A Civilized People

[Above photo: Another rocket’s display. ]

10 July 2022

The following ad on NPR holds intriguing possibilities.

“C3AI. Allowing companies to solve previously unsolved problems through Artificial Intelligence at enterprise scale. C3AI.”

Why should the problems be limited to those of companies? How about marital discord? Chronic eczema or hemorrhoids?  Should I buy an electric vehicle? Do maroon socks go with a yellow tie? (No!) Territorial disputes—-did Russia try C3AI before invading Ukraine? (I doubt it, somehow.)  Is French language and culture truly superior to all others? All leading to the overwhelming question (Not J. Alfred Prufrock’s)—-Does God exist? If so, is he white? Perhaps variably hued, like an octopus or chameleon. Is he, a he? Does s/he speak and understand ALL spoken languages? Will s/he seriously attend to the plaintive performative piety of a high school football coach summoning his team to prayer on the 50 yard line after each game?

If C3AI can provide useful answers to these dilemmas, sign me up!

I was walking with a friend at the Audubon Gilsland Farm today when it struck me why so many of us privileged people find it difficult to think in detail about the problems of the world. There we were, strolling through lovely peaceful meadows and leafy woods, hearing birdsong, feeling the soft warm breeze, and experiencing no sense of immediate worry. And yesterday, as I sailed with a friend through the islands of Casco Bay and we came unpleasantly close to ramming into a sunken ledge, it was through our own negligence, not because we were hungry, hunted, or fleeing in terror. When I returned home I realized I hadn’t even remembered to lock the front door.

The thoughts of my affluence, security, leisure, pleasure, and comfort contrast dramatically with the dire circumstances of hunger, thirst, poverty, deception, and threat from which many, if not the majority, of the world’s inhabitants suffer.  The desire for a good education, which is obtainable by most here, is burning yet unrequited for the majority of youth in the developing world.  For those of us in the developed world who have lived in the period following World War 2 to the present, our security, mobility, and prosperity are anomalies in the history of the world, although we accept the same as “normal”.

To think of most of the world, the “Have-nots”, in the midst of my Plentitude sets up a cognitive dissonance for me. Even if I give some of my time and some of my money to help them, it doesn’t feel enough as long as I am regularly enjoying what they don’t have. It makes me and most people, I imagine, want to look away, to think abstractly about the issues, or to deny them altogether.

On another note, if a company is dysfunctional in the area of sexual harassment, it’s helpful to look to the leadership. If people have poor work habits and that is tolerated, look to the leadership. If a country devolves into hatred, armed hooliganism, racial supremacy, and serial dishonesty, look to the leadership.

Just as we are capable of such amazing creativity, as well as repeated acts of mercy, kindness, and generosity, humans are also obviously able to turn our destructive tendencies to terrible ends. Tigers kill to eat, to establish their status in their family group, and to defend their immediate territory, as do others in the various families of carnivorous predators.  Humans kill widely to express diffuse or specific anger, for philosophical differences, and to gain power, an abstract form of territorial supremacy and hierarchy, I guess. But given our endless capacity for destructive behaviors, why do we allow individuals to arm themselves with powerful weapons and to carry them among us? Furthermore, why are many satisfied with the explanation that this is an expression of Freedom?  And the statement that these semi-automatic people-killers are “sporting rifles”? Which sport is that? I get that the politicians are paid off by the gun manufacturers who are making a fortune. But I am puzzled that so many people, who are not getting donations or kick-backs, seem hypnotized by the rhetoric.  I’ve never held or fired an AR-15; perhaps it is exhilarating beyond comprehension, like an orgasm.

Portland remains a sweet, civil, and pretty town. There is a considerable number of homeless people. There will always be those who cannot fit in or support themselves or for whom it is a great struggle. We have to provide them with respectable food, clothing, shelter, and training, even as our society must help the other Vulnerables.  Even though it is difficult for some to accept the help, we must offer it if we are to call ourselves “Civilized”. Yet the protests from many people of means seem endless.  If not caring for the vulnerable among us, what, then, does “civilized” mean?  Good table manners?  Brushing your teeth? Writing “Thank you” notes? Not cursing?