Overcoming Bias is a blog that is new to me but which I subscribed to right away. When I tell you that I have spent the last two weeks viciously slashing down my RSS subscription lists you will understand immediately how big an endorsement this is and what an idiot I have been when it comes to managing my time and attention.
We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. We feel an even deeper pleasure letting everyone know of this fact. This feeling is EVIL. Learn to see it in yourself, and then learn to be horrified by how thoroughly it can poison your mind. Yes evidence may at times force you to disagree with a majority, and your friends may have correlated exposure to that evidence, but take no pleasure when you and your associates disagree with others; that is the road to rationality ruin.
Michale Pollan tells stories about nature so that we can begin to FEEL the reality of science, rather than just “know”. It’s been 150 years since Darwin, he says, and we are still all Cartesians. “We still think it’s human vs nature.”
The most important point in the talk: We are just as sophisticated as rice, because WE HAVE BEEN EVOLVING FOR THE SAME LENGTH OF TIME (rice actually hare more genes than humans).
I’m one of those types of people who signs up for online survey panels. Sometimes it gets me free food, sometimes it gets me sneak previews of ads or a chance to critique bottle designs (not kidding). Tonight it got me a chance to see a survey written with a pretty clear intent in the questioning.
The survey opened with some questions about the kinds of things I liked to do in Toronto, moved into asking me how much I liked going to the ROM and asking me if I was interested in a seeing an exhibit on the dead seal scrolls that will be coming in 2009. Then we moved into pricing.
Right now, it costs $22 for an adult to go. It is a rare thing for a group of friends and I to get together and decide that we want to spend $22 each to walk around the museum. Bear in mind that I count among my friends a group who ran a monthly event called “science club” where people did presentations on science topics for each other. If there is a target market for the ROM it’s us and school busses.
The questions went like this:
Do you think $22 is good value for your money? (No)
What if we raised it to $25? (No)
How about if $25 got you to see the special exhibit as well? (No)
Running a museum is expensive, how about $25 now? (Still not coming to your museum)
Shouldn’t the government be paying for this?
At no point did they ask about lower prices or offer any of the usual variety of questions that I’ve seen that would indicate that they were trying to find the sweet spot that would maximize income.
If you see stories in the paper about how 75% of Canadians support increased government funding for museums, you’ll know why.
Finally, the effects of Prop 8 on the national movement for same-sex marriage are significant but not devastating. Before Tuesday, court opinions legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut suggested that the right was gaining traction. The passage today of constitutional bans on same-sex marriage not just in California but also in Arizona and Florida provides a counterpoint.
Nonetheless, generational and global trends both ultimately favor full marriage equality in this country. The situation here is similar to the two-steps-forward, one-step-back trajectory that led to the legalization of interracial marriage. To be sure, Prop 8 represents a large step back. But the nation’s march toward marriage equality won’t stop.
I agree with the last paragraph. The march of the history of western civilization is the march of recognizing more and more entities as human beings and broadening the rights granted to them. It’s a messy process, but I think that it’s inevitable.
In this sense, the social conservatives are right. It is a slippery slope. I just think that the slope is in the right direction.
Last night, partly out of excitement and partly as an experiment, I went on to the Obama home page, found the “contact us” section and sent in a congratulatory note.
I woke up to find this reply in my inbox:
Dear Tim
Thank you for contacting me, and for your kind words and support. I’m receiving thousands of messages right now from across the country and Americans around the world. I am honored and deeply humbled by the confidence the American people have placed in me and Senator Biden.
I am hopeful about the opportunities and clear-eyed about the challenges our nation faces. I look forward to working with all Americans, regardless of who they voted for, in the great project of American renewal. Enlisting the energy and ingenuity of the American people is the only way we will create the changes that so many people want to see, so Senator Biden and I hope you will remain active in your community and involved in national policy debates.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
—
A note from Obama for America: If you have questions, suggestions, or comments about the federal government, policy, or the coming Obama/Biden Administration, please stay tuned for more information and a new website coming soon that will tell you how to get involved.
If you’re contacting us because you’ve been energized by your participation in our grassroots movement, we want you to remain active in your community and involved in national policy debates. Please continue to visit www.BarackObama.com regularly. We’ve built one of the most comprehensive nationwide organizing networks in history, and our victory on November 4th is only the beginning of the work we will do together.
If you have other thoughts or business with the campaign, you can continue to reach us toll free at 866-675-2008. We appreciate hearing from you and hope you’ll continue to work with us as we build America’s future together.
———————–
Paid for by Obama for America
Pay special attention to the second half of the note. That’s how you do politics, that’s how you begin ensuring your re-election and hopefully, that’s how you get things done.
