20130221 (J)
Journal: February 21, 2013
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Declaration of Independence: I think the premise of the Declaration of Independence might be exactly opposite what many interpret. The real premise ISTMRN is: “Everybody is different. That SHOULD not be. We SHOULD all be equal. So, governments are need to pass different laws for different people, so they all become alike as should be. Our good work is never done” (nor fully funded).

To conjecture deeper and perhaps more wildly perhaps underlying this political philosophy is a moral one, “Peace of mind and heart, happiness (as promised by Hume, Rousseau, Thoreau, Mills, Buddha, Jesus, etc, etc.) is impossible as long as there is conflict. Conflict arises from differences. Therefore to secure the peace governments must pull the differences among people together into a commons where “all are equal”, Rousseau seems to have written, “We are already there: before governments which restrict men’s freedom”, Hobbes, “We beat each other up with sticks therefore governments are need to restrain the beast in the heart of man” I think a little of both, but we were not equal then. Perhaps we should not strive to be now, because we certainly aren’t. Perhaps the quest is futile. It further seem (to shake some shoulders) that many who believe that, carry forth under the banner of “freedom and diversity”.

How strange. Conflict is the engine that drives evolution, and we humans have poured gasoline on the glowing embers driving that evolution.

C+ Parable: Ron and I shared an early geology class at IUPUI. One day we got our graded tests back on standard blue-covered, line test books. The professor said he had not yet recorded the grades but would as soon as we concurred with the grading by returning the tests. If we didn’t concur, return tests with our non-concurence in red ink ink. The next day I turned back fairly graded test. Ron caught me in the hallway after class, took me into his confidence, almost whispering,

“I stayed up all night to recopy my test answers in a new blue book and carefully mimicked his handwriting to recopy his comments, of course slightly changing both his comments and my answers to correct mistakes I made on the original test. I changed the grade from C- to C+."

Now I was a co-conspirator. As he smiled proudly, I said, “Amazing, you should be proud. That shows great concentration and skill. But tell me, why just a C+ why not an A or at least a B? To which he even more deceptively smiled, deepening our co-conspiracy, and said,

“Because I judged he would remember I got a C, but not whether was a C- or C+.”

To which I nodded and said, “Your skills do indeed go deep. You are good at knowing another’s mind. You should be proud indeed.” We then parted as fellow student conspirators. The next day, grades were posted. Ron got a C+. We exchanged smiles then a few beers over that semester then disappeared from each other’s’ lives. But I always thought of that test and several other of Ron’s carefully executed actions as quite stupid.

You see, Ron was just as smart as me. I spent an hour or two reading the text before the test and aced it, He could have too. But he was prouder of the “test result” only he and I knew about than his mastery of geology. He had mastered deceiving other people hearts, good friend though he was to me. He taught me the road to a better grade is straight and easy, the one by deceit is windy and hard; a stupid road. Thank you Ron, and I hope you are still chugging along somewhere.

By the way, Davidson I attended earlier on a basketball scholarship had an honor code that included not only cheating but failure to report cheating of your fellow students if you knew they we cheating, a code I never violated. But if I had known another student cheated, I probably would have violated the honor code and not turn him in. I have much sympathy for the rule of criminals, “Don’t snitch”. Though many might disagree with me about who should enforce the rules, self or authority.