It might seem obvious that for our country to thrive we should prioritize bedrooms for kids, not cats. But not everyone agrees. Let's turn up our collective volume.
I would urge Generation Squeeze supporters to join in the effort by fairvote.ca to pass a private members' motion in February to address election reform through a citizens' assembly. First Past The Post elections are not fair and lead poorer policy- we're experiencing this now.
20 Members of all parties in parliament have seconded the motion, which was moved by an Lisa Barron an NDP MP from Nanaimo. A poll shows that a citizen's assembly idea is supported by a majority of voters in ALL political parties. Fairvote.ca is doing a call out campaign now targeting Liberal and Conservative members, because the other parties have already committed to voting for it!
A citizens' assembly became official Liberal Party policy at their policy conference this year!
The challenge is connecting with Liberal and Conservate MPs to give them enough confidence to risk their re-election on a different system for the good of the country! The way to do that is to contact your MP to say you want them to support bill M-86, and encourage other to do so.
This is a once in a decade chance to change the rules to change the game of politics.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention Ray! We're glad to support this campaign, and Paul's been added to the non-partisan endorsers: https://nationalcitizensassembly.ca/
Hello: Anita who is running the fairvote effort was very pleased to get support from generationsqueeze. She said that generation squeeze was highly regarded by MPs so the support really helpful. To me 'Change the rules to change the game.' is probably the best way to really get political change and these chances seldom arrive.
Contact fairvote.ca to see how to help, there's a short time line, probably 2 weeks!
The role of luck is so huge in our society in determining success that we take it for granted. Mostly we deny it. It makes us feel vulnerable. So, we run from it. Feeling vulnerable is healthy and normal. But it demands a humility that is useless in a competitive world where we compete even for basic security needs. We develop myths of meriting of justifying that take us away from the real role of luck-good fortune bad plays. But deep down on a visceral level we are aware that our luck can run out and we hope to get lucky. When we do get lucky windfalls and strike it rich, we want to cling to gains because after all it’s just a game of luck and tough luck. That’s how most of us navigate the world.
My father was a successful businessman and a pioneer in his field. His peers could not understand why he supported the Center for Policy Alternatives, environmental movements. Why was he so generous to our indigenous peoples, why did he vote for a party that would certainly raise his taxes???
Why? Because he never believed in any of the self-glorifying justifying stories of success. Illusions and delusions. He was aware of the role of good fortune and bad fortune- luck played in his life. Most people are profoundly less honest about their success and failures than my dad. Most people are full of “bullshit” says Psychiatrist Iian McGilchrist in his 2022 book The Matter with Things- especially well schooled intellectuals who rationalize the irrational justify the unjustifiable and separate the inseparable in specialization. Myths of meriting more than the other guy...and the disease of more (never having enough) and the need to get lucky to have basic security sicken our society. This is the basis of a society that is unable to shout “lower the values of our homes”
We need to recognize the role luck plays and do less bullshitting on meriting...so we can increase the good fortune of all.
I admire your description of your father, Glen. And I agree that we need a lot more people to recognize they won "the lottery of timing." We're up against several cognitive biases, like the self-serving bias that I think explains why people become so defensive (or angry) when we say good luck contributed to their financial success (and conversely why people so easily blame negative events on bad luck). This reminds me of Paul's column, "Merit, Luck or Extraction?" https://www.gensqueeze.ca/globe_mail_merit_luck_extraction
Megan, my right-wing friends talk about man's selfish nature-self-interest imperative.
I tell them that I too am very selfish it's just that I recognize that the well-being of my community and nation is very much in my best self-interest.
Thanks Megan. I will definitely read that article!
Our biases are our assumptions, often cultural, easy fast thinking, jumping to self-serving conclusions of highly unexamined lives.
Studies have shown that UBI Universal Basic Income does not make people lazy but far more industrious.
Myths about laziness are rampant and so self- destructive. The Big lie that a work ethic is lacking makes me sick. It is so ugly and harmful...it's a fallback for an easy excuse to NOT recognize a leg up was essential for every success story. There is no such thing as a self-made man. The beauty of my dad's story is that he was perceived as a self-made man and he was adamant in making it clear that he was not.
Thanks Megan. I will definitely read that article!
Our biases are our assumptions, often cultural,
easy fast thinking, jumping to self serving conclusions.
of highly unexamined lives.
Studies have shown that UBI
does not make people lazy but far more industrious.
Myths about laziness are rampant and so self- destructive. The Big lie that a work ethic is lacking makes sick. It is so ugly and harmful...it's a fallback for an easy excuse to recognize a leg up was essential for every success story. There is no such thing as a self made man. The beauty of my Dad's story is that he was perceived as a self made man and he was adamant in making it clear that he was not.
