ANNOYANCES and UNDERSTANDINGS. Asperger thinking at its best!
GENERAL
Evidence-based thinking. Because I personally believe in evidence-based science, many things annoy me or cause me to question the logic. If it is not evidence-based, then I use a heavy dose of common sense and everything becomes clear.
Asperger’s people have the potential to become innovators in their field of interest precisely because they were constitutionally unable to take things on faith. A distinctive cluster of aptitudes, skills, attitudes, and abilities are part of autistic intelligence. The ability to see things and events around them from a new point of view often shows surprising maturity.
This ability can in favourable cases lead to exceptional achievements which others may never attain. Abstraction ability is a prerequisite for scientific endeavours. For success in science and art, a dash of autism is essential. For success, the necessary ingredient may be an ability to turn away from the everyday world, from the simply practical, an ability to rethink a subject with originality to create in new untrodden ways.
Education and the child with Asperger’s. Finding individualized approaches to education may enable these children to make the most of their innate gifts while ensuring that they have the resources to cope with the challenges of their disabilities. What is the best teaching method for them? Teach these children how to put their autistic intelligence to work.
Trying to leverage peer pressure in the classroom doesn’t work for Asperger’s people, because they are already alienated from their peers. Flattery is equally ineffective, as they were curiously immune to it. What they did care passionately about was logic. They had an innate desire – almost a compulsion – to seek out universal laws and objective principles.
The primary motivation for learning in typical children is their emotional identification with their teacher. However autistic children seek to learn for their own sake in the course of pursuing their passionate interests. They didn’t care what their teachers thought about them; they just wanted to know the facts. The best teachers for these children were willing to meet the children halfway, instead of insisting that they act like everybody else. The guidance of these children requires a high degree of effort and concentration. In short, the teacher has to become somehow autistic.
THE WAY I THINK
I am always surprised that most people don’t think like me. It is all so logical and so based on facts or if those aren’t available, common sense. The world would be better off if we discarded faith-based thinking. However, because of my poor expressive skills, I rarely influence others’ thinking.
Covid 19. When COVID-19 started to be a threatened pandemic, we knew precious little about the virus and what it would do. But by using common sense based on how SARS, MERS, and other coronaviruses behaved, I was able to predict how Covid would behave.
RNA viruses, by the very basis of their genetics, have been shown to mutate frequently. Most mutations provide little evolutionary advantage and simply “die out”. However any mutation that results in increased transmissibility would be expected to supplant the original organism. That has certainly been shown to be the case with Covid. Interestingly the strains that have taken over the world have been shown to have multiple mutations, virtually unheard of before in any viral infection. Usually, only one mutation occurs at any time. The UK variant has been shown to have 19 mutations. Delta likewise has multiple mutations. Omicron has 50, 35 on the spike protein alone.
It is believed that these viruses with multiple mutations evolved in a few immunocompromised individuals who were unable to mount a proper immune response. This allowed them to thrive in one host for long periods of time and mutate multiple times. It was from these few people that the mutants arose. It was not simply that the virus infected a large number of people.
Coronaviruses are respiratory viruses. Respiratory viruses are spread by aerosols. It has been shown using laser screens that normal breathing emits 1000 virions (water droplets containing live virus) per minute every minute. Talk loudly, have “spitty” speech, sing, cough, or sneeze, and the number of virions excreted increases exponentially. To think that the virus is spread from contaminated surfaces defies logic. One would have to literally wipe your finger on a surface with a live virus and pick your nose. Studies to examine this are virtually impossible to do. It would involve trying to deliberately infect real people. Not understanding this has created several problems. The use of hand washing and sanitizer use probably did little to prevent the spread of Covid and their use made people feel safe.
The aerosols emitted in our breath have been shown to persist in the air for 7-14 minutes. Being indoors with no air movement is 18 times more likely to spread the virus compared to being outdoors. Using fans, and leaving windows open will decrease indoor spread.
Ingesting live virus has little effect – stomach acid and enzymes in our gut have been shown to kill coronaviruses effectively. PCR tests on stool specimens have been positive, but they only measure the RNA excreted and persist in our stools despite not being alive and infective.
