I slept until 2 or a bit after, but practice last night went well.
The people I know back in Hawaii who are still alive, that is, will be my age or older. My tech/ham radio friend has got to be at least 75 by my calculations.
My Honolulu friend will in all likelihood not be alive when I get there. He's said as much himself. He's into every conspiracy theory under the sun, and seemed to relish - while he moans about it - the prospect of the "government" taking his houses and properties, because while it's an utter fail on his part, it means he'll be Right. He should have known everyone in audio and broadcast engineering in the state and yet no one's helping him so that should give an idea as to his personality.
What I'm saying is, it's nice that I still have a larger social network there after being away 38 years, but these people are going to be useless. There's not even a match in interests any more. The Big Island guy has an interest in electric cars, but electric cars and bikes are being done to death now and no longer the province of garage tinkerers. And I'm not interested.
Ditto ham radio. I told the ham radio friend that I could never get that interested and in fact the only bit of it that interests me is listening, in other words I'm more of an "SWL" or short-wave listener and that's thought of as being a bit of a dilettante. Plus he's old, and who knows how far down life's downslope he is.
I packed 20 things and got 'em out, lollygagged around until it was just past 7 so the hot deli things in H Mart were half-price, and got two packages of "pork bulgogi" for a bit over $3. It was probably a half-pound of grilled pork belly, burp!
One of the things I did to lollygag was check the dumpsters behind the gym, so after H Mart I went back over there to pick up a big Lowe's box I wanted. I heard something rustling around in the trash and wondered aloud, It's too big to be a rat... maybe a raccoon ..... Pretty soon a bum popped out. "You're not a raccoon" I said, smiling. "Huh?", said the bum. I said again, "You're not a racoon....." and he said "No, I'm a ... Possum!" and we had a laugh. I told him how it was boxes I was after, and pointed out a shopping bag full of condiments someone had tossed out. "Here's mayonnaise, or maybe you're a mustard sort of guy...." and he said the other dumpster was generally better for food.
I took off after picking up that one really big sturdy box and checked the EMT place, got some pills and bandages and a few more boxes, and wended my way home.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the Matthew Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect this odious behavior pattern seemed to be Jesus Christ endorsed, and here I didn't think my opinion of Christianity could get any lower.
But like so many human behaviors that make eminent sense if you're one of a few dozen living in a clearing in the forest or by a stream on a veldt, it's maladaptive when living a society with a money economy and artificial scarcity and so on. Long and short, the Matthew effect says if someone's rich you ought to give them more, and if they're poor and ask for anything you ought to tell them to go pound sand.
In "primitive" societies, this makes sense. In proper Samoan society, if you get some sort of a windfall or good fortune, you give all you can to your chief, because the chief's job is to allocate wealth as needed to everyone. In these societies, those who seem to be in charge, tend to have been put there because their power arises from how much they give away and they're generally the smartest and best at sharing things out.
Also in primitive societies, if a chief doesn't take his social obligations seriously, he gets un-chiefed. Either people stop funneling stuff to him and start ignoring him, or he gets deposed by less peaceful means.
But in modern society, you end up with the Christian formula that says the more money you have, the better person you are, and the less money, the worse. Winning in Christian society most often involves convincing people to give to you, and never-ever giving back. "Screw unto others, then split" I believe is the saying and I'm sure it's in their Bible somewhere.
I can almost rationalize the Matthew effect in modern society, in that if you give to a poor person, often they're a black hole of need, whereas if you give to a person with some wealth, well, they must be good at managing wealth if they have it in the first place. So the person with some wealth, if given to, may scratch your back later. But that's the problem: In modern society it's too easy to take and never give.
But what does the Matthew effect have to do with my own plans, to go back home and live out what years I have left, on a very small budget? Simple - if I ask for help, I'll never get it. But if I don't seem to need help, then help will come flooding in. Help in this case just being finding a safe, stable, place to live.
In fact, if I've ever seemed "needy" in the past, it's really not a thing with me now because I save money better than most rich people, and whatever needs money to get done, I can generally find a way to do without money. Plus being able to just about whistle up money out of thin air.
No comments:
Post a Comment