LOVE this take! When you mentioned luck I immediate thought of Malcolm Gladwell's writing. I never looked at the world the same way after I read his book Outliers. Have you read his essay on NHL hockey players and their birthmonths predicting success in hockey? How about Bill Gates and his MANY lucky breaks along the way? But most people would ignore all that and focus ONLY on their intelligence and talent and deem them worthy of being millionaires/billionaires. I am always shocked at the number of people I know who are living at or near the poverty line or even middle income who don't recoginze the luck of the wealthy. They believe all that wealth came from hard word and that income and hard work are directly proportional. Completely ignoring their own equally but different hard work: raising children as a single mom, careers in hard labour industries, working 3 jobs at once. The same is true of the housing market. The average Joe believes the wealth has been earned (mostly by boomers) and that shouldn't affect or be affected by public policy. How to convince the masses of the role of luck? I mean Generation Squeeze has all the necessary data. What is needed is a narrative to link it that people care about. One that feels familiar and inviting and safe.
Glen, I looked up that book you mentioned. It looks so good. I am such a neuroscience nerd, having no background in it whatsoever but the synopsis mentioned the book is grounded in neuroscience!!! The Master and His Emissary was his first book? Have you read it too? If so, What's your opinion on reading The Matter of things without having first read The Master?
Jennifer, while I was out of school as a teenager the main topic of my observing of my journaling was the common assumptions we make because we are so busy -too busy as functionaries too busy to stop and think and think things through. I had all the time in the world to do this. One of my first observations was that lives were a series of fortunate and unfortunate events coupled with choices-values. TV situation comedies are popular because so much of our lives are situational comedies/tragedies. Only the most stupid of us actually thinks that billionaires earned-worked that much harder or deserve that much more than anyone. They had positions-advantages-opportunities and they decided to take advantage of every opportunity to accumulate wealth. They made making money, accumulating more their primary objective-value. And our society worshiped them and made them gods. Bill Gates writes a book on climate change, and we buy his bullshit when his very lifestyle contributes disproportionally to global warming. His Foundation goes against the grains of the needs of the global south! We assume because he is rich, he knows.
I also had parents that were civically engaged and spent their whole lives questioning and going against the grains. They were not formally teaching me at all but modelling thinking skills. They did just about everything differently. They were pioneers because they did not accept many of our society's assumptions. I say that Malcolm's books are light and refreshing for me because as a teenager I used his formula back in the 1970s to look at assumptions-look for jumping to conclusions-because people do not take the time and effort to connect the dots-to think things through on their own but ONLY have time or inclination to make assumptions and carry on with their busy lives. The more complex and faster the world gets-the more specialized the world gets the more assumptions we have to make-the more we have to take for granted as mere consumers that don't understand. Stopping to think and meditate is seen as a luxury when not doing so is the basis of us going so wrong! We don't teach civics in our schools when we should. By the time I entered university with a strong interest in political science I came to it with real knowledge of the workings of government from watching my parent's engagement and being part of the experience. Painful experiences-hard earned insights-not theory. Popular psychologists are making killings writing books identifying new biases all the time. Why?
Because biases are based on assumptions, and we are having to make more and more assumptions all the time as more and more things that we do not have time to understand are introduced to our world.
In local decentralized livable communities, everything we need to do can be done at a more human scale at a more human pace for understanding. So the book I recommend most is Local Is Our Future by Helena Norberg-Hodge. Real places-real experiences-real insights-No Bullshit! I enjoyed Astra Taylor's CBC Massey lectures her book The Age of Insecurity because she too spent time in her youth out of school-de-schooled with parents who went against the grains-questioned assumptions and modeled thinking skills. We do not need teachers we need real life models who are engaged in civics modeling thinking skills. So far, my teacher friends, are still my friends!
Hey Jennifer. Thank you...it seems like we are having a Spock like mind meld. Malcolm is a refreshing light read on the matter...that everything is connected to everything. Our linear models need to be replaced with web models- organic models....is the thrust of the book I am writing as a retired teacher hamming home that separating subjects is where our attending to the world goes wrong. I was free of school for 4 years from age 12 to age 16 and learned how to think very differently very organically making connections journaling-observing questioning interacting in the real world rather than consuming facts as school forces us to. I thank Malcolm for making Gate’s story clear and I thank Marriana Mazzucato for her research showing that Steve Jobs did not invent anything he packaged and profited off of publicly paid for research...and got all the profits. I thank Iain McGilchrist for pointing out that our bullshit detector, our right hemisphere is overwhelmed by our left brained linear models of the world. The man-made world is the workings of the left hemisphere which lacks understanding but is great at making things separated and siloed. There is not a truer expression than bullshit baffles brains. But bullshit only works because as Einstein pointed out we do not lack information but thinking skills. Teachers are too busy-students are too busy to think! Stopping to contemplate and make connections is seen as an unaffordable luxury...when daydreaming-wondering questing how our mind works best. I had a big poster of Einstein in my classroom with Einstein's quote. "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I was very fortunate and was able to retire early. My still working teacher friends agree entirely with my analysis of the schooling factory. Speed, efficiency specialization goes against human scale UNDERSTANDING.
