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• Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)
• Transcendental-future Time Perspective Inventory (TTPI)
  

  Past-negative	3.10
  Past-positive	3.78
  Present-hedonistic	3.40
  Present-fatalistic	2.67
  Future	3.54
  Transcendental-future	1.10

See also: [TSN] Beyond Belief 3: Philip Zimbardo, The Time Paradox

I wrote this post in Finnish to a discussion in Helsingin Sanomat. Translation here for y’all.

There are, in fact, many little things that each of us can do. Easy little things, nothing dramatic. It’s not an either-or thing, at all. For example:

1. Electricity. One can quite easily here buy electricity that’s been produced ecologically. And it’s not that expensive. Do this, and you have done a lot w/quite a little.
2. Public transport. I haven’t had a car in eight years, because I’ve chosen to live in a place where I haven’t needed it. If public transport works for you where you live - why not ? Moving to a place w/better public transport is hard-core, but if it’s okay where you’re at - just use it.
3. Cars. The car manufacturers are bringing models to the market that have very low consumption. Making an ecological choice here won’t be too painful, and the situation is rapidly getting better every year ! I just decided to postpone buying a car for two years to be able to afford a car w/low consumption. An added bonus is that we can use the car to go to Germany, not needing to fly there. And w/the low consumption -  it’s not going to cost all that much nor it’s going to pollute that badly at all - especially when compared to flying.
4. Eating meat. No, I’m not going to tell you not to eat it ! Rather, I’d ask you to consider eating more pork instead of beef. Producing beef causes a lot more greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere than producing pork. So go more for pork.
5. Recycling - and other little things. It’s not that hard, just get started w/something little ! Start taking the paper out separately, get comfy w/that and then maybe follow w/taking glass out separately as well. One little thing at a time. There are many green products in your local supermarket, so start replacing the ones that you use one at a time, when it feels good and right. Forcing things just makes you feel bad about it.

So there’s a few quick ideas off the top of my head what one can do to join the effort. Take it one little bite at a time, do it in a way that feels good and nice. Going extreme w/this stuff will piss off the people you spend time w/ or yourself. No point in neither.

So - there are a lot of things one can do. And it’s not so hard to get started. Pick one ! You eat the giant one small bite at a time. :)

Update: I really tried to get things to work w/bluez-utils, but it just doesn’t work. The error message I had where I finally left off was: “hci_acldata_packet: hci0 ACL packet for unknown connection handle 11“. It was suggested in the net that this is a kernel bug. Perhaps so.

I tried to synchronize my Nokia N82 phone w/Evolution on my laptop running Debian Linux lenny/sid. I mostly read Ubuntu documentation and other relevant documents from the Net, and came to the conclusion that opensync just does not at the moment work w/N82, at least not w/my configuration. I use an A-link bluetooth USB-stick.

As far as I can tell, the situation is that it’s a bit of a question of luck weather your phone works w/Opensync, ATM. I have the feeling that this is a passing phase, and the synchronization will work some time in the near future. For the time being, though, there’s little one can do w/o joining the project.

Beyond Belief 3: Candles in the Dark is out, but the TSN web-site is slashdotted !

Kindly enough, Cluebot has created a .torrent file. Please help in seeding it, so we can all watch this great event !

We Finns still recall how Tampere City Transport denied the possibility of advertising for eroakirkosta.fi in 2005. Well, it seems that we can still get the final word on this one, if we’ll accept to advertise in London instead of Tampere !

A friend emailed me just moments ago regarding an Atheist bus campaign. The goal was to gather at least £5,500, to advertise the following in London buses: “There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.“. The grand total while writing this was already far more, £ 38,666.32. (Update: £ 74,214.83)
Read more about it on Guardian, and join the campaign here. I did my part already w/the grand diabolic total of £6.66. =)

Conclusion:

From all of what follows I conclude that we cannot afford the golden rule. So I propose that we adopt the second-best thing, The Silver Principle:`Try to dwell on Win-Win as much as possible. Give, when you’re sure you can afford it. Resort to zero-sum taking as seldom as possible.’ I know it’s not as high and mighty as the golden one, but at least it has real-world applicability and value.

Rationale:

Unfortunately, these golden rules and similar are, at the end of the day very much less than satisfactory. The reason for this is our unfortunate position in the bigger scheme of things. While we’re inclined to act in a reasonable manner towards our fellow humans, this is - in many cases - against our own interest.

I always feel great when I can find win-win situations where I can give something to others. I even like to just give, w/no foreseeable payback whenever possible as long as it’s not too costly to me. However, there are major areas in life when we’re short of such luxury.

