Knowing, you are in the know

The ‘learning paradox’ also known as ‘Meno’s paradox’ are a tantalizing conundrum that has plagued mankind from the times of Plato ~ (429?–347 B.C.E.). The paradox involved is best explained in one of Plato’s writings, where Socrates, the protagonist, is described as having to have said the following: ‘[A] man cannot search either for what he knows or for what he does not know[.] He cannot search for what he knows–since he knows it, there is no need to search–nor for what he does not know, for he does not know what to look for.’

 

Obviously, knowing is a somewhat tricky business. The use of the word implies that knowledge is a tool to be utilized. The question that needs to be put to bed on this subject is ‘what is known and what is purported to be known in that claim of knowing?’  

 

There are two main ingredients in knowing and those ingredients are, reasoning (a priori) and witnessing (empirical). Of course, in most situations what someone ‘knows’ is derived from a combination of both empirical evidence and an a priori effort. Yet there is a third method by which people ‘know’ something and that is via information transfer. For this author, the only knowing that is going on in an information transfer is that person A told person(s) B the words ‘X’; the validity and veracity of statement ‘X’ is outside of the scope of what person B knows until person B applies reasoning or witnessing to validate statement ‘X’. Just listening and believing must not be standard for anyone who doesn’t wish to live in a cult like atmosphere.

 

It seem that too many people these days live in a cult like atmosphere for they have abandoned reasoning and witnessing for the more lackadaisical approach of ‘just listen and believe’. This is most likely the result of Person(s) J silently abdicating the mandate and role long understood to be part of the profession of Journalism. In previous years the lack of retractions was a source of pride for many a media outlet; those days seem to have drifted off into the mists of the past.

 

In those days gone by, the keystone for most of the journalistic profession was a story wasn’t considered to be true unless three independent witnesses were required. This practice has been replaced with the ‘un-named source close to the situation’. There is a term known as the ‘fog of war’ which describes the situation where a third party observer is bombarded by claims by both sides as to who is winning on the field. The fog of war is now being played out right in front of everyone’s eyes when it comes to social and political issues throughout much of the western world.

 

The digitalization of media/news outlets has degraded the profession of journalism for both the vendor and the consumer. The reader is requested, moving forward, to note the number of online articles from news outlets that have the term ‘modified on’ showing the last time the article was changed; the result of this is the possibility that two people in a discussion will be referencing the same article that has two different timestamps, thus resulting in two different ‘fact’ statements. 

 

Context

The mental exercise above was born out of a conversation with a close friend of this author. The discussion was around the transportation of illegal aliens flown into Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts under the direction of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. This author’s position was that DeSantis made a good political move to bring to the attention of the American people the impact of an open southern boarder. The counter argument presented by the friend was that it is wrong to use people for political purpose. There is no problem with the counter argument in principle; unfortunately not everyone is as principled as this friend.  

 

For relationship purposes the conversation was mutually ended by both sides; side-note, empirical evidence has shown that some arguments are best not had with this friend and this one single item is not the hill to damage or bury the relationship on. It is known to this author and the friend that this author has a tendency to be more in the know on current social political matters, while the friend has a some interest and is mostly informed by a small sampling from the journalistic profession.

 

‘Whataboutism’ can be used to derail a discussion, though this is not always the case, especially when there is reasonable equivalence, a chance of hypocrisy, or perhaps the other person just doesn’t know. Applying Hanlon’s razor, the last listed item was the starting position not taken.

 

Moving on to what wasn’t said, the DeSantis move was not a novelty because both Obama and Biden played the same game, just against in the other direction. Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution mandates that every resident of a state is counted in the census that takes place every ten years. There is an interesting clause in some law somewhere that makes the number of people in a US State the measuring stick for the number of delegates sent of to the US Electoral College and yet only US citizens are permitted to vote in elections, at least for now.

 

Those are the ideas not conveyed via words that were not spoken. The judicious lack of persistence for this topic at hand was based on the awareness of this friend’s childhood, for this friend was once categorized as a refugee remaining in a refugee camp for two years, thus giving them what some might call a soft spot for refugees.

 

 

The moral lesson realized - while it may be a feel-good moment to be right, taking the moral highroad might just lead one away from the hill that an important part of one’s life may just die on if that path is not taken.

 

 

 

Definitions

A priori - relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge which proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience.

 

Empirical - based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.

 

Semantics - the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and sub-branches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics, which studies the cognitive structure of meaning.