Read The Master first. But I must admit George Monbiot's 2022 book Regenesis gets at how complex systems are failing us everywhere...our monolith efficiency of our food system is extremely vulnerable to Tipping Points...George is more practical and less academic than McGilchrist who admits that with all his schooling he too can succumb to bullshit. He does! Love him though. McGilchrist proves his theory over and over again in every whelm as a polymath. George is very specific in how our lack of understanding-whole picture seeing leaves us just as vulnerable to system failures like we had in the financial crises. Local Is Our Future by Helena Norberg-Hodge answers the problems identified by McGilchrist and George. Decentralized small enterprises. De-schooling minds is my focus. I hoped that during Covid that the school closures would free students...If they had the resources (rich parents) and had enough intrinsic interest in learning and independent thinking skills I am betting that it did!
Well I certainly have no lack of reading ahead of me!!! LOL. Now to find the time! I am so discouraged by the way public education is going in this country that I am no longer teaching in schools. I have turned to research and policy and non-profits and community building. It is much more fulfilling. And I have been homeschooling my son on and off since Covid began and continue to do so because Covid is not yet over by any means. During the periods of time when he is in school his critical thinking definitely takes a dive. One time he came home feeling sad that "boys can't wear red pants" until I showed him photos of men online wearing red pants and asked him what he thought about those men. Do they look silly? Do they look sad? Why is good about people wearing all different kinds of clothing? Is there anything bad about people looking different? It's been a real education for him. Now he points out interesting fashion every time he sees it and is proud to wear his red pants. I just wish I were rich so I could stay home with him all day every day and just fill his head with questioning. I like your Einstein quote. Especially in the world of AI we are going to find out VERY quickly just how important imagination is because AI will be terrible at it. The other thing about public education is that they are always making everything black or white, good or bad. I think it has really affected people's thinking. For instance, when we at GS advocate for helping younger generations with policy change many people interpret that as taking away from seniors. The zero sum game. There is rarely room or time, as you put it, for them to stop and think that ALL Canadians will benefit from the GS policy solutions. For just one example, so many grandmothers have been left with the responsiblity of caring for their grandkids full time because there are a lack of childcare spots. Grandparents deserve their retirement. Grandkids deserve a quality learning environment. The list goes on and on.
Jennifer you are modeling the very thinking skills we need to model for children.
You are engaged in civics and modeling questioning assumptions in ACTUAL civic engagement for your son. You cannot teach that! You can only model that AND YOU ARE. So much is known about learning that says you cannot teach anyone anything substantive ...we learn from models. The fact factory of school has us consuming, covering a curriculum rather than going slower to stop and think about what is covered over in our mad dash to cover it.
As students we turn learners into consumers, and they produce a consumer society rather than a society of civic engagement. Civic engagement is essential for a democracy to work.
Young David Moscrop's PHD thesis turned book-Too Dumb For Democracy? suggests how we can make better political decisions more rationally. I say it's not that people are too stupid but rather we ignore our attending capacities-real human limitations. George Monbiot makes it clear we have grown beyond our capacity for understanding. Thus, McGilchrist endorses Helena's call for decentralization to human scales-human speeds for human understanding.
An update to my suggestion that Gen Squeeze supporters join fairvote.ca efforts to support Bill M-86 a private members' bill to reform the election process.
I just heard that on Friday, over 260 signatures collected by volunteer 'streeters' were delivered to Taleeb Noormohamed.
The next phase is that fairvote.ca has set up a phonebank to enable volunteers like me to call people who already indicated their support for fairvote.ca . The idea is to ask supporters to phone their MP and leave a message asking the MP to support bill M-86. See their website for details.
We seldom have a chance to influence policy BEFORE it is decided.
Generation Squeeze needs to get at the false sense of security people feel they have gained by making a generation lose the security we all want in owning a home.
Incomes have not gone up for homeowners like the values of their homes. They should question, can we really afford to live in million-dollar homes? What if city tax assessments were made based closer to the market value of their homes? Those new Millionaires would be less eager to see the values of their homes skyrocket if their monthly tax bills reflected the gross jump in value of their homes! For example, the shock of getting a bill for $1200.00 when you have been paying less than 400.00 a month.
