Purchasing is Voting
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks was sitting on the seat of a local bus in Montgomery, the United States. When the bus operator commanded this African American lady with a radiant personality to stand up and give up her seat for a white male passenger, she refused to move. Police arrested her for this action.
On December 5, African Americans in the area stopped using the bus. Some of them walked to school or work. Others found different means of transportation, such as mules or horse-drawn buggies. The bus was empty. This was the start of the Montgomery movement.
They stopped paying for the bus to show that they don’t support the corrupt system that holds the idea of segregation.
By the same token, we support the business and its vision when we buy products or services from them.
When we buy clothes from Forever21, we support the unsustainable business that destroys the Earth. When purchasing food at McDonald’s, we support unhealthy foods, animal abuse, and dangerous meatpacking jobs. When you buy underwear from Victoria’s Secret, you support the distorted and unattainable image of beauty.
We tend to judge our influence only by the first consequence. We won’t imagine destroying the Earth when we buy clothes from the fast fashion business. But we are. We help their environmentally unfriendly and unsustainable system to survive.
Purchasing is voting. One vote from us adds up to a significant change. Each vote counts. We possess the purchasing power to change how our society works. So use it wisely when you execute your purchasing power.
On December 20, 1956, about a year after Mrs. Rosa Parks was arrested, Montgomery city passed an ordinance authorizing African American bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they chose on buses.
Dehumanization
The center of discrimination is thinking of others as less than humans. Once we apply a label to other people, we take away their humanity.
We call people on the street homeless instead of their name. We call prisoners with numbers instead of their names.
Goodhart’s Law
Goodhart’s Law is a principle named after economist Charles Goodhart, which states that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” In other words, when people start focusing too much on achieving a particular metric, they may start manipulating or distorting the metric in ways that make it lose its original meaning and usefulness.
When Hanoi, Vietnam was under French rule, the colonial regime created a bounty program that paid a reward for each rat killed. To obtain the bounty, people would provide the severed rat tail. Colonial officials, however, began noticing rats in Hanoi with no tails. The Vietnamese rat catchers would capture rats, lop off their tails, and then release them back into the sewers so that they could procreate and produce more rats, thereby increasing the rat catchers’ revenue.
The government implemented a metric of “# of rat’s tails”. Once this became policy the goal became “create rat tails” not “fix rat overpopulation”.
Learned Helplessness
A person or an animal with learned helplessness feels helpless and unable to control a given situation. This is usually the result of experiencing repeated negative events which lead to a belief that their actions will be futile.
In India, when elephant trainers catch a baby elephant, they tie its legs with a rope to a post. This baby elephant will struggle for days trying to break free and it eventually gives up when it learns that it’s useless. When it grows up these trainers keep it tied using the same rope and even though it’s now strong enough to break free and escape the elephant stands around waiting for the trainers because it’s learned that it’s meaningless. This elephant has developed learned helplessness. Despite having the power to change its situation, it’s learned to feel helpless instead because of the past experience.
What’s your mental rope?
Standard Pace Is for Chumps
“Individual talent is too sporadic and unpredictable to be allowed any important part in the organization of society. Social systems which endure are built on the average person who can be trained to occupy any position adequately if not brilliantly.”
Stuart Chase, the Proper Study of Mankind
In his blog post, Derek Sivers said: “He taught me “the standard pace is for chumps” - that the system is designed so anyone can keep up.”
The program for the mass is designed for everybody to catch up. K-12 education is for chumps. A four year college program is for chumps. Skip years. The default audiobook/podcast/video speed is for chumps. Double the speed. “The estimated time for reading” in blog posts is for chumps. Start from the end and read faster.
There should be no speed limit. Great people have found a way to go faster when others have told them no.
Alexander Hamilton asked the president of his college if he could complete his studies in only two years after he heard of another young man, Aaron Burr, who graduated from the College of New Jersey at sixteen. When the president refused, he enrolled in another school, King’s College in New York City, which is now called Columbia University.
The Old Man Lost His Horse
Once upon a time, there was a Chinese farmer who lost his horse. The horse ran away. Neighbors told him that it was unfortunate. But the farmer said, “You never know.”
The next day, the horse returned, brought other horses together. Neighbors told the farmer that he was lucky. He said, “You never know.”
One day, the farmer’s son was flung from a galloping horse and broke his leg. Again, neighbors told the farmer that it was unfortunate. He said, “You never know.”
A month later, conscription offices came along looking for people for their army, but they did not take the farmer’s son because he had a broken leg. Neighbors came along and told the farmer that he was lucky. And he said, “You never know.”[1].
We never know what’s good or bad. This is because it all depends on what comes after. The events or the situations are neutral. When nothing is good or bad, it’s all up to us how we look at it.
[1] Originally from Taoist Farmer written in Huainanzi. I made it short in a way that it still encapsulates the essence.