Masks are the only effective in preventing the spread. Sterilizing surfaces is unlikely to have been of any value. All that has benefited are the companies producing hand sanitizers. Doing it has given people a false sense of security that they are doing something effective and has delayed the mandatory use of masks. It has also produced “covid fatigue’.
With 6 different platforms, some novel like mRNA, over 70 institutions were trying to produce vaccines. I predicted that a vaccine would be available by September (Russian vaccines were available in August and the mRNA vaccines were ready for trials in September. Actual jabs started in December.
With the easy transmissibility of COVID-19, I predicted that herd immunity would need at least 90% of the population to be immune. That certainly became true with the Delta strain and may be over 90% with Omicron. Delta produced a more serious disease, but it appears Omicron doesn’t.
Religion. If you can’t prove god exists, then I don’t have to prove he doesn’t.
Believing in a supernatural being is universal to virtually every culture. A higher power was the only way to explain almost everything around them. Aztecs sacrificing people on altars seemed like a natural way to appease gods. Praying for good crops was thought to be the best way to control the environment. Without the knowledge of plate tectonics and geological time, t seemed logical that the Earth and heavens were formed 6,000 years ago.
Starting with scientists like Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, understanding physics has been the driving force to explain the vast majority of questions humankind has had. The big bang, black holes, and an ever-expanding universe made up of billions of galaxies, stars and planets seemed to be impossible theories, but most are facts.
That very first initiation of life with a single-celled organism that all subsequent life descended from has been proven to be a fact. How else could we all have the same genetics and protein/enzyme makeup? They are universal in every living thing.
It seems logical that there is no god, heaven, or hell. They are purely human constructs designed to control our behaviour.
Do unto others as you would have done to you is a universal belief that guides the individual and society – and does not require religion.
There is no doubt that many typical people get great comfort from believing that there is more to life and the world than this mundane existence – more than simply being born, going through a difficult childhood and teen years, finding a mate, having children, and working all your life only to simply die and rot in the ground. There must be more meaning to life. Well, I hate to rain on your parade, but there isn’t. We live on only as memories, and that doesn’t last long, I would imagine 98% of people don’t know the names of their great-grandparents.
A few get to be famous and have statues erected, streets and towns named after them, and form an important part of human history in books. But that is a very few. And most of those whose memory lasts had Asperger’s syndrome. Physics is the driving force of human intelligence and knowledge. There are virtually no famous scientists without autistic intelligence driving their success. If I had to ask you who the greatest drivers of innovation and thinking are in the last five years, I doubt you could name anyone more influential than Elon Musk or Greta Thunberg.
It is time we got over religion and worshipping gods that don’t exist. Stop deceiving yourself. Religion has – and continues to be – one of the most destructive parts of human society. There are some very intelligent religions. Bahai may be the best example. It doesn’t take many examples to illustrate the worst.
I like what Albert Einstein had to say about religion. He spoke of his spiritual outlook in a wide array of original writings and interviews. He said he had sympathy for the impersonal pantheistic God of Baruch Spinoza’s philosophy (see below). He did not believe in a personal god who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve. He clarified, however, that “I am not an atheist”, preferring to call himself an agnostic, or a “deeply religious nonbeliever”. When asked if he believed in an afterlife, Einstein replied, “No. And one life is enough for me.”
In 1954, Einstein wrote: The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. … For me, the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. … I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.
What Spinoza had to say about god, makes the most sense
Spinosa on Love and God
Baruch de Spinosa. When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the recurring question that students asked him most was: Do you believe in God? And he always answered: “I believe in the God of Spinoza”. Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy.
Spinoza and Love: My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need.
I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life. Heaven or hell.
I can’t tell you if there’s anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is not. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. So, if there’s nothing after, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won’t ask if you behaved right or wrong, I’ll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?…
God would say:
• Stop praying. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I’ve made for you.
• Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That’s where I live and there, I express my love for you.
• Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don’t blame me for everything they made you believe.
• Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can’t read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son’s eyes…. you will find me in no book!
• Stop asking me “will you tell me how to do my job?”
• Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or bothered. I am pure love.
