Strolling through
a model home
that look like something
only heavens can hold
mind slowly descended
into a trance like state.
Perched on my shoulder, a broker sat
who whispered softly
this home is a cream puff
a diamond in the rough,
a similar opportunity
may never come.
But before I can act
and write the check,
there was a thunderclap,
rain drops fell
and the fever broke.
I am now back
in my musty home
but $500K sitting intact
if the safety of a bank.
It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change. Leon C. Megginson
There are many parallels between politics and evolution. To understand equivalence, first a brief introduction to evolution.
Evolution is a change in the characteristics of living things over time. It’s the process through which populations and species change with time. It is a process that led to longer necks for giraffes over time.
The driving mechanism behind evolution is natural selection. It is the process where organisms with traits that favor survival and reproduction tend to leave more offspring than their peers, causing these advantageous traits to increase in frequency over generations. The mechanism of natural selection is an elegant concept and has a far-reaching explanatory (and predictive) power. Its sweep is so wide that it may sound like a triviality in that if something does not exist then it must not have the advantageous trait to fit the environment.
Passing along of the advantageous traits to a larger pool of offsprings leads to the evolution of different species, a process known as speciation (the process by which populations evolve to become distinct species).
To summarize, natural selection resulting in evolution of species is like a game played in an arena where different species, and sub-species within a species, are vying for a limited amount of resources and the ones that have the right traits to garner the available resources are best suited to survive and reproduce. As a result, such traits become slowly speciated and a new species evolves.
One such advantageous trait is discounting the future (also known as temporal discounting). It is the tendency of humans and animals to value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards.
Take two species in the arena that has limited resources to offer. One species is short sighted and focuses on immediate gains while the other is a planner and tries to anticipate the future and plans for that. The mechanism of natural selection favors the first because the future is uncertain, and what one prepares may not occur.
Now let us return to another game played in the arena, i.e., politics.
In the game of politics
· limited resources are the limited voting pool that different politicians are fighting for.
· advantageous traits are winning strategies that garner those votes.
· Lastly, equivalent to survival and reproduction is getting elected.
Strategies that succeed in cornering larger fraction of voting pool help in getting elected (and reelected). The advantageous strategies might also become speciated among the other, or in the next generation of politicians. For example, Trump using unique brand of politics, if continues to be successful, may become a widely followed strategy.
Extending this parallel between the game of evolution and politics is also the notion of discounting the future.
Similar to the fact that discounting the future is an advantageous trait for natural selection and evolution, it is also an advantageous strategy in the game of politics. In politics it is not advisable to appeal to the voters for the good of humanity 50 years from the present and hope to win. The advantageous strategies for winning the vote, by discounting the future, focus on the present good for the voting pool. [Note — it is only when the voting pool itself has the betterment of generation to come in their psyche that politicians will think about not discounting the future]
The consequence of discounting the future in politics, however, can be devastating. Living in the present, however, we do not realize how.
The consequences include runaway climate change because appealing to the good of the future at the expense of the current populace is not a winning strategy. The social security trust fund in the United States may be declining and may be only 10-years away from running short of pay off, and yet, since the solution for the future population may involve a sacrifice from the current generation, no politician wants to propose a solution on their watch.
And yet, while discounting the future, we keep debating about trivialities like abortion rights, legalizing pot etc. and keep going in circles. It is hard to realize that discounting the future may bring us to a dystopian future where current debate and conflicts would not even matter.
And so, although the game of politics and evolution have lots of parallels, discounting the future in the game of politics is a terrible strategy for the future of humanity.
Ciao.
How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? Charles de Gaulle
I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University — William F. Buckley, Jr.
16 February 2024, the headline in the local newspaper says, “The House has embarked on a 12-day winter recess, joining the Senate’s two-week recess and leaving a long list of critical unfinished business on Capitol Hill”. All we can do is roll my eyes and say Really, WTF?
The Congress is going on a recess when the US government does not have an approved budget to function, and it is almost three months into the budget year. For now, it is only authorized to spend a limited amount of money to meet its obligations and the current authorization for some government agencies to stay open will run out on 1 March 2024, which is just two days after the Congress returns from their winter recess. Immediately after they come back, to keep the government functioning, there would be a flurry of finger pointing, negotiations, extorting etc. to pass another temporary authorization.
Instead of going to the recess, members of the Congress should all be tied to their chairs and not allowed to leave the chambers until they have completed their primary job of passing the budget before the fiscal year begins. Their lack of responsibility barely registers in the psyche of the nation.
The Congress does not have the time to pass the budget and yet has time to spend on frivolous activities like engaging in the impeachment of a Cabinet Secretary or harboring dreams of impeaching Joe Biden, all for the sake of petty tit for tat. Sometimes, it seems like we have elected a bunch of toddlers to the Congress and each one is engaged in some random act of nonsensical behavior hoping that when all is summed together would make some progress.
If we were not to do our job, the Congress would take the high road and preach to us on our responsibility, our moral duty, and incompetence. At a more basic level, if we were not to do our job, we would be shown to the door by our employer and told not to return. Of course, someone would raise their hand and point out that if members of the Congress are incompetent they could be voted out. The election process, however, is so rigged, or the voters so complacent that the norms of democracy no longer work.
Perhaps it is the case that we get what we deserve. If the world goes up in flames, humans as a species become extinct, or return to dark ages depicted so often in dystopian movies, it is what our collective ignorance asked for.
One has to wonder why the US Congress is so dysfunctional? Was it always like this? Why do the opposite sides of the Congress have to disagree on every proposal? If one says it is day then even if it is bright outside, the other has to insist that no, it is night. They must feel a moral obligation to do so. Is the electorate they represent so different from each other? One wants basic health care, and the other does not. One wants basic human dignity, but the other does not. Do basic human needs across the blue and red states differ that their elected members shall oppose each other?
In the end, the fundamental goal of the members of the Congress is to get reelected and perhaps making the legislative branch so dysfunctional helps them win the election. Perhaps they go back to their electorate and brag that I worked my ass off to make sure that no decisions are made and deserve to be elected again.
There should be a clause in the job description of the members that if they do not pass the budget before the start of the fiscal year, they will be fired from the position they hold and will not be allowed to seek reelection.
The way things currently stand, in the front of Congress there ought to be a plaque that carries the inscription “We bicker, therefore we are.”
Hope you can tell that I am frustrated (and venting) at Congress to go on the recess while Rome burns, and so should you be. It is frustration of the feeling of impotent that there is nothing the eight billion people on this planet can do against the likes of Trump and Putin.
The world is going downhill, and the caretakers of our government have the gall to say, “Sorry, Gone Fishing.”
Ciao.
Also worth browsing:
Congress has long struggled to pass spending bills on time
The Congressional Fundraising Treadmill, July-September 2021
In the cosmos of increasing entropy
that my Inbox is,
A supernova bursts forth,
"My Impending Retirement,”
says the subject line,
of an email
from yet another colleague,
who weary of the dance,
and lengthening varicose veins,
is ready to step
off the stage.
Months from now,
close to the date of exit,
I will drop an email,
"Enjoy the next phase
after a successful career,
and stay in touch,
if you can."
And yet, I know
these words are perfunctory.
Our world lines, once entwined,
now being sucked in
by the gravity of life's
next big surprise
will no longer cross.