THE FUTURE IS RUSHING UPON US

We're in for a wild ride. Exponentially accelerating technological, cultural, and socioeconomic evolution means that every year will see more developments than the previous one. More change will happen between now and 2050 than during all of humanity's past. Let's explore the 21st century and ride this historic wave of planetary transition with a confident open mind.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Less Educated People are Nicer

A move to thought in shades of gray from dualistic black and white thought may be more correct but decreases person's ability to be as nice as before



When reporters visit Tea Party protests, they often remark on just how warm, pleasant, and down to earth the individual protesters are. That is until the focus is switched to the two minutes of hate at hand (we've had plenty of good coverage concerning the sheer ugliness). Meanwhile, the college schooled urban dwellers seem incapable of showing strong emotional passion in either direction. What's the deal?

We've heard how less educated and religious states tend to be more charitable on per capita basis. This is not an article about that (for more on disentangling the dynamics of domestic humanitarian aid here). Neither is it about higher population densities creating dislike of fellow people or less emotional types perhaps being more likely to get higher education. Lets talk about averages.

Binary thinking is very clear cut and begins to be ingrained in childhood. The more one's inner mental universe is split into good and evil dynamic, the easier it is to go full throttle in one direction and against another. This is due to the simple reason of insufficient choices within the inner mental world when it comes to explanatory and descriptive constructs.

The more educated one becomes the more perceptive choices and shades of gray the mind has to work with. Instead of having intense biblical A and B, the person can now choose E or F as perceptions of reality and corresponding action (be it intellectual or emotional). A and B are not only used less but may now be increasingly seen as undesirable to be used at all (due to their intensity and exaggeration to the point of being incorrect).

This is an obvious observation but this dynamic may cause serious problems for society. If A is absolute good and B is absolute evil (as is often the case in many countries), then reluctance of an educated mind to see something in black and white can create paralysis when it comes to effective political action. In the face of a real tangible enemy, threat, or grave injustice, the highly educated populace may resort to halfhearted measures, compromises, and insufficiently intense emotional communication.

A less educated person on the other hand will be compelled to self righteous thoughts and deeds which can result in rapid positive and humanitarian breakthroughs for society. The negative flipside of this is self explanatory and we see it within certain crypto-fascist factions of the Tea Party movement. Like a childlike Lennie from Mice and Men, a rigidly dualistic person is capable of incredible niceness as well as hideous viciousness. The more educated one becomes the more neutered in demonstrating the outreaches of wholesome humanistic helpfulness.

Now if one's consciousness is expanded through education in societies that are

1) sparsely populated
2) ethnically collectivist and homogeneous (think Scandinavian countries) 
3) augmented by strong welfare supports on top of expanding economic pie

then the atrophying capacity for dualistic thought and action is neutralized.

This is not the case in large pluralistic Western societies today. Education can therefore not only stifle fullhearted activism but create contempt for those who do practice fullhearted activism.

I have written on the need for Tea Party and Progressive movements to join forces against the financial oligarchy. Educated urban dwellers need to get over their distaste and contempt of dualistic rural Tea Party expressions. They need to attempt to redirect factions within TP towards doing things they themselves don't have the heart for. Many in the TP will be loyal allies once the corporately funded blinders are taken off their faces. Black and white thinking can be a useful tool when applied properly.

Stumble Upon Toolbar

Top 10 Jobs of the Future

As the Western world is seemingly headed into a deepening neofeudalism, the question once again turns to what jobs will be on the rise in the next 2 decades. We've consulted our experts in sociological and economic trends and came up with the optimal list of job satisfaction and bang for your college investment buck.

1) Personal Transport Professional













Assist visiting Chinese businessmen to move around in style and get in shape at the same time! Give tours, have fun conversations, and even have a chance to learn about how non-Western nobility lives.

Required: 4 year college degree with double major in public relations and athletics (parents, send your kids to endurance runners camps early so they get enough awards to compliment the grades needed to get into college). Knowledge of Mandarin and other languages recommended.

2) Organic Farming Technician (OFT)












Become a freelance serf who is not bound to the land like your peers. Enjoy fresh food and air daily as you help pay for your sins against Mother Earth, Queen of Queens.

