Young people uninterested in politics?

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The BBC ran an article on research conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. The results showed that less than a third of young people express any interest in politics. It found only 31% of 16 to 24-year-olds were fairly or very interested in the subject, compared with about half of those aged 55 and over. Almost two-thirds of adults of all ages thought they would be seriously neglecting their duty if they failed to vote.

Of those in the youngest group – aged 16 to 24 – 42.4% stated that they had no interest in politics. This fell to 21% for over-65s. This research suggests that the younger electorate are becoming increasingly disengaged with the democratic system – but it also suggested they were more likely to express themselves politically in other ways, such as boycotting environmentally unfriendly issues. Only 44% took part in the 2010 general election.

Will Brett, head of media at the Electoral Reform Society, said that many young people were becoming involved in politics in more informal ways, such as social media campaigns, but he added: “We need to find ways of getting them more interested in our system of representative democracy. It’s extremely precious.”

What we are not getting in politics, either in the UK or the US, are altruistic people who genuinely want to serve their country and do their best for it. I do bellieve that most British MPs in the 19th Century believed in public service (which might have been due to the generalised fact that they were well-heeled in the first place and didn’t need to use Parliament as a later stepping stone) As a result you saw the greatest number of social reforms in history, and Parliament was deeply respected. Now, to many serve their time and hurry off to get lucrative jobs elsewhere. No wonder many voters despise them.

The importance of pre-school teaching

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According to a study from the University of California, Berkeley, the US economy values pre-school teachers at between $8.63 and $20.99 per hour. This contrasts with, for instance, a minimum wage for fast food workers of $15 an hour in New York state, a figure that took 3 years to campaign for. Pre-school teachers have to keep the peace among children at various stages of development and need, provide meals, wipe noses and teach basic math and reading that will get the kids ready for school.

Pay for teachers of little children varies geographically, as you might expect — from an average of $8.63 in West Virginia to $12.47 in Massachusetts. But in general Kindergarten teachers earn far more than teachers of 3 or 4 year olds, even though there’s mounting evidence that the social, emotional and cognitive benefits of high-quality programs for the very young can last a lifetime. That means better trained teachers could make a huge difference in the lives of infants and toddlers.

“There’s a disconnect between our 21st century knowledge about early childhood teaching and these 20th century wages,” says Deborah Phillips, a professor at Georgetown University. “We desperately need educated young people to be working with young children, but they look at this job and say, ‘It’s a pathway to poverty. I can’t pay my student loans if I do this.” She went on to say: “The caliber of teachers is tied to their wages. Better-paid teachers and caregivers have lower turnover, can afford more training, and, not incidentally, are less stressed and preoccupied — not a small consideration when screaming tantrums are a normal part of the workday. Policymakers and the business community are all now turning to early childhood education as one of the best investments we can make, if you don’t pay adequate wages, you undermine the very thing that produces that value.” (based on an article on the NPR Website, 2015)

Of all the professionals maybe the most admirable are those who teach and train little children, hopefully instilling them with an understanding of how to play, make friends with other children, restrain their anger and human selfishness, and begin to be a disciplined human beings. It is a never-ending job, bringing up a child successfully, requiring huge amounts of time, patience and energy. Some people think that Since both parents started working outside the home they are not finding enough time to discipline and civilize their children – a bit of a generalisation, but if you are delegating the most important years of upbringing you should at least pay handsomely for it.

An Epicurean government would make teachers among the highest paid people in the country, and the teachers of the little ones the highest of all. Bankers would come within the bottom quartile.

Blatant theft and modern banking: no lessons have been learned

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John Stumpf is the CEO of America’s most profitable megabank, Wells Fargo, which has 268,000 employees. His company has been operating in crisis mode ever since the federal Consumer Finance Protection Bureau hit the bank earlier this month with a $185 million fine, the largest penalty for consumer fraud the new agency has ever assessed. Yet the bank’s execs are walking out the door with multiple millions in bonuses. The exec most ‘accountable’ for Wells Fargo’s scam is exiting with $125 million.