In many cases, for example, in workplaces the chances for advancement are zero-sum games. It’s not a win-win situation, or a situation where it costs to you just a little to let others win. It’s a situation where one can only win by taking away from others.

There are many other such areas in life, where the needs of one are opposed w/the needs of the other. To get what you want, you cannot help but take form others. And this is what I see as the reason for great misery.

Also, following the golden rule or similar in tight situations where we end up struggling for resources we will just end of w/the dirty end of the stick. So, as I see it, ethics is something of a privilege. When we can give unto others we need to be in some kind of a position of privilege to not to be hurt too much by our giving. Otherwise, the dogs of the dog eat dog world will end up eating us.

My position could be seen to be cynical, but I cannot help seeing the things being as they are. I know that I’m happiest when I have the privilege to go more or less along the lines of the so-called golden rule, but there are too many situations where it’s too costly a principle to have.

And yes, things being what they are breaks my heart, too. Ignorance can certainly be bliss, but equally certainly it will end up costing you.

That all said, I can see another cause of misery that I’d like to bring up here. That is the realization that you won’t be on top of your game for all of your life. From this follows that one should exploit her skills and position to maximum to ascertain well-being in the future. This gives more reason to treat situations as zero-sum games. Even if you afford being ethical right now, you might regret it later when you’ve fallen off the wave you’re riding. So, foresight might make things even worse, and drive one to be even more ruthless in the short run to maximize long term wellbeing.

One could argue that you could play the game differently, by betting on people. By this I mean that one should act in a manner to be able to collect favors later. To a point, I agree w/this position. It is true that having a good network is a great asset. However, when you’re playing the game w/people out to maximize their own profits you can be sure that they’ll turn your back on you when you’ve outlived your usefulness. Because of this, betting on people can simply be too risky.

All in all, I see most ethical systems as wishful thinking. The golden rule won’t take care of you, so I don’t think it’s a proper rule to live by. Ethics can be costly and we need to weigh the pros and cons individually in every situation.

The underlying principle, worth acknowledging is that in every co-operation there’s inherent competition. While in many situations we have a lot of common ground, there’s always the part of territory where the interests of the parties are in conflict. This is true on the level of cells, and this is true on the level of individuals and societies. So even in situations where the golden rules are the most beneficial to follow there are corner cases where it’s against one’s self-interest.

Originally posted to: The golden rule.

Click here for a text based temperament test. It’s based on descriptions of the types rather than the typical multiple choice check boxes.

It seems by best fit pattern is `rational’, IOW, `abstract’-`pragmatic’-`structure’. However, there are underlying currents to that. I actually think that I struggle to be rational, usually more or less succeeding. However, I know very well that I have my idealistic tendencies that are conflicting w/my pragmatism.

Update: See related discussion on Ricard Dawkins’s forum, Finland okays circumcising boys for religious reasons.

Update: See also [Newsroom Finland] Circumcision of Muslim boy not a crime -Finland’s Supreme Court

Helsingin Sanomat reports that the Finnish Supreme court has decided that circumcisions are allowed for boys in Finland for religios reasons. There’s a heated discussion about it. It seems that the overwhelming majority of writers, perhaps more than 90% did not approve of the decision at all. And I find it easy to see why.

Religious reasons to modify the body of a child is something that does not meet acceptance in your average Finn in the year 2008. We don’t even accept the premise that the child is a muslim child, because immediately it was asked that how do you know that this child will stay a muslim ? I guess Richard Dawkins would be happy to know that this is the Finnish take to the question.

Also noted was that if we allow this to be done to boys, where do we draw the line w/girls ? We Finns do believe in equality, and it’s very hard to explain why you circumcise the boys while you cannot do even the mildest forms of “circumcising” for girls ?

However, I’d like to raise another point. Fascism is on the raise in Europe as we speak. It’s been on the raise slowly and steadily, and these kinds of decisions will make sure that the upward trend is here to stay. I am quite sure that this is not what we want. It is my honest view that we should not go back to our barbaric roots in the name of religion, nor should we let religious freedom become such a problem that it will give rise to our likewise barbaric violent tribalism.

This is not a huge issue, an sich, even if I don’t accept for a second taking the knife on children w/o a solid medical reason. It is still clearly taking a step into the wrong direction. The religion of your ancestors is far from being an acceptable reason. We don’t make human sacrifices of other kinds anymore, and I don’t believe we should do these kinds of rituals, either. It’s just too darned stone aged. It’s equally stone aged for muslims and jews alike. I accept neither, and it seems that most Finns don’t.  I don’t know what can be done after this decision by the Supreme Court, but I think that we’d need to get it reversed one way or the other, and welcome ourselves (back) to the 21st century.