“Well, perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency to prepare us for what lies ahead.” – Star Trek, TNG
Q: Why can’t dinosaurs clap? A: They’re all dead.
Once upon a time The Mrs. and I bought a piece of bare land to build a house on, and not a Lego® one like they make in California. The land was in a county that had (eye roll) rules about that sort of thing. In order to get a permit to build the house, we had to have our land approved as a subdivision. We did it the old fashioned way – we did it ourselves. We prepared the relevant paperwork, hired the surveyor, and worked with the county zoning staff to present it to the Zoning Commission. After discussing it at the meeting, and observing the property, the chairman of the commission stated:
“Mr. Wilder, the commission would like to reserve a 40’ foot strip of land along the north boundary to put in a road at some future point. In your zoning packet, we’re going to add that you will deed us this land at no cost if we ever decide to build said road.”
That was over an acre.
The Commission Chairman must have seen the expression on my face. I’ll admit it, I wasn’t pleased. I felt, based on my law degree of “reading the Constitution” that this was a clear violation. It was, I felt, a “taking” of my land with no compensation. Even though I didn’t say a word, and wasn’t wearing a Gadsden Flag t-shirt, I think he knew right where my head was.
Snek no lyke step.
“Now, Mr. Wilder, you understand that we as a Commission have a duty, a duty not only to those living here for today, but for those not living yet. Why, this subdivision will be recorded and be in force for the next thousand years.” I don’t recall the next sentence, because I really couldn’t believe what I had just heard.
The next thousand years? Was he taking the same kind of drugs that Bernie does?
The Mrs. and I finished our turn at the podium for the meeting. We left and went outside. The Mrs. beat me to the punch.
“The next thousand years? Was he serious??? What an idiot.” We actually still joke about it to this day. You would have been proud of her scoff when I read it to her tonight. It was perfect.
We had both focused on the same sentence. It was pompous. It was self-important. It was delusional. It was . . . complacent.
The idea that the governance, the structure, or even a culture that respected property rights would follow a continuous path for a thousand years was deluded. 1,000 years ago, the Danes ruled Norway and England as well as Denmark under King Cnut (yes, that’s spelled right) the Great. Ever hear of him? Well let me tell you if you misspell his name just one time in an e-mail to Karen, you’ll have to spend an hour explaining old English history to HR so you can prove you really meant that Karen was displaying the wisdom that old King Cnut was cnown for.
Yeah, just like Karen, the Commission Chairman was a Cnut.
That more or less proves my point. I doubt that the records of that subdivision named the “Free Autonomous Reserve Tract” will even exist in a thousand years. It could be that whatever emerges from the nearly certain Musk Cat Girls on Mars© Uprising of 2257 or the Amazon™ slave rebellion of 2856 against Bezosclone4651 don’t destroy the records, but don’t bet on it.
Elon apparently has a different version of Cat Scratch Fever.
Expecting a county commission’s decisions to be relevant 1,000 years into the future was an outrageous example, but it proves the point I’m trying to make. Often, we get so complacent in our day-to-day lives that we’re willing to believe incredible things that we normally would scoff at, like, oh, Joe Biden doesn’t have dementia. I mean, it’s normal to answer the question, “What is your vision for health care?” with “I remember when it was polite for a man to call a woman a ham-handed yellow-teethed hammer soaker before you made sweet love to them in the back of your tree fort, I mean if you had a dozen or more. Pinecones, right? Those were the days when you could rub my legs and watch the hair spring back up and the wood elves would play music for hours on their nose harp. Ever have a nose harp? We did, but you could call women broads then, because they liked to get you coffee, what with the skirts and pantyhose and all. Canada. And if you don’t like it, you can damn well vote for that Reagan fellow.”
One way I choose topics to write about is I want to look at a subject I know something about, and then dig deeper. My idea is that often one of the biggest dangers was well defined by Mark Twain: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
It’s a shame Twain never learned to write properly and not use “ain’t” – maybe if he had his career would have gone somewhere like mine has. Anyway, when I find a disconnect like Twain described, or new information that’s something that I like to write about.