Imagine a homeowner running over to his neighbor's house with his new city tax bill: "have you seen this!!!- the new property assessments...I cannot afford this...my home is OVER Valued....it's too costly! We need to get the values of our homes lowered!"
Here unaffordable housing is seen as unaffordable and felt as unaffordable by those who own unaffordable housing. How many homeowners look at their city's accessed value of their homes and hope and pray that reassessment based closer to the market value does NOT come soon!!!
Societal consequences from shutting a generation out of owning a home seems to be beyond the thinking scope of most homeowners. Going for their wallets rather than their depth of thinking might jar their false sense of security. The potential property tax increases based more realistically on their new status as millionaires. Having your cake and eating all of it yourself in front of the children is what we are doing. If that sounds sick-that’s because it is.
Unaffordable housing is something we all can’t afford. It must be seen as unaffordable and felt as unaffordable by those who own unaffordable housing.
Agree things would look way different if everyone was exposed to the rising cost of housing. The flipside is that one suspects the popularity of policies (like greenbelts or other rigid urban boundaries) that increase the prices of certain kinds of homes has more to do with the fact that enough people have effectively been grandfathered out than that everyone wants to do their part (including by having less space personally!) to live in denser cities.
Even more accurately eating a cake that you did not bake that you did not earn or pay for but had given to you as luck that had you taking advantage of a sickly housing crises...adding to a housing crisis rather than addressing the crisis. A good society would shout " lower the values of our homes!" A halfway decent society would say put a freeze on housing prices.
Update: M-86, the private members' free-vote bill for election reform will likely come up for a vote this week. Can GenSqueeze reach out to their members to phone their MP's (esp Liberals') office and just give their name, that they are a constituent, and ask them to vote FOR M-86?
It's really become a grass roots movement with volunteers phoning supporters of election reform, to ask them to call their own MP and vote YES. It would help if this group also lets their supporters so they know WHAT THEY CAN DO, to support something that GenSqueeze is endorsing and will lead to change: 'Change the Rules to Change The Game'.
Perhaps Paul Kershaw could offer to talk on today's Cross Country Checkup about politization and M-86 and the effort to transform elections to change the incentives away from today blind partisanship.
Can anyone call in and talk about M-86 or call early and ask them to connect with Anita Nickerson at fvcoffice@fairvote.ca I don't think Anita knows about the program!
This is a great chance to get 1,000's of people to call their MP and make changes!!!
Hey Jennifer. Thank you...it seems like we are having a Spock like mind meld. Malcolm is a refreshing light read on the matter...that everything is connected to everything. Our linear models need to be replaced with web models- organic models....is the thrust of the book I am writing as a retired teacher hamming home that separating subjects is where our attending to the world goes wrong. I was free of school for 4 years from age 12 to age 16 and learned how to think very differently very organically making connections journaling-observing questioning interacting in the real world rather than consuming facts as school forces us to. I thank Malcolm for making Gate’s story clear and I thank Marriana Mazzucato for her research showing that Steve Jobs did not invent anything he packaged and profited off of publicly paid for research...and got all the profits. I thank Iain McGilchrist for pointing out that our bullshit detector, our right hemisphere is overwhelmed by our left brained linear models of the world. The man-made world is the workings of the left hemisphere which lacks understanding but is great at making things separated and siloed. There is not a truer expression than bullshit baffles brains. But bullshit only works because as Einstein pointed out we do not lack information but thinking skills. Teachers are too busy-students are too busy to think! Stopping to contemplate and make connections is seen as an unaffordable luxury...when daydreaming-wondering questing how our mind works best. I had a big poster of Einstein in my classroom with Einstein's quote. "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I was very fortunate and was able to retire early. My still working teacher friends agree entirely with my analysis of the schooling factory. Speed, efficiency specialization goes against human scale UNDERSTANDING.
Read The Master first. But I must admit George Monbiot's 2022 book Regenesis gets at how complex systems are failing us everywhere...our monolith efficiency of our food system is extremely vulnerable to Tipping Points...George is more practical and less academic than McGilchrist who admits that with all his schooling he too can succumb to bullshit. He does! Love him though. McGilchrist proves his theory over and over again in every whelm as a polymath. George is very specific in how our lack of understanding-whole picture seeing leaves us just as vulnerable to system failures like we had in the financial crises. Local Is Our Future by Helena Norberg-Hodge answers the problems identified by McGilchrist and George. Decentralized small enterprises. De-schooling minds is my focus. I hoped that during Covid that the school closures would free students...If they had the resources (rich parents) and had enough intrinsic interest in learning and independent thinking skills I am betting that they did!
