The video of the experiment itself is fun and entertaining and worth watching, but Destin notes at the end that Steve was actually saying the same thing he was — they were actually in agreement but stating things slightly differently.
Therefore he needs to listen more completely and intentionally when he thinks he disagrees with someone because he might be stuck on hearing what he thinks they are saying, which he frames in opposition to his claim, making them “wrong” and him “right”.
It’s polarization created by your mind, not necessarily by the words people use or the ideas they are stating.
A lot of people could stand to take that advice about a lot of things. If you cannot restate a summary, clearly and concisely, of the opposing viewpoint and its supporting theories and ideas, then you do not understand it well enough to continue discussing it, so you need to drill down further on understanding first.
For some reason early this morning the song “Country Sunshine” popped into my head.
I couldn’t even tell you who sang it, but the chorus lyric “I was raised on country sunshine” echoed through my head.
Appealing idea, no? “Raised on country sunshine”.
Seems to me that we as parents have failed our kids by outsmarting ourselves into believing kids belong anywhere but outside as much as possible. They do not really need constant shuttling from here to there in a motor vehicle, since they generally have two feet and can put one in front of the other.
Yes, they might get kidnapped on the way to school, but only if you watch too many movies and read too many news stories that amp up your fears and pump up your “fight or flight” adrenaline response, inventing risk in your head that is essentially zero in the real world.
Be careful with undoing thousands of years of acquired evolutionary social knowledge; it’s fragile, and there might be unintended consequences from messing with it, is all I’m saying.
Turns out “Country Sunshine” is by Dottie West. Ah, yes, she’s a legend.
Dottie West, “Country Sunshine”
Here’s a nice live version from a TV show.
Refreshing and very similar in outlook and attitude to John Prine’s “Spanish Pipedream” about living the simple life.
Blow up your TV
Throw away your papers
Go to the country
Build you a home
Plant a little garden
Eat a lot of peaches
Try to find Jesus
On your own
John Prine has a wonderful economy with words — very visual with a “you are there” feeling. That’s the definition of great songwriting.
Dottie West is of course a very well-known country star from “back in the day” but I had never really listened to her catalog before — I’ll be diving into that these next few days. Already started, in fact, and while some of it is pretty “commercial” as they say, I’m mostly okay with that, because 60s and 70s country is some of the best type of “commercial” pop music ever made, with legendary singers and songwriters and production. There’s a place for that, sometimes.
Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne” was a true story about his running into his high school girlfriend several years later at a convenience store while back home visiting his family at Christmas.
This style of song is not really my thing, but the back story is somewhat interesting.
Back in the day I liked Fogelberg’s earlier songs like “Part of the Plan” …
… plus a few others. Later when he became hugely popular his singing and the general pop style of his songs did nothing for me.
But upon hearing “Hard To Say” a few years ago and turning it up loud in the car — maybe hearing it for the first time, or listening closely for the first time, I don’t really know — it instantly became my favorite tune of his. By far.
This is just a great piece of music, especially the production, arrangement and band. Fogelberg’s vocals are far more relaxed and in control, but the band and arrangement, especially the guitar fills, carry the song.
He grew up in Peoria and both his parents were musicians — his hit “Leader of the Band” was a tribute to his father who was band director and music teacher at Peoria Woodruff High School, Pekin High School, and Bradley University.
He died way too young, of cancer at just 56 years of age, in 2007.
During the 1950s and 1960s, mobsters helped build the Sahara, the Sands, the New Frontier and the Riviera. Money from organized crime combined with funds from more respectable investors—Wall Street banks, union pension funds, the Mormon Church and the Princeton University endowment. Tourists flocked to the resorts—8 million a year by 1954—drawn by performers such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley, and by rows of slot machines and gaming tables.
The alleged mobsters who allegedly murdered Bugsy Siegel were most likely, allegedly, the Meyer Lansky faction of the alleged New York mob. Today there's a restaurant named Bugsy and Meyer's. So after running way from its "colorful" mob history for decades, Las Vegas flipped over to recognize it and — of course — commercialize it.
