Dan Erwin

"How the Pandemic Defeated America"

How did the writer of the title article headlined in this post ever slip by? I read the Atlantic faithfully, but somehow I missed Ed Yong.

The essay is easily the most original, insightful, profoundly creative article on the subject you'll find. What's most unusual is his historical/cultural orientation to the question of how we got where we are today. And then how to deal with this pandemic and the others that will follow.

Here are four paragraph bits as examples:

Despite ample warning, the U.S. squandered every possible opportunity to control the coronavirus. And despite its considerable advantages—immense resources, biomedical might, scientific expertise—it floundered. While countries as different as South Korea, Thailand, Iceland, Slovakia, and Australia acted decisively to bend the curve of infections downward, the U.S. achieved merely a plateau in the spring, which changed to an appalling upward slope in the summer.

A sluggish response by a government denuded of expertise allowed the coronavirus to gain a foothold. Chronic underfunding of public health neutered the nation’s ability to prevent the pathogen’s spread. A bloated, inefficient health-care system left hospitals ill-prepared for the ensuing wave of sickness. Racist policies that have endured since the days of ...

Is It Just Possible That Trump and Trumpism Have Been Good for Us?

I suggested to one of my daughters just yesterday that Trump has actually been good for us, an idea that has crossed my mind over the last six months. Actually, it's an approach that any rhetorical critic understands: to argue against a case, you have to understand the opposing case in spades. And it's especially helpful if the opposing case can be clarified by experience and behaviors on the ground. In my comments to my daughter I explained (poorly) why Trump just might have been helpful to the nation. 

So it's fascinating to see an opinion article by Nicholas Kristof in today's Times making the same point. But he does a far better job of arguing the case.

Our nation is a mess, but overlapping catastrophes have also created conditions that may finally let us extricate ourselves from the mire. The grim awareness of national failures — on the coronavirus, racism, health care and jobs — may be a necessary prelude to fixing our country...

The Fraudsters and their “Weapons of Mass Deception”

Beware of the fraudsters and scammers in this era of pandemic!

With my extensive educational background in communication, up to and beyond a PhD, a breadth of work experiences in the church and the seminary, a college class for prisoners in a maximum security prison,  and years in an international consulting business with leaders from some of the finest companies in the world, I thought I was smart enough to evade the fraudulent tricksters of the internet world. Especially since I’m a specialist in the arts of persuasion and influence.

I was wrong.  

Recently I decided to buy a fine Bose headphone for one of my daughters. So, I went online and found what I thought was the Bose site, noticing that their $350 headphone was on a special, week-end sale for just $200. Now, I’m also no computer or internet innocent. I’ve been computer literate since 1983, the first year of the desktop. And I was educated to the intranet by some 3M clients before the internet and the world wide web came into existence. In 1992, some Pillsbury techies educated me to the web just a few months after it was opened to public use.

But this smart, well-educated guy really got suckered by some Chinese fraudsters who had created a Bose look-a-like website and was making a great offer. I bought! The “Bose” never came. How did that happen? Simple. My emotions got in the way of my well-educated brain. And the “opportunity” was just a spur-of-the moment gift for. . .

Must-Read (and View) on Today's Conflicted World

A blueprint to actually fix America's police. In this article by a professor of law, a former deputy chief of police and a criminology professor, the three argue very intelligently that we know what to do to stop police violence, but there's not the will to do it.  https://bit.ly/2A8aGc0

How the world can avoid screwing up the response to the next covid-19 again. Begley and Branswell, two of our very best science writers, lay out a highly useful and informative strategy to avoid getting caught with our pants down. They avoid the magic stuff, like "invent a vaccine." https://bit.ly/3eZnz6O

What does the shocking unemployment report really mean? The Atlantic's Derek Thompson writes that no one is sure whether this is a dead-cat economic bounce or the beginning of a glorious summer of economic recovery. He tries to figure it out for himself, gives up, and turns to especially thoughtful economist who talks about the answer to his question with two unusual terms: suppression and recession--a unique analysis that sounds accurate. https://bit.ly/374Sjka

James Mattis denounces Trump. He finally breaks his silence, tells you why he opens up and then explains our presidential predicament. https://bit.ly/37i2zWF 

With protests, the 'bright side' and 'dark side' of America are on display. With two straightforward conclusions, the sociologist, Harvard's Orlando Patterson, explains our historical predicament: the background for Mattis. https://on.msnbc.com/3eUQcCk

Framing: The Unique Power of Metaphor

Early in my management consulting business, I learned the power of business metaphors. And of reframing problems and solutions with different metaphors to gain support for achieving certain organizational objectives and personal goals. Framing is one way of seizing leadership opportunities. It’s all about how you manage meaning with words, the central task of leadership. Talk is actually the resource you use to get things done. So, anyone who wants to change thinking and get things done pays close attention to metaphors, the very best descriptive lens

Louis Pondy, one of the more effective management scholars, emphasized that leaders’ effectiveness lies in their “ability to make activity meaningful” for others. Effective leaders “give others a sense of understanding what they are doing.” Managers, in contrast, pay attention to how things get done, while leaders pay attention to what events and decisions mean.

The fundamental tool of making or creating meaning is the ability to frame. Framing not only makes sense of an activity or process, but it also sets forth the character and significance of a subject.

Framing and business
In complex and chaotic business environments, there is usually a lot of maneuverability around “the facts.” But if there is any uncertainty or ambiguity around facts, the game is about constructing reality, through framing, leading others to action. 

For the Coronavirus Chaos: by Einstein

Albert Einstein seems to have an endless supply of relevant quotes.This one is especially pungent for all that's going on in especially religious contexts today:

"Science without religion is lame: Religion without science is blind."

"Better to be six feet apart..."

"than six feet under," says Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Although I'm quite certain that the virus will rebuild the value of science and scientists, I also suspect that it's also hardening anti-science perspectives. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) vigorously defended her continuing stay-at-home order Friday after thousands of protesters converged on the capital, Lansing, and four northern Michigan sheriffs said they would not strictly enforce it.

“You know what? I can take it,” Whitmer said during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “If it makes people feel better to take their frustrations out on me, that’s fine. All I ask is let’s not get overly political here. Let’s focus on the public health. … I know that there are a lot of businesses and people that are hurting right now. But the fact of the matter is it’s better to be six feet apart right now than six feet under.”

Whitmer has faced hundreds of maskless protesters in Lansing, along with the refusal of at least four Michigan sheriffs to support her authority. She has shown herself to be a very capable state leader.

Currently, Michigan is the fifth deadliest state for coronavirus. Some people have difficulty looking reality in the face.  There are a lot of covidiots out there. Where there are intelligent rules, there are always people to break them. Plenty of people never seem to understand that smart safeguards, designed by specialists, save lives.

General James Mattis on "Why Read?"

I've always wanted to say something very direct when an acquaintance or a client asked why I read so much, but I was always a bit too cautious to verbalize my real beliefs out loud. But if a prominent, knowledgeable person  supports my beliefs publicly, I'll happily repeat them. I have, however, gotten to the place over the past ten years when someone asks why I read the NYTimes or a magazine like the New Yorker, I can be fairly direct. It usually comes out like, "look, there's no way you can become intelligently aware of what's going on in this world unless you read the Times or the New Yorker." That's true whether or not you agree with the writer.

But here's General Mattis verbalizing my actual beliefs in the context of the military: If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate and you will be incompetent because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain sustain you. Any commander who claims he is "too busy to read" is going to fill body bags with his troops as he learns the hard way.  

A Limerick on Corona Virus: "My Coffee Buddies"

Mike Schneider, one of my coffee buddies from Mac (Macalester College) wrote this especially apropos limerick:

    I want to keep my coffee buddies at ease
    So this limerick will not mention disease
    But it would be remiss
    To not say that I miss
    Sitting with you guys and shooting the breeze

Enjoy!

Why Are People Hoarding Toilet Paper?

The answer is both curious and hilarious. I just got in from my local grocery where I noticed the toilet paper shelves were empty. Seeing a store employee, I asked him why people were buying so much. He shrugged and said he didn’t know. "Probably plenty in the warehouse." Because of my consulting business, I happened to know that there was at least one Kimberly Clarke plant in the next state over—Wisconsin. They make Scott and Cottonelle toilet paper as well as Kleenex. I’m pretty certain we don’t import any from China. I suspect, instead, that a lot of the Chinese forests have been felled long since, much like the Brits. But with all those nearby Wisconsin forests, I’m sure there’s no shortage for making paper of all sorts.

So why are people hoarding toilet paper? Lo and behold, several were curious about my question and did even more homework. 

All kinds of journalists and specialists weighed in on the “problem.”

Australia has also suffered from panic buying of toilet paper despite plentiful domestic supply. A risk expert in the country explained it this way: “Stocking up on toilet paper is … a relatively cheap action, and people like to think that they are ‘doing something’ when they feel at risk.” I didn’t know that, but I’d need a lot of research to believe it.

Brian Cook, University of Melbourne, said that his suspicion is that it is how people react to stress: they want an element of comfort and security. This is an example of “zero risk bias,” in which people prefer to try to eliminate one type of possibly superficial risk entirely rather than do something that would reduce their total risk by a greater amount.  Ummm, maybe.

“Fear is contagious,” says Steven Taylor, a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and author of the Psychology of Pandemics. “We pick up cues by looking to other people—it’s how stampedes happen in stadiums—so if you’re in a shopping centre and you see some people around you acting in a frightened way and stocking up, that’s going to have a fear contagion effect that causes other people to start over-purchasing.” Really?