Human Beings Being Human

Uncle Bubba keeps himself busy, maybe a little too busy. He's a blue-collar man that has to work to pay the bills and to have nice things. And as his years mature he looks back fondly on the decades but only briefly; there is too much to see ahead. Bubbie realizes that the past is only a memory and he can select the memories that he wants to hang onto; after all, it's his and only his. And even though much of his workdays are spent outdoors, the outdoors is where he also finds his solace. Nature has a flow, a way of being that can serve as a guide if one pays attention. 

But also in Bubbie's view, every hassle in life has man's fingerprints upon it. Think about it. Outside of nature's impositions, which man has found shelter from, what are your daily hassles and where do they originate? It's a boss, a spouse, a friend or acquaintance, or even a stranger. It's traffic, right? Or an appliance, a contraption, or a  piece of equipment or machinery that's not working as it should. How about your computer, or your cell phone; can you get a good wifi signal or enough cell towers to get service let alone the great service that you were promised? Or do you have to reboot and hope for the issues to magically go away? Do I hear an Amen? Yeah really, in this day and age, after all this time they haven't improved much in alleviating hassles, have they? They, you know, men and women.

Maybe you say that you have some health issues and that's just biology. OK, Uncle Bubba ain't no doctor, but he's wise enough to know from worldly experience that aside from God's providence, we are being poisoned because the environment has been poisoned. We suffer due to man's "improvements" of God's creation. But it's the nature of human beings to be meddling in something whether they should or they shouldn't. They definitely don't check with The Creator first and ask for permission; a practice that might just save us all the suffering, but I digress. In Bubbie's view, if we all took ownership of our thoughts and actions aiming them towards self care and then the care of others, all the while doing our best to do no harm to others, we'd have a few less hassles.

AI Ain't Anyone’s Answer

Just when I'm lulled into thinking that Uncle Bubba is a simple country boy more intent on rigging a rod to catch a big fat fish or read the woods to plan a hunt, he springs something on me that catches me up and twists me sideways.

"I reckon that folks are finally starting to figure out that all this technology ain't all it's cracked up to be," he said nonchalantly as he tied a topwater lure onto his fishing line. "For some reason, folks fell for the trick of calling a jackass a horse and a fine one at that. This social media is as far from social as y'all can get! They say that it brings people together but that turned out to be a lie, didn't it. It should be called antisocial media." Bubbie chuckled to himself, pleased with his own joke.

He reared back and tossed out a long cast. He watched his lure get smaller as his line shot out in a graceful arc over the water. He sat quietly and intently has his lure plopped down and the line fell soft atop the surface. After a few silent anxious moments, he twitched the lure laying afloat on the water and he spoke again, "The young folks that created that mess couldn't have known the evil that resides in the hearts of men; they hadn't lived long enough. But their greed willfully blinded them to it as that mess spun out of control. I reckon that in the past years they've learnt and thing or two but they still can't help themselves; in their self-righteous ignorance they've tried to control it instead of doing the right thing--destroy it. But ain't that the neverending story of mankind?" Bubbie's tone was a little sarcastic as he reeled in his lure and flung it out again. This time there was a small explosive splash atop the water as he hooked a nice bigmouth bass. He landed it and we admired its beauty before releasing it to be caught again another day. After a few more quiet casts he picked up where his thoughts trailed off, "And shame on the folks that seem to think that the world can’t exist without a smartphone. They ain't got no more brains than a herd of ants. They line up and march on just like they're trained, never considering where they're going, or nary a thought about what they're leaving behind for their babies."

I like computers, I'm using one to write this story. Smartphones and computers are useful tools and they're entertaining. But I'm inclined to agree with Uncle Bubba's perspective. I think (and hope) that this social experiment has run its course and we, as a society, can reassess the results. I don't know if we're more divided than ever but we're definitely driving 100 mph towards a cliff. Perhaps we should pump the brakes and turn the wheel. If it hasn't become obvious that AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms are purposely giving us information that reinforces our own views then wake up. The things that are being fed to you are the things it knows you’re going to agree with. You’re not getting this diversity of opinions, you’re getting a very narrow view of the world. You have more information available to the general public than any time in history and yet people are making bad decisions and you wonder why there’s so much division? It’s this combination of social media and AI algorithms that are driving people away from diversity to just self-reinforcing opinions.

Sadly, our politicians have also fallen for this trick and why not, they aren't the sharpest tools in the tool shed and it's the easiest thing to do; assume that everyone one on social media is, well, everyone. But it’s not. It's a virtual world, pretend. It doesn't really exist so things can be, and are, made up.

And many adults aren't Tweeting all day and night because they have jobs and families to occupy their time. They have a life and it revolves around paying bills (and taxes), caring for family and friends, and maintaining their property. So who are these opinionated geniuses?