What happened? Wells Fargo employees, CFPB investigators found, have over the past five years opened more than 2 million accounts that customers, as one press account puts it, “did not authorize, did not know they had, did not need, and clearly did not understand.” Some customers even ended up paying late fees on these bogus accounts.

Stumpf says he is going to “get things right” and “fully reimburse” any affected customers. But what he doesn’t admit is that the bank’s enormous annual earnings — and the enormous rewards these earnings have “earned” him personally — rest on a systematic “sandbagging” of the average Americans who walk into Wells Fargo branches.

This scam was totally planned and deliberate. If it had been perpetrated by the obscure and powerless (a.k.a African Americans) the executives would be serving life sentences at this very moment. But, of course, they were probably careful to contribute to the election expenses of numerous politicians. How long will Congress, and the political party that dominates it, put up with this Game of Thieves? Why do decent, taxpaying, law-abiding people have to stand there helpless while criminals walk away with multi-millions. Strumpf should be in handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit, his cronies likewise. They should all be made to repay every penny they have taken. So why is Strumpf out and about making inane speeches?

Ataraxia deserted me for a moment. Apologies!

Thought for the day

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“By the time the average child is five, its parents have posted 1,500 images of him or her on social media”. (The Daily Telegraph)

Why? Who has time to post them and who has time to look at them? I am reminded of the reaction of someone I know of who, not wanting to offend, but bored by numerous and ubiquitous new-born photos, would comment,”My, what a baby!”

Music and pain

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Music is so effective at relieving pain that patients should be allowed to listen to it before, during and after surgery, researchers have recommended. A study published in The Lancet found that pain levels fell when patients were played their favourite songs, even under general anaesthetic. “Music is a non-invasive, safe, cheap intervention that should be available to everyone undergoing surgery,” said lead author Dr Catherine Meads from Brunel University. Patients, she suggested, should be encouraged to choose any kind of music they like to “maximise the benefit to their well-being”. (After a hip operation earlier this year, her own pain was soothed by listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.)

For her study, Dr. Meads reviewed trials involving 7,000 surgical patients and found that on a scale of one to ten, pain levels fell by two points if they tuned into their own choice of music. They were also less anxious and needed less pain relief after their op. In a follow-up study later this year at the Royal London Hospital, 40 women undergoing hysteroscopies or caesareans will listen to their playlists via pillows fitted with built-in loudspeakers.

The wonderful thing about human beings is the diversity of their tastes. Music is a good example. My preference is for calming, reflective, romantic music that carries you away into another place. Others need more energy and volume. Whatever the music, I would like to think that originality and imagination in the composition reduces anxiety and pain to the greatest degree. Some modern music, personally speaking, would enhance both pain and anxiety.

Apple and tax

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To The Guardian
I am outraged that Apple is outraged by its tax bill. Apple has hundreds of stores in Europe to sell its products. The message to Apple is very simple: if any of your stores catch fire, don’t bother to call the fire service. If you are burgled, don’t call the police. If you want to deliver your products using public roads, you can’t. If someone falls off a ladder in one of your stores, don’t call the medical services. If you do not want to pay your taxes, fine. But do not expect to use the infrastructure paid for by our taxes.
Neil Holmes, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire

Great letter! Is anyone reading it?

“Brexiters hope that Britain will be attract multi-nationals, like Apple (you mean, they have a plan??) Their excitement is misplaced. For one thing, authorities everywhere are now cracking down on the worst excesses of corporate tax avoidance. Ireland’s own tax regime was toughened up last year thanks to a campaign by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – the UK has signed up to this, too. Trying to become a “tax haven” for big corporations wouldn’t work. The Irish strategy Ireland came at the cost of the “Celtic Tiger bubble. Low-tax pacts are not sustainable, politically or socially. (Fintan O’Toole, Financial Times).