• Stop asking for forgiveness, there’s nothing to forgive. If I made you… I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies… free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I’m the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?•. • • Respect your peers and don’t do what you don’t want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that alertness is your guide.
• Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don’t want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.
• Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?
I’m bored of being praised. I’m tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That’s the way to praise me.
• Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you’ve been taught about me.
What do you need more miracles for? So many explanations?
The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.
– Spinoza
Roman Catholic church. Reading The Zealot by Reza Aslan should be a requirement of every Christian. It tells what is known to be factual about the life of Jesus Christ, and that is surprisingly little. The first books of the Bible were not written until at least 85AD and most not until 200-300AD – long after his death, at a time when most history was oral, few could write, and most knowledge was passed down as stories – stories that changed with each telling. Everything Christians believe about him is unlikely true, a mythical story constructed by the Catholic church to further their power and wealth – a story that can only be believed by faith. Paul was the first great evangelist – and what he preached was quite different from Jesus’ core beliefs.
Jesus was born into a relatively poor Jewish family in August in about 4 BC. His mother wasn’t a virgin (simply not possible) and Joseph wasn’t his stepfather as he impregnated Mary several times. James was his brother and he had 3 sisters. The wise men didn’t visit his birth and there was no special star in the sky. His main gripe was with the Jewish money lenders in the temple and the Romans who controlled Palestine at the time. He grew up to be a wise fellow with a charismatic personality but was just the most influential of many zealots that existed in the first half of the first century. They were the ones protesting unfair government, usury, wages, and lack of freedom. Whether he died on the cross is questionable as determining death then (as it is sometimes is now) can be difficult. Nobody, once truly dead, comes back alive. Oh my god, so you believe that? Faith requires unusual thinking.
Since the early days of the church and especially when the Romans finally adopted Christianity with Constantine (if you can’t beat them, join them), the Bible has been a faith-based book – there are few facts there. Priests could marry until about 1000AD when the church stopped that to prevent church land from being divided up amongst the offspring. What a disaster that’s been.
Throughout its history, the Catholic church has brought down its wrath on anyone who didn’t agree with them – Cathars, Jews, Huguenots, Protestants, and any unbeliever (labelling them heretics) who challenged their story.
The Spanish monarchs in the name of the church instituted the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 where 150,000 were tortured to extract confessions and about 5,000 killed to stop heresy, a crime against the state. Over 90% were Jews. Rulers, whose authority was believed to come from god, had no patience for heretics. Amazingly, the Inquisition was not outlawed until 1834. All Jews were finally expelled from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497.
And now in 2021, the Roman Catholic Church still doesn’t accept contraception, condoms to protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, LGBT rights, or that a huge number of boys were sodomized by priests. Priests have abused their power forever – not just boys but in relationships with women.
Since the turn of the 20th century, almost everyone abusing power has been held accountable – doctors having sex with patients, Harvey Weinstein. Bill Cosby and Dr. Lawrence Nassar (the physician who sexually abused the US women’s national gymnastics team), are just a few. Donald Trump unfortunately seems to have escaped. The Boy Scouts of America settled for $850,000, the largest settlement in a child abuse case in US history, and filed for bankruptcy. They no longer exist to do just part of the wrongs of the RC church.
It questions all belief systems, especially faith, that anyone could knowingly be part of the Roman Catholic church. One only has to visit a lot of Catholic churches to see its incredible wealth and how they used it to promulgate the fabrication.
If I had my way, the RC church should be sued out of existence – all buildings confiscated, all the gems given away, and all the silver and gold lurking in their monstrous edifices melted down and sold to be given to all those wronged. Why should the church not be held accountable like others finally brought to justice? The more we know about the corruption that exists in the Vatican, the greater the urgency to get on with it. It is only about wealth and power.
Evangelicals in America are little better. When you believe in the literal Bible, you show profound ignorance. Evangelicals form the solid base of those who believe in Trump, abdicating all sense of morality and reason to a narcissistic, paranoid sociopath because he supposedly supports antiabortion laws – and supports their quest for wealth, a fundamental part of their belief system.