I would urge Generation Squeeze supporters to join in the effort by fairvote.ca to pass a private members' motion in February to address election reform through a citizens' assembly. First Past The Post elections are not fair and lead poorer policy- we're experiencing this now.
20 Members of all parties in parliament have seconded the motion, which was moved by an Lisa Barron an NDP MP from Nanaimo. A poll shows that a citizen's assembly idea is supported by a majority of voters in ALL political parties. Fairvote.ca is doing a call out campaign now targeting Liberal and Conservative members, because the other parties have already committed to voting for it!
A citizens' assembly became official Liberal Party policy at their policy conference this year!
The challenge is connecting with Liberal and Conservate MPs to give them enough confidence to risk their re-election on a different system for the good of the country! The way to do that is to contact your MP to say you want them to support bill M-86, and encourage other to do so.
This is a once in a decade chance to change the rules to change the game of politics.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention Ray! We're glad to support this campaign, and Paul's been added to the non-partisan endorsers: https://nationalcitizensassembly.ca/
Hello: Anita who is running the fairvote effort was very pleased to get support from generationsqueeze. She said that generation squeeze was highly regarded by MPs so the support really helpful. To me 'Change the rules to change the game.' is probably the best way to really get political change and these chances seldom arrive.
Contact fairvote.ca to see how to help, there's a short time line, probably 2 weeks!
The role of luck is so huge in our society in determining success that we take it for granted. Mostly we deny it. It makes us feel vulnerable. So, we run from it. Feeling vulnerable is healthy and normal. But it demands a humility that is useless in a competitive world where we compete even for basic security needs. We develop myths of meriting of justifying that take us away from the real role of luck-good fortune bad plays. But deep down on a visceral level we are aware that our luck can run out and we hope to get lucky. When we do get lucky windfalls and strike it rich, we want to cling to gains because after all it’s just a game of luck and tough luck. That’s how most of us navigate the world.
My father was a successful businessman and a pioneer in his field. His peers could not understand why he supported the Center for Policy Alternatives, environmental movements. Why was he so generous to our indigenous peoples, why did he vote for a party that would certainly raise his taxes???
Why? Because he never believed in any of the self-glorifying justifying stories of success. Illusions and delusions. He was aware of the role of good fortune and bad fortune- luck played in his life. Most people are profoundly less honest about their success and failures than my dad. Most people are full of “bullshit” says Psychiatrist Iian McGilchrist in his 2022 book The Matter with Things- especially well schooled intellectuals who rationalize the irrational justify the unjustifiable and separate the inseparable in specialization. Myths of meriting more than the other guy...and the disease of more (never having enough) and the need to get lucky to have basic security sicken our society. This is the basis of a society that is unable to shout “lower the values of our homes”
We need to recognize the role luck plays and do less bullshitting on meriting...so we can increase the good fortune of all.
I admire your description of your father, Glen. And I agree that we need a lot more people to recognize they won "the lottery of timing." We're up against several cognitive biases, like the self-serving bias that I think explains why people become so defensive (or angry) when we say good luck contributed to their financial success (and conversely why people so easily blame negative events on bad luck). This reminds me of Paul's column, "Merit, Luck or Extraction?" https://www.gensqueeze.ca/globe_mail_merit_luck_extraction
Megan, my right-wing friends talk about man's selfish nature-self-interest imperative.
I tell them that I too am very selfish it's just that I recognize that the well-being of my community and nation is very much in my best self-interest.
Thanks Megan. I will definitely read that article!
Our biases are our assumptions, often cultural, easy fast thinking, jumping to self-serving conclusions of highly unexamined lives.
Studies have shown that UBI Universal Basic Income does not make people lazy but far more industrious.
Myths about laziness are rampant and so self- destructive. The Big lie that a work ethic is lacking makes me sick. It is so ugly and harmful...it's a fallback for an easy excuse to NOT recognize a leg up was essential for every success story. There is no such thing as a self-made man. The beauty of my dad's story is that he was perceived as a self-made man and he was adamant in making it clear that he was not.
Thanks Megan. I will definitely read that article!
Our biases are our assumptions, often cultural,
easy fast thinking, jumping to self serving conclusions.
of highly unexamined lives.
Studies have shown that UBI
does not make people lazy but far more industrious.
Myths about laziness are rampant and so self- destructive. The Big lie that a work ethic is lacking makes sick. It is so ugly and harmful...it's a fallback for an easy excuse to recognize a leg up was essential for every success story. There is no such thing as a self made man. The beauty of my Dad's story is that he was perceived as a self made man and he was adamant in making it clear that he was not.
