California Expert Software

Introduction

Here we are in the midst of an election season during which I have done less than ever. I endorsed Phil Angelides for Governor, and Forrest Hill for Sec. of State. I posted my analysis of the Propositions a month ago. I hope Californians will see it my way. That's that.

I am more concerned with other things. I have been on the roller coaster this year, and haven't been able to adjust my bearings. My thoughts are jumbled up ...

This has been a significant year for me. A few months ago, I was quite sure I was a dead man until I decided not to follow my doctor's orders. While I have been reprieved from diagnostic errors, I am not free of threatening conditions about which I must do something. But what?

Back East, two sisters undertook Guardianship of my very aged, mentally incompetent parents, so now I am officially without link to the past. In this and my near death experience, I learned that I am far more isolated than I had thought. I have very few reliable friends, which is probably not unusual with advancing age. On the other hand, I am learning who are my friends. I am very appreciative of them.

I learned, once again, that the majority of Americans are not only deluded and indolent, but also ignorant. The United States is crumbling because its people are unwilling to apply their mental and physical energies to saving it. The citizens believe they can save themselves without lifting a finger to save others. They even lack empathy for the sufferings of others that they cause. It may not seem the United States is collapsing - I think it will take 50-75 years before the undoing is obvious for all to see - but the poisons are in the blood. Tolerating Bandit government, for example, is a practice not curable by electing someone else. It will take painful surgery to remove the parasitic tentacles and suckers Banditry insinuated throughout our society. Think of it as a Sci-Fi Horror movie, in which the gruesome alien monster takes over a body and uses it to breed more gruesome monsters. (I get a little sick even thinking of it. I avoid looking at such scenes.) The only cure is to kill those unfortunately infected. Paranoid as I am, I feel I live in a society of pods; an endless Night of the Living Dead.

All of the above have encouraged me to stay indoors, limiting contact with the outside world. Once a get out and about person, I am becoming more hermetic. I don't find that uncomfortable, although sometimes I wish I had more people to have a conversation with. But, they are not there, and that is the way it is. I have a positional advantage in my isolation which pleases me: it is much clearer how things operate 'from the outside.' In the last few years, I discovered how much I underestimated the power of emotions and social contacts to configure individuals, including myself. Even the "strongest" people are marionettes caught in the social web. Men and women are indeed highly social primates. This discovery led me straight to the central theme of GSQ: culture. I had considered and dismissed that notion long ago. Now I don't.

I have been putting together my thoughts about Moral Agents, but I am very discouraged and inclined to abandon the project. The main reason is a plethora of books on the same subject is beginning to appear. (This is another validation that people tend to think along the same lines, resulting in multiple instances of a discovery or context. I believe that supports the heuristic that people are similarly programmed or programmable. Example: teenage fads.) I am reading Marc Hauser's Moral Minds and Frans de Waals' Primate and Philosophers. Prof. Daniel Dennett apparently has a similar work on "naturalistic" ethics in press. (I plan to review several de Waals, Hauser and other books in the near future.) In short, it looks like there will be a truckload of morality books delivered next Spring. I think this is part of a scientific counter-attack against the Religious Right, William Bennett's Book of Virtues and a huge pile of other Conservative books. Many trees have drowned in this sea of spilled ink.

I am amazed that Hauser's book uses several strategies I have been considering, including using a cartoon character to "lighten up" the book. I had even gone so far as thinking about emulating Dr. Seuss. The new books show a real effort is being made to interest the lay public in a subject otherwise deemed too dreary. That did not prevent the reviewer quoted on amazon.com from whip lashing Prof. Hauser to the point of near death for having discussed the likes of Hobbes, Kant and Rawls. Apparently, these days, having a serious discussion is sinful, and consulting the well established experts (especially academics) is a crime. I think those who sell books prefer Bennett's conformist, unthinking catechism of Platitudes, mislabeled "Virtue." But there's nothing new in that: it's the 1950s, "Deja vu all over again," as the Yogi said.

I think anything I, Mr. Nobody, say on this subject will be ignored and dismissed. I already have that experience with GSQ. It turns out the most common residence of GSQ copies is the night stand, where they somehow assist people falling asleep. I might change my marketing plan, advertising GSQ as 100 times more effective than counting sheep in bringing on sleep. And, unlike the pills advertised on TV, it is definitely not addictive. So, I feel I would do well to limit my investment in Moral Agents. I cannot compete with giants. In this, I have the same problem as underdog Phil Angelides: it doesn't matter whether you are right. On the other hand, there is the message of Star Wars that the Empire can be overthrown, which is all the more hopeful if we ignore the messianic Luke Skywalker character. Maybe the Empire will crash of its own weight, if only ordinary people will not undergird it. Of course, I think it will crash sooner or later, anyway, without the benefit of any Hero, crushing all those on board and under it. I don't know whether I will be around when it happens, but somehow I doubt it. (Those betting on the Empire had better hope I have a longer life than I expect.)

For the time being, it's temporize. I've set up a lot of reading. I do try to write and post something everyday. I continue to hope for more conversation on this website, but that no longer matters as much to me as it once did. I signed up to continue the website through 2007, but I don't know whether I will renew it in January, 2008. I've done just about all the website updating and revising I am going to do for right now. I should focus on capturing all the work I posted in other formats (.pdf, .wpd, etc) on my personal computer. Doing so would unhook me from the public environment.

One of my big changes of this year is my lack of willingness to maintain a public presence. I haven't benefitted from everything I tried to do. I don't seem to have changed any minds or direction. It's all just a wasted effort. That includes the business, politicking and writing. Basically, I'm irrelevant. So, I am trying to build an "alternate life" that pleases myself. I think I should just enjoy the music I care to hear for as long as it lasts.

Introduction
Here we are in the midst of an election season during which I have done less than ever. I endorsed Phil Angelides for Governor, and Forrest Hill for Sec. of State. I posted my analysis of the Propositions a month ago. I hope Californians will see it my way. That's that. I am more concerned with other things. I have been on the roller coaster this year, and haven't been able to adjust my bearings. My thoughts are jumbled up ...

Roller Coaster Life