The big corporations are un-mooring themselves from society, anxious to make vast profit, but resistant to the the needs of society, and thus their customers. This cannot last. There must be no race to the bottom of the tax league, no new monied aristocracy that can ignore its fellow citizens. If politicians are too weak or venal to stand up to the Apples of the world they should be replaced. Soon.

Epicurean therapy for anger (last part) – see other two parts below

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Philodemus, writing about therapies for anger, explains that the furious and the chronically angry can not advance in philosophy. A commitment to themselves, to their ataraxia, and to cognitive therapy is necessary live a pleasant life.

One of the treatments used by Philodemus and other philosophers was called “seeing before the eyes”. In this technique, the Epicurean guide confronts the patient with the consequences of chronic fury in the form of a vivid vision where the impact and effects of anger in relationships and the ability to enjoy life every day are presented clearly as if they were present here and now. This is done using a verbal exercise, s guided visualization for the patient. The practice requires that we attribute a gruesome identity to our anger, so that it is seen as an enemy of the soul.

The physical features of fury were used in descriptions of symptoms by Greek philosophers as part of the art of vilifying vice. The master showed the patient the loss of support from friends, the removal of family, the possible loss of jobs and opportunities because of angry behavior, etc. Thus, the angry person can internalize the harm caused by their condition and increase their commitment to imperturbability.

Other treatments include reasonings, which may be seen as a form of preventive medicine, and rational arguments for change. This type of cognitive therapy can be used in creative contexts, like a diary, a dramatization or a (written or oral) imaginary conversation.

The idea that we should protect our heads is both metaphorical but also physical. One of the remedies used in African religions is washing the head with cool water in the crown, nape and temples to calm us when we’re irate. This they do with prayers, but we can adapt it to a pleasant secular practice and turn it into an Epicurean remedy, since we recognize the physical symptoms of anger, including the heating of the face and head.

Self-sufficiency is also a preventive remedy for anger. Philodemus said the less we care about externalities, the less anger we have. Fury depends on our vulnerabilities and what we expose ourselves to.

Losing our heads because of anger has always produced great difficulties for many people, and there are fables and stories in all cultures that warn of its dangers. Therefore, we must always keep a cool head and cultivate ataraxia.

“Let us completely rid ourselves of our bad habits as if they were evil men who have done us long and grievous harm”. – Vatican Saying 46

(Adapted from the book “Tending the Epicurean Garden”, from the French translation of the Philodeman text (La colère) in the book “Les Epicuriens” and from Elizabeth Asmis’ commentary in her article “The Necessity of Anger in Philodemus’ On Anger” in the book “Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition”).

Philodemus on irrational anger (second part)

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Chronic Anger and Rage

Yesterday I dealt with the Epicurean idea of justified anger. The next two forms of anger are pathological and represent a loss of reason, that is, they are irrational (even if sometimes they have natural beginnings).

The second type of anger is chronic or addictive anger. This is not natural, but a disease of the soul. Its continuity shows how irrational it is, preventing one from enjoying the pleasures of life, and responsible for many evils.

Like depression (which is chronic sadness), chronic anger is a destructive disease of the soul. Obsessive anger is often about revenge – persistent, uncontrolled, intense and violent. One symptom of this form of anger is that it’s oftentimes carried to the grave; another is that parents often teach it to their children, and their children’s children, leaving a sad legacy of violence, miscommunication and lack of love.

The third type is rage, an excessive level of fury that deserves a name other than anger. In this case, the person enjoys imagining or enacting the punishment of the enemy. Philodemus describes this fury as wild and irrational: that is, its intensity is not deserved and doesn’t correspond with the initial pang of indignation, as we would expect with rational anger. This madness is temporary, yet the sufferer punishes himself in the worst way, so it deserves treatment.