Islam. Most Muslims deny that Islamic militants like ISIS or al-Qaeda are Muslims, but these militants are still a product of that religion. Surprisingly most of their brutality is directed against other Muslims. Sunni versus Shia is a basic tenet of Muslim hate. You don’t say you are an atheist in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia as that denies belief in Mohammed and could get you killed or lashed. Drawing caricatures of Mohammed draws a death sentence – think of the Charlie Hebdo murders or the banishment of Salmon Rushdie.
Islamic militants are the major fighters in Syria, not the Syrian citizens who initially simply started a protest against the social injustices of Assad.
Islamic militants have relocated from the Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria, and are sowing death and dysfunction across the Sahel of Africa. Again, other Muslims are the victims.
Jews of Israel, the best owners of victimhood in the world, are undertaking the immoral and illegal genocide of the Palestinians. They formulated a plan in 1948 to control 75% of the country and by 2020, have succeeded. They even claim East Jerusalem, the true home of Palestinians. They escape international sanctions only because of support from the USA.
Buddhists don’t escape either. The civil war in Sri Lanka went on from 1983 to 2009 to persecute the Tamils of north Sri Lanka, killing almost 29,000 and wounding 40,000 Tamils. The Buddhists of Myanmar have conducted a genocide against the Muslim Rohingya expelling one million from their country and producing one of the refugee catastrophes of our time.
Hindus. Modi of India has Hindu nationalism as one of his basic principles and has been persecuting Muslims in India for decades in Kashmir. He has now taken the persecution to the rest of India.
The United States is not a country, it is a business. Wealth and power are paramount. As a country, the US has nothing to envy. Only those from poverty-stricken third-world countries want to move there. Nobody in a first-world Western country in their right mind would want to live in such an immoral country.
America is founded as the land of opportunity but that is no longer true. Just the cost of secondary education has become out of reach of the majority. 10% of the country controls almost everything, including the ability to thrive.
Biden recently said that America is not a racist country. What hogwash – racism is endemically part of the American mind. Blacks are worse off now than during Reconstruction at the end of the Civil War, despite having the vote and lack of Jim Crow laws. They have been denied access to reasonable housing, education, health care, and justice.
The justice system is so flawed that only the rich with access to good legal aid are innocent until proven guilty. Plea bargaining, cash bail, a wealth of private prisons, and a penal code that targets poor people have denied them (especially blacks) legal access.
The average white person has wealth of $170,000, ten times that of the average black person.
America is no longer a democracy. Despite not winning the popular vote, the last two Republican presidents still went on to become president.
The United States, typified by the Republican Party has a monopoly on crazy unproven thinking. Now nine months after Biden’s election as president, the same 32% believe that Trump actually won. After the election, state legislators in the US have enacted over 150 laws to make voting more difficult despite no proof that fraud occurs at all. Black, Latino, and poor citizens, who most commonly support the Democratic Party, are the obvious target. The electoral college and gerrymandering give the Republicans a 4% edge even before the election, and they still have difficulty winning.
I have empathy for the third of rational Republicans who believe in none of this and only want to pursue their conservative agenda.
Non-scientific thinking rules Republican thinking.
Climate change doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, we are already past the point of no return. Global warming will be the death of our planet.
Lowering taxes helps the economy. Trickle-down economics form the basis of Republican reasoning, but there is no proof that the two are related. The rich get richer and the poor poorer. The top 1% of American citizens control 90% of the wealth.
Republicans call social safety net laws designed to help poor people “socialist” or communist. Despite paying almost 18% of its GDP on health care – almost twice what any other Western country does – the US falls behind in lifespan, pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality, and childhood death. 60% of US bankruptcies are due to health care costs.
Government is bad. Look at 2007-08 when lack of poor financial oversight caused the biggest housing crisis in American history. When money controls things, the government needs to control them.
Biden has been a welcome change after Trump, but he has made some bad foreign policy decisions. In fact, Biden has never made a good foreign policy decision in his entire career. After spending $2 trillion over 21 years in Afghanistan, he withdrew 2500 troops and US support for the Afghan army. This is despite one death in the previous year. 13 American soldiers died at the Kabul Airport alone during an attack during the emergency evacuation. The US has kept more military support in South Korea, Japan, and their other 77 bases around the world, now for 70 years. It has taken the Taliban one month to overrun the country. Any Afghan citizen who worked for the NATO forces will be targeted and killed. Women’s rights will disappear and girls may be denied education – again. Sharia laws will likely be introduced.