Uncle Bubba reckons, "...that we're being lead around by a bunch of old farts mistakenly pandering to spoiled, unruly teenagers. A bunch of know-it-all brats! AI ain't anyone's answer to unity because it ain't a person."

It’s computer code programmed by people with vastly different motives.

With the topwater bite tailing off Uncle Bubba tied on a jerk bait to try and entice some fish hanging out in deeper waters. As he cranked his reel to retrieve the lure his attention was split between the feel of his line underwater in anticipation of a bite and the breeze rustling the treetops along the shore. Patches of clear blue sky appeared as the sun streaked through the fluttering leafy green bows but perhaps a storm was pushing its way through the air into their near future. Suddenly Bubbie yanked back hard on his fishing rod and set the hook on another nice bass. The fish broke the surface and jumped in an attempt to spit the hook. In Bubbie's view, that fish on the line, realizing that it had been duped by a fake bait, had more sense than most people online. At least it tried to get away instead of just swimming willfully, following along on the line to its doom.

Duh, It Ain't Climate Change!

Uncle Bubba feels dumb, dumb, dumb. He can't believe that he just never saw the dog-gone truth. But he does now and it came in a watershed moment while listening to a podcast from 99% Invisible, episode 355 titled Depraved Paradise. In short, Mexico City is running out of water. In part, by building a paradise on the porous lava fields of El Pedregal. As Joni Mitchell sang, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot..." and housing, lots and lots of housing. So, too many people, historically poor design ignoring geographical anomalies and all of the infrastructure aimed at draining the rainwater from the basin, due to flooding, works against efforts to retain water for human consumption. So, "Mexico City is flooded, thirsty, and sinking — it’s a complicated problem with no simple solution..." Within the content, it was stated that Mexico City is pumping water out of the aquifer twice as fast as it can be replenished. Doesn't that strike y'all as an impossibility? It does to Uncle Bubba. He was never a math whiz but that's one of those things y'all hear and go, huh?

All of this was summed up by the host stating that climate change is only going to make all of it more extreme. Boom! That's when the flood of truth rushed into Bubbie's brain. All this talk about climate change isn't really about extreme weather, it's about OVERPOPULATION. But nobody wants to talk about overpopulation because it's a slippery slope and makes politicians nervous. For instance, we'd have to talk seriously about worldwide birth control, the living conditions of third world countries, increased emergence of new epidemics and pandemics, increased habitat loss, less freedom and more restrictions, elevated crime rate, the depletion of all natural resources, not just fresh water.

Uncle Bubba dripped with sarcasm, "Why would they talk about solutions to all these complex issues when click-bait headlines can be grabbed and political grandstanding bellowed by blaming rich white dudes? They say if we just stop polluting all problems are solved. Stop consuming and polluting, hahaha! Y'all can't have one without the other; it's the world we've created." In Bubbie's view, our "leaders" just figure that it's easier to call it a generic term and talk about the weather than to get to the truth.

I told Uncle Bubba that this is called a misnomer and he told me that he thought Miss Nomer might've been his 8th-grade teacher. We both agreed that when we talk about climate change we all should just keep it about the weather. 

Answer The Dang Phone!

This is what Bubbie can live with, everybody has a cell phone in their pocket and when you call them they answer it and you have a conversation. This is what Bubbie can’t live with, everybody has a cell phone in their pocket but you call and you call and you call, you leave voicemails and nobody calls you back. If we’re not going to use our cell phones as a portable twenty-four-seven, 365 contacting device then let’s go back to putting the old phone on the wall in the kitchen. If you're home you answer it and if you’re not home you don’t answer it.

That way we know that we can’t get a hold of you and we can move on with our life. Otherwise, we have to keep calling and calling, texting, calling again and leaving voicemails because we are sure that the person we’re trying to reach is probably within 3 to 5 feet from their cell phone at any given time. But probably the ringer is off, or they're screening their calls, or sometimes it's not even their fault it’s just there is not a good signal. And we wind up wasting time and energy burning calories trying to contact somebody that should be in instant contact with because we have mobile phones. In Bubbie's view, just answer the dang phone!

Uncle Bubba says he'd be remiss if he didn't include one more thing to his rant; the fact that we still can't get a signal. It's 2019 and we're often lucky to get one tower. We're still stuck on, "Can you hear me now?" We've had cell phones for more than 20 years and our conversations haven't changed: "Are you still there? Can you hear me? Did I lose you?" Technology has stalled. It's a failed experiment. In Bubbie's view, all of this technology has made life more frustrating.