However, Philodemus says that even the wise experience it sometimes as “a brief fury and, so to speak, aborted”. That is, the sage is a natural being subject to the natural conditions of mortality and pain, but does not become insane because of his or her anger or consider it a weakness. The important thing, again, is to subject these impulses of indignation and anger to reason and the hedonic calculus.

The wrath of the gods

In one passage, Philodemus talks about how some men mimic the wrath of the gods. It’s reminiscent of how modern preachers of fear-based religion still cite God’s anger to justify man-made and natural disasters. He is not exactly arguing that belief in mad gods produces neurosis (perhaps he sees a correlation, not a cause), but thinks that fables can legitimize evils. He therefore blames the poets (or the prophets) for having imagined the wrath of a grotesque god who sends pestilence, kills innocent children and orders genocide.

On the other hand, Philodemus also imagines popular religion, possibly, as a poetic function, and therefore as art or form of self-expression, one that could have some therapeutic use and help diagnose the ills of the soul. This, he thinks, might be a valid way of understanding religion from a secular perspective.

Epicureanism: Philodemus on anger (first part)

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This is rather long, but I thought some actual Epicurean teachings might be a change. (I have split it into three postings for the sake of digestability).

Phildemus was an Epicurean who wrote, among other things, about anger. There was a huge contrast between the Stoic and Epicurean schools. Stoics idealized apathy (or lack of emotion) and saw all anger as an evil that had to be repressed. Epicureans teach that it’s a bad idea to suppress human nature. Anger is seen as completely natural. Philosophy, the ancient Epicureans thought, would lack compassion if it didn’t allow us to experience “natural anger”.

Diagnosing an ailment of the soul

Epicurean therapeutic process has much in common with medicine, and is inspired by Hippocratic models: symptoms, diagnosis, therapies and cures. The scroll begins with symptoms of anger, which are physical, psychological and social.

Among the physical symptoms, we find that the face reddens and the heart quickens. The psychological ones include how one begins to plot revenge and takes delight in imagining that something bad happens to the enemy. Such anger is compared sometimes with dementia or madness, which can also be applied to furious people.

The angry person says reckless things that are impossible to take back, sometimes in the presence of bosses or powerful people, and this can cause physical danger, legal problems, and rejection by family and friends. It can destroy families and relationships with loved ones, and can even destroy a country.

Philodemus mentions the dynamics that arise whenever there are relationships based on exploitation and domination, such as slavery. In these cases, the animosities that may arise are huge. These dynamics are still seen between workers and employers today.

Rational and natural anger

The first type of anger that Philodemus discusses is natural anger, which does not need treatment other than the hedonic calculus, i.e. the long-term measurement of gains and losses with the goal of ensuring net pleasure. The purpose of the hedonic calculus is not to find the most pleasant way to get revenge, but to ensure the highest long-term stable peace of mind, which opens the door to creative techniques of non-violent conflict resolution.

The Stoics questioned whether anger was natural. But Philodemus said that anger was often unavoidable and compared the debt we owe to people who have hurt us voluntarily with the debt of gratitude we owe to people who have benefited us. Anger can be natural when other people voluntarily cause us harm. A good rule to determine whether anger is natural, is to measure whether the damage has the potential to destroy life or take away our safety, the health of the body or happiness.

There are three possible reactions to loss or damage we have sustained. The first is indifference (somewhat unrealistic). The second is hostility (natural). The third is to express friendship toward our abusers, which would be stupid.

The recognition of natural anger also important in understanding the potential dangers of other ethical philosophies such as Stoicism (which idealizes unqualified resignation as a virtue and teaches to repress the natural and healthy emotions, and Christianity (which says we should turn the other cheek). These ethical philosophies perpetuate social injustice that could be resolved through non-violent conflict resolution methods like the boycott, exposing our foes to shame and public scrutiny, and other tactics. Sometimes the remedies for social injustice have been somewhat violent, (such as the American civil rights movement in the case of Martin Luther King Jr).

