Division

If you are the sensitive sort that gets easily offended, I suggest you just pretend this post doesn't exist.


I will start by stating that I am a Caucasian Male of Christian denomination although of a decidedly offbeat brand (LDS) and am part of the so called 'Middle Class.' By almost all common measures I am the plain vanilla of social science. I am putting this at the top of this post as a basis for my comments. I accept that my viewpoint may be tinted by who I am but it doesn't make my questions or observations less valid.

There are two sets of words that have been given skewed connotations in the past few decades. It may be said that both sets are part of the same class called by most, Political Correctness. Within PC are the 'good' and the 'bad' word sets. Instead of the slurs and epithets which do deserve to die from disuse, I am talking about words that describe concepts.

On the bad side are words like discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice. They are seen emblems of rampant social ills. But discrimination take many forms. If in your head you just said to yourself something like, "He doesn't know what discrimination is like because he is a white guy," you have just practiced discrimination. It's OK though, I'm not offended. Everyone practices discrimination at some level. I know I discriminate when it comes to picking which checkout line the go through because I believe I can predict with some accuracy which lane will be faster based on the number of people, how many items they seem to have and a snapshot observation of how efficient the cashier seems to be. I take this limited observational data and select a course of action that I think will be of the most benefit to me. Ta-Da, Discrimination.

Similarly, prejudice and stereotypes are considered irredeemable but at the root they are only descriptive of the practice of assigning attributes and values to subjects (people, places etc.) based on superficial observations. When I think that a guy wearing a camouflage outfit while shopping in Wal-mart must be a hunter and therefore a firearms enthusiast I am using stereotypes. Interestingly, just because I have no proof doesn't mean I am automatically wrong. Stereotypes have their basis in something concrete. I may have observed that the hunters I knew wore camo wherever they went. I think the important thing to remember about prejudice and stereotype is that I must accept that I could be completely wrong about any given individual.

On the other side of the PC coin are the good words like tolerance, respect and diversity. But does not tolerance mean I am tolerating something; allowing an irritation however minor for some greater good? Would it be fair to say that I am discriminating against the irritation of the moment in order to obtain a perceived maximum benefit? Isn't respect the prejudice of faith and trust based on some association with prior observations? Are diversity initiatives by their nature divisive? We can segment our population by as many labels as can be dreamed of. If I say that what this project needs is a female perspective, isn't that a prejudiced statement that an woman has a different perspective than me? Would I be wrong in that prejudice?

I think that saying a given ratio of Men to Women or Whites and Asians in an organization is wrong is the kind of discrimination that should be gotten rid of. Shouldn't we tolerate all monocultural groups even if it is of a flavor not in vogue at the moment? I think we can cross more boundaries by emphasizing what makes us alike rather than what makes us different. Let's advance the cause of the breathing humans club because I think we can agree that we don't like brain-eating zombies. I know that's a prejudiced statement but I just couldn't help myself.

The Joy of Creation

I like to make things (except blog entries). For as long as I can remember, I have derived a special pleasure in the creation of objects. But, from cutout snowflakes and hand-drawn embellishments on notes to Lego creations (usually starships) and wooden infantry rifles; I have found that the happiness peaks at the point of final assembly. The shine starts to fade almost immediately and continues to the point of eventually no longer being interesting. I do not regret this, I simply recognize the tendency. My daughter, Rachel, is similarly possessed. Intensely focused on the project at hand until it is done after which the excitement slowly drains away.

She had recently taken up loom knitting from a church group activity making newborn caps. I realize that this may not seem like 'real' knitting to some but it has its own process that needs to be followed. To further her interests we had gotten her an assortment of round looms for Christmas and I, of course, had to try my hand at it. I soon ended up with a slightly too tall black cap that fit more snuggly than anticipated because I had forgotten my head size is an outlier to the norm. I had planned to wear it but haven't yet even though we are in the depths of winter. I've considered making another one better sized but without a significant change in process or material, I'm not sure if I could muster the interest.

Another recent project was to design and build a floating arm trebuchet to have fun with Doug's scout troop flinging innocent pumpkins to their spectacular demise. This has the potential for some amount of longevity because of the built in variability. One can affect the trajectory by changing factors such as the counterweight, the length of the sling and the weight of the projectile and each of these changes modifies the flight in their own way. Add to that the tweaks of stabilizing the platform and reducing friction and my enjoyment is prolonged because we never really arrive at the completed stage of development.

I have also been enjoying using Google's SketchUp tool to make models of the trebuchet and our house. I have been measuring everything (until the snow came) to try and get it exactly rendered. My goal is to use this model as a sort of sandbox for planned modifications such as new siding or additions to visualize how they would look prior to jumping into the project. I'll probably use it to sketch other upcoming projects such as Doug's loft bed and a engine mount/test stand for type 1 VW engines.

Just sitting here and writing calls to mind many other projects which wait for me such as modifying Patrick's train tables to be double-decker, planting the blueberry hedge and the garage pergola in just the near term alone. I guess at least I am unlikely to run out of things to do.