Conspiracy theories. This has become an especially dangerous thing during Trump’s presidency. How can a mentally ill man with several personality disorders (narcissistic, paranoid, antisocial) who lost the election still control one-third of the American population? Conspiracy theories abound. A defining principle of these is that they don’t have to provide evidence. How can one relate to Q-anon thinking that the world is controlled by a cabal of left-wing, elitist Democrats who run a child kidnapping ring out of the basement of a pizza parlour? One of the more difficult relationships must be with relatives, spouses, or friends who have suspended all rational thinking.
Israel. Israelis have one common trait – a strong sense of victimhood that justifies their behaviour. That small country in the Middle East will be defended by its citizens to its death. Undoubtedly, Jews have had a raw deal forever, but that should be no excuse to deny an entire group, the Palestinians, any opportunity. What they are doing to the Palestinians is illegal by all international standards and most problematically, totally immoral. At independence in 1948, the leaders led by Ben Gurion aspired to control 75% of the country despite having a right to only half. As of 2021, they have achieved that goal. Any other country would have had harsh sanctions. It is only because of undying United States support that they have gotten away Scot-free.
The autocratic governments around the world. Typified by Erdogan in Turkey, Orban in Hungary, Modi in India, the army in Myanmar, Putin in Russia, Bolsanaro in Brazil, Duterte in the Philippines, and Maduro in Venezuela, all suppress the press and manipulate voting. Populists have been the worst leaders ever for their countries. Trump has succeeded in producing a divided country.
Naturopathic medicine, vitamins. The vitamin and supplement industry is a multi-billion-dollar waste of time. Only vitamin D is of some use as a supplement.
Few naturopathic therapies are evidence-based. Aromatherapy, homeopathic remedies (produced by diluting the “active ingredient” to a point it can’t be measured), probiotics, antioxidants, and most others have doubtful benefits. Any excess vitamins ingested are simply excreted. Super doses of vitamin C do nothing to prevent the common cold and only produce diarrhea. Excessive vitamin A can be toxic.
Most natural remedies have problems. What is the concentration of the active ingredient? It is dependent on the growing conditions and can vary from zero to excessive. If they were subjected to proper double-blind randomized trials, few would be shown to have any therapeutic effect. It makes much better sense to eat a well-balanced diet and maintain a proper weight.
But you say “I feel better when I take X natural remedy”. Any drug one takes has been shown to have a placebo effect between 30-40% of the time, especially if you have the faith-based belief that they will help you. What could be the harm in that? I think the financial cost alone is sufficient reason to ban them all.
Juicing is promoted as healthy, but it makes no sense to remove the pulp from any fruit or vegetable – it only makes it less healthy. OMG, and people pay for this.
People are addicted to their cell phones. Having a computer in your hands 100 times more powerful than the original computers that occupied whole rooms is one of man’s greatest achievements. Every announcement of a message must be answered immediately. Four people sitting at a table all on their phones and avoiding meaningful conversation.
Walking around with headphones and earbuds. These have a real danger as they prevent you from monitoring the environment around you. Many people die every year when they don’ hear the train or tram about to run them over.
YouTube Channels. People with their own channels become obsessed with recording every detail of their activities. When you travel with them, they keep a running diatribe of everything, conduct interviews with the people they are with, and take endless videos and photos. It gets very irritating. I decided that I would never spend another day with one, and if had control of the situation (they were in my car, for example), I would forbid them from using YouTube.
Selfies. Endless photographs of oneself obscuring good views get irritating. Digital cameras provide an endless opportunity to take bad photographs at no cost.
Paddleboards. I think these are for wannabe kayakers who can’t afford it. It may look initially fun but I doubt many could deal with anything but flat calm water. I have heard of a guy on Vancouver Island who adventure paddleboards with everything needed to camp, but he must be very unusual.