LOVE this take! When you mentioned luck I immediate thought of Malcolm Gladwell's writing. I never looked at the world the same way after I read his book Outliers. Have you read his essay on NHL hockey players and their birthmonths predicting success in hockey? How about Bill Gates and his MANY lucky breaks along the way? But most people would ignore all that and focus ONLY on their intelligence and talent and deem them worthy of being millionaires/billionaires. I am always shocked at the number of people I know who are living at or near the poverty line or even middle income who don't recoginze the luck of the wealthy. They believe all that wealth came from hard word and that income and hard work are directly proportional. Completely ignoring their own equally but different hard work: raising children as a single mom, careers in hard labour industries, working 3 jobs at once. The same is true of the housing market. The average Joe believes the wealth has been earned (mostly by boomers) and that shouldn't affect or be affected by public policy. How to convince the masses of the role of luck? I mean Generation Squeeze has all the necessary data. What is needed is a narrative to link it that people care about. One that feels familiar and inviting and safe.
Glen, I looked up that book you mentioned. It looks so good. I am such a neuroscience nerd, having no background in it whatsoever but the synopsis mentioned the book is grounded in neuroscience!!! The Master and His Emissary was his first book? Have you read it too? If so, What's your opinion on reading The Matter of things without having first read The Master?
Jennifer, while I was out of school as a teenager the main topic of my observing of my journaling was the common assumptions we make because we are so busy -too busy as functionaries too busy to stop and think and think things through. I had all the time in the world to do this. One of my first observations was that lives were a series of fortunate and unfortunate events coupled with choices-values. TV situation comedies are popular because so much of our lives are situational comedies/tragedies. Only the most stupid of us actually thinks that billionaires earned-worked that much harder or deserve that much more than anyone. They had positions-advantages-opportunities and they decided to take advantage of every opportunity to accumulate wealth. They made making money, accumulating more their primary objective-value. And our society worshiped them and made them gods. Bill Gates writes a book on climate change, and we buy his bullshit when his very lifestyle contributes disproportionally to global warming. His Foundation goes against the grains of the needs of the global south! We assume because he is rich, he knows.
I also had parents that were civically engaged and spent their whole lives questioning and going against the grains. They were not formally teaching me at all but modelling thinking skills. They did just about everything differently. They were pioneers because they did not accept many of our society's assumptions. I say that Malcolm's books are light and refreshing for me because as a teenager I used his formula back in the 1970s to look at assumptions-look for jumping to conclusions-because people do not take the time and effort to connect the dots-to think things through on their own but ONLY have time or inclination to make assumptions and carry on with their busy lives. The more complex and faster the world gets-the more specialized the world gets the more assumptions we have to make-the more we have to take for granted as mere consumers that don't understand. Stopping to think and meditate is seen as a luxury when not doing so is the basis of us going so wrong! We don't teach civics in our schools when we should. By the time I entered university with a strong interest in political science I came to it with real knowledge of the workings of government from watching my parent's engagement and being part of the experience. Painful experiences-hard earned insights-not theory. Popular psychologists are making killings writing books identifying new biases all the time. Why?
Because biases are based on assumptions, and we are having to make more and more assumptions all the time as more and more things that we do not have time to understand are introduced to our world.
In local decentralized livable communities, everything we need to do can be done at a more human scale at a more human pace for understanding. So the book I recommend most is Local Is Our Future by Helena Norberg-Hodge. Real places-real experiences-real insights-No Bullshit! I enjoyed Astra Taylor's CBC Massey lectures her book The Age of Insecurity because she too spent time in her youth out of school-de-schooled with parents who went against the grains-questioned assumptions and modeled thinking skills. We do not need teachers we need real life models who are engaged in civics modeling thinking skills. So far, my teacher friends, are still my friends!
Hey Jennifer. Thank you...it seems like we are having a Spock like mind meld. Malcolm is a refreshing light read on the matter...that everything is connected to everything. Our linear models need to be replaced with web models- organic models....is the thrust of the book I am writing as a retired teacher hamming home that separating subjects is where our attending to the world goes wrong. I was free of school for 4 years from age 12 to age 16 and learned how to think very differently very organically making connections journaling-observing questioning interacting in the real world rather than consuming facts as school forces us to. I thank Malcolm for making Gate’s story clear and I thank Marriana Mazzucato for her research showing that Steve Jobs did not invent anything he packaged and profited off of publicly paid for research...and got all the profits. I thank Iain McGilchrist for pointing out that our bullshit detector, our right hemisphere is overwhelmed by our left brained linear models of the world. The man-made world is the workings of the left hemisphere which lacks understanding but is great at making things separated and siloed. There is not a truer expression than bullshit baffles brains. But bullshit only works because as Einstein pointed out we do not lack information but thinking skills. Teachers are too busy-students are too busy to think! Stopping to contemplate and make connections is seen as an unaffordable luxury...when daydreaming-wondering questing how our mind works best. I had a big poster of Einstein in my classroom with Einstein's quote. "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I was very fortunate and was able to retire early. My still working teacher friends agree entirely with my analysis of the schooling factory. Speed, efficiency specialization goes against human scale UNDERSTANDING.
