Jesus vs Trump: the lawn sign contest

Just back from a 3500 mile road trip to Bar Harbor, Maine. The Road Scholar hiking week was great fun (and even educational) and my friend Heidi and I enjoyed playing tourist at Niagara Falls, exploring Fort Ticonderoga, and taking the Express Ferry across Lake Michigan. 

But a road trip is about what you encounter when driving. On the way out, I set GoogleMaps to “avoid highways” and the route it suggested took us off the interstates and on to the smaller roads - even gravel roads. I’ve written before about the pleasures of “Travelling the Blue Highways.” This journey through 13 states was lovely. Fall colors were dominant - northern Pennsylvania was especially brilliant. Old houses and small towns were charming. We stayed in locally owned hotels and ate at local restaurants as much as possible. And although I brought an audiobook to listen to and my new car has Sirius XM, we spent most of the time simply in quiet observation.

One simple game we played was to determine who was more popular in the more rural areas of the states through which we passed - Jesus or Trump. The lawn signs were plentiful and there were even a few billboards praising these messiahs. My impression is that the support for the two men/deities was pretty much equal - however most of the Trump signs were still from the 2020 election.

The signage made me wonder if belief in Jesus and The Donald is somehow similar. Folks looking for someone or something in which to believe rather than a representative of a concrete set of values.

But thinking of such things too hard would have spoiled the laid back charm of the drive. So I focused on the brilliant red maples dotting the autumn landscapes. 

Good to be home.

For news and information - don’t use Facebook

I rarely get angry. That is good because I don’t like being angry. Anger is simply the result of someone or something else getting the better of a situation. I like to win the control over my emotions, the control over my physical reactions, the control over my vocabulary and responses.

Reading the news rarely, if ever, makes me angry. I am often saddened, frustrated, bemused, curious, and incredulous by the events of the day. True, most of the front page headlines don’t impact me directly. As an old middle-class white guy reports of racism, sexism, violence, epidemics, lack of social support structures, climate change, shootings, homelessness, and drunk driving arrests, while concerning, don’t put me in a rage.

But part of keeping rational might also be choosing where I get my news. I read two daily papers. I have a “GoogleNews” feed. I usually watch the local news broadcast in the evening and tune into NPR while driving . I read Newsweek, The Economist, and Kiplingers magazines. 

What I do NOT do is use Facebook or Twitter as a source of news. I would say I am a rather conservative user of all social media. My Facebook “friends” are only family and personal friends who know they will get their butts kicked off my account if they become too political. If political or news related advertising appears, I ask that it not be shown again. Sadly, ads for senior living centers and adult diapers have taken up that space. Do Facebook’s algorithms know more about me than I know about myself?

I probably spend over an hour or more a day reading and listening to mainstream news. And maybe 20 minutesor fewer a day scanning Facebook. The ratio is good for my emotional well-being.

Like any technology, social media can be wisely or foolishly used. How much time do you spend on Facebook each day. And more importantly, is the time spent making you a happier or angrier person?

Machines vs humans: machines have won

The most vivid dystopian movies in which machines threaten humans tell of a hostile race of evil robots intent on wiping out humanity. Terminator and I Robot come to mind. But naked agression and physical violence is not how this machine vs human competition will play out.

I took a longish road trip in my new car this past week. It's about a 300 mile drive up to the Gunflint trail which gave me plenty of time to try out some new “features” on my 2021 Subaru Crosstrek that I picked up last week. When using cruise control, my car now slows down when following a car ahead too closely. It bings at me and pulls me center if I drift over into another lane. It flashes at me when a car is in my blind spot. I did not need to use this, but supposedly the car will break harder if it senses I am going to run into something. Pretty amazing.

But also pretty disturbing in some ways. I now have to pay less attention to my driving and think less about safe practices while doing so. Hey, if the car will keep me from running into the guardrail along the road, why can’t I program my Sirius XM to play golden oldies while going 80 mph?

Cars have for a long time been getting “smarter,” allowing drivers to get dumber. Automatic transmissions, power windows, keyless entry and start, climate control, auto headlights, remote starting, and, of course, cruise control allow the driver to simply not have to think all that hard. No more lessons in “Pump the gas pedal once. Put one foot on the clutch. Slightly depress the gas pedal. Turn the key - but not for too long!” Now it is “Put your foot on the brake and push the button.

Automotive technology is not the only one of course which has lessened the need for humans to exercise their intelligence. Who doesn’t love spell checkers with auto correct. (I hope Subaru's safety tech is more accurate than auto correct.) Who needs to cook when a microwave is available? GoogleMaps keeps me from actually having to think where I need to turn next. It’s far less mentally taxing to watch a Netflix miniseries than to pick up a thoughtful book. Why read the newspaper when all the important stuff is on Facebook and Twitter? Balancing a checkbook, paying monthly bills by check, doing long division, placing a long distance call - you guys used to do that stuff?

Machines will not destroy us with laser guns or long metallic fangs. Instead, they will continue to dumb us down until we have only the smarts and skills enough to float in a lounger like the humans in Wall-E. And we will become too complacent to even reproduce.

 I would like to think that the thinking time saved by our devices might be put to more productive and creative mental efforts. 

But as this blog post shows, I wouldn’t bet on it.