Sometimes things just need said.
Robert Bradley is one of the kindest, caring humans I know. I've posted some of his writing here before. Search for his writing on the same website and judge for yourselves.
I don't particularly like rants though I don't really see his article in that vein. What I see is a man exhausted and hurting from loss, like many of us, who is simply done with idiocy like we see from too many in the expat community here. It's hard to tell if many of us are assholes or simply carriers. I think his points are worthy of sincere consideration for us all. Nothing in this world is going to improve if we continue to wallow in our shitty attitudes and ill tempers.
Background prompting his article or the final straw, I'm not sure which.
I need to make dinner. I'll drop back some time later. Or not.
Comments
I "know" this man ...
I have never met Robert Bradley, but I have lived a life filled with loved ones that are alive and well because they happened to be at the right place at the right time. There is no substitute for modern medicine, and well informed medical practitioners working as a team to affect the best possible outcome.
When the "system" fails, it fails hard. That is the lesson some of us learned at a far too early stage in life. Nuff -- said.
Thanks for dropping in.
Science and medicine, like any human system, is only as good as the people who make it work. Terrible cockups happen but in normal everyday operations and their service to people both benefit humanity far more than the individual costs of grave errors. Without either and both, most of us wouldn't live past our mid 40s and far more would never get out of childhood. Those who ca/do/won't see that the benefits, even considering the costs of errors and moral hazard, do so out of ignorance of history and lack of perspective.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Sorry for all the loss...
from COVID and more.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Loss is part of life.
It's the preventable and self inflicted loss that's so hard for me to reconcile.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
FWIW, I didn't see the article
As a rant either. Obviously he is very sad about the loss of his dear friend.
I don't get the reference to Tucker Carlson, unless there are idiots among the ex-pats quoting him.
Be grateful
to know nothing about Tucker Carlson. The kindest thing I can say about him is that he is a giant in a league of his own among the most repugnant of on air Fox News broadcasters. Disqus comments were disabled for Roberts opinion piece as is normal for published opinions. It is not uncommon to hear Carlson inspired bile spewed throughout the comments. I've become in infrequent reader and contributor in the cesspool that has become the comment section.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
He speaks for me.
" If you can’t be civilized, be quiet."
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
Can you imagine how peaceful
and quieter the world would be if people learned the simple practice of listen more, speak less? I'd settle for more of us thinking before speaking. Peoples like Robert can speak all they want IMO. He always has something to say that I find worth hearing.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
I think it's a rant
Mostly because of his helplessness against the sheer volume of noise and anger. For me I have come to see this as just tactics in a war for power. We use reason and facts to counter the noise, when the noise is really the method of attack.
I've been reading about China and it's territorial disputes https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/china-already-engaging-in-irregular-w... with it's neighbours and our allies. China is doing what the republicans did to us, using propaganda, the courts, disinformation to chip away at resistance to their goals without direct violent confrontation. Even if they aren't 100% successful and only gain a little it's still a win.
That is what is so infuriating about our system. The r's will fight over anything..or nothing, to win concessions or to block the tiniest thing the democrats want, and the dems stand around looking flummoxed.
Mostly I blame capitalism. For capitalists if there is no power or profit to those in charge, then why do it? If there is power or profit then anything goes, even logic and compassion.
Snode, I respect your point of view.
We have been generally in agreement the few times we've crossed paths here. Yet, here you are making Robert's point for him and you appear to not have a clue that this post is exactly what he's talking about.
I fear his message has eluded you. Consider the difference between helplessness which you assume is his motivation and him tapping into the power that is available to him to push against the feeling of being powerless. The helpless do not struggle or fight back. They may rage against and blame those they see as the source of their troubles and feelings of helplessness. But they do not fight, they've given up.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
True
I mostly don't have a clue. His writing hits hard and close to what I have been feeling for a while, and I'm tired of listening to me. Maybe it's me that's helpless. I haven't read more than the link you provided and I agree with most everything he writes here. Still
"The murderous propaganda pitting humans against humans must stop."
"There is no good reason for respectable media to provide a platform for anti-science agitators."
"I see only a heart-shaped hole filled with cold indifference and a truly dismal vision of the world."
Maybe helpless is not the right word (nor powerless either) but I am hearing someone who is beyond frustrated and has to shout out his anger. I wish I could see a solution in his frustration, but I don't. No one else seems to have one either, outside of physical confrontation. I don't.
I also think he's right about the murderous propaganda. That's what it is. I don't think there is anything about it that has some underlying foundation of philosophy. It's more, If it doesn't do what you want it to, drop it and find something else to keep people at each others throats. I think that's what it's all about.
The lead is not a rant
... from my point of view. But then I come from a background of nearly forty years of success creating systemic changes to address social ills. My experiences taught me that I am not powerless.
I am sure you are not powerless.
Nor did I say Robert Bradley is, or vtcc73. I use helpless. At some time we are all in a position where we can not stop something bad, or make something good happen. Not alone, or even with help from others. It's a situation not a judgment. A tornado, a cancer, something bigger than you that you cannot change that harms you.
In the same forty years you mention we have gone from a common agreement on facts for most things, to facts and equally valid alternate facts to the point there are no facts, just belief systems. Why? I can only guess someone benefits from it, or it wouldn't have happened. I only know using reason, logic and judgment doesn't work. Maybe I'm just blind to what you are trying to tell me.
On the "grand scheme of things"
I am in agreement with you vis-à-vis "helpless". It is not possible for any of us to expect to have any effect on the grand scheme of things. The only option is for local action. In that sphere I was not (for nearly 40 years) helpless.
This is a skill, and as a skill, can be taught. Most importantly this skill needs to be taught. The alternative is not acceptable. So, though I use the word "powerless" I am addressing the same thing you are using the word "helpless".
Have a good day.
Spot on!
From my perspective it's very, very local and found in my very own meat suit.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Well said. Thanks.
Please take some time to read a few of Roberts articles. I think you will come to understand more about the man, who he is and how he approaches life. I promise you are unlikely to find the time poorly spent.
What I've learned from his writing and a brief few minutes speaking to him is that he seems to be a bottomless well of empathy. He's an artist, an exceptional photographer, and a writer whose skills I deeply appreciate to the point of envy. Creative sorts like him tend to feel everything very strongly. They are often prone to being emotionally overwhelmed like I think he was by his friend's death. He's lost more than one to COVID if I remember correctly. I know from personal experience that it is too easy lose focus and find dealing with life almost too difficult to bear. We all have times where the burden seems unbearable. In Robert's case I don't think he will be down for long. He's a champion, especially for the poor and underprivileged. He's a fighter who will bounce back without losing who he is.
The message I read in this article is that the problem is how people choose to react to all the propaganda and noise as you put it. It truly is a choice although many of us don't recognize that we have the power to choose. We can't help how we feel but we can always choose how we react or refuse to react. Nobody can take that power to choose how we behave despite not having the power to stop the insanity in this world. Yet, for some reason we pick the big problems like the Empire to howl at the moon over. How likely are any of us to change what is? Isn't it, maybe, a better idea to stop howling and trying to make a difference in our and the lives close to us instead?
Watching the shit show has become akin to an addiction. We can't put down our smart phones, stop watching the "news", stop obsessing on how righteous is our own personal point of view, or feeling that we're making a difference by yelling at each other about what is generally bullshit flung into the wind intended to inflame. "Sometimes we live our lives in chains, never knowing we have the key." Already Gone The Eagles. We have the key but don't know it and/or can't/won't use it. Robert's message is that we have the key. Use it, dammit! If you can't/won't, at least have the decency to STFU.
I can go on for days about how this is possible and how. I'll spare you. No need to thank me. Let me say that the solution begins with unfuckingup (Is that a real word?) ourselves then widens through helping others and living a rational life based on reason and service to others. One enemy, as you pointed out, is belief and faith taken as truth and fact. But we do have the power to change ourselves if we choose to and then do the work to make it so.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
If the vaccines work
Then those who have been vaccinated should not worry about those who haven't.
Not True
As a person with my specific qualifications, I am very concerned about the detrimental effect of, and on those that have not been vaccinated.
I think you are being too clever by half.
Whatever it is that your specific qualifications are.
No Energy Particle Physics
I like to contrast my expertise with a joke title variation of the "High Energy Particle Physics" that defines most of my colleagues that play with data from CERN. I have spent decades learning about low probability processes. It ain't fancy, but it's honest work. And, as a bonus, I get to be one of the few that is forced to take Q.M. seriously, given that understanding Q.M. is not possible.
With respect to SARS-CoV-2: The single most important paper I read was from early in 2020. It was about the complexity, and mutability of the viruses spike proteins. Given the response of the bulk of the people none of the outcomes so far are in anyway surprising. Unless the vaccinations occur at or ahead of projected rates we could very easily see surges as variants encounter pathways through the unvaccinated allowing for more mutations and yet more pathways. Equally disturbing is the possibility of mutations reinfecting the vaccinated and what those processes my produce.
Maximizing the immunized population is the first line of defense.
Oh-yea ... to bring it back to my speciality: The low probability processes in the system are the most problematic. I study "background" radiation because, for most, it is boring and of no consequence ... until the likes of -- Chernobyl and Fukushima -- or more appropriately the monitoring of ordinary "run of the mill" background radiation that has never been characterized by the nationwide Network of Radiation Monitors.
Fair answer.
Glad you didn't take it personally.
From my own perspective as a pleep carpenter, who's in school for sustainability and architecture, I've never taken a flu shot, and haven't ever gotten sick from the flu.
It wasn't until this week that someone that I even "know", and from a very tangential perspective, has acquired covid.
I think that even at best estimates of 2% mortality are inflated.
Much conflation/ misappropriation to cause of death is also inflating the numbers....anecdotal but true example; last year a coworker's aged uncle who had been struggling with cancer/emphysema, was in hospice, caught covid while dying already, cause of death listed as covid.
Too clever by half??
I spent a life in academia and insults were just standard blowback. But at least I was (unexpectedly) designated emeritus professor status when I retired. And, even better, one of my students that last year told me that I had inspired him to go to graduate school to become a particle physicist. He runs with the big dogs now.
So, I am ahead of the game by some measures, I suppose.
Carpenter going to school for sustainability and architecture, awesome. My grandfather was a master carpenter. He even built sets in hollywood for a time. I learned tool making from him many moons ago. I am too far along now, but several years ago I bought some land with the idea of building a place as an homage to Frank Lloyd Wright.