Today's intelligence: Though a court decision on a deal that could end the fight over Rio Grande water distribution between New Mexico and Texas is months away, state officials recognize the need to spend millions to cut groundwater pumping below Elephant Butte. Plus: Proposed changes to the nomination and qualifications of state Game Commissioners move ahead at the Roundhouse.
I return to the idea of entropy, this time as a measure of the increasing randomness in the universe, and I relate this increase to our gradual loss of social cohesion under the influence of individualism, to the breakdown of language in our culture, and to our carelessness about Covid.
I continue my look at the sources of our present cultural impasse by examining in detail the incompatibility between an egalitarian democracy and individualism by examining the notions of rights and choice and how non-democratic hierarchies promote individualism.
The exposition of recent changes in reading and writing leads to this excursion on a breakdown of what we used to think was the social function of language. That postulate is discussed by analyzing the comments to this series of articles as symptomatic of that breakdown.
Festivities include a Polar Bear Plunge, 20+ arts and crafts vendors, local food, displays and demonstrations by the Sierra County Rock and Gem Society, 1,000 luminaria, historic Damsite tours, and music. Admission is free
I've weighed the way three institutions have historically unshaped our idea of democracy as a model of human relations. I now turn to look at how these cultural tendencies impact public discourse and our apparent inability to settle any public issue.
The validation of a personal, individualistic point of view in American culture to the exclusion of an objective, shared, and collective perspective constantly puts us at odds with one another because individuals normally disagree in judgement, interpretations, and opinions.
Continuing my discussion of our turn towards individual points of view to the exclusion of larger concerns, I propose that in the last half century, American education has focused on student subjectivity pushing the culture towards individuation rather than cohesion.
Continuing the series "Assaying Entropy," I continue to develop a description of how the original idea of democracy in America was altered due to the influence of undemocratic structures. The last essay dealt with corporate hierarchy. In the present piece, I discuss the military influence, militarism, and the frontier mentality.
The Constitution created a government around the arguments about democracy, but it did not resolve those conflicts. The resulting ambiguity allowed traditional hierarchical, undemocratic structures, institutions, and values to inform American life. Those hierarchical ideas still dominate American social thinking today resulting in a complex and often self-contradictory identity.
Those of us who call southwestern New Mexico our home, are very fortunate to have two very special places totally over 755,000 acres just a short distance from home. The Gila and Aldo Leopold Wildernesses are wild, rugged and nearby.
Looking back over the series of essays called "Assaying Entropy," I summarize what has been said: why the topics so far covered are a continuous investigation of loss and time, how that process of thinking got to the question of democracy; and where that may be going.
