Reading,Writing and Critical Thought

            Have been reading a book by Maryanne Wolf, professor at Tufts University, titled   “Reader, Come Home- The Reading Brain in a Digital World” in which she analyzes the effects of new technology on the brain. Her fellow professors of literature and social science have noticed two trends at the college level:

            “The first is that students have become increasingly less patient with the time it takes to understand the syntactically demanding sentence structures in denser texts and increasingly adverse to the effort needed to go deeper into their analysis. The second is that student writing is deteriorating”

              Cursive writing is no longer taught in some states and only partially in others, which means that many people will not be able to read the American Declaration of Independence or Constitution as they were originally written. My thirty five years of cursive journals might be incomprehensible to my own granddaughter and other descendants. Maybe translation software will make cursive legible to future generations, just as Latin and other lost languages remain viable, but even when they can be read, intricate works of literature might be incomprehensible to future generations if the lack of attention span and critical analysis continues.           

            As a person who has spent many years walking and thinking in solitude, it is not difficult for me to discern the lack of critical analyisis in otherwise intelligent people. The proliferation of biased news sources and the manipulation of video and print to promote propaganda has made the immersion in self fulfilling ‘group think’ easier than ever. It is impossible to articulate the complexity of a subject in a ‘tweet’, but that seems to be the extent of some peoples critical thinking. If they limit their sources of information to others who think like them, they will never find the truth.

             Fortunately, there are always independent thinkers who challenge the culture. If the digital age lowers peoples ability to think deeply, then I suppose we cannot invent Artificial Intelligence soon enough for it to pick up the slack. I cautiously trust that humanity will adapt as needed to compensate.

  

Misc Babble...

                           This is an 84 year old patient's daily medications schedule. The person suffers from Dyspnea, diabetes, COPD, obesity, sleep apnea, coronary heart disease and was a smoker until 25 years ago. The paper medical records for this person measure 6 inches thick. This is just one of the 40-50% of people most responsible for the high cost of health care. You draw your own conclusions; mine have been articulated in earlier posts.
                            My thoughts on Mr. Trump 2 years on are as follows:
     A master at manipulation and self promotion who will do what it takes to accomplish his agenda regardless of moral or ethical considerations. For that reason he relates well to similar leaders in the world; they understand one another on a visceral level.  There are Trump supporters who believe the entire government is corrupt and that Mr. Trump at least is stirring the pot. His detractors believe he is destroying all civility for decades to come. Unfortunately, support for one side or the other has 'trumped' the search for Truth as an ethical scientist would describe it-with verifiable facts and repeatable experiments. As one recent example, Mr. Trumps rhetoric has stated that "If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat." In truth, Binky Chadha, chief strategist at Deutsche Bank, noted that the three-month period running from a month ahead to two months after the (midterm) election has produced a median 8% gain, (regardless of party affiliation of the winners and losers) And that includes only one decline, a 4% drop in 1978, over that period in the last 21 midterm elections.") Personally, I think Trumps most lasting legacy will be the supreme court nominees; they alone will survive several election cycles. The tax changes, EPA decisions and other policy commitments may or may not survive depending on the choices of voters in the future.
                         Overall, what happens in the back rooms affects the planet as much as what we argue about publicly; there is a big wheel rolling secretly that nothing is going to change.  Do I believe democracy will survive the present commotion? Yes. But the planet and humanity are bigger than democracy and human nature is very messy thing.
                                  
                                           

Humility

     Beth and I have been golfing a lot this year, and it is a wonderful opportunity to walk together and enjoy the day while also engaging in a sport that is relatively cheap.

As beginners we have experienced the frustrations of bad swings and other difficulties of the sport, and sometimes get disproportionately discouraged relative to what should be an enjoyable pastime. On Monday, Oct 1^st, while returning home from the Allentown area, we stopped at a new course to play nine holes and were humbled to see a man on the 3^rd green stumble from his golf cart onto the grass. From a distance his body movements resembled the stick like motions of a marionette figure whose elastic joints were unsupported by the puppeteer and he crumpled to the ground in a heap of human flesh. But that was normal for him and he dragged himself into a position sufficient to push a ball towards the hole with a club. With great effort he dragged himself back into the cart and sped off to the next green where he did it again. He allowed us to “play through” the fifth hole, and politely wished us well as he sat hunched over in his cart. We returned the pleasantries as we inwardly admonished ourselves for the petty troubles that sometimes bothered us.

    Golf is a combination of mental and physical abilities that challenge even the best players, and this humble man shamed both Beth and I with his determination to accomplish the most basic of tasks. We are improving due to help from friends (…thanks Bob) but hopefully we always will remember that it is just a game, and always be thankful for being alive, and outside, and healthy.