 

Whataboutism - Whataboutism or whataboutery denotes in a pejorative sense a procedure in which a critical question or argument is not answered or discussed, but retorted with a critical counter-question which expresses a counter-accusation.

Politics Ruins Everything.

 In one of his Federalist Papers, James Madison wrote: ‘Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.’ Madison’s words imply that even the most reasoned man would disagree with himself, if that situation arose. People make choices every day, those choices for most are not as clear as a mathematical solution and so any given person will be forced to make their choice on what they understand of the situation in the moment they choose.

 

Before getting into the meat of this article, this author would like posit the idea that we are all watching the same movie and yet walking away with our own unique opinion of which their favourite scene was.

 

In preparation for the article the definition of what is politics given by The Oxford Dictionary provided a concise explanation: ‘the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.’

 

Who is thinking about the children?

Children were once disposable and still are in some countries on Earth due to environmental conditions; evidence of this can be noted by birth rates and child mortality rates. Leaping through both time and space, one can see that both birth and death rates have dropped in the advanced countries where both technology and medicine have improved when one ignores abortion.

 

Political overreach has long been a mainstay within the political arena. Child abuse has been and always will be a matter in all societies. The politicians sought to stamp abuse out where they could by legislating away physical punishment by creating ‘child protection’ laws. Without the capacity to provide consequence, many parents turned to reward for their child management strategy.

 

Spoiler Alert – Spoiling children creates spoiled adults who end up behaving like spoiled children, for they no other way. All societies of any duration are based on the co-operation of the population at large. Some societies are based on fear, some are based on religion, while others look to a monarchy, and others still coalesce under a flag and a constitution.  Of course these basic descriptions can be combined in a variety of ways and proportion.

 

Returning to our time time/space machine we reach this the current year, 2022, and we reconnoiter the present surroundings. What is noticed is that the ‘same’ societies who thirty years earlier outlawed the spanking of children are now promoting and legalizing double mastectomies and hysterectomies , for girls below the age of consent and boys, also below the age of consent are having their penises removed, for non-medical reasons. Is the oath of ‘do no harm’ still a thing?

 

Sticking with the Hippocratic Oath, surely a yellow card and potentially a red card needs be raised on the treatment of children during pandemic restrictions; for those readers not familiar with soccer/football/calcio, a quick entry in your favorite search engine will remove any confusion.

 

In regards to the pandemic restrictions politics took over from the get go, as it was known that COVID-19 is a human coronavirus. Coronaviruses were first identified in humans back in 1965 and include strains such as SARS, MERS, Canine coronavirus HuPn-2018 and while the common cold is typically a rhinovirus some strains are a mild coronavirus. To date, there has not been a vaccine for any coronavirus and the latest round at a vaccine shows that there still isn’t a cure for a coronavirus seeing as the vaccine is now being described as a therapeutic, at least in Ontario Canada.

 

Continuing on, it has been known for sometime that the difference between females and males is that females are more ‘people’ focused while males are more ‘thing’ focused; this has been shown in chimpanzees as well. Additionally, others have asserted that children learn language by watching the mouth shapes associated with the sounds being heard. This author agrees with both of the ideas posited immediately above.

 

The two years of off and on isolation coupled with the off and on masking practiced by many due to the fear, uncertainty and doubt propagated by the political class has stripped many children of these much needed experiences in their formative years. Moving up in age, after the mobility and the linguistic basics are achieved the next goal in the development of a child is basic is socialization. This phase is intended to normalize children to societal standards with the intent of reducing the bullies from bullying and the meek from being meekly.

 

The knock-on effect of the restrictions inflicted on school age children will be a challenge for many societies for years to come. This writer imagines the political class will lower the education standards to make the current cohort of youngsters appear to be not as damaged as they have been; the measure of a child should be based on substance and not presentation.

 

Is the planet being saved?

The saying ‘Save the planet’ is quite clear in meaning, and yet are the actions being taken look like the planet is being saved? Is the reader willing to accept that when discussing this planet mankind is a part of the planet’s ecosystem, thereby making mankind just as worthy as any other inhabitant animal of this planet?

 

Like any complex system, the ecosystem of this planet is not a single item issue; this has been made obvious by the multiple climate activist groups that are single subject matter specialists. The Earth’s ecosystem, while impacted by the animals of this planet, is not managed by the animals of this planet. There is a certain level of hubris by mankind to think that they can out manage the planet’s ecosystem better than Mother Nature herself.