Required: Masters in agriculture with additional year for local certification in soil management. Monthly dues to area's farming guilds vary by region.

3) Entertainment and Media Professional ("Court Jester")



















Being a celebrity star is easier than ever. You too can be famous in your regional fiefdom. Whether performing at a birthday party for the son of a local baron or delighting the hearts of weary OFTs after a harvest, endless job satisfaction is to be had uplifting the spirits of nobles and serfs alike.

Required: Bachelors in media communications and athletics to be Court Jester's assistant. After unpaid internship as right hand man for a year, another 4 years in graduate school for a public relations degree. Must be good looking and possess good cheer.

4) Colonial Military Peacekeeping Officer

















Help protect freedom at home by promoting Green Democracy in liberated regions. Do your state duke and Mother Earth proud by performing bravely and professionally in rural/urban pacification. Have the power of a small time lord yourself by calling in airstrikes and settling disputes among tribal factions.

Required: ROTC and minimum of 4 year military commitment followed by police officer training. Public relations degree and knowledge of multiple languages is a big plus.

5) Footwear Technician


















FTs have always been essential to our society but in recent years more so than ever due to increasingly exotic hides found in the footwear of the nobles and visiting tourists. Knowledge of shining methods for specific leathers (acquired from strange animals on remote personal hunting grounds) gives one a confident sense of purpose.

Required: Double major bachelors in animal biology and public relations as well as a 3 month apprenticeship in a local FT guild.


6) Harem Upkeep Assistant



















Live in a futuristic gated castle and eat the same healthy exotic food that your lord eats! Socialize with dozens of other harem brides as you work on joint projects of manor improvement and personal assistance. This highly sought after position is also an opportunity to be selected for delegated uterus renting to produce future nobles. Generous retirement packages.

Required: 2 year intensive training course in psychology and communication and at least 95% score on the HAT (Harem Assistant Test). Internships before dowry negotiation may be asked for.

7) Freelance Strike Manager















Help protect your community and the assets of the local baron through strike removal. Utilize the latest in tazer, chemical, and baton methodology to extract the troublesome progressive/communist/socialist/terrorist agitators from the ranks of normal serfs. Have the satisfaction of getting our remaining factories moving again! Flexible schedules and wide range of personal freedom in handling of diverse situations.

Required: Must be a loyal member of the local ruling party for at least 4 years. Former colonial military peacekeeper service and past criminal convictions for battery are recommended.

8) Manor Executive Manager ("Butler" in the peasant vernacular)



















The most prestigious job on this list is of course the MEM. Stimulate your mind through being the right hand man of your lord. Live in a castle, oversee harem disputes, negotiate with local serf overseers, arrange festivities, and meet a lot of interesting people while holding their drinks.

Required: PhD in organizational psychology and bachelors in public relations. Former work in the academia, knowledge of high culture, grasp on 2+ languages, and non-peasant background is a must.

9) Debt Prison Security Manager



















Help prevent strategic defaults on debt and guard runaway serfs as they are given work to redeem their sins. Enjoy unparalleled job security, improved credit score, and better interest rates for keeping democratic capitalism running.

Required: Bachelors in finance and a degree from a police academy. Martial arts skills are a plus. Must have good credit rating standing.

10) E.S. Counselor (Environmental and Spiritual)



















Help provide spiritual and practical advice to troubled souls. Nothing brings more joy than providing people with textbook approved scientifically backed meaning. This position involves improving the living habits of serfs through explaining the dangers of environmentally damaging material possessions, the value of honest hard toil, and how to secure loans for tools necessary to maintain your solar hut and plot of land.

Required: Masters in psychology and geology followed by 4 years of practicum on various serf reservations. Must be charming, have good grasp of peasant vernacular and luddite theory.

But how will I pay for all the schooling necessary?

Talk with your local E.S. Counselor about the various indentured technician programs available in your principality.

Stumble Upon Toolbar

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Myers Briggs Personality and Social Policy Formation

The first attempt at systematically utilizing most of the Myers-Briggs types in crafting policy that affects the whole human herd


The last article touched on the need to prevent certain predatory psychological types from having disproportionate influence on policy making. Now it is time to discuss how one would go about integrating the talents and opinions of diverse neural breeds of humans to obtain optimal consensus when advising on the rules of the game for any given society.

Lets say we want to have a psychologically diverse advisory council to help out the traditional branches of government. They are diverse to better represent our neurologically pluralistic society (where majority of personality types are dramatically underrepresented in key decision making bodies presently).

Lets say each type is represented by 5 acute and highly qualified (via some meritocratic test and previous experience) individuals of each MBTI type (minus the clinical psychopaths). This means dozens of individuals whose personality types are relatively specialized and single sided in their functioning (50+ on each letter).


Their hypothetical job is to formulate a policy in regards to some new social/technological phenomenon. How should their collaboration be structured?

Some would say that it's sufficient to put them
all into one large room and utilize normal negotiation as well as the delphi method and rounds of direct secret voting to reach agreement. However such arrangement would be the equivalent of various departments within a company merging together to help produce a final product. Lack of compartmentalization may sound lofty on paper but produces the ridiculous sheer chaos of diverse specializations (engineers, marketers, accountants, quality control specialists, etc) negotiating and debating each other simultaneously. Similarly, one cannot just lump all the key MBTI groups into a single space and have them encroach on each others talents without properly conceptualized mechanisms.

The task now is to compartmentalize our large group and create a sort of an advisory factory. The following is one such initial attempt but it comes from just one personality type (myself). Ultimately a diverse MBTI group can formulate on how it should function in a more systemic manner.

We begin by putting the groups into 4 clusters:

1) One to formulate the goals, principles, and broad outline of policy with corresponding moral justification. The group's brains are right hemispheric and intuitive.
[conceptual / theoretic / moral]

2) One to formulate innovative and broad practical implementation of the outlined goals utilizing the latest in research. The group's brains are left hemispheric and intuitive.
[organizational / practical / pragmatic]

3) One to to test the plan for loopholes, patch up sections to better fit with day to day reality, and to provide broad guidelines on effective enforcement. The group's brains are detail oriented and left hemispheric.
[quality controlling / non-abstract / technical]

4) One to market and communicate the plan effectively to greatest amount of people (both policy makers and general public) through various mediums. The groups brains are right hemispheric and detail oriented.
[communicative / artistic / affective]

This may seem like reinvention of the wheel to those familiar with the Hindu varna system of psychological castes. It differs greatly however through hemispheric compartmentalization within the brain. Therefore unlike the Hindu insistence on some sort of rare idealized warrior/philosopher/manager on the top, it's much easier to achieve the same effect from compartmentalized group work.

In essence it would go like this (refer to the previous article on psychopathy for the reason to balance decision making during each step of the way with emotional empathic individuals):

1) Goal making cluster

5 INFPs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 INTPs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ENFPs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ENTPs reach consensus amongst themselves

Then > Secondary consensus is reached amongst NFPs and amongst NTPs >
Then > Final consensus is reached between all NPs.

2) Organizational Implementation Cluster

5 INFJs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 INTJs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ENFJs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ENTJs reach consensus amongst themselves

Then > Secondary consensus is reached amongst NFJs and amongst NTJs >
Then > Final consensus is reached between all NJs.

3) Quality Control Cluster

5 ISFJs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ESFJs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ISTJs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ESTJs reach consensus amongst themselves

Then > Secondary consensus is reached amongst SFJs and amongst STJs >
Then > Final consensus is reached between all SJs.

4) Marketing Communicative Cluster

5 ISFPs reach consensus amongst themselves
5 ESFPs reach consensus amongst themselves

Then > Final consensus is reached between all SPs.

What about STPs!?

Not to worry. I'm not excluding STPs or not considering them very useful. They are very capable in regards to mechanical problem solving, detail intensive visual collaborative work, and hands on improvisation. It is very possible that they can be integrated into both the third and fourth cluster and have a vital function there. Also, they probably can have key roles in advising councils which focus more on things like civil engineering, ergonomics, and various technologies.

Of course the 4 clusters do not exist in a vacuum and some two way communication between them is essential for integrity of the finished product. This is just the first attempt at utilizing most of the breeds within the human herd in crafting policy that affects the whole herd. It is only fair.




























Stumble Upon Toolbar