Thinking Citizen Blog — Attention Allocation Algorithm (AAA) Does The Trump Circus Make The Cut? Should It? Why? Why Not?
Thinking Citizen Blog — Saturday is Justice, Freedom, Law, and Values Day
Today’s Topic: Attention Allocation Algorithm (AAA) Does the Trump circus make the cut? should it? why? why not?
What is your attention allocation algorithm (AAA)? Time is short. Very short. Hasn’t Trump hogged the spotlight long enough? Do you bother following his trials? Is it a good use of your civic time? Of anyone’s? Do you have a better suggestion? Think like an economist. What is the opportunity cost? What is the best alternative use of your time?
I submit, egotistically, that the best alternative use of your time is taking the Thinking Citizenship test to determine the greatest gaps in your civic knowledge and allocating a certain number of minutes per day to filling those holes — starting today.
This is one of those periodic “reminder posts” — as opposed to one of those more numerous “here’s something new I learned today” posts.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE THINKING CITIZEN MATRIX — three columns, three rows, seven issues
1. Can you make a strong case for all three sides in the next election — left, right, and center — marshaling three very different things — principles, facts, and solutions — for each of the seven issues so important they should influence your decision?
2. Those issues would be: foreign policy, economic policy, climate change, social justice, health care, education, and political process reform.
3. If you haven’t done your homework on each, well you can’t possibly prioritize them. To me, this is the first step toward civic sanity — realizing how little you know and how much you have to learn. Call taking this test an exercise in structural humility.
NB: Without appropriate weightings, a rational decision is impossible. The higher your IQ the easier you find it to rationalize a misallocation of your civic resources.
CAN YOU FILL IN EACH OF THE NINE SQUARES FOR EACH OF THE SEVEN ISSUES WITH: a.) a complete, coherent sentence, b.) statistics as appropriate?
1. When I devised the test, I flunked my own test.
2. It took me ten years to pass.
3. As in I got a C-.
NB — I dream of one day getting a B-. But I doubt I’lll ever get there. Too much to learn. Too little time. Best I can hope for is to learn a little something new every day related to one of those seven issues and be a little less stupid when I go to sleep than when I woke up. The 10,000 rule roughly applies. To reach a basic level of civic competence takes at least as long as tennis, musical, or linguistic competence.
AND THAT’S JUST THE START — CAN YOU MAKE A COHERENT ARGUMENT FOR CANDIDATE X, Y, OR Z — BASED ON A LOGICAL ARGUMENT DISTILLED FROM YOUR SEVEN MATRICES? (consisting of no more than seven points logically sequenced in order of importance). You might think of this argument as a civic equivalent of a two column proof.
1. Should foreign policy drive your vote for President?
2. Or is it all about your most basic economic premise — whether the candidate believes in free markets or not?
3. Or is it something more practical that matters most? Is it the impact of that candidate on the lives of the neediest children in America?
NB: Have you made an Orion yet on the issue that matters most to you? Have you shared it with those you love, modeling what it means to be a thinking citizen? why? why not? good idea? bad idea?
Shall we exchange Orions on the issue that matters most to you? Let’s give it a go.
Your turn.
For my Orion of Israel-Palestine from a year ago see the fourth link below. For an updated version — see the fifth link below.
Thinking Citizen Blog — The Party of We and Yes (Part II)
Thinking Citizen Blog — The Party of We and Yes
Thinking Citizen Blog — Orion of the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Thinking Citizen Blog — Israel-Palestine — Historical Context Matters — Three Indispensable Charts…
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
For the last four years of posts organized by theme:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
Four special attachments below:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
#4 Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field
(“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to justice, freedom, the law or basic values.
Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to justice, freedom, the law, or basic values.
Or just some random justice-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart.