 

No one seems to complain to the beavers about their ongoing deforestation projects or the water management undertakings. When the beavers become over enthusiastic, other animals will take notice and go shopping by preying on them. When the lions over shop in the meat isle, the lions will deplete their own food supply and will look on in wonder at the empty shelves as it were. Nature is by its very nature self correcting, it is only mankind who seems to want to step out of their lane for years on end mucking about with Nature and the ecosystem.

 

Forest fires have been a long standing process on planet Earth in areas long before mankind even embraced the vista. The basics of the circle of fire look something like this: a seed finds its way to some fertile ground and takes root, the tree grows and sheds more seeds which also take root until a forest takes hold, during this process leaves and branches will fall adding some nutrients to the soil, animals will also move in seeking shelter and food, be that food vegetal based or the aforementioned animals, eventually the trees will leach the nutrients from the soil and die. The penultimate step is that one of the dried dead trees will get hit by lightning, sparking a fire. The resultant tree ash and animal corpses will refresh the soil, which is then ready for the next seed to find its way to the newly fertilized ground. The circle of forest life and fire can be envisioned as a miller’s wheel that just keeps turning and grinding away.

 

Rivers and creeks much like forests have predated mankind by quite a few years, regardless of the efforts of the local beaver population in regards to creeks. Droughts and floods have long been part of the reality of these waterways and it was only until mankind showed up that the rules were changed as it was mankind and mankind alone who tried to change the rules, as the rest of the animals didn’t take much notice of the rules they just lived or died by them. Lookup ‘hunger stones europe’ to see the point.

 

This author feels that the true proof  that climate change activists are typically political is due to the lack of moral investment or actual actions taken on behalf of the these persons and parties. There would be much more faith in these climate champions would be on a surer footing atop the hill they wish to die on if they were to put the money where they mouth was, as it were. To the reader, how many of these climate champions would accept a rubbish bin being dropped off and then proceed to fill it with every item that contained or required fossil fuels in the supply chain?

 

Here are a few hints for the items listed on the destined for that bin: computers, cell phones, refrigerators, electricity, electrical grids, power meters, plumbing parts, tar based shingles, asphalt roads, diapers, any clothing from factories with machines and child labour, solar panels and the blades of a wind mill and finally carbon credits. Upon consideration, the exemption list from the bin is probably a much shorter list.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that Mother Nature always wins.

 

Now on to relationship

The value attributed towards relationship is currently under attack. Of course there are many levels of relationship; from the familial to the neighbourly, along with the full spectrum of relationship types which falls in between. Due to the present political discourse everything has been reduced to a single ‘hot button’ issue that provides a single sound bite for both sides. Anything beyond these peddled sound bites would be a conversation, a conversation no-one seems to want to, or are incapable of having.

 

It has been said that politics is downstream of culture, yet culture is downstream of media and when the media thrives on the idea of ‘if it bleeds it leads’ the outcome seems quite obvious.

 

What about Politics?

This may seem like an odd question, a question that is right up there with ‘if you throw a bucket of water into a pool, does the water in the pool get any wetter?’ Politics doesn’t have to ruin politics, though it often does, when and only when those involved prioritize the need for power above and beyond the political goals for which they were elected. When the political class loses sight of what they told people as to why they should be elected, then yes politics will ruin politics.

 

In the closing of the Oxford entry quoted above, it reads ‘conflict among parties having or hoping to achieve power.’ When the maintenance of political power or the acquisition of political power becomes the focus for the political class is when the political pandering starts. Rather than agreeing on the problems of society and then debating the path to a solution as politics of this nature drags down a society when everyone begins raising their own personal ‘my problem is the biggest problem’ flag in order to capture the attention of those people who control the public purse and the legislative pen.

 

Politicians and their held close bootlickers currently have a problem and that problem is that these political class people have a heavy trust in poles and many of them seem to have slotted Social Media in as a form of polling; the premise being that if one person types it, then ten people think it and one hundred people feel it, for that is how poling works. Imagine any poll where the respondents step up to check the boxes over being randomly selected; this scenario would out push any push-poll ever taken, thus making society at large seem as divisive as Twitter itself.

 

So yes, politics can ruin everything but it doesn’t have too, if more people lived by the motto ‘stop, look and listen’.

 

 

NOTES

Define: Politics

Oxford Dictionary - the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.

