Day 238 – Nuts & Bolts

238/365 (August 26, 2011) – Nuts & bolts are pretty obvious things to put together properly, right? Why do people put other things together so wrongly so often? Humans make irrational decisions based on emotion, even when presented with rational information. We refuse to stop and think critically about the things we hear because we fight change so strongly. I’m not saying that one way of thinking is more correct than another, merely that it there are alternate views and, as such, each deserves equal consideration and equal weight. One person’s/group’s opinion isn’t worth more than another’s yet throughout history when someone disagrees they have been branded as everything from simply ‘wrong’ to more deadly labels like ‘witch’.

No matter what you think, humans are not programmed to think rationally or ethically. We are predisposed to operate in the world in narrow terms of how it can serve us. Our brains are wired to our own pleasure and pain, not to that of others. We don’t inherently think of the rights and needs of others. Our minds create egocentric traps, much of our thinking is biased, distorted, ill-informed, or prejudiced. We are fundamentally concerned with getting what we want and/or with validating our beliefs and when we are ruled by these egocentric tendencies, we see the world from a narrow self-serving perspective. Emotions and desires can seriously hinder how well we think in a situation.

A key question in egocentrism is “How can I get what I want and avoid having to change in any fundamental way?”

The problem is that the information that these people then grab hold of is only that that which enables them to get what they want without having to change their way of thinking, and then they can twist that information so that they continually come to conclusions that serve, or seem to serve, their selfish advantage, or to self validate.

“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” (George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945) It’s a statement that implies that true democracy is impossible — invariably some individuals emerge with the power and motivation to gain an unfair advantage over others. So really, all we can strive for is to have the least corruption possible, because it will never be completely avoidable since human nature will always lead to ‘what is best for me’.

Two things have frustrated me in BC this week.

#1. People are twisting and misrepresenting scientific evidence at a series of hearings taking place in Vancouver. Good, solid, grounded science has been presented at an ongoing investigation into a declining stock of salmon that crashed one year and then rebounded in a manner not seen in 100 years the following year. An irony is that the investigation was initiated after the historic crash, and once the hearings were underway, that historical return arrived. That in itself highlights the plasticity of populations and how little we understand all the complex factors at play. But the opponents twist things and grab hold of the little pieces, they cherry pick the bits that fit their argument and dismiss the overwhelming body of information that doesn’t suit their position. Instead they trumpet to the world that they know exactly what happened and that scientists and government are blocking their crusade. Sounds rather like religious zealots of old. And the public laps it up because the media presents it in a biased manner. People are lazy thinkers and so they drink the kool-aid because it tastes good and fuels their emotional side.

#2. In a historical referendum, British Columbians voted to increase the deficit and increase job loss. They voted for service cuts, and they voted to remove the competitive edge that many BC businesses gained under the HST. That competitive edge improved job opportunities and that trickle down effect improved the overall economy. Apparently we didn’t like that.

The vote was a classic example of “I’m mad, to hell with you, it’s all about me, I hate the government and I’m going to show it in my vote” communal rage. So ‘the people’ got their voice heard, even though they don’t seem to have a clue what they were actually yelling about. This wasn’t about a tax, this was about ‘us vs them’.

People want improved health care, they want improved educational support, they want improved child support. And so what did they do? They voted down the very tax that would help them achieve those things. How on earth does anyone expect a government to provide services to the people without raising money to do it? Where do people think public funds come from?

So now we have to pay a very large sum of money to go back to a more expensive system that didn’t work as well and caused more headaches. Honesty and democracy are great, but voting against a better tax structure because you don’t like how it was implemented is shooting yourself in the foot because you don’t like the shoes you were forced to wear. It’s counter productive and costly, you end up destroying a perfectly functional pair of shoes and now need medical attention because you have also destroyed your foot in the process.

For the record? I voted to keep the HST and trust that the government was going to reduce it to 10%. No, I did not like the way the tax was implemented, but I also recognized the benefits it presented, and that with the reduction it would benefit British Columbians overall and make us a more competitive economy, which would improve jobs and services for those in need of it. Apparently 55% of British Columbians didn’t feel the same way.

Yes, that was a smart vote people. Next time maybe think with your heads instead of your hearts. But we are British Columbians, we have a long history of voting out a solid government because we are mad at the way they did something. We are like little children in a schoolyard, we aren’t mature enough to see that sometimes things that are good for us hurt a little, or they taste bad when we swallow them. No, we’d rather stamp our feet and have a temper tantrum out of spite, and get our way regardless of who it hurts in the process, usually the community at large. But that’s OK, because as long as we get our way, we are satisfied and self-righteous. Somehow we manage to pat ourselves on our collective back and say “good job”. But we are so lousy at looking past our emotions and seeing the implications of our irrational decisions down the road.

So now who is going to pay for it all?