Blame it on the Romans

Beware the Ides of March.

That would be today.
Beware of today.

This is funny.

and so is this... kind of.

Head and Heart

Articles like this make me wish I had time for an anthropology class:

The New Humanism

By DAVID BROOKS

Over the course of my career, I’ve covered a number of policy failures. When the Soviet Union fell, we sent in teams of economists, oblivious to the lack of social trust that marred that society. While invading Iraq, the nation’s leaders were unprepared for the cultural complexities of the place and the psychological aftershocks of Saddam’s terror.

We had a financial regime based on the notion that bankers are rational creatures who wouldn’t do anything stupid en masse. For the past 30 years we’ve tried many different ways to restructure our educational system — trying big schools and little schools, charters and vouchers — that, for years, skirted the core issue: the relationship between a teacher and a student.

I’ve come to believe that these failures spring from a single failure: reliance on an overly simplistic view of human nature. We have a prevailing view in our society — not only in the policy world, but in many spheres — that we are divided creatures. Reason, which is trustworthy, is separate from the emotions, which are suspect. Society progresses to the extent that reason can suppress the passions.

This has created a distortion in our culture. We emphasize things that are rational and conscious and are inarticulate about the processes down below. We are really good at talking about material things but bad at talking about emotion.

When we raise our kids, we focus on the traits measured by grades and SAT scores. But when it comes to the most important things like character and how to build relationships, we often have nothing to say. Many of our public policies are proposed by experts who are comfortable only with correlations that can be measured, appropriated and quantified, and ignore everything else.

Yet while we are trapped within this amputated view of human nature, a richer and deeper view is coming back into view. It is being brought to us by researchers across an array of diverse fields: neuroscience, psychology, sociology, behavioral economics and so on.

This growing, dispersed body of research reminds us of a few key insights. First, the unconscious parts of the mind are most of the mind, where many of the most impressive feats of thinking take place. Second, emotion is not opposed to reason; our emotions assign value to things and are the basis of reason. Finally, we are not individuals who form relationships. We are social animals, deeply interpenetrated with one another, who emerge out of relationships.

This body of research suggests the French enlightenment view of human nature, which emphasized individualism and reason, was wrong. The British enlightenment, which emphasized social sentiments, was more accurate about who we are. It suggests we are not divided creatures. We don’t only progress as reason dominates the passions. We also thrive as we educate our emotions.

When you synthesize this research, you get different perspectives on everything from business to family to politics. You pay less attention to how people analyze the world but more to how they perceive and organize it in their minds. You pay a bit less attention to individual traits and more to the quality of relationships between people.

You get a different view of, say, human capital. Over the past few decades, we have tended to define human capital in the narrow way, emphasizing I.Q., degrees, and professional skills. Those are all important, obviously, but this research illuminates a range of deeper talents, which span reason and emotion and make a hash of both categories:

Attunement: the ability to enter other minds and learn what they have to offer.

Equipoise: the ability to serenely monitor the movements of one’s own mind and correct for biases and shortcomings.

Metis: the ability to see patterns in the world and derive a gist from complex situations.

Sympathy: the ability to fall into a rhythm with those around you and thrive in groups.

Limerence: This isn’t a talent as much as a motivation. The conscious mind hungers for money and success, but the unconscious mind hungers for those moments of transcendence when the skull line falls away and we are lost in love for another, the challenge of a task or the love of God. Some people seem to experience this drive more powerfully than others.

When Sigmund Freud came up with his view of the unconscious, it had a huge effect on society and literature. Now hundreds of thousands of researchers are coming up with a more accurate view of who we are. Their work is scientific, but it directs our attention toward a new humanism. It’s beginning to show how the emotional and the rational are intertwined.

I suspect their work will have a giant effect on the culture. It’ll change how we see ourselves. Who knows, it may even someday transform the way our policy makers see the world.

__________________________________________________

Of course we are emotional creatures. Marina told us that already.





And the Hoodie Allen version. 





P.S. I did not know he was white... like, super white. I feel deceived.

Firmes y valientes en la lid

Did you watch the devotional last night? If you missed out, then here it is:

It's easy to get caught up in everything. What are we to do with Libya? And Wisconsin? Did you hear about the girl in West Wendover? We have to get out of debt sometime soon. And they really might cut funding to NPR. And the end of the semester is in 5 weeks. And there is not enough time for everything and not enough determination to use that time wisely. 

But, in a round about way, we already have the means to address what troubles our heart.  If the solution to the world's problems is the gospel of Jesus Christ; then shouldn't that be what we are focused on? Shouldn't we be sharing it? Sometimes chances to talk about the things we believe will spring up naturally. Most of the time, they probably won't, and we'll have to take the initiative. Either way, we need to be prepared for when that chance does come. We have to be brave about it. It's funny how we are all kind of afraid of each other. We really shouldn't be. There are so many people that are trying to follow Christ, like these kids. We are more alike than we are different. We chose to come here. That makes us all allies, even if it doesn't seem like it at times. 

We're howling forever, oh oh

I like songs about wolves.

You know Oh Land? I feel like I am kindred spirits with Nanna Øland Fabricius. Like when you see people, and you're like "We could be related... we are probably far off cousins". That's how I felt about her. Turns out I am probably right, cause she's Danish, duh. And her bangs look just like mine when I don't blow dry my hair. I always thought they looked kind of goofy, but she makes them look cool.





TV on the Radio is one of the best in the world. When I got back to from my mission, I got rid of their album, "Return to Cookie Mountain" because I felt that the above track was too sexy. Glad I grew out of that phase. Though you have to admit, it is pretty darn sexy.





James Vincent McMarrow sure is lovable. I like this type of music. Which reminds me. Guess what I'm NOT going to today. Punch Brothers. I am working standby up at Aspen Grove...all day and all night. I think that makes me my own one man wolf pack. Whoever you are dear reader, I hope that you will make the journey up to Ogden to see them play tonight. They are steller.

Once upon a Winter:

More photos that needed a digital home:

Jana had her 21st birthday this December (also known as Janapalooza). To celebrate, we invented a selection of virgin fancy drinks. Aspen girls don't need alcohol to get tipsy. We are silly enough as it is.

Christmas with the Devine's

We celebrate Christmas like true Americans. Classy and Commercialized. 

This is me, happy to have paneton and ready to make hot chocolate just like we ate everyday during the holidays while I was in Peru. I tried to look civilized...

...but this is how I really felt inside!!!!!

Cheers

We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day with KFC, of course. 

Then my birthday was next!

My favorite chocolate cake from Bakers of Normandy. We couldn't find birthday candles. Luckily Tianna and Allison had a yummy scented candle that worked just as well.

Why being a Spanish major is awesome/awful.

Not one, but several of my classmates bear a passing resemblance to Ezra Koenig:

I  know. SUPER distracting. 

Once Upon a Summer

Here are some pics that I meant to post from the summertime before the tragic multiple-personality-malfunction that has all but paralyzed my camera.

Once upon a summer, I made blueberry pie...

It didn't turn out so well.

 Then a giant bug tried to get into my house:

Ingrid and I went to  YSA activity for my ward at Pineview Resevoir. As we were driving back, we saw a sign for this monastery and decided to check it out. I bought some honey. The drive home was beautiful.

I love Utah

Oh you know, it's just the Jazz bear taking a nice joy ride.

Summer was over too soon. I'm already dreaming of this summer, even though there is two feet of snow outside my window.