Poor Communication...my bad!

From the comments that I got on last day's post on errors and accidents, it would seem like my thinking may have been poorly communicated...sorry about that.

Seems like I might have communicated that there's a bunch of stupidity running around, and the only options when a thing is done that shouldn't have been, are stupidity and malice.

I do like that quote (Hanlon's Razor), but I think that there's another option that I didn't communicate well.

The fact is that everyone, regardless of IQ, makes mistakes. I think that I make them more than most, and sooner or later I'm bound to post about some of my dumber moves that I've made through the years.

I think my thought is that:
If a thing that oughtn't be done is done...
and it is done with intent...
then the options, to me, are stupidity and malice.

I have done many, many, many things that oughtn't have been done, but not so much with intent. Those are accidents that we hope to learn from (and are expected to a degree). I have also done things that oughtn't have been done, and I did them with intent. Those are going to show up in posts as my own personal stupid human tricks. I don't think that I've been motivated to do such things out of malice.

So there are three options, really: Accident, Stupidity, and Malice. Again: for having done things that oughtn't be done.

We all err (and such errors are often, but are not always, born of stupidity); we all commit accidents (which we hopefully learn from).

Sometimes, we might with intent do things that oughtn't be done...let us assume that when someone else does something of this sort, it's stupidity and not malice that motivates them.

One Wonders if Anything is Ever Done On Purpose

In the realm of doing things that oughtn't be done, a big part of culpability lies with intent. For instance, without intent, it's manslaughter; with intent it's murder. Without intent, it's an accident that we hope to learn from; with intent, it's a transgression...a punishable offense.

It always amazes me that folks think that just about anything that is done is done with intent. I have seen, for instance, a kid in my back yard kick a soccer ball that is re-routed mid-air by another kid "playing goalie", and the ball continues on its new trajectory to bounce off of the roof of the house, then off of a post of the handrail of our deck, and ultimately hit another kid. Naturally, the hit kid gets really pissed off, and attacks the kicker of the ball with great anger and vehemently asserts that the kicker hit him on purpose.

Now I KNOW that the kid who kicked that ball couldn't have intentionally hit a hippo from two feet away, let alone execute a masterwork of skill and geometry that would challenge the abilitiesof the offspring of Minnesota Fats & Pele. But to the kid who got hit, it was done on purpose.

I see this played out over and over. There are countless times when a device that's being tested gets taken and used for one reason or another, only to invalidate the data being taken for the test. And it is almost invariably asserted that the reason the device was taken and used was for the express reason of invalidating the test.

Why can't we seem to default to an explanation of accident? Of oversight? Error? And the hypocrisy is that the folks who think that other people do things on purpose are the same ones that will tell you that they themselves make errors, and experience accidents. For them, it's an accident, for the other guy, it was done on purpose.

"Why did that idiot cut me off?" Or "Oh, my, I didn't even see that person there."

"That jerk gave me 11 donuts instead of 12...what a thief!!" Or, "Oops. I miscounted."

When I provide incorrect information, I'm lying; when they provide incorrect information, they're mistaken.

It actually saddens me that we can't just give the benefit of the doubt, and assume that it's an accident, that it wasn't a purposeful transgression.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

~Hanlon's Razor

My Wife's Super Powers

You may recall that in an earlier post, I had admitted that my beautiful wife is possessed of super powers. You can read here on her amazing internal chronometer.

Well, she does have more super powers, and one of the most remarkable ones that has saved us over and over is her ability to SMELL LIES.

I don't really have a lot of issues with this super power of hers, since I try to be down-earth honest, except when I'm trying to surprise her with a gift or a special trip or something, but it sure does make our kids' lives pretty tough.

I don't want folks to think that I've got rotten kids. They're actually pretty great kids. No alcohol, no drugs, they aren't violent or overly destructive, no thieves...not even habitual liars.

However, they are kids after all. They have in their time (each of them) had opportunity to err, as humans are wont to do. And, as many kids, when they are faced with trying to rationalize their way out of the trouble that is grown around them, enveloped them, and at the same time trying to remain out of trouble. A large effort that, at best. So, like most kids, they have been known to invent circumstances to try to explain things such that nothing is their fault.

When kids are actually kids, spotting these prevarications is something that an idiot like me can do. BUT, when kids are no longer actually kids, and they have co-conspirators at school to help them spot the blatant holes in their little stories, and they also have greater imaginations, more time to prepare, a better handle on what might sound possible...well, the lies become harder to spot. Especially the "small" ones.

However, this is NOT a problem in our house, because we have a lie detector in the nose of the Mrs. I kind of think that it operates similarly to Spiderman's spider sense, which "tingles" when danger is nigh. For her, the corners of her eyes is where that tingle resides. I think this because when she's on the scent of a lie, her eyes narrow to tiny, focused, slits that fire lie-piercing lasers.

She may not know the truth, necessarily, but she knows a lie when she smells one. If she cares, she eventually knows the truth too...she's a bit of a master sleuth as well. That's part of the game: you gotta know when knowing the truth matters, and when it doesn't. When your kids are involved, it almost always matters...you have to dig out those lies every time.

Parasites on a Dog

Yesterday I went on and on about my interpretation of Global Warming. You can read that right here, if you're so inclined. Based upon the comments that I've seen, it looks like we're a bit of a like-minded community (read: tree-hugging hippie-types) here, and that makes a bit of sense in a birds-of-a-feather way.

One of those comments sent my mind immediately to a quote that I've got stored away, and I thought I'd share. 'Cause I'm such a sharing person.

One of my new friends (Delores, whom I visit at The Feathered Nest, left this comment (this is part of her comment...she's a very insightful lady):

It does seem to me that we are having an abundance of natural disasters which I interpret as the planet trying to shake off the infestation of human parasites much as a dog tries to shake of fleas. Not a pretty picture.

~Delores (hope you don't mind me using your quote).

I've interpreted these disasters very similarly...seems like the wee orb is pretty pissed at someone.

The (older) quote that this put me in mind of is:

...The earth hath skin, and the skin hath diseases. One of these....is called man.
~Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Fortunately for the earth, and us, there are a growing number of folks who are actually concerned about our collective treatment of the earth. As kids who love the planet grow up and become scientists and engineers, I think we as a population will be kinder and kinder to the earth. Hopefully, that dog will have better parasites in the near future.