Other drivers. I probably get annoyed most with certain kinds of drivers, mostly the racing types that populate Italy, Spain and Romania. Some “race” travelling at high speeds metres apart. Others come up behind you in the fast left lane, flashing their lights and following too close. In the 180,000 km, I drove through Europe, I tried several tactics. One was slowing to a speed appropriate for the distance between us. That drives them nuts. After they pass, they routinely cut in front of you and slow down. Others have tried to force me off the road. This can be dangerous.
Excessively slow drivers put everyone at risk as frustrated drivers try to pass. I don’t understand people who don’t pull over and let the long line of vehicles follow behind pass.
I have slowly become more mature and have stopped cussing these types out constantly.
Dogs. There are approximately 5 billion dogs on earth. The city of Seattle recently reported that there were more dogs in the city than children.
I understand why dogs are so popular – they offer unconditional love, something that is difficult to get from a human. They are faithful companions to a fault. Feeding them and taking them for a walk is all that is required. On the plus side, it does get people out of the house. As little as 15 minutes of walking per day improves mental and physical health.
I could not have my entire life controlled by an animal’s toileting needs. I wouldn’t want to be picking up dog poo. Taking your dog for a walk allows others to ogle your dog, and make small talk and the dog gets to sniff other dogs’ behinds.
I want to be free to not have to worry about their care when I travel.
Having a dog is an economic luxury. Some of the most popular breeds like French bulldogs cost as much as $3,000. Lady Gaga’s two dogs were recently stolen, held for ransom, and their walker shot. Licenses, food, collars, leashes, bowls for food, coats and grooming are an ongoing expense. Adding kenneling and doggy daycare to give the owner some rest can be a big cost. Then the money really adds up if your dog needs health care. Purebred dogs are inbred and carry a multitude of genetic problems like hip dysplasia. My son’s Boston terrier regularly needs his teeth cleaned at $3,000 a pop. Many owners spare no health expenses, at the same cost as for human health care. Would you put your dog down if you had to go without food instead of veterinary bills? 85% of older dogs probably have dementia.
I learned a lot about dogs watching The Dog Whisperer. It should be mandatory viewing for every dog owner. Then maybe they could learn how to walk their dog without it dragging them around and straining at the end of a leash. Retractable leashes seem like a bad idea. Most owners don’t have a clue.
We had a family dog. I was instrumental in picking the breed, a very cute fox terrier. But after that, I had nothing to do with her. I don’t think she liked me much. She was unbelievably dumb and untrainable. She ran away at every opportunity finally being found dirty and smelling of dog poo. My best experience with her was at the end – she developed a mass in her abdomen and I had the great opportunity to assist the vet at the exploratory surgery and then euthanize her.
Funerals and graveyards. Muslims and Christians are most at fault with the belief in an afterlife. In North America, funeral homes exist to make you feel guilty. Would you put Grandma in a cheap plywood box? I worked as a morgue assistant after my first year of medical school and spent one day at a funeral home. I was surprised at the things done to make you look lifelike. Coffins are often opulent affairs that also eventually rot too. Spend the money on a wake instead – celebrate the life you lived.
Cremation seems the only reasonable alternative – put the ashes on your mantle, under a tree or spread them in the dead person’s favourite place. Spending money on an elaborate tombstone uses good rock. The people of a small town in northern Romania at least celebrate a person’s life on their wonderful painted crosses. See my post on graveyards to see how we most often waste money.
Getting rid of funerals and graveyards seems reasonable when you don’t believe in God or an afterlife – or hell for that matter, all things for which no proof exists and totally dependent on faith. “If you can’t prove God exists, I don’t have to prove he doesn’t”. Let’s be realistic, we simply rot in the ground. There is no spirit that rises from our bodies. We live on as memories or what we leave behind. How many of you know anything about your great grandparents – maybe a name, date of birth, marriage, and death, but that is about all?
I half-jokingly have sky burial listed as my burial place of choice. It seems perfectly reasonable to serve a function and feed wild animals. However, it is not practical in most societies to have our mountaintops littered with carcasses. The bones have to be removed and are usually thrown in the river where this is still practiced.
