Cold Light and Sight

I'm not the greatest poet in the world but I still like to play around with it from time to time. Poetry is a long lost art for many. Yet it contains within it a story and symbolism that people have to decipher from their own perspective. 

Poetry also gives us an opportunity to connect our senses with words in a way that creates a rhythm to embed and store information. When we engage our sense we also can store and in turn retrieve information using multiple path ways. 

To me, poetry is a way to share information through symbolism and tell a unique story. 

The other day we received 7 inches of snow. Delta County offers recreational activities like snow shoeing and skiing. When we get this great powder you just want to get out there and do something (hence snow shoeing today). 

Coldness creeps the night, 

Pushed back by the light,

Blindness yields to sight. 😅😏

January 2021 Job Numbers: Economy in Transition

The Bureau and Labor Statistics released their job report for January 2021. It still seems like we are in a transition period. Some sectors of our economy like leisure and hospitality are taking a hit while others in professional and business services rose indicated a level of change in labor allocation. We are an adaptive species and when the playground fundamentals change, companies will adjust their strategies to maximize their investments (That impacts the jobs available). 

I had hoped our economy would have recovered in terms of GDP by start of 2021 (We were like 3.4% down) and then see the first few quarters of 2021 really start to show an economy coming out of its crisis transition. Perhaps a few year after that we can have a growth spirt as corporate investments and strategies learning during the pandemic take root. 

I watch mostly out of curiosity and see if there is a digital transformation brewing under the surface. This would be reflected in the job reports and other economic indicators but would have to be tracked over time to determine shifts (Our government tracks this kind of stuff) so they can make decisions for policy purposes. 

 The BLS lists the following....

"The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3 percent in January, while nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+49,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The labor market continued to reflect the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. In January, notable job gains in professional and business services and in both public and private education were offset by losses in leisure and hospitality, in retail trade, in health care, and in transportation and warehousing." HERE.

murad abel

"Better than You" Bigotry and Implicit Social Learning

People learn from each other. It happens in the classroom and it happens on the playground. We don't stop learning when we get older. Bowling alleys, bars, sports clubs, politics, sailing, etc... all become part of our social networks. These are not passive activities but ones we find joy in attending and being engaged in. Healthy groups are open but those that take on a "better than you" mentality increase the risks for hate and exclusion. 

People believe all types of things and there is a natural propensity for people to believe they can beat the odds or that the powers of the universe are in their favor. If we didn't have a positive outlook on life we would would struggle with negative affectivity and its ill effects. But.....

Sometimes groups create a "better than you" mentality in which they compare themselves to others as a way defining their own identity. Its fairly common in society to feel that one and their friends are toward the center of life and experience.

The problem is when such inclusive and exclusive beliefs begin to dictate social affairs and encourage aggressive behavior. "Better than you!" turned into "You have no rights!" and "We don't want your type of people around here!".

A study that looked at the better-than-average effect and bias found that those who help themselves in higher regard than others were also very defensive when pointing out bias and racism (Its interesting because humbleness is a virtue that leads to better decision making).

In the British Journal of Social Psychology a study, 'Not your average bigot: The better‐than‐average effect and defensive responding to Implicit Association Test feedback' studied two different groups (Howell & Ratliff, 2017):

Group/Study 1: examined this prediction using archival analysis of two large, online samples of participants completing a Weight‐related Implicit Association Test (IAT

Group/Study 2: replicated Study 1 using nine different, randomly assigned IATs and additional measures of defensiveness.

The researchers found that those who believe they were better-than-average were more defensive when given feedback indicating they were engaged in biased behaviors. In many cases this was related to defensiveness most, if not all of the time, when people held these "better than you" beliefs.

Why is it important?

Hate behavior starts in the distorted beliefs that one is better than another that leads to the discounting of other's rights. The people who feel they are more entitled and better than those around also were more defensive about their bigotry. For example, if a group who learned distorted of their importance (i.e. sports group) in childhood that created a culture of exclusivity they in turn were more defensive about their racist/bigoted behavior.

We know something isn't right when individuals have a sense of entitlement and in turn force their distorted beliefs on others. It would be one thing if they kept those beliefs to themselves but it is something else when they spread those beliefs to their friends, community and children. Instead of learning respect for our most cherished American values and sense of fair play they have implicitly passed destructive values to others seeking social cues on how to act and behave toward people who do not choose to live by the same false distorted values. 