The Civility War

During these winter days, even in the south, we have a little more time to slow down and reflect on things. Perhaps the long, dark evenings have something to do with that but only if we resist the constant glow of our everpresent tech devices that serve as a distraction from what we might or should be mulling over. Watching several TV shows and movies recently set in times prior to cell phones and such, I have been struck with the time that people within the plots of the stories had to sit and think things through. Detectives process clues and lovers consider their love and devotion. Of course, we can still do this today if we so choose, we just have to keep it at the forefront of our minds that this option is always there.

I realize that I've offered conflicting ideals of choosing a path away from, let's say electronic devices while using TV to reiterate my point but I'm only human with a limited intellect--haha! I also think that in the path of getting away from tech devices is why I enjoy spending time with Uncle Bubba and Aunt Sweet Pea. They live in a slower paced, more thoughtful world. Sure, they have TVs, a computer and cell phones but they are of a generation that doesn't adopt the notion that others have, that we cannot live without them; the truth is we can. It would just be a very different life than what we live today. Neither better or worse, just different. Personally, I'd say I'm at the age where I've lived half of my life without computers and a half with. I can see the benefits and deficits of both sides. This double vision isn't just technological, I've also lived half of my life in the North and half in the South and can say with certainty that there is a marked difference of inherent characteristics of each environment, not to say one is better than the other, or that I've discovered something new that hasn't been stated in a hundred different ways because it has. However, in this era of the ever increasingly low standard of incivility, inflamed by technology via social media, it seems more pronounced to Uncle Bubba and me. Hold onto your hats 'cause here it is: folks from the South are gracious and folks from the North are pushy. Now before you all get your panties in a bunch let me say once again that neither quality is good or bad, just different. And if you live in either environment you are going to find life's path easier if you tend toward doing as the Romans do.

So let's take a look at these two ideas as to why neither is better than the other. Starting with graciousness, that carries a connotation of pleasantry and amiableness wrapped in courtesy and for the most part that's correct. However, one can use that type of language and be vague, miserable and even rude. I found, especially through my relationship with Uncle Bubba that Southerners like to use colloquialisms to express things and some are to warn you or get a strong point across. An example of this can be seen in an expression of anger, "I'll jerk a knot in your tail!" With that said, you'd better believe that some angry action might take place if the offender didn't take heed.

Northerners, on the other hand, tend to voice their opinions in plain, blunt, and obtrusive utterances, even when oftentimes the less said the better. As an example, Uncle Bubba recently told me a story about his auntie Charlene who lived her entire life up north; yes, she's a Yankee. She came to visit and Uncle Bubba took her around to meet some folks and they paid a visit to a friend of the family, a lady who was from South Carolina. They traveled a beautiful country lane lined with live oaks dripping Spanish moss. Across a mown green field they saw her white, Greek revival home come into view and it was grand as they turned into her circular driveway. As Auntie Charlene described it, "It was a monstrosity of a thing. Disgusting if you ask me. One little old lady living in a house big enough for several families." Well, fortunately for Bubbie that was reserved for the family in the privacy of their vehicle. Uncle Bubba said that it was "a big ol' place" and "nice enough".

"The old lady invited us in and welcomed us into her parlor," said Bubbie. "She served us iced tea as we made small talk. She told us a few anecdotes about her family when Auntie Charlene spoke up and asked about some paintings of plants on the walls. 'Oh those are paintings of ta-bacca,' the old lady says."

"Tobacco! Auntie Charlene yells, all bug-eyed" Bubbie howls with laughter at his own recollection and description of the events. "I was thrown off by Charlene's say-so." He laughed again before continuing, "She went on a spell to tell that old woman about the evils of tobacco and the damage it can do to our health and if y'all don't think that put a bee in the ol' girl's bonnet. I didn't know whether to spit or go blind; then I thought that maybe I'd just duck. Before Charlene could draw another breath Mrs. Ta-bacca of South Carolina shut 'er down with a 'Bless your heart'." Bubbie's eyes grew big as he said it and he tilted his head forward in a knowing glance. "She then proceeded to tell us how tobacco was their family legacy and that her deceased husband, 'God rest his soul' had even served as president of the South Carolina Tobacco Grower's Association." Bubbie roared with laughter. "And Auntie Charlene took it like sucking on a sour lemon... but she took it."

So there you have it, the civility war. I laughed at Bubbie and his story; I could imagine his embarrassing discomfort, his Auntie Charlene's Yankee forwardness and the ol' lady's boiling annoyance. The prize was that they were all in the same room, face to face, having an actual conversation. They weren't blasting their opinions into cyberspace. And I'm sure that much of the old lady's graciously angry rebuttal was lost on aunt Charlene as is apt to do with Northerners. But in the end, they all composed themselves and attempted to get on in goodwill.