Hindus use wood pyres to deal with their dead at a tremendous environmental cost. I spent my first ten days in India at Varanasi and went down to the funeral ghats several times. The ashes add to the tremendous pollution already existing in the Ganges.
Graveyards. The amount of good arable land consumed by dead people seems irresponsible at a time when the Earth’s population approaches 9 billion, as projected to occur by 2050. Paris had to empty its graveyards when land was needed. They filled a good portion of the catacombs carved out under the city.
The Torajan people of Sulawesi in the Philippines have the right idea. They prepare for their whole life for their funeral. When they die, they are embalmed and for the next year or so, lie in the family living room where their relatives routinely come to have tea and talk. Death finally occurs at the funeral, an elaborate week-long event carefully planned so that all relatives from around the world can be present. Pavilions are built and buffalo and pigs are slaughtered. There is a feast where the meat is spread amongst the community. To attend the funeral I witnessed, I brought a gift of a carton of cigarettes. Despite not being on the guest list, I became a guest of honour sitting with my immediate family. Despite the enormous money spent, they don’t waste land burying people – caves are used or chambers chiselled out of rock and packed with coffins. Arable land is used for better things.
Rolling suitcases. When I travel, I carry a backpack carefully chosen with a good suspension system to be comfortable on my back (the Deuter Futuro Vario is perfect). It has a wealth of pockets and a built-in rain cover. It is good exercise and deals with stairs, escalators, cobbled streets, and any distance needed to be traversed most effectively. I have something made to go on a trek. I love getting off a bus or train at the end of a long ride and walking to my accommodation. It has become a ritual to walk the 45 minutes home to and from the bus at the beginning and end of a long trip.
Most travellers use suitcases made for overhead bins on planes. I find it irritating to wait for them to stow them.
I can’t believe people wrapping their luggage in layers of plastic in airports.
Personal beauty aids. Almost any woman can look attractive with a nice hairdo, well-applied makeup, and nice clothes. Heavy foundations, false eyelashes, and tattooing eyebrows are used to make many attractive.
Russian and Ukrainian women are thought by many to be the most beautiful in the world. The one defining characteristic is their low weight. Russia has been at war so many times killing so many men, the women seem to try harder than women in other societies. Men with an alcohol problem, Putin-style hair, and pot bellies don’t need to work too hard.
High heels are especially silly. Bad for your feet and back, most are used to increase height and make your butt more attractive. Add in the cost.
At the end of 2021, I travelled to Trinidad, easily one of the silliest countries on earth. Most women had unbelievably long false fingernails, all decorated to the hilt. They were so dysfunctional, that these women were impaired. One woman said, “I don’t cook or do dishes”. Now there is an excuse. Blacks make up a large percentage of the population and Trinidadian women had the craziest unnatural hairstyles. Almost none were “natural” and all had extensive extensions. I felt sorry for the women of Trinidad.
Excessive tattoos and most piercings. Some are lovely but most not. Piercings through your nose, eyebrows, cheeks, nipples – really! I find the isolated dark tattoos some people have totally ugly. I have seen many women with several isolated tattoos on their legs.
Useless words. Speech peppered with “you know”, “I mean”, “sort of”, and “like” can get very irritating. It is especially bad when you hear professional broadcasters doing this.
On my 5 1/2 month overland trip from Morocco to Cape Town, I sat next to a woman who said “like” about every third word. OMG, it got irritating.
Torn jeans. Why would anyone put ragged holes in perfectly good clothing to make a fashion statement – and pay for that privilege?
Bald guys who shave their heads. Going bald with a fringe of hair is not socially acceptable for many men. So now, they shave their head, and all of a sudden, they are cool. Get over it.
Myself when I do dumb things. I am sure I am much harder on myself than anyone else. I routinely get pissed off whenever I do something that occurred when I had a brain cramp.
Recently, I drove about 11,000 km through west Europe, adding onto the 180,000 I drove in 2018 and 2019. Large cloverleaf complexes are common around big cities in Europe – and they can be very hard to navigate. I depend on Google Maps and still often follow the picture, rather than reading the signs for the correct turn. Missing the turn can be a big mistake that not infrequently results in a 40-50 km detour to recover.
