A man, A plan, A canal: Panama

I have No Credibility: A Short Story.

          I joined the faculty of Kearney State College in the fall of 1979 as part of a cohort selected specifically to transform KSC into the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Few of us "survived" the process and while I am not really the last man standing . . .




          The weather was very cold that early morning as I found the group of biologists (of various stripes) on the North edge of Rowe Sanctuary. As the only non-biologist I was a bit out of place (In fact my Physics Colleagues would later chastise me for crossing departmental boundaries.). Don't get me wrong: I know a lot about Biology. I just don't know any of the terminology, or theories, or any of the experimental stuff. I learned biology as Richard Feynman did: I understand biology more than I know biology. So, I deferred to those more knowledgable than I as we started the current burn in the long process to restoring the prairie.
          Early in the day we torched a stand of trees on the West edge of the original farmstead. The resulting conflagration felt good (in that cold dawn) as it felled some of the smaller trees and problematic underbrush. One stubborn very long, very thick branch stayed tenaciously attached at an unfortunate angle high up on one of the larger trees. Bill (soon to become one of my best friends) had a bright flash of insight! He went to his pickup (he was not from Wichita but he was a lineman) for some necessary tools and soon had a rope secured to the end of the recalcitrant and dangerously overhanging limb. Try as he might, Bill could not pull it down. As I watched from a distance, two other very manly men joined him at the rope but to no avail. As they stepped away I strolled up to the loose end of the rope and walked toward a particular point on the ground. As I started to pull, Bill grabbed the rope, I frowned at him as I said, "Take it easy." and started to gently pull and release the rope. In a few seconds the very heavy, very dangerous beam hit the ground near our feet. Bill jumped, I laughed.
          About an hour before sunset the farmstead's "grass" and underbrush were burnt clean and only a lone twenty plus foot tall tree trunk stood in the way near the still standing "house". Once again Bill decided to act by using a shovel to push against the tree. I, as usual, was standing out of the way wondering if I was ever going to be accepted by this group of Biologists. As Bill walked away from the still standing deadfall hazard dragging the shovel behind I strode toward him. Without looking at him I said, "Let me show you." as he passed the shovel handle to me. I pushed once, twice, and on the third push the burnt out spire toppled (thud) to the ground. Bill mouthed an inaudible word or two. Bill is a man of few words.
          Now for the "house", at one time a serviceable home on the prairie, in such bad shape that even the structural lumber was not salvageable. I listened for much too long a time as the sanctuary manager talked with the others about how best to remove this obvious attractive nuisance. The drip torch, still lit, stood near Bill.
          After a time I got really bored, as it was getting very late. So, as I walked past Bill I picked up the torch and approached the only door to the tiny home. I think someone asked Bill something and he said something like we will see, or some such. I jammed my Stetson on a bit tighter and wrapped my overcoat a bit tighter as I proceeded into the cramped space filled with spiderwebs. I dropped the burning (gasoline/oil) fuel at strategic locations inside, making sure the doorway was aflame for my exit. As I walked toward Bill I blew out the torch. I set it at his feet and walked to my spot to watch the results of my impudence.
          Anticlimactically, we watched the little house on the prairie fold in upon itself as the sky grew pitch dark.
          Later, when Bill was hired to coordinate habitat maintenance for the sanctuary, I became his trusted burn team assistant. He would take the large well equipped contingent of clueless newbies around the field one way while I with a drip torch and three or four helpers carrying Fire Flappers would burn the other half.

Epilog

          This story is about knowing what to do to get the job done even when you know very little about the job. We need to send a message to "the powers that be". We need to let them know that we know this election is not legitimate. We need to make that message unambiguous. The best way to do that would be for a very large number of us to vote for a single person (not Hillary and not Donald) that is on the ballot in most states. If enough of us do that the message will be heard. This is not about electing Jill Stein or any other particular person. This is not about agreeing with Jill Stein or any other particular person. This is about making a single united statement that cannot be ignored.




An Aside : Exploiting resonance is not about applying a driving force at the proper time. Exploiting resonance is about not applying a damping force at an inappropriate time.

          . . . I survived the KSC/UNK years by using this principle in various ways when dealing with a recalcitrant administrator: I never lost a battle, Sun Tsu would be proud.

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Granma's picture

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Gerrit's picture

sounds promising. Are you thinking of ways to get the message out?

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

PriceRip's picture

          From an experimentalists point of view I would really like to see the results of such a strategy. However, I have no standing in the community of political pundits. As a result, I have no way to "run it up the flagpole to see who salutes" or whatever aphorism works in this case.

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Gerrit's picture

one hopes. Following the convention, I would have thought progressives would have signed up with the Green Party en masse, gottten "all fired up and ready to go" for Dr. Stein. I had hoped when I returned from my summer break that c99 would have been on fire for Stein and organizing for her like mad. But, no. Best wishes,

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

PriceRip's picture

          . . . from the previous weeks and months as well. I feel like I am in a time loop or like I am trying to swim in molasses. It's all a dream, or optimistic delusion then 'slap' I wake up.
          I have found: Talking politics with one person at a time just isn't worth the effort in the real world so I should give up, shut up, move on, and go back to doing what I do best . . .

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Gerrit's picture

about things outside of my control. It was fun following Bernie, but after NY, I grasped that the fix was in and let that go. (The math on the polls going in and the results did not compute.)

