DeSantis Vetoes All Art Grants in Florida & Climate Change Deniers are Killing Us
Why I Hate Presidential Debates, How Heat Affects Our Bodies, Airline Kicks 8 Black People Off Flight for "Odor," Should Leaf Blowers Be Banned, Yul Brynner Sings “A Puzzlement” from "The King and I"
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Today’s quote is an anti-quote, meaning it’s something people say that is actually the opposite of what they mean.
Why I Hate Presidential Debates: A lot of sound and fury—signifying nothing.
DeSantis Vetoes All Arts Grants in Florida: This is a serious symptom of a wannabe despot.
Billions of people just felt the deadly intensity of climate-fueled heat waves: We are dying from the heat and it’s resulting in droughts, famine, and more.
How does heat kill? It confuses your brain. It shuts down your organs. It overworks your heart: A quick primer on taking care of yourself in the heat.
Kareem’s Video Break: This made me happy for the rest of the day.
US airline suspends staff after black men kicked off flight: Eight Black people were perp-walked from the plane because a flight attendant didn’t like the way one of them smelled.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: U.S. bans on gasoline-powered leaf blowers grow, as does blowback from landscaping industry: Leaf blowers are like mosquitoes swarming a picnic.
Yul Brynner Sings “A Puzzlement” from The King and I: This puzzlement is how I feel almost every day of my life.
Kareem’s Daily [Anti]Quote
I’m doing something a little different today. Instead of an inspirational quote to goose you through the day, I’m presenting another in my occasional series of anti-quotes. These are common phrases people say that often mean the opposite of what they intend.
Everything happens for a reason.
Anonymous (thankfully)
People love saying this as a balm whenever something bad happens. Their hearts are in the right place because they want to make someone who is hurting feel better. They don’t understand that what they are saying has the opposite effect—if you think about the words.
The implication that “everything happens for a reason” is that there is a supreme consciousness—a god or gods—who has designed all events toward some grand purpose known only to them. The further implication is that the grand purpose is good for us as a whole, even if it’s bad for us individually. This is the answer to the one question that is the foundation of human morality: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Grand design attempts to make us feel good without questioning whether we really are “good people.”
Of course, the whole idea of a grand design removes free will from the equation. Despite the mental and verbal contortions over the centuries of those who want both free will and a grand design, no can do. This leaves us expected to endure horrible events and pain with a resigned shrug because we’re pawns in a greater game. For me, again, no can do.
But this phrase can have other meanings that make more sense. It could mean that everything that happens is an opportunity for growth. Something bad happens to us and we examine why it happened and if there’s something we could do differently next time to prevent such an occurrence. Even if we can’t, we can learn how to cope with disaster and disappointment so we are less vulnerable the next time. We can become stronger from pain. More importantly, we can be inspired to help others better endure their pain.
It could also mean that everything has a cause-and-effect reason for happening. A nail is embedded in the wood because a hammer repeatedly hit it. Or people who were abused as children are more likely to abuse their children. When we understand the causes, we can better control the effects. That’s what philosophy, religion, and therapy are for.
While the second and third meanings make sense to me, the first meaning does not. It’s better to accept that sometimes terrible things happen and they are in themselves meaningless and without comprehensible reason. There is no one to blame—even though it makes us feel better to assign blame to everything. That makes us feel powerless and insignificant, but I’m okay with acknowledging my powerlessness and insignificance in the scope of the universe so I can focus on what I do have power over and the people to whom I hold some significance.
To feel significant, I don’t need to see everything that happens to me as part of a grand, unknowable design. I just need to do good things that matter to others.
If you want to be big, think small.
Why I Hate Presidential Debates
A presidential debate can gather 80 million or more watchers. That is sad news. Nothing of substance ever happens during a debate. Candidates bluster, insult, throw around dubious statistics, virtue signal, and even outright lie. But nothing new is learned at a debate that should influence a voter one way or the other. The important information is already out there: what have they done, what plans have they made to solve our problems and what do the experts say about the viability of those plans? Both men have been president and their records are all the evidence required. Anyone who makes up their mind about a candidate based on debates is the worst kind of voter: delusional that they have some special power to see into a person’s heart just by watching them on a stage. It’s lazy, insulting to democracy, and detrimental to the country.
In general, those who support a candidate always believe their candidate “won” the debate. But it doesn’t matter either way. The person who wins the debate isn’t necessarily a better candidate for president, they’re just better at debates, which is not a skill necessary to be a good president. It reminds me of Black Panther when M’Baku challenges T’Challa to be the leader of their country. What people would choose their leader based on hand-to-hand combat, the most useless skill for a modern leader? Fun in a movie, but dumb in real life.
What does it say about us as a society that we insist on this form of ritualized verbal combat that is nothing more than strutting and fretting their hour on the stage filled with sound and fury—signifying nothing?
If you watched just for the entertainment value of two codgers arguing in Real Housewives style, then that’s legit. Grab the popcorn and enjoy. If you’re watching to help make up your mind about which candidate to support, you don’t understand the responsibilities of democracy.