But when I can find that same situation and tie it directly to a problem or situation in society today?
That’s perfect.
Okay, nearly perfect. It has to be interesting, too. The relative changes in the combustibility of dryer lint throughout the twentieth century might be not what you expected, but it’s probably not particularly interesting, unless you like to burn dryer lint as a hobby, which I hear is what Jeb Bush is into now, at least when it’s group craft time.
Okay, that’s actually “lightning and lightning bug.”
I really like learning new things, and I learned something new today: One thing I like writing about, and keep returning to as a nearly constant theme here is: complacency. It’s evident when I write about the economic system (Rome, Britain, and Money: Why You Can’t Find Fine China after the Apocalypse), or prepping (Be Prep-ared) or really nearly any topic I write about. And I try to live by my advice.
In my life, I try not to be complacent about:
- Relationships: Love is a voluntary choice. Being complacent about those around you is a good way to lose a relationship, and that can be expensive. But, for certain people, it’s worth it. (That’s an ex-wife joke.)
- Jobs: Jobs come and go, even within companies. I have seen entire departments disappear as technology made people irrelevant. Always be learning new skills, or at least be learning more about the “niece” of your boss.
- Value of Money: When I was a boy, Bernie Sanders would shine a shinbone for a nickel. Now? I think he wants to expand Medicare to do that.
- Economic Future: The stock market will always go up, right? Well, no. Sometimes
- Limits of Human Knowledge: Much of what is science is a fad, to be replaced by new science in a few years. Not so much with math. Mostly not with physics. Medicine? 75% of it is washing your hands and eating right. 20% is antibiotics. 5% is not step on snek. And Aesop will change all of these percentages if he gets this far.
Wilder, Wealthy and Wise is absolutely against complacency. I don’t like complacency. I like finding places where it has snuck into my life or I see it sneaking into the lives of others. I especially like sharing things that help people see complacency in their own lives, because then I don’t have to change anything about me.
That moment when I’ve written something, and I imagine that someone’s entire world view changed?
That moment is why I write, though some of you might say that for a writer, I’m a fairly competent typist. Regardless, that’s the enjoyment I get from this, besides the jokes and the bikinis. I want to create discomfort in me. And in you. And also be able to explain to The Mrs. why I spend so much time looking at bikini pictures.
“Research, dear. It’s for my readers.” Oh, the things I put myself through for you.
At least it’s not another Kardashian. But I think the dog has less hair.
Back to complacency. When it comes to life and health, how often do you step back and question your basic, underlying assumptions? If never, you should. How often are they wrong? If never, then you’re not testing them hard enough.
Assumptions change because circumstances change. A forty year old metabolism isn’t the same as a twenty year old metabolism. If you eat like you’re twenty when you’re forty and fifty, you’ll end up weighing 657 pounds and being buried in a piano box. I guess the good part about that is “all the Oreos®,” and being able to dress convincingly as Jabba the Hut® at Halloween, but the downside is attractive slave girls cost more than you think.
Assumptions change because knowledge changes – we were wrong. All of us. Sugar used to be great for you, it was a carbohydrate, and those were good. But fat? Fat was bad, as bad as John Travolta acting in a movie that requires his character to be able to use words of more than one syllable bad. Everyone knew that, and they were right. But only about Travolta. Companies even made fat-free cookies in special green packages so you could know that you were safe eating them. But in 2020, we know that’s insanity.
But I hear Darth Braider did her hair.
What circumstances have changed in your life that you need to account for? What will be changing?
As for knowledge, what does “everyone know” that’s wrong today? That’s tougher. I think that the news about sugar (for instance) started to show up in more than “fad” levels about the year 2000, a good 20 years after the war on fat in food began. Pay attention. And if something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
Complacency. Heck, I’ve made mistakes.
Probably enough for 1,000 years. Just ask Karen. She’s quite a Cnut.
Dangit. It’s HR again. FCUK©.
(FCUK™, of course is the British clothing brand “French Connection, UK®.”)
Silly.