I prefer talking about stuff within our control; it's at least about something I could do - plant a vegetable seed differently, talk to my neighbours about how our different trees throw shade across our gardens or how to manage water during the dry spots, and so on.

One thing that helps me is stoicism. It taught me that there are three moral classes of things: good, bad, and indifferent. Good and bad are within my locus of control. Indifferent things are all those outside of my locus of control. As I go along, I'm finding out that so many of the things I think are within my control, are actually not, and that I have to just let go of them and classify them as indifferent. After the NY primary, I moved the election into the indifferent moral category.

I love your McCloskey quote. Last night I watched on Netflix a British satirical comedy about governments and war planning. Sort of a cross between Yes, Minister and Wag The Dog. It's called In The Loop. It's all about that whole quote :=)

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

PriceRip's picture

          Some get really exercised over my indifference to their issue(s). I am sure we are all guilty of such hubris, and while I try to avoid egocentric thinking I know I am at fault all too often. I have to keep reminding myself that most don't really care about what I care about. I prefer reality over delusional thinking so getting upset about other's lack of interest is counter-productive.
          What keeps me grounded in reality is what I have been studying for 60 years, Physics from a modern point of view. I am really looking forward to getting all of my stuff to Medford, OR where there is a very active "Osher Lifelong Learning Institute" OLLI center. I plan to spend the rest of my days discussing the nature of "Reality" with a very educated group of people. The projection is that this year this OLLI center will surpass the 2K mark.

          Technically I am a Stoic with a capital "S" but I do hate labels. Language is such a gnarly thing particularly as my specialty is in the realm of the quantum mechanical. Many attribute the quote to S. I. Hayakawa, but the irony of McCloskey's situation just begs for the association.

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Gerrit's picture

here from such discussions on "reality." By here, I mean the 3D+ discussions I'm beavering away at :=) The only interface between quantum physics and spirituality is at the level of metaphor, where it can be highly fruitful. I'd sure like to hear your non-technical thoughts on such topics.

I do some amateur song writing. I've got a blues song going on Rummy's fascinating quote on "what we can know" as he came to grapple - unsuccessfully - with the reality in Iraq. I call the song, "The Epistemological Blues."

Here's Rummy's original:

Because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones...

I read somewhere that the philosopher Slavoj Žižek says that, beyond these three categories, there is a fourth, the "unknown known, that which we intentionally refuse to acknowledge that we know."

If Rumsfeld thinks that the main dangers in the confrontation with Iraq were the "unknown unknowns", that is, the threats from Saddam whose nature we cannot even suspect, then the Abu Ghraib scandal shows that the main dangers lie in the "unknown knowns" – the disavowed beliefs, suppositions and obscene practices we pretend not to know about, even though they form the background of our public values.

(Sadly, I've lost the source.)

I know, Rummy as philosophy! It would be funny, if it wasn't so tragic for so many.

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
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PriceRip's picture

          I have to be careful lest lest I be taken for a Deepak Chopra woo-woo physics nut-job. Sorry if I offend but metaphor can be a very silly thing when taken too seriously by an ignorant (a value free word) person. Deepak knows nothing of Quantum Physics and has done a lot of damage with his ignorance.

The only interface between quantum physics and spirituality is at the level of metaphor, where it can be highly fruitful. I'd sure like to hear your non-technical thoughts on such topics.

          I never have a problem with ignorance (the state of not knowing) and am fully aware of my own limitations and acknowledge them accordingly. I have at various times and in various venues produced some (what I consider to be) interesting comments about how quantum processes define our reality. I hope to offer some presentations (group discussion style) at the OLLI center in Medford, OR. So, the "3D+ discussions" might be a good place to revive and revise some of the same.

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Gerrit's picture

quantum physics; only a quantum physicist could. One can only create a useful metaphor when one knows both sides of the equation, the source and the application. Which makes you a highly valuable contributor to the 3D+ discussions on postmodern spirituality. We'd be grateful if you could share your insights from your OLLI participation.

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Meteor Man's picture

I haven't thought about Feynman in decades. Thanks for the reminder PriceRip!

I ran across Six Easy Pieces at the university book store. Fascinating. If I Ihad any mathematical ability at all I woild have jumped majors in a flash.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5553.Six_Easy_Pieces

I proceeded to Surely You're Joking and thumbed through Not So Easy Pieces and surrendered to my regular reading, because I knew I was way out of my depth.

Feynman quotes:

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

https://www.google.com/search?q=feynman+quotes&oq=feynman&aqs=chrome.3.6...

A Beautiful Mind should hace been about Feynman.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Mind_(film)

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

PriceRip's picture

          The following is literally true: I cannot count the number of times I have heard students say something very similar to this:

If I Ihad any mathematical ability at all I woild have jumped majors in a flash.

          Most, if willing, learn far more than they expected to learn when in my classes. the problem usually is that they associated with the "wrong crowd". By the "wrong crowd" I mean professors with more ego than empathy. Yes, dear reader, "they" exist, believe it or not.
          I understand your point about the designation "a beautiful mind" but a gentle reminder: The story (as usual the movie did not track with reality well) is about a paranoid schizophrenic. As brilliant as he was, with his beautiful mind and all, Feynman was not a paranoid schizophrenic.
          While it is normal for movies to distort the truth, the distortion is very problematic in this case. A movie about a man struggling to maintain a grip on reality should be grounded in that reality. Putting in bits for dramatic effect made it a bit silly for those of us "in the know".

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