Блоги: заметки с тегом hitch-settling

At what cost?

Robert — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 14:45:06 +0500

I too want to reach certain objectives, but not at all costs. I see vectors to follow, not specific points to land on (they don’t even exist, since everything oscillates).

“At what cost?” is a fundamental question. A Pyrrhic victory is no victory at all.

Self-determination

Robert — Mon, 29 May 2023 16:58:59 +0500

Robert:

Everyone, fellow or fellowship, has the inalienable right to self-determination.

Local issues meed local control; localisation heals polarisation.

Moratoriums

Robert — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 20:54:58 +0500

Robert:

I like moratoriums: it’s wise to take time to figure things out before banning or permitting them outright. A tactical pause, if you will.

The wider problem. Protesters getting fined

Robert — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 20:51:41 +0500

Robert:

When something seems like a solution to a problem, look beyond.

In the summer of 2019 many protesters in Moscow were sued by the city transport authorities and a restaurant for making them work harder (!). This seemed like complete nonsense until I understood the wider problem. Most Russians hadn’t yet ditched the bug of believing that the Tsar or the Party will fix their problems. Thus they believed that the only person that can solve the problem is someone from the government. The government, of course, became tired of this: solving every problem is impossible.

So the government took advantage of the popularity of opposition leaders and the protesters following them. These people were fined high sums for minor misdemeanors. Most people in Russia haven’t crowdfunded anything, so by engaging in a nationwide discourse, the state created a situation in which people would impulsively help them, by crowdfunding. People learned about crowdfunding and later used it for personal matters. Russians became richer and Russia became better. This is especially noteworthy because Russia established a new crