Tr1v14l Pursu1ts: Maybe this will cut down on those annoying songs blaring from loudspeakers

Maxims, rules of thumb and other observations on human cognition and sociocultural affectations

This will be added to on an irregular basis...

What is said to humans directly is received with skepticism and considered with dubiousness while that which is heard in passing, especially that which most conforms to their mentality or prejudices, is readily believed.
Humans have a certain cognitive latency between exposure to new information or experiences and the ability to think dispassionately and intellectually about it.
Humans have a certain cognitive spectrum starting with the moment of exposure to new information or experiences and ending with some point at which the thing is effectively "in the past" for them.
This cognitive spectrum is linked to the emotional process often referred to as shock, anger, denial and acceptance.
The more and faster information or experiences are presented to people and the closer the quarters and the lesser the distance between people, the more their early reactions in the passionate emotional stage are reflected back to them in the manner of responses to those reactions from others in light of those responses.
The more outrages which are suffered without sufficient time to allow emotional bleed-off, the farther the bar for subsequent reaction and outrage are pushed, and the more further events must progress before reaction and outrage.
It is possible for serious detriments to eventually sit below this threshold for long enough for their damaging effects to build and multiply until their entire society undergoes some reactive convulsion.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Maybe this will cut down on those annoying songs blaring from loudspeakers

Push on to inspect ice cream vendors' pasts - USATODAY.com

A growing number of communities across the USA are moving to prevent sexual predators from becoming ice cream truck drivers.

While I can understand the (overly simplistic and utterly reactionary if not totally crackpot) reasoning here, it does have a problem:

Such laws can go too far, said Jennifer Ring, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the Dakotas.

"If you're throwing everyone in the same bucket, you're really restricting these people who have paid their debt to society to go on and be productive citizens," Ring said.

Am I the only one who thinks that we're more afraid of someone giving a kid a handjob than MURDERING them?

Am I the only one who thinks this all sounds like the old witch hunting years?

Am I the only one noticing the Christian idea of turning the other cheek and forgiving is completely absent in these initiatives and yet the most vociferously ostensibly protective of children are fire and brimstone bible thumpers?

Am I the only one seeing that we're creating an entire class of people it is okay to discriminate against, treat as sub-human, and otherwise abuse and no one will care?

Am I the only one seeing a total lack of proportion?

Am I the only one comparing now to the sexual revolution which DID involve America's teens and wondering what happened in between?

Am I the only one discomfited by the current hysteria?

Am I the only one feeling like I'm being manipulated?