And I reckon that that's the lesson of the whole deal: the two sides both think that they're righteous and can't see any other way. We don't wanna put down our cell phones, we don't wanna walk in anyone else's shoes, we don't want a united country, a United States of America; we're planted deep like an ancient oak in our personal truisms. In Bubbie's view, it's the means to our end.

The Cleverness Of Evil

After recently speaking with Uncle Bubba about free speech, a meme was sighted online--the exact quotation of which I cannot rightly recall--but it essentially said that the Left doesn't want a wall because it doesn't work: they don't want it because it does. Well, that kinda got me thinkin'. I decided to pay another visit to my uncle and share this idea with him. I drove over the two-lane county roads under a clear blue winter's sky to Uncle Bubba and Sweet Pea's home. I thought about the beauty of our country, of nature, of the world. After arriving at Uncle Bubba's, I knocked on their door and was greeted with warm smiles as they invited me in. After some catching up and small talk, I eventually brought up the topic. He had one word to say about it, "Clever." I nodded in agreement but wondered what he thought was clever, the idea behind the meme or that the left might actually be using reverse psychology? Uncle Bubba must have noticed an inquisitiveness in my expression because he offered up an expository.

"I reckon that there are some shallow mouth breathers that actually think that a wall doesn't divide one piece of real estate from another," Uncle Bubba paused, "though I don't know how. So, yessir, deep in the heart of those opposed to a wall, any wall, anywhere are so because they work."

Yeah, I thought, it's common sense. There's an old saying, a proverb that exists in many cultures that good fences make good neighbors. In American culture, its common usage may have sprung from Robert Frost's use of the phrase in his poem, "Mending Wall," published in 1914. Two neighbor's meet at their property line to mend a stone wall, in agreement, in like-minded cooperation. They would not do it if it didn't serve a purpose. It could be a metaphor for the human need for boundaries. When boundaries are clear, relationships can better prosper. If you know where you stand, where your property begins and ends, and are free to do on your side as your neighbor is on his or hers, it makes for better relationships between people. Nothing can be more contentious between neighbors than a property boundary dispute, good or strong fences remove the possibility of that contention.

But benevolence aside, a wall is a form of a tool. Uncle Bubba agreed, "No wall is impenetrable. People will eventually dig under it or cut through it or go over it, but it gives you enough time to respond and apprehend them. Really? Ya think? Isn't that what our border agents would want to assist them in the performance of their duties?"

"Hey... doesn't this cleverness make us think about our previous visit and some of our ideas about free speech?" a wide-eyed Bubbie asked. Something just struck him. "What do you reckon, are these opponents of free speech clever or shallow? In my view, they could be trying to limit free speech, not so much to stop their shady perception of hate speech but because they're trying to limit scuttlebutt about their ignorance, lies, corruption, and dishonesty. Clever."

Free Speech Stupid

In this neverending world of inane, endless discussion of postmodernist drivel, the troubling thing for Uncle Bubba is that those that are questioning the legitimacy of free-speech isn’t just young people; it’s also people of more mature age. People that have life experience, people that should’ve been taught about our rights in school. For the record, it was taught in school when Bubbie was there; he remembers and he wasn't even really paying attention most of the time. It troubles him because it’s a far greater indicator of an underlying problem in our society if people are still, 243 years beyond the formation of our country still not understanding these foundational precepts. There is no progress. As Uncle Bubba puts it, "It's stupid. It's like running uphill on an ice-covered road wearing plastic soled shoes! It's exhausting and in the end, you're no further along than when y'all started."

Who are these people; the intellectuals that think that it might be a good idea to limit speech? Are they the cantankerous ol' fogies we see in the grocery store lines that are fit to be tied with the bagger-person for not putting their vittles in the sack as they see fit? Are they the folks we've seen on the highway who have no regard for the law? They drive with no inclination for using turn signals, stopping completely stop signs, racing through yellow lights, driving slowly in the left lane, everybody's tailgating, the list goes on. Is it ignorance or complacency? Maybe both but it’s striking to see the mature age of the people that fail to understand the depths of chaos they cause when our societal standards are ignored.

"Maybe it's a lot of them crusty ol' farts," says Bubbie, "but stupidity knows no bounds. I don't think that you can put a face on it."

Well, you can if it's the face of California Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu. He says he would love to regulate speech. That's chilling coming from a person in authority.

Here’s some common science for you; for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. It’s Newton’s third law of physics; lil Bubbie learned that in high school. Here’s some common sense; for every statement you say, you may offend someone. There is no law or change of our constitutional rights that can change any of that. In Bubbie’s view, he can’t believe that he’s actually trying to say all this to people his age, but he's sure enough glad that he has the right to.