Many other indignant voices (like current Black Lives Matter and Occupy) can be looked upon as rational, ennobling causes that channel anger and sometimes result in social change for the better. Philodemus spoke of these when he spoke of “virtuous dispositions” underlying our natural and rational anger. No social progress can happen if we don’t allow rational, natural anger to find expression and change the world.

Anger can be a good as long as it is brief and has its origin in a virtuous cause. Even wise and virtuous men experience natural anger, which is moderate, rational, calculated.

(Adapted from the books “Tending the Epicurean Garden”, “Les Epicuriens” and from Elizabeth Asmis’ commentary in her article “The Necessity of Anger in Philodemus’ On Anger” in “Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition”)

Microbial fuel cells – an amazing new technology

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A self-powered waste water treatment plant using microbes has just passed its biggest test, bringing household-level water recycling a step closer. Personal water treatment plants could soon be recycling our waste water and producing energy on the side.

Boston-based Cambrian Innovation have began field tests of what’s known as a microbial fuel cell at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland. Called BioVolt, in one day it can convert 2250 litres of sewage into enough clean water for at least 15 people. Not only that, it generates the electricity to power itself – plus a bit left over.

Conventional treatment plants guzzle energy, consuming 1.5 kilowatt-hours for every kilogram of pollutants removed. In the US, this amounts to 3 per cent of the total energy demand. If the plants could be self-powered, recycling our own waste water could become as commonplace as putting a solar panel on a roof.

Existing treatment plants use bacteria to metabolise the organic material in waste water. At the end of the process, the microbes can make up a third by weight of the leftovers to be disposed of. Before being put in landfill, this “microbe cake” itself needs to be heat-sterilised and chemically treated, which uses a lot of energy.

The idea Brhind microbial fuel cells is that the biochemistry involved in metabolising the contaminants can yield electricity to help power the process. But fuel cells of this kind have been very difficult to scale up outside the lab. But once scaled up, the Cambrian system will be processing more than 20,000 litres per day. Microbial fuel cells may do for renewable water what solar and wind did for renewable energy

Others are working on the same problem. The mix of organisms used by BioVolt, for instance, liberate some electrons as they respire, effectively turning the whole set-up into a battery. This has the added benefit of slowing bacterial growth, so that at the end of the process you have electricity and no microbe cake.

Cambrian CEO Matt Silver sees a future in which different kinds of microbial fuel cells treat different kinds of waste, perhaps recovering useful by-products. Another of the firm’s designs, EcoVolt, generates methane as it cleans up waste water produced by a Californian brewery. It has also cut the brewery’s energy use by 15 per cent and its water use by 40 per cent. (adapted from an article by Sally Adee, New Scientist)

You look around and sometimes despair of when you think of thr future of our over-crowded, over-heated planet. But then you look at what scientists are doing and faith is restored. Science is not respected among a section of the population, but it is science, and really clever science, that will see us through. Scientists are Epicureans, bringing us practical solutions to seemingly dreadful problems. We should honour them.

That persistent salary gap

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“If you’re a woman, you will earn less than a man,” observed Theresa May in her first statement as British Prime Minister. An Institute from the Fiscal Studies confirms this fact. True, some progress has been made: the difference between the average hourly pay of men and women fell from 28% in 1993 to 18% last year. But during those two decades, the gap between men and women with higher qualifications hasn’t closed at all. Women with degrees still earn 20% less per hour than men, while those with A-levels earn 25% less.

The biggest losers are mothers. By the time their first child is 12, they earn 33% less than men per hour. That discrepancy might reflect “mothers missing out on promotions, or simply accumulating less labour market experience”, according to the IFS. Training, progression and promotion are much harder to come by if you work part-time, which might be die to simply not being present a lot of the time. Whatever the reason, we seem to have “a big problem in the way we organise work in the UK”. (Based on an article by Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in The Times, and Gemma Tetlow in the Financial Times, London).