Read The Master first. But I must admit George Monbiot's 2022 book Regenesis gets at how complex systems are failing us everywhere...our monolith efficiency of our food system is extremely vulnerable to Tipping Points...George is more practical and less academic than McGilchrist who admits that with all his schooling he too can succumb to bullshit. He does! Love him though. McGilchrist proves his theory over and over again in every whelm as a polymath. George is very specific in how our lack of understanding-whole picture seeing leaves us just as vulnerable to system failures like we had in the financial crises. Local Is Our Future by Helena Norberg-Hodge answers the problems identified by McGilchrist and George. Decentralized small enterprises. De-schooling minds is my focus. I hoped that during Covid that the school closures would free students...If they had the resources (rich parents) and had enough intrinsic interest in learning and independent thinking skills I am betting that it did!
Well I certainly have no lack of reading ahead of me!!! LOL. Now to find the time! I am so discouraged by the way public education is going in this country that I am no longer teaching in schools. I have turned to research and policy and non-profits and community building. It is much more fulfilling. And I have been homeschooling my son on and off since Covid began and continue to do so because Covid is not yet over by any means. During the periods of time when he is in school his critical thinking definitely takes a dive. One time he came home feeling sad that "boys can't wear red pants" until I showed him photos of men online wearing red pants and asked him what he thought about those men. Do they look silly? Do they look sad? Why is good about people wearing all different kinds of clothing? Is there anything bad about people looking different? It's been a real education for him. Now he points out interesting fashion every time he sees it and is proud to wear his red pants. I just wish I were rich so I could stay home with him all day every day and just fill his head with questioning. I like your Einstein quote. Especially in the world of AI we are going to find out VERY quickly just how important imagination is because AI will be terrible at it. The other thing about public education is that they are always making everything black or white, good or bad. I think it has really affected people's thinking. For instance, when we at GS advocate for helping younger generations with policy change many people interpret that as taking away from seniors. The zero sum game. There is rarely room or time, as you put it, for them to stop and think that ALL Canadians will benefit from the GS policy solutions. For just one example, so many grandmothers have been left with the responsiblity of caring for their grandkids full time because there are a lack of childcare spots. Grandparents deserve their retirement. Grandkids deserve a quality learning environment. The list goes on and on.
Jennifer you are modeling the very thinking skills we need to model for children.
You are engaged in civics and modeling questioning assumptions in ACTUAL civic engagement for your son. You cannot teach that! You can only model that AND YOU ARE. So much is known about learning that says you cannot teach anyone anything substantive ...we learn from models. The fact factory of school has us consuming, covering a curriculum rather than going slower to stop and think about what is covered over in our mad dash to cover it.
As students we turn learners into consumers, and they produce a consumer society rather than a society of civic engagement. Civic engagement is essential for a democracy to work.
Young David Moscrop's PHD thesis turned book-Too Dumb For Democracy? suggests how we can make better political decisions more rationally. I say it's not that people are too stupid but rather we ignore our attending capacities-real human limitations. George Monbiot makes it clear we have grown beyond our capacity for understanding. Thus, McGilchrist endorses Helena's call for decentralization to human scales-human speeds for human understanding.
An update to my suggestion that Gen Squeeze supporters join fairvote.ca efforts to support Bill M-86 a private members' bill to reform the election process.
I just heard that on Friday, over 260 signatures collected by volunteer 'streeters' were delivered to Taleeb Noormohamed.
The next phase is that fairvote.ca has set up a phonebank to enable volunteers like me to call people who already indicated their support for fairvote.ca . The idea is to ask supporters to phone their MP and leave a message asking the MP to support bill M-86. See their website for details.
We seldom have a chance to influence policy BEFORE it is decided.
This is a rare opportunity to transform politics!
Generation Squeeze needs to get at the false sense of security people feel they have gained by making a generation lose the security we all want in owning a home.
Incomes have not gone up for homeowners like the values of their homes. They should question, can we really afford to live in million-dollar homes? What if city tax assessments were made based closer to the market value of their homes? Those new Millionaires would be less eager to see the values of their homes skyrocket if their monthly tax bills reflected the gross jump in value of their homes! For example, the shock of getting a bill for $1200.00 when you have been paying less than 400.00 a month.
