JBT's RL #4: Building mental toughness, simplicity & academic tenure, thinking clearly by writing, and law & order

“Reminding yourself of the worst isn’t pessimism. Buying life insurance doesn’t mean you want to die; it means you realistically recognize it can happen and you want to be prepared. So Marcus reminded himself every morning that people were going to be difficult. That way it wouldn’t surprise him, and he wouldn’t get frustrated and just tell them all to go to hell. He could move right on to negotiating.”

“…For an academic judged by his colleagues, rather than the bank manager of his local branch (or his tax accountant), a mountain giving birth to a mouse, after huge labor, is not a very good thing. They prefer the mouse to give birth to a mountain; it is the perception of sophistication that matters. The more complicated, the better; the simple doesn’t get you citations, H-values or some such metric du jour that brings the respect of the university administrators as they can understand that stuff but not the substance of the real work. The only academics who escape the burden of complication-for-complication’s sake are the great mathematicians and physicists (and from what I hear this is becoming harder and harder in today’s funding and ranking environment).”

“In the 1840s, a Law and Order Party formed in Rhode Island out of a coalition of rural Democrats and Whigs. The party aimed to keep a colonial-era charter signed by King Charles II which limited suffrage to white men with assets totaling at least $134. After a renegade election bypassed the existing legislature and installed a body of representatives elected by white men of all incomes, the Law and Order Rhode Islanders insisted on retaining power on the terms laid out in the 1663 royal charter. With two separate legislatures and governors in place—one the result of expanded voting, and one standing against it—the Law and Order government barricaded the state house to block armed supporters of the People’s Party. After plotting a military raid on an arsenal, the shadow governor who fought for expanded white suffrage was captured, tried, and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor and solitary confinement. (He was eventually freed.)”

This podcast explains how the sanctuary city movement got started in the US. It’s a fascinating tale of blowback caused by failed US foreign policy, corrupt third world governments, and how the US government used spies to infiltrate sanctuary churches. It doesn’t matter what side you are on the debate of sanctuary cities, this is a great podcast to listen to.

Jordan Peterson is known for his battle in Canada regarding gender pronouns. While I don’t want to focus on that, I’ve skipped the interview to a discussion on the importance of conquering our inner demons, the battle between order & chaos, and the intellectual yet idiot phenomenon.