Why is this? Is it so everywhere in the world? If so, why? Civilisation should be based on equality of reward for equality of effort. Are men still clinging to the idea of control of everything in sight, except baby rearing? If true,I simply cannot understand it. If women want to run the show, please let them. Why die young from stress and over-work if someone else will do it for you? Share, and in sharing divide the income equally, according to ability and effort. I can think of so many rewarding and creative things one can do while the ladies are shouldering the burdens of employee management, customer complaints and finance. Let them get on with it if they want to. But even if they don’t want control over everything they should have equal pay. This is a very basic Epicurean principle.

We hear about Syrians, less about Palestinians fleeing Syria

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Before the Syrian conflict in Syria began in March 2011 around 560,000 registered Palestinian refugees lived in Syria. Following five years of civil war, more than half of these people have lost their homes, and nearly all are in dire need of aid.

An estimated 110,000 Palestinians have fled Syria since 2011 according to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency). Approximately 17,000 of these people now live Jordan and around 45,000 in Lebanon, many in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.i Over 3,000 have died inside Syria itself.

Palestinian refugees cannot register with UNHCR and instead rely on UNRWA for healthcare, education and often food and basic income. However UNRWA is struggling with a significant shortfall in funding from international donors, and in 2015 was forced to suspend the rent support payments it provided to these refugees due to lack of funds. The Palestinians were forced into exile in Syria owing to the seizure of their homes and land by the Israeli armed forces. Now they are homeless again.

If you were able to trace the ancestry of these poor people, you could arguably discover that their forebears lived in Palestine, generation after generation, for centuries; were peasants on the land when their fellow Israelite city dwellers were forced into exile by the Romans, and, later, were converted to Islam in the 7th Century by invading Mohammedans. Their plight is shocking and our individual ability to help them frustratingly poor. Nearly all the publicity is hostile to them; most have done nothing more than strive to survive. We should at least try to get UNRWA, (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) funded. It is the humane and civilised thing to do. Leave aside the disagreeable politics; do the decent thing.

Medical Aid for Palestinians | 33a Islington Park Street | London | N1 1QB | United Kingdom | +44 (0)20 7226 4114 | communityfundraising@map-uk.org

Tax collecting in the UK has become a joke

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“Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is no longer fit for purpose,” says Prem Sikka of The Guardian. Its job is to collect taxes, yet the agency is so starved of resources (its budget in 2015-16 was £3.2bn, down from £4.4bn in 2005) that it can’t carry out its job. Local tax offices have been replaced with overburdened call centres that fail to answer a quarter of calls. HMRC only has enough staff to investigate about 35 wealthy individuals a year for tax evasion. It has just 81 specialists to investigate transfer pricing practices – “a major tool for tax avoidance by multinational corporations”. It has even invited big business to join its board and design new tax policies that favour their own interests.

This can’t go on. We need to create an independent watchdog to monitor HMRC’s performance and to scrutinise any future sweetheart deals it cuts with the likes of Google. And we need to fund it properly: given that the agency “raises £75 for every £1 spent on investigating large businesses”, the case for increasing its budget is unassailable. Enact these reforms and HMRC may finally be able to do its job. (Prem Sikka. The Guardian, reproduced in The Week, 17 September 2016)

For the minor, individual taxpayer the system is disfunctional. Last year I subnitted my tax return in June. they owed me money; no reponse. In November they complained that I hadn’t filled in a section of the return (which they hadn’t sent me in the first place) and threatened a fine if it wasn’t returned within two weeks. I had to find the form online and send it by courier from the United States. You try to do the right thing early, no funny business, no avoidance, and you get this unreasonable behaviour, for tax that is peanuts in comparison to that of companies. I dread dealing with these people; they damage your peace of mind. To be fair, it is not wholly their fault; it is the fault of a right-wing government and the corporations who want a feeble tax collecting agency. No surprise that some taxpayers cut corners.