 

Miriam - Webster –

                             a: the art or science of government

b: the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy

c: the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government

 

Math, Don’t Worry It’s Greek to Everyone

 Mathematics is a curse to some and a euphoric joy for others. This article seeks to lessen the abrasive nature perceived by so many. Some readers may wish to gather some materials and supplies to facilitate visualizing what is written here. For those wanting to follow the visual path, here are the things required: graph paper, a ruler, a compass (the device with two hinged arms, one ending in a point and the other ending in a pencil), scissors, a few pencils, a pencil sharpener, and an eraser.

 

Author’s request: As a leap of faith, please accept that a circle has 360°. Also, please do all of the lessons while sitting comfortably at a table.

 

Preparation work: Starting near the top left corner of a piece of graph paper construct a 10x10 times table.

 

Lesson #1 – Squaring the circle

Using a piece of graph paper, in each corner draw a circle having a diameter of 3” (7.62 cm), use two intersecting graph lines for the centre point of the of the circle. With the compass draw the first circle and measure from one side of the circle to the opposite side by passing through the centre point, this measurement better be 3” or you will need to get out the eraser and try again.

 

The next step is mark the centre with the pencil by making a small circle around the centre point ensuring the small circle reaches at least the half point between the gridlines above, below and to each side. Now draw two lines that pass through the centre point of the circle by following the graph lines used to set the centre point. One line will have an up/down orientation while the other line will be orientated from side to side based on the grid. The next step is to cut out the circle and then by following the lines cut the circle into four equal parts and reassemble the circle.

 

Finally, rotate each piece so that what was on the inside is now on the outside and what was on the outside now forms the centre. On graph paper place one corner on an intersection of two graph lines and place a dot where the two graph lines cross and then mark the opposite corner with another dot and remove the loose pieces of paper. Using only up and down lines (vertical) and side to side lines (horizontal) connect the two dots, the reader should now see a square.

 

How did this happen? Remembering the 360° circle rule and that the full circle was cut into 4 equal pieces the reader can reference the times table and turn it into a division table by simply going down till they reach 4, then move sideways till they reach 36 and finally go to the very top row where they will find a 9. The finale step is to bring back the zero (0) and the degree sign (°) thus turning the 9 into 90°.

 

To further confirm what has happened measure the length of two sides of the square that are touching. The two sides must be of equal length, thus showing that when all of the inside angles are the same the lengths of the lines must be the same.

 

Lesson #2 – NOT Squaring the circle

Using the next circle from Lesson #1 add one horizontal line to this circle ensuring the line touches opposite sides of the circle and passes through the centre point. A second line is to be added to the circle, make sure that the second line does not follow any graph lines but crosses many graph lines and still passes through the centre. The next step is mark the centre with the pencil by making a small circle around the centre point ensuring the small circle reaches at least the half point between the gridlines above, below and to each side. Now take a picture of the circle for later referencing.

 

Repeat the same steps from Lesson #1 to remove the circle and divide it in to four pieces by following the lines. Match up the new shapes into two piles of two pieces each where each pile has two identical pieces. Assemble the pieces on graph paper picking the next piece from the other pile lining up the straight edges. Use the horizontal graph lines to line up the two pieces that are touching that horizontal line or at least close to one. Finally place a dot to mark the four points where the pointy bits are.

 

Remove the pieces of the circle and connect the dots with a straight line with none of the lines crossing. If the work has been done properly the four sided shape should look like a square that is leaning over to one side.

 

How did this happen? Remembering the 360° circle rule and that the full circle was cut into 4 pieces, though this time not all of the pieces are the same though they did make two pairs of like shapes. Just a reminder, in mathematics the word ‘like’ can be used as ‘the same as’.

 

Upon closer examination, or a harder look, the following should be obvious or easily measured: opposite angles are equal and opposite sides will never meet no matter how long the sides are extended for these are the traits of a parallelogram.

 

Lesson #3 – Stretching the Squaring

This lesson is more difficult and so the step will be presented outside of paragraph form. Please read and understand the steps below before proceeding.

 

1. Using graph paper once again, place three dots on the same horizontal graph line with the same number of graph squares separating the outside dots from the centre dot.
2. Using the compass draw a circle around each of the outer dots, use each outer dot as the centre of the circle and the middle dot as the edge of each circle. Draw a small square around the middle dot using the nearest gridlines.
3. Using the ruler draw a straight horizontal line from the outside edge of one circle to the outside edge of the other circle passing through the three dots.
4. Draw a straight line joining the top of the two circles and another joining the bottom of each circle.
5. Draw a vertical line, using the graph line running through only the centre dot.
6. Using the pencil, darken the top and bottom lines along with the outside half of each of the circles.
7. Use the compass placing the point on the centre dot and the pencil at the outside edge of one circle where the center horizontal line passes through the circle and scribe a new larger circle.

The shape has now been set and so cut it out and then cut it up as was done for Lesson #1, along the horizontal and vertical lines that pass through the centre dot.

Repeat the process of reassembling the pieces with the centre dot pieces now pointing outwards. Mark your four where the pieces of the centre dot are found, remove the pieces of paper and connect those dots using the ruler, once again without allowing any line to cross another line. Congratulations as you have now made a rectangle.

 

How did this happen? Remembering the 360° circle rule and that the full circle was cut into 4 pieces in Lesson #1. The reader might be tempted to, and probably will, proclaim – ‘but wait, we started with two circles and so the total must be 720°’and the reader would not be wrong as they are two circles. What may have been missed is how much of each circle is being used. The two horizontal lines that start and stop at the tops and bottoms of each circle means that only half of each circle is being used; thus holding the number of degrees to 360 as show by the larger circle from step #7.  

 

Lesson #4 – Halving what you have

Have on hand the cutout pieces from Lesson #1 and Lesson #3. On a fresh piece of graph paper, reassemble the pieces with Lesson #1 near the top of the page and Lesson #3 near the bottom and label each location with the lesson number near the hand side of the page. When positioning each shape near the centre of the page, ensure that bottom left piece is positioned at the intersection of both a horizontal gridline and a vertical gridline and construct the shape in a clockwise manner. Remove the top right piece of the paper and mark the three remaining pieces of what was the centre dot.

 

For each of the lesson shapes connect the dots with out crossing the lines. Using a light touch and the compass do the following, place the compass point on the bottom left hand dot and the pencil on the right hand dot, now move the pencil up and around until you reach the same horizontal gridline you started from. Using a light touch extend the horizontal line to the left until it pass where the curved line stopped. Replace all of the pieces of the previous lessons and mark the top right corner, which must be outside of the curved line.

 

Now that the work is done we will move on to the reasoning or logic.

 

What do we have now? Remembering the 360° circle rule and how when that circle was cut up into pieces the inside corners still have to add up to 360°. With Lesson #1 and Lesson #3 there was four pieces of the same shape and size and so each inside angle was the same. For Lesson #2 there were two different shapes and so the end result was seeing two different inside angels with the same angle being opposite from one side to the other, yet the inside angles still must add up to 360°.

Returning to the graph paper it can be seen that the inside angles of the shape are inside a half circle and so the inside angles of the shape need only add up to half of 360° or 180°. Another ‘must be’ realization is for the area of the triangle. It is known that in Lesson #1 and Lesson #3 a square and a rectangle were created. By removing just one corner, our new shape became half of the original, and this halving applies to the area as well.

 

Lesson #5 – Adding it all up

Return to the graph paper with the times table then using a fresh page, create three new times tables. The first table need only end at the number 3 in both directions, the second table ends at 4 in both directions and the final table ends at 5 in both directions. Mark the bottom row of each table place a dot on the left hand side of the ones column and the right hand side of the furthest right hand column. Take a note of the lowest far right box; for example for the 3 table the number would be a 9 or simply count the squares in the multiplication area, when that level of work is preferred.

 

Task: take the bottom right hand corner of the two smaller squares and add them tighter and compare that the bottom right hand corner of the largest square.

 

Cut out theses three tables and arrange them on a fresh piece of graph paper getting the pairs of dots as close to each other without over lapping. It should be noted that when done corrected where the 3 table and the 4 table meet, the inside angle looks like a single corner of a square or a rectangle.

 

By now there should be plenty of scrap bits of paper around to use for hand done long multiplication. Extend the master times table up to 13 only focusing on the squares where the number is multiplied by itself, for example 11×11. Write down the row or column number, both are the same anyways, and next to it write down the answer found in the graph square under that number. Example: column 6 would show 36 and column 8 would 64. Returning the graph paper worksheet make a triangle using the columns 5, 12 and 13.

 

Hint: To get things right the 5 line and the 12 line will look like a single corner of a square or rectangle. Connect the far points of the 5 line and the 12 line and then take a scrap piece of graph paper and see if that line is 13 graph squares.

 

Task: refer to the master time table and take what would the bottom right hand corner of the two smaller squares and add them tighter and compare that the bottom right hand corner of the largest square.

 

What has been learned? Both physically and mathematically it has been shown that certain combinations of lengths can be used to make a triangle where one corner looks like a single inside angle of a square. Additionally, the side opposite the largest angle is the side that is the longest.

 

If the work for Lesson #5 was done accurately, the adding up the bottom right corner of the short sided squares equals the bottom right corner of the longest sided square.

 

Conclusion:

The Ionian Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras of Samos (570–490 BC) is credited for figured out Lesson #5 all on his own and that was almost 3,000 years ago at the time of this writing. The earlier lessons provided here were also sorted out by people working without the help of a teacher who already had the knowledge.

 

Some of the hard lessons learned here:

-          On a times table when a number is multiplied by itself the bottom right number forms a square when all of the graph-squares are the same size.

-          When a four sided enclosed shape is created from a circle the 360° can not be lost.

-          When a three side enclosed shape is created from a half circle the 180° can not be lost

-          When a three sided figure contains an inside angle that is 90° the other two inside angles MUST add up to 90°

-          The inside angle that is largest is opposite the side that is longest

-          By using the squares made up within the times table, the results of the two short sides equals square made by the longest side. Assuming the sides of a triangle are label by length as A,B and C, and that the symbol for the times table square is ² then to find the length of any side when the other two are given can be written as A² + B² = C²

 

This article has been presented for anyone who has basic knowledge of, or the acceptance of numbers and rudimentary addition and multiplication. For beginner learners this article can be used by those who instruct to better describe and demonstrate the ‘why’, while for middle learners this article can show the ‘why’ and for out of practice adults this article has been written to give a well guided review.

 

Future articles similar to this one are anticipated for other mathematical topics.

The Queen is Dead

 “Grief is the price we pay for love” – Queen Elizabeth II (Apr 21^st 1926- Sept 8^th, 2022)

 

Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith is dead.

 

The passing of Her Majesty has evoked emotions ranging from abject grief to an abundance of joy. The reader is encouraged to use their favourite search engine to seek out reactions to the death of Elizabeth II, because regardless of where one stands on the subject, all options are still on the table and open to embracement.

 

To set the tone and the tenor for what follows, the reader needs to understand that this author respected Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor not for her titles but for her actions and her staunch presentation of what it means to be British; the proverbial stiff upper lip in times of both stress and distress, which has been and will hopefully continue to be an integral part of being British. There is a certain level of trepidation on behalf of this author in that the stereotypical British stiff upper lip will fade way in a way resembling the mists leaving the Scottish moors.

 

In the year of our Lord 1952, a mere seven years after the end of the Second World War; Elizabeth Windsor, at the age of 25 became the Queen of England and all of her realms. From that day on, her path was set.  This was a job that she both accepted and embraced. For all families have at least one person who is difficult; add to that the eyes of an entire planet looking over your shoulder each and every day.

 

The current measure of a woman seems to demand a demonstration of manly traits and yet this author within the limited boundaries of his knowledge can’t recall a manly moment in the life of Elizabeth II. Being noble and regal was the task assigned and being noble and regal were the deeds of Elizabeth II, which she accomplished with poise.

 

Though she would eventually become the leader of the Commonwealth, Elizabeth II was already five years old at the time of the inception of the Commonwealth in December of 1931. For those readers who don’t like or embrace math, the Commonwealth will be a 91 year old institution come this December in the year 2022.

 

The creation of the Commonwealth of Nations was probably the largest pseudo-voluntary divestment of empirical power the world has seen to date. The word ‘pseudo’ was included above, as history shows that rebellious actions had taken place in many places. It has been said that the trigger is that final act of diplomacy and yet the shifting away from the days of Empire towards a Commonwealth brought the diplomats back to the table

.

Within the Commonwealth, member nations have autonomy over the selection of their own leaders. Additionally, member nations were given control over their own laws and other internal matters. The head of the British Royal family became a figurehead ruler for the Commonwealth nations, almost. That ‘almost’ came within the charter of the Commonwealth as it is the national heads of state who select the leader of the Commonwealth

 

There is another ‘almost’ that needs to be pointed out and that is the weight that Elizabeth II carried solely through the recognition of her majesty’s character. A quiet or not so quiet comment from the Queen was sure to make the occasional political head sit just a little straighter in their seat. The reverence and respect shown to Elizabeth II, was a testament to her character. Additionally, throughout much of the world when one mentioned ‘The Queen’ everyone knew the reference and no clarification was required. This is the legacy of The Queen.

 

The Queen is dead.

 

Charles, the new King has a very difficult set of tasks and expectations moving forward. Based solely on a biological coin toss, Charles has been thrust into a role that most people would dread once the realization of what the task entails sets in. We, the observers will look on with interest as those who railed against the figurehead of a Royal matriarchy shift gears to rail against a figurehead of a Royal patriarchy.

 

While the shift from a Matriarchy to a Patriarchy will have a considerable social impact indeed, the administrative impact will be felt for a significant amount of time because QC will be made KC, Regina will become Rex and in places like Canada, solders will now swear allegiance to ‘the King and all his rightful heirs’.

 

Perhaps the fact that this author took that Canadian military oath is the source for the soft spot for the Royal family being put on display here, whereas people from countries and cultures that suffered under the British may feel differently about the Royal family. When curdled cream is added to coffee and rises to the top, it does not make the coffee any better.  Hate for a society you just moved into is representative of that curdled cream.

 

If Charles can bring those who embrace and those who hate the Royal family to talk by finding some common ground, then perhaps he will create his own legacy and leave a shinier pair of shoes for the next in line to step into.

 

Long live the King. 

Who Left the Overton Window Open

For those not in the know, the Overton Window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. An example of this in Canada is where Blasphemous libel was a crime under section 296 of the Criminal Code R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46. Subsection (1), though there was Subsection (3) that provided a legal ‘out’ which stated "No person shall be convicted of an offence under this section for expressing in good faith and in decent language, or attempting to establish by argument used in good faith and conveyed in decent language, an opinion on a religious subject". This law along, with the ‘out’, was repealed on December 13^th 2018.

 

Staying in Canada for now, Bill C-16 received Royal Assent on June 19^th, 2017. The premise of Bill C-16 was to add ‘gender expression’ and ‘gender identity’ to both the Canadian Human Rights Act as protective grounds and to the Criminal Code with regard to hate propaganda, incitement to genocide, and aggravating factors in sentencing.

 

The two examples above show how the Overton Window has shifted away from ‘disagree politely’ towards ‘thou shalt not’ or even ‘thou must’ when it comes to freedom of speech. Speech is probably the most significant aspect of being human. Humans use their own speech to convey their own ideas and the speech of others is used to try to understand the thoughts and ideas of others.

 

Anti-speech or the curtailing of speech are both synonyms for the same action, which falls under the title of censorship, are bad because those actions stifle any exchange of ideas and without the exchange of ideas there can be no possibility of a mutually agreeable compromise. Without mutually agreeable compromise there can be only two eventual outcomes and those are WAR or SUBMISSION and seeing as submission has historically eventually led to war via revolution, it seems there is actually only one inevitable outcome. This leaves the author to wonder why anyone would encourage censorship unless they don’t want compromise.

Section 2

Moving on to another pain in the Overton Window; here we are talking about the UN v. Nationalism. A concerted effort over the last seventy-five plus years there has been in the works an effort to take down the idea of nation states. Post World War Two (WW2) the United Nations (UN) was formed in October of 1945 with the purpose of maintaining international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. While these goals were at the time laudable, it is the opinion of this author that the UN has failed in the original mandate with the exception of that last talking point.

 

The Nationalism v. UN argument was replicated with the formation of the European Union (EU). These two entities have a commonality in that these institutions’ leaders are not elected and when leadership is not elected, leadership falls outside the realm of consequence. Eight hundred plus years ago, 1215 AD, the one and only King John of England signed the Magna Carta bringing into law the principle that no one, not even the King of England, is above the law. The word ‘democracy’ means, ‘power from the people’ and it now seems that most of the people today have less power over their own lives than those of their fathers and grandfathers had.

 

 

The emergent path, in the Western world, if left on its current course will rip the Magna Carta asunder along with all derived documents. The Roman Manorial system was the basis for the European Feudal system; both systems were based on a pact between the land owner and those who did don’t own land also know as the commoners; the pact was that if the commoner stayed on the land and worked the land then the owner, who lorded over the commoners, would provide protection. Through the passage of time and wars nation states started to form and so Kings and Queens became a thing throughout Europe and in the early years the only one a King or Queen answered to would be God; and this is what the Magna Carta sought to change.

