Racism and Metoo
Hi! Happy Sunday!
The thesis of this essay is that perception is reality and culture
changes slowly with a recommendation to be kind to each other.
Modern anthropology, or the study of modern man, stands in contrast with
just anthropology that we typically think of as the study of prehistoric man
based upon archaeology. This essay is presentation of
modern anthropology as it is applied to culture today by lawmakers.
The modern, dual media tracks of feminism and racism have with us since the 1960s. During the 1960s
the civil rights movement had great success with the passing
of the Civil Rights Act. Similarly the feminist
movement also had great success during that time with
the scientific advent of the pill and women enabled to control
pregnancy. Women experiencing control over their own bodies quickly led to Roe V. Wade in 1973.
In my reading of modern anthropology about that time I ran across an
essay that argued the following thesis: women were going to realize their
equal rights long before the black community because everyone lives with a
woman. The argument followed up with a very compelling argument about
the successful policy campaign since WWII of "having dinner with the
enemy". Healing the cultural hatred of the systemic dehumanization of
people can be successfully realized by sitting down and having dinner
with them. Most negative stereotypes of people can be dismissed once
you get to know them personally.
Feminism then has a built-in edge when it comes to sitting down and having dinner in that we all live with women.
This having dinner argument is good foreign policy. Even as recently
as the 1980s the United States took in two-million Vietnamese immigrants in
part for us to get to know them and to remove the hatred stigmas surrounding "gooks".
So what's going on? Can we reasonably expect the "Time's Up" campaign,
or the "Black Lives Matter" campaign to succeed in our life-time?
Yes and no.
For two cultural reasons we can apply from modern anthropology.
The fact of perception is reality is key for Wall Street.
Let us journey back to 2001. A Fortune three company collapsed in 2001, Enron.
When Enron collapsed in 2001 it was a big deal. Congress
held hearings and in particular they went after traders
on Wall Street who were recommending buy, buy, buy up until
the day Enron died. Why?
Congress had a full head of steam. Populist anger was the
wind in their sails and Wall Street traders were going
to get their wings clipped. How can one be so incompetent
as to recommend buy right up until the day of total ruin.
I watched those hearings on CSPAN. Interestingly enough
it came out that buy recommendations not only applied
to Enron, but for 99% of all stock recommendations as testified too by the traders themselves! Let that
sink in for a moment.
This was flabbergasting to say the least, both to Congress and
myself. I mean really.
So heads were going to roll, until modern anthropology testified.
Wall Street is driven by perception. Testimony was given by
multiple economists that it has been known for years that
bad news travel fast, that you can have a run on a bank or a run
on stocks just out of fear alone. So, traders have been told and
know to always recommend buy. This gives a perception
that the market is always strong and this perception is
worth trillions of dollars to Wall Street. Perception is reality.
And that was the end of that. Modern anthropology ruled the day
and nothing was changed. We still live in a world of 99% buy recommendations.
Perception is reality. In some respects perception is the battle being
fought today in the public with respect to politically correct
language and the social justice warriors. It is a modern anthropology
fact that perception is reality. How we perceive things changes
reality. We can help people by better language.
The buzz mill that politically correct language, feminism
and racism are all running into is the buzz mill of culture
changing slowly.
For me the compelling example of this is the with affirmative action
movement. Affirmative action is a companion to perception
is reality. The original case took place in California.
The case centers around an engineer who decided to get a medical
degree and applied to medical school. He was turned down due to a
minority quota and sued the University of Irvine using the equal
protection clause as this was clearly a case of reverse discrimination.
The engineer lost his case, thus kicking of the affirmative action
movement. The question is this: why did the judge rule against the
engineer in the first place? After all, denying the engineer acceptance based
upon race is clearly unconstitutional.
The answer is rooted in modern anthropology. We know that culture
changes slowly. The judge cited this in his ruling. Proof of culture
changing slowly is abundant enough such that this is accepted as
fact and is not controversial.
The judge argued that it is unfair to the African-American community
to continue to punish them daily just
because culture changes slowly. Therefore, he argued, a new
experiment of affirmative action is a justified as a policy to correct a
historical imbalance created prior to the passing of the 14th amendment.
Affirmative action, political correctness, feminism and racism are
all struggles of culture changing slowly.
So how should we think about these things from a modern anthropology
perspective? What's reasonable? It does not seem reasonable to expect
the "Time's Up" campaign to enjoy a here and now cultural shift given
this and perhaps "Time's Up" is a poor choice of campaign name. It is
analogous to drawing a line in the sand. Once the line is crossed and
life goes on, credibility is lost.
First, I think just an overall awareness of these two modern
day, modern anthropology facts may be enough. Realize that both
things are true: perception is reality and culture changes slowly.
Realize that if you publicly demonize and stigmatize the black-on-black
crime in Chicago that you are in fact making that problem worse by
shaping public perception about the black community. Perception is reality. So just don't do it. Similarly, people who rant against feminists being man-hating, 'femi-Nazis' are contributing to the oppression of women by promoting a negative perception of feminist women. Perception is reality.
But it is really true? You may ask. Well, Wall Street traders have figured it
out that perception is reality and to them it is worth trillions of dollars.
We should also realize that racism and feminism have been parallel
tracking as prominent issues in the mainstream media since the 1960s.
Strides have been made in each case, for both feminism and racism,
and yet there is still a long way to go for both. And it is frustrating that they
will be with us for years to come. People change slowly if they
ever change at all.
And so I think it is worth recommending that we should
be kind to each other regarding our differences.
Technological changes that are impacting society are happening
at an ever accelerating pace. Add to this the preponderance of
social changes our society is trying to accept via perception
is unparalleled in history: racism, feminism,
religion, mental health, autism, GMO, climate
change and on-and-on.
Let us give each other a break. We are all overwhelmed.
I want to end this essay on an unsatisfactory note regarding how much
change we can expect to accept. Well, we don't know. Can we somehow manage the amount of
social change using science by measuring somehow the rate of change
so optimizing for success? No.
No, because the science just does not exist to inform us
about how much or how little change is possible.
However we do know that any expectation
of removing entire gears of racism over-night are unrealistic
in real-time, but rather we can knock-out some of
the teeth on those gears so as to slowly grind things
to a halt. Sadly, I think, affirmative action has lost the experiment
because it lost the perception wars.
When it comes to the current perception
wars it boils down to a simple competition without science to guide us.
Whoever is the best wins. I think people know this and that has really
increased the volume for all of us about perception changes
we need to accept and it is all quite exhausting.
However, we can knowingly and deliberately take some of the emotional wear
out of this competition by being kind to each other.
Be kind. We are all in the same boat of accepting change, even if we
are not in the same boats about of what needs to change.
Politics as Science!
Demand Irreni World Scale!
Anti-theism is feminism!
Think disruption!
Empathy for all!
Moral relativity: think it, breath it!
Prove it or lose it!
Conversations equal consensus!
Welcome to the 21st century!
Scale your empathy, scale the world!
Find your tribe!
Be sexy people!
The future is coming!
Innovate at a rapid pace!
Slow speed ahead!
Well come! and well met!
Cheers!
-Mybrid
The thesis of this essay is that perception is reality and culture
changes slowly with a recommendation to be kind to each other.
Modern anthropology, or the study of modern man, stands in contrast with
just anthropology that we typically think of as the study of prehistoric man
based upon archaeology. This essay is presentation of
modern anthropology as it is applied to culture today by lawmakers.
The modern, dual media tracks of feminism and racism have with us since the 1960s. During the 1960s
the civil rights movement had great success with the passing
of the Civil Rights Act. Similarly the feminist
movement also had great success during that time with
the scientific advent of the pill and women enabled to control
pregnancy. Women experiencing control over their own bodies quickly led to Roe V. Wade in 1973.
In my reading of modern anthropology about that time I ran across an
essay that argued the following thesis: women were going to realize their
equal rights long before the black community because everyone lives with a
woman. The argument followed up with a very compelling argument about
the successful policy campaign since WWII of "having dinner with the
enemy". Healing the cultural hatred of the systemic dehumanization of
people can be successfully realized by sitting down and having dinner
with them. Most negative stereotypes of people can be dismissed once
you get to know them personally.
Feminism then has a built-in edge when it comes to sitting down and having dinner in that we all live with women.
This having dinner argument is good foreign policy. Even as recently
as the 1980s the United States took in two-million Vietnamese immigrants in
part for us to get to know them and to remove the hatred stigmas surrounding "gooks".
So what's going on? Can we reasonably expect the "Time's Up" campaign,
or the "Black Lives Matter" campaign to succeed in our life-time?
Yes and no.
For two cultural reasons we can apply from modern anthropology.
- Perception is reality.
- Culture changes slowly.
Perception is reality.
The fact of perception is reality is key for Wall Street.
Let us journey back to 2001. A Fortune three company collapsed in 2001, Enron.
When Enron collapsed in 2001 it was a big deal. Congress
held hearings and in particular they went after traders
on Wall Street who were recommending buy, buy, buy up until
the day Enron died. Why?
Congress had a full head of steam. Populist anger was the
wind in their sails and Wall Street traders were going
to get their wings clipped. How can one be so incompetent
as to recommend buy right up until the day of total ruin.
I watched those hearings on CSPAN. Interestingly enough
it came out that buy recommendations not only applied
to Enron, but for 99% of all stock recommendations as testified too by the traders themselves! Let that
sink in for a moment.
This was flabbergasting to say the least, both to Congress and
myself. I mean really.
So heads were going to roll, until modern anthropology testified.
Wall Street is driven by perception. Testimony was given by
multiple economists that it has been known for years that
bad news travel fast, that you can have a run on a bank or a run
on stocks just out of fear alone. So, traders have been told and
know to always recommend buy. This gives a perception
that the market is always strong and this perception is
worth trillions of dollars to Wall Street. Perception is reality.
And that was the end of that. Modern anthropology ruled the day
and nothing was changed. We still live in a world of 99% buy recommendations.
Perception is reality. In some respects perception is the battle being
fought today in the public with respect to politically correct
language and the social justice warriors. It is a modern anthropology
fact that perception is reality. How we perceive things changes
reality. We can help people by better language.
Culture changes slowly.
The buzz mill that politically correct language, feminism
and racism are all running into is the buzz mill of culture
changing slowly.
For me the compelling example of this is the with affirmative action
movement. Affirmative action is a companion to perception
is reality. The original case took place in California.
The case centers around an engineer who decided to get a medical
degree and applied to medical school. He was turned down due to a
minority quota and sued the University of Irvine using the equal
protection clause as this was clearly a case of reverse discrimination.
The engineer lost his case, thus kicking of the affirmative action
movement. The question is this: why did the judge rule against the
engineer in the first place? After all, denying the engineer acceptance based
upon race is clearly unconstitutional.
The answer is rooted in modern anthropology. We know that culture
changes slowly. The judge cited this in his ruling. Proof of culture
changing slowly is abundant enough such that this is accepted as
fact and is not controversial.
The judge argued that it is unfair to the African-American community
to continue to punish them daily just
because culture changes slowly. Therefore, he argued, a new
experiment of affirmative action is a justified as a policy to correct a
historical imbalance created prior to the passing of the 14th amendment.
Affirmative action, political correctness, feminism and racism are
all struggles of culture changing slowly.
So how should we think about these things from a modern anthropology
perspective? What's reasonable? It does not seem reasonable to expect
the "Time's Up" campaign to enjoy a here and now cultural shift given
this and perhaps "Time's Up" is a poor choice of campaign name. It is
analogous to drawing a line in the sand. Once the line is crossed and
life goes on, credibility is lost.
Recommendation
First, I think just an overall awareness of these two modern
day, modern anthropology facts may be enough. Realize that both
things are true: perception is reality and culture changes slowly.
Realize that if you publicly demonize and stigmatize the black-on-black
crime in Chicago that you are in fact making that problem worse by
shaping public perception about the black community. Perception is reality. So just don't do it. Similarly, people who rant against feminists being man-hating, 'femi-Nazis' are contributing to the oppression of women by promoting a negative perception of feminist women. Perception is reality.
But it is really true? You may ask. Well, Wall Street traders have figured it
out that perception is reality and to them it is worth trillions of dollars.
We should also realize that racism and feminism have been parallel
tracking as prominent issues in the mainstream media since the 1960s.
Strides have been made in each case, for both feminism and racism,
and yet there is still a long way to go for both. And it is frustrating that they
will be with us for years to come. People change slowly if they
ever change at all.
And so I think it is worth recommending that we should
be kind to each other regarding our differences.
Technological changes that are impacting society are happening
at an ever accelerating pace. Add to this the preponderance of
social changes our society is trying to accept via perception
is unparalleled in history: racism, feminism,
religion, mental health, autism, GMO, climate
change and on-and-on.
Let us give each other a break. We are all overwhelmed.
I want to end this essay on an unsatisfactory note regarding how much
change we can expect to accept. Well, we don't know. Can we somehow manage the amount of
social change using science by measuring somehow the rate of change
so optimizing for success? No.
No, because the science just does not exist to inform us
about how much or how little change is possible.
However we do know that any expectation
of removing entire gears of racism over-night are unrealistic
in real-time, but rather we can knock-out some of
the teeth on those gears so as to slowly grind things
to a halt. Sadly, I think, affirmative action has lost the experiment
because it lost the perception wars.
When it comes to the current perception
wars it boils down to a simple competition without science to guide us.
Whoever is the best wins. I think people know this and that has really
increased the volume for all of us about perception changes
we need to accept and it is all quite exhausting.
However, we can knowingly and deliberately take some of the emotional wear
out of this competition by being kind to each other.
Be kind. We are all in the same boat of accepting change, even if we
are not in the same boats about of what needs to change.
Politics as Science!
Demand Irreni World Scale!
Anti-theism is feminism!
Think disruption!
Empathy for all!
Moral relativity: think it, breath it!
Prove it or lose it!
Conversations equal consensus!
Welcome to the 21st century!
Scale your empathy, scale the world!
Find your tribe!
Be sexy people!
The future is coming!
Innovate at a rapid pace!
Slow speed ahead!
Well come! and well met!
Cheers!
-Mybrid
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