Imagine a homeowner running over to his neighbor's house with his new city tax bill: "have you seen this!!!- the new property assessments...I cannot afford this...my home is OVER Valued....it's too costly! We need to get the values of our homes lowered!"
Here unaffordable housing is seen as unaffordable and felt as unaffordable by those who own unaffordable housing. How many homeowners look at their city's accessed value of their homes and hope and pray that reassessment based closer to the market value does NOT come soon!!!
Societal consequences from shutting a generation out of owning a home seems to be beyond the thinking scope of most homeowners. Going for their wallets rather than their depth of thinking might jar their false sense of security. The potential property tax increases based more realistically on their new status as millionaires. Having your cake and eating all of it yourself in front of the children is what we are doing. If that sounds sick-that’s because it is.
Unaffordable housing is something we all can’t afford. It must be seen as unaffordable and felt as unaffordable by those who own unaffordable housing.
Agree things would look way different if everyone was exposed to the rising cost of housing. The flipside is that one suspects the popularity of policies (like greenbelts or other rigid urban boundaries) that increase the prices of certain kinds of homes has more to do with the fact that enough people have effectively been grandfathered out than that everyone wants to do their part (including by having less space personally!) to live in denser cities.
Even more accurately eating a cake that you did not bake that you did not earn or pay for but had given to you as luck that had you taking advantage of a sickly housing crises...adding to a housing crisis rather than addressing the crisis. A good society would shout " lower the values of our homes!" A halfway decent society would say put a freeze on housing prices.
Update: M-86, the private members' free-vote bill for election reform will likely come up for a vote this week. Can GenSqueeze reach out to their members to phone their MP's (esp Liberals') office and just give their name, that they are a constituent, and ask them to vote FOR M-86?
It's really become a grass roots movement with volunteers phoning supporters of election reform, to ask them to call their own MP and vote YES. It would help if this group also lets their supporters so they know WHAT THEY CAN DO, to support something that GenSqueeze is endorsing and will lead to change: 'Change the Rules to Change The Game'.
Perhaps Paul Kershaw could offer to talk on today's Cross Country Checkup about politization and M-86 and the effort to transform elections to change the incentives away from today blind partisanship.
Cross Country Checkup today has politicization as the topic see
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/polarization-in-canadian-politics-1.7095964
Can anyone call in and talk about M-86 or call early and ask them to connect with Anita Nickerson at fvcoffice@fairvote.ca I don't think Anita knows about the program!
This is a great chance to get 1,000's of people to call their MP and make changes!!!
Hey Jennifer. Thank you...it seems like we are having a Spock like mind meld. Malcolm is a refreshing light read on the matter...that everything is connected to everything. Our linear models need to be replaced with web models- organic models....is the thrust of the book I am writing as a retired teacher hamming home that separating subjects is where our attending to the world goes wrong. I was free of school for 4 years from age 12 to age 16 and learned how to think very differently very organically making connections journaling-observing questioning interacting in the real world rather than consuming facts as school forces us to. I thank Malcolm for making Gate’s story clear and I thank Marriana Mazzucato for her research showing that Steve Jobs did not invent anything he packaged and profited off of publicly paid for research...and got all the profits. I thank Iain McGilchrist for pointing out that our bullshit detector, our right hemisphere is overwhelmed by our left brained linear models of the world. The man-made world is the workings of the left hemisphere which lacks understanding but is great at making things separated and siloed. There is not a truer expression than bullshit baffles brains. But bullshit only works because as Einstein pointed out we do not lack information but thinking skills. Teachers are too busy-students are too busy to think! Stopping to contemplate and make connections is seen as an unaffordable luxury...when daydreaming-wondering questing how our mind works best. I had a big poster of Einstein in my classroom with Einstein's quote. "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I was very fortunate and was able to retire early. My still working teacher friends agree entirely with my analysis of the schooling factory. Speed, efficiency specialization goes against human scale UNDERSTANDING.
Read The Master first. But I must admit George Monbiot's 2022 book Regenesis gets at how complex systems are failing us everywhere...our monolith efficiency of our food system is extremely vulnerable to Tipping Points...George is more practical and less academic than McGilchrist who admits that with all his schooling he too can succumb to bullshit. He does! Love him though. McGilchrist proves his theory over and over again in every whelm as a polymath. George is very specific in how our lack of understanding-whole picture seeing leaves us just as vulnerable to system failures like we had in the financial crises. Local Is Our Future by Helena Norberg-Hodge answers the problems identified by McGilchrist and George. Decentralized small enterprises. De-schooling minds is my focus. I hoped that during Covid that the school closures would free students...If they had the resources (rich parents) and had enough intrinsic interest in learning and independent thinking skills I am betting that they did!