Honey, You Never Write Anymore

Sorry! Been busy! 

Also, it's hard to find something to write about. When I go through all the news items I want to discuss, it's invariably really angsty: rape; assault; economic inequalities; poor access to healthcare; abortion rights; women's rights; mistreatment of youth; lack of proper education for vast swathes of humanity; dumpster babies; homophobia; the failings of capitalism; the failings of *-ism; the impression of the cultural superiority of the United States; wiretapping; inappropriate confiscation of evidence by police; unnecessary force; shitty proprietary security models; people behaving badly.

Sometimes, I feel as though I'm trapped in a Sherri Tepper novel.

Where, every now and again, in-between snatches of people being God-awful to one another, there's a cute photo of a turtle looking incredibly happy while eating a strawberry. Just for that surreal anthropomorphize-everything montage-like feel. 
 
Why am I seemingly obsessed with all this dreary stuff? Well. It's pretty easy. I'm an engineer. Moreover, I somehow managed to become an engineer while simultaneously being exposed to a constant analysis of ethics in engineering and the ethos (or megalomaniacal pathos) of being "an ethical leader of tomorrow," as a kind of noblesse oblige. Basically, if I see something that's non-optimal, I want to fix it. Solutions require that you first understand the problem. So, I have, in the past, written about issues that I'm trying to process and understand, in the hope that analysis will lead to a potential solution. Analysis -> Design -> Implementation -> Win! However, endless internet debates (or additional blog postings, or whatever) expend a lot of energy.

For instance, I could write a post on the prevalence of rape culture (aka the notion that women are responsible for keeping themselves for being raped, as opposed to the idea that men are responsible for not going around raping other people). Now, this could serve several functions. It would force me to do research on what "rape culture," is and read up on the various viewpoints. It would certainly increase my blood pressure and cause me to get really angry on the behalf of other humans - which is a negative effect as outright anger is rarely productive, but, potentially might lead to some good activism. Or, my post might function as a review article for anyone who happens to stumble across this blog. If one person reads my writing and changes their behavior in a positive way, I could say, "Hey, it's worth it!" just like I think it's invariably worth it to say "Thank you!" to the bus driver on your daily commute. Paying it forward, being a reasonable human being, and all that. 

Or -- I could read posts like the ones from Fugitivus, and listen instead of talking. 

Comme ci, comme ca.


So, for the past year, I've been reading and forming opinions without feeling the need to graphomanically (or grapho-maniacally) broadcast the process by which I have formed my opinions. I've been working on projects.  I have a job wherein the outcome of my work might (some day) improve the quality of life for people I will never meet (which is a life requirement).


Do I still care about people behaving badly? Yes. I think people should expend the effort to be excellent to each other and to not live at another's expense. If you can not overcome the biases and circumstances of your life to be a good person, despite limited resources or sociological competition, what's the point of having free will?