 

These hierarchical governments are easily described as an obtuse triangle with a very broad base. England, via the Magna Carta and other legal moves, became the look-to nation for many governments around the world. England could not shake its feudal history, hence why there are a House of Commons and a House of Lords. The USA borrowing the British system had to change the names for reasons, hence why there are The Congress and the Senate; if it turns out that Congress is based on the word congregation and the title Senate was borrowed from Roman politics, then perhaps the US didn’t do so well at separating Church and State after all.

Section 3

Moving on to the next Overton pain, we will be the addressing of how overtly sexualized key Western societies have become. Societies that last long enough will cycle through times of prudence and times of excess. As the known world, from the Western perspective grew, the impact of these cycles also grew. An obvious example came from the end of WWI (1914-1920) is the ‘Roaring Twenties’ in the US and around the same time in Germany there was a surge in ‘partying’ that included a rise in drinking, cross-dressing, and homosexuality for both sexes. It is the opinion of this author that similar activities were being performed in the US though much of that information was scrubbed from the historical record in order to maintain the illusion of Protestant prudence.

 

World War II (1939-1945) brought an end to the earlier period of excess and post WWII saw a return to prudence across much of the Western world and beyond. The return to prudence, most likely due to the shortages incurred during war time coupled with the technological advancements such as rocketry and with many countries attempting to present a strong face to a world entrenched in a cold war; this lasted 25 years and a little bit.

 

The 1960s brought forth another milestone moment for the world was the introduction of the birth control pill. The feminists of the day leveraged ‘the pill’ by telling women that they could have the same ‘freedom’ as men in the realm of promiscuity. The slight of the feminists hand, intentional or not, was that women while free socially became fiscally taxable because there was social pressure that women could only be considered successful by doing what men do over doing what men can’t. Item of note - since the 1970s, studies have shown that the happiness of women has in general been in decline.

 

Perhaps it was simply frustration or the masculinization of women or a combination of both, Western societies started to socially embrace the acceptance of homosexuality after the mostly peaceful protests which started in 1969 and carried on into the 1970s with the Gay Liberation March on June 28^th 1970 in New York city. That first march, of about 250 men, was morphed into the Pride Parades of today.

NOTE: This author makes no assertion towards a full understanding of the homosexual community or the politics that surround that community. This author sees the up and coming demise for the publicity side of the Pride movement; though unlike the Climate Disaster people, this author will not provide a date on an ever sliding scale as to when this change will come.

 

The Gay Liberation March simply sought public acceptance and an end to prosecution in both the legal and public domains. On the other side of the US the Personal Rights in Defense and Education (PRIDE), a political organization was already well established since their start in 1966 Los Angeles. Though PRIDE as an organization dissolved in 1968 due to backlash against their radical approach and occasionally violent actions; it would not be a surprise if the current ‘Pride Parade’ events are a shout out to that earlier movement.

 

When Pierre Elliot Trudeau said ‘There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation’ he was correct; though for some within the homosexual portion of society were still not satisfied and wanted to bring their bedroom out to the street. Many understand the concept of ‘strength in numbers’ and while historically that phrase has only been accurate in peaceful protest and the violence that may follow. The homosexual community made the mistake of going beyond any mandate of acceptance or normalization, for some within their ranks now seeks reverence; there is no reason why a homosexual lifestyle should be celebrated any more or less than a heterosexual one. Returning to the numbers game, it seems that each year or two a new group or sub-group is added to the roster of participants and eventually one of these groups will be outside of the Overton Window, thus collapsing the whole effort.

 

In recent years there was a push by some to add the letter P to the already over flowing cup of alphabet soup. The P was rightly rejected as it stood for Pedophilia. Not to be deterred from losing out on public support the pedophilic-lobby did a rebranding exercise by converting their label to MAPs (Minor Attracted Persons). Another term that has recently come into play is TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist); this though time the title was not self imposed, it was awarded to some feminists by the Trans-lobbyists.

Conclusion

Andrew Breitbart posited that ‘politics is down stream from culture’, a statement which is mostly true. This claim is made because politicians have a dual role; the first role is to protect the society while the second role being to promote the wishes of that same society. One of the ugliest heads in any society is lobbying; as a well funded enthusiastic group can steer the perceptions of the political class, thus skewing impressions.

 

Recent events and the reporting of from many News outlets, has lifted the preverbal rug, thus exposing what some people wanted swept under the public’s perception. There has been for a few years now a concerted effort to introduce sex to young minors and racism to young adults. It must be realized that there is a difference between a ‘government with prying eyes’ a ‘government that states- show me the man and I’ll show you the crime’ and those who knowingly hide their actions as they stepped outside the Overton Window.