Howell, J. & Ratliff, K. (March 2017). Not your average bigot: The better‐than‐average effect and defensive responding to Implicit Association Test feedback. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56 (1). https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjso.12168

Piers Gorge During the Winter Months

 Piers Gorge is near Iron Mountain and approximately 50 minutes from Escanaba. Known as a tourism destination these are some of the places you can visit and get back in time for supper. 

White House Foreign Policy Address (February 4th, 2021)

What is the Space Force?

The airways are a buzz of what the Space Force is and what its intended purpose. Technology has risen to the point that space truly is the new frontier. The U.S. still has a leading edge (for now) in this new era of exploration but we won't for long unless we maximize these advantages (for the space industry in general). We know that space will help us to explore new planets (From a distance there appears to be some with similar atmospheres. We can't yet get there to check them out), find new materials, improve our communications, and maintain military supremacy. 

Things are different than they were during the first World Wars. We moving into a super advanced technological mix with whole new opportunities to integrate emerging science to do things that just a few decades ago would have been science fiction. This branch will be focused on doing robotic, AI and cutting edge activities not yet accomplished (lab to field). 

The Space Force was implemented by the Trump Administration and will likely be populated by the Biden Administration. There a number of new launch sites for commercial, science, and military purposes in the U.P. You can read about in on Mlive HERE.

We may also find that the skills needed by officers in this field will be very much different than that of the past. "Game Changer" Officer Skills and Information Rich Military Environments.

The description offered on the Space Force website (HERE): 

"The U.S. Space Force (USSF) is the newest branch of the Armed Forces, established December 20, 2019 with enactment of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The USSF was established within the Department of the Air Force, meaning the Secretary of the Air Force has overall responsibility for the USSF, under the guidance and direction of the Secretary of Defense. Additionally, a four-star general known as the Chief of Space Operations (CSO) serves as the senior military member of the USSF and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." 

They also have a mission (HERE):

"The USSF is a military service that organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force. USSF responsibilities include developing Guardians, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power, and organizing space forces to present to our Combatant Commands (2)."

If your interested in regular updates you may sign up HERE. 

Security Analysis Indicates National Risks from Misinformation-Our Best Defense is "Truth"

National security may rely on the ability of our leaders to tell the truth🙊. It's normal for politicians to disagree about an event and/or provide different solutions to the same problem. Yet they must be truthful to regain institutional trust and center ground for constructive national dialogue. A Homeland Threat Assessment by Homeland Security highlights how foreign actors/agents are capitalizing on false information to radicalize American sentiment. 

Social media has a lot of power and has been known to do good and bad. The Net can spread information quickly (whether truthful or not) to people that are actively seeking explanations for perplexing problems. The loudest voices shouldn't define our beliefs.

Truth usually trumps falsehood as people use their good sense to to navigate the many competing viewpoints. If our politicians focus on the truth, even if not popular, they can help Americans understand problems to better find appropriate pathways to overcome those problems. Lying and manipulation lead to inappropriate understandings and solutions. 

As foreign elements seek to utilize media to skew public opinion, encourage civil unrest, and undermine democracy we should ponder how our leaders have contributed to this situation (Democrat and Republican).  Politics does best when closer to its rational middle. Giving people tools to differentiate truth from falsehood starts with the leaders staying close to the facts.

Our leaders have the right to debate, to believe as they see fit, and to influence the public. However, they must do so in a spirt of truth as there are large swaths of society that unquestionably pick up that information as "truth" without critical examination. Leaders that seek to rise to power should consider the long-term impact of spreading misinformation. 

Lies also create a heavy cognitive load for people and they must often continue to lie and spend more resources on those lies. We don't need our leaders thinking of new ways holding a lie when they should have the integrity to simply speak the truth as they believe.  Its more effective, takes less time, and allows people to share in the solutions. Here is a pretty good resource on lie detection from a more scientific perspective HERE. 

Good moral conscious seems to have a place in politics and national defense. Focusing on our core American principles seems to be one method of overcoming international gas lighting.

You may read the Homeland Threat Assessment (Dec. 20, 2020).