![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Friday: car, FF, snail mail
Apr. 8th, 2022 11:00 pmWe brought the i3 in for the seasonal tire switch and did actually manage to get it back (with next month’s scheduled cabin filter, oil change etc.) shortly after the 6 pm close. R. went immediately from dropping me off to pick it up, to go see Snail Mail, which is a band. Apparently.
Meanwhile, T. went with the sitter to the RMV to do the paperwork side of getting a learner’s permit. They are offering both in person and at home “written” portion of the process; he got a code so he can do it at home.
I did FF. It was fun. I think it got a little grim, because we talked about the war in Ukraine. I do my best to help people see that The End of the World is not the probable outcome, but people really want to see me as optimistic (okay, at least one person). Also, people really (this isn’t just one person, altho in this case, the same person) want to find parallels between current events and past events in hopes of predicting outcomes. It’s not a great strategy, honestly, and at the edges can lead to believing in prophetic interpretations, which is always a bad strategy (altho makes for fantastic fiction!).
One of the things we do not do well in system of public education (or at least, not in the past — maybe we’re getting better) is showing what we as a society / country have done to ensure continuous access to inexpensive resources. We do okay at showing how damaging extractive industries and cash-crops can be for the producing society, and we are _great_ at showing how the way to get out of that trap is through industrial development and a mercantilist system. We are so-so in terms of acknowledging on any level how “global” “free” trade transfers “prosperity” around the world (<— all quoted words are deeply fraught and all their meanings are contested). As a result of this, I think most of us walk around most of the time inclined to accept as “inevitable” that “democracies” will be replaced with usually-right-wing authoritarians. We overestimate the efficacy of authoritarianism and we _never_ acknowledge how important external disruptors (usually the US or at least powerful elements within the US) are in “democracies” being replaced with usually-right-wing authoritarians. We _forget_ the the most probable outcome of disruption is democracy _and that has its own major problems_. And so I make what is pretty likely as a prediction, and people think I’m being crazy optimistic and I’m not being optimistic at all, and it’s just all very confusing and somewhat difficult to help people shift frames enough to understand.
Meanwhile, T. went with the sitter to the RMV to do the paperwork side of getting a learner’s permit. They are offering both in person and at home “written” portion of the process; he got a code so he can do it at home.
I did FF. It was fun. I think it got a little grim, because we talked about the war in Ukraine. I do my best to help people see that The End of the World is not the probable outcome, but people really want to see me as optimistic (okay, at least one person). Also, people really (this isn’t just one person, altho in this case, the same person) want to find parallels between current events and past events in hopes of predicting outcomes. It’s not a great strategy, honestly, and at the edges can lead to believing in prophetic interpretations, which is always a bad strategy (altho makes for fantastic fiction!).
One of the things we do not do well in system of public education (or at least, not in the past — maybe we’re getting better) is showing what we as a society / country have done to ensure continuous access to inexpensive resources. We do okay at showing how damaging extractive industries and cash-crops can be for the producing society, and we are _great_ at showing how the way to get out of that trap is through industrial development and a mercantilist system. We are so-so in terms of acknowledging on any level how “global” “free” trade transfers “prosperity” around the world (<— all quoted words are deeply fraught and all their meanings are contested). As a result of this, I think most of us walk around most of the time inclined to accept as “inevitable” that “democracies” will be replaced with usually-right-wing authoritarians. We overestimate the efficacy of authoritarianism and we _never_ acknowledge how important external disruptors (usually the US or at least powerful elements within the US) are in “democracies” being replaced with usually-right-wing authoritarians. We _forget_ the the most probable outcome of disruption is democracy _and that has its own major problems_. And so I make what is pretty likely as a prediction, and people think I’m being crazy optimistic and I’m not being optimistic at all, and it’s just all very confusing and somewhat difficult to help people shift frames enough to understand.