poor and middle class has been stagnant or worse, and, of course, obscene compensation for executives at the companies who engineered the debacle of millions of homeowners in underwater mortgages. I could, of course, go on with examples, but I’ll spare you the gory details.
What could corporations want more – what could warm the greedy little cockles of their hearts more – than for people to listen to and live by the creed of these morality commenters? What could be better for corporations then the asymmetric warfare of consumers following a deep, unshakeable, moral and ethical code of financial responsibility, completely independent of considering what’s in their own best interests, in their interactions with sociopathic, greed-is-good, what’s-in-it-for-me, institutions? It seems pretty clear who will come out on top in that match-up every damned time.
The sad thing, the truly disturbing thing in this story is that this woman is actually likely to suffer more severe consequences than any of the obscene financial “wizards” who engineered the near implosion of the world economy many of whom are currently milking their taxpayer funded TARP bailouts to extract huge bonuses. I’ll take your offense at her actions seriously when you begin to express some real outrage at the sociopathic executives and corporations who have have vaporized tens of trillions (that’s trillions with a T) of dollars and truly undermined the long-term prospects of the nation and the world through their immoral behavior. Until then, meh.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
On A Miracle
How can a simple public profession of one's faith in the context of describing an averted tragedy become offensive? When does it become destructive? Let's outline a situation: a warm Christmas-time story in a local newspaper about an energetic and engaging young woman who contracts a life-threatening condition, but who subsequently recovers through intercession, through the fervent prayers of family, friends and strangers. A close-knit family, more secure in their faith than ever, understands that this is nothing less than a miracle and that God has a purpose for the young woman. What kind of cold-hearted reprobate would begrudge these folks their joy, their celebration of this moment of grace? What kind indeed?
Well, let's fill in the outline just a bit. A previously healthy young woman suddenly and unexpectedly suffers a seizure. An MRI reveals she has a brain tumor. Across the country, a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic removes the malignant tumor, though the surgery and its aftermath pose life-threatening complications of blood clots and infection. And, finally, her recovery is faster and more complete than any of her medical caregivers anticipate.
The miracle, has in fact been mediated by, among other things, the diagnostics of MRI and radiologists and by access, the many different layers of access, to one of the world's foremost medical facilities, to an extraordinarily accomplished neurosurgeon, and cutting edge pharmaceuticals.
To me, attributing the recovery of this woman to miraculous intervention by a loving God is, frankly, offensive. At its root it insults the long, difficult, rational and deliberate path that led to understanding the principles and developing MRI technology, it overlooks all those who spent long years educating and training those crack medical personnel, it avoids considering the dedication and effort those medical personnel have invested in their careers, it sidesteps the understanding that an experienced neurosurgeon must necessarily have gained from inevitable mistakes and the suffering of others, it elides examination of the economic conditions that make access to medical "miracles" accessible to some but not others, it implies, however mildly, that there is no purpose for those whose outcomes are less fortunate, and on and on.
In short, the claim of a miracle in a case like this, seems to me to be one symptom of a society that has so little understanding of the sacrifice, the investment, the infrastructure, the regulation, the very social contract that has made their lives livable; a society that has so interwoven these "miracles" into the fabric of people's lives that to many of them, the "miracles" and their origins have become transparent; a society that, because of that transparency, is in fact busy betraying their "miracles". "Miracles" like this, then can even be seen as destructive because rather than fully recognizing the investment necessary to make them possible it enhances their transparency. For this reason, and between you and me and the fencepost, I prefer my miracles to be weeping faces of Mary in a pan of bacon drippings than this kind.
Well, let's fill in the outline just a bit. A previously healthy young woman suddenly and unexpectedly suffers a seizure. An MRI reveals she has a brain tumor. Across the country, a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic removes the malignant tumor, though the surgery and its aftermath pose life-threatening complications of blood clots and infection. And, finally, her recovery is faster and more complete than any of her medical caregivers anticipate.
The miracle, has in fact been mediated by, among other things, the diagnostics of MRI and radiologists and by access, the many different layers of access, to one of the world's foremost medical facilities, to an extraordinarily accomplished neurosurgeon, and cutting edge pharmaceuticals.
To me, attributing the recovery of this woman to miraculous intervention by a loving God is, frankly, offensive. At its root it insults the long, difficult, rational and deliberate path that led to understanding the principles and developing MRI technology, it overlooks all those who spent long years educating and training those crack medical personnel, it avoids considering the dedication and effort those medical personnel have invested in their careers, it sidesteps the understanding that an experienced neurosurgeon must necessarily have gained from inevitable mistakes and the suffering of others, it elides examination of the economic conditions that make access to medical "miracles" accessible to some but not others, it implies, however mildly, that there is no purpose for those whose outcomes are less fortunate, and on and on.
In short, the claim of a miracle in a case like this, seems to me to be one symptom of a society that has so little understanding of the sacrifice, the investment, the infrastructure, the regulation, the very social contract that has made their lives livable; a society that has so interwoven these "miracles" into the fabric of people's lives that to many of them, the "miracles" and their origins have become transparent; a society that, because of that transparency, is in fact busy betraying their "miracles". "Miracles" like this, then can even be seen as destructive because rather than fully recognizing the investment necessary to make them possible it enhances their transparency. For this reason, and between you and me and the fencepost, I prefer my miracles to be weeping faces of Mary in a pan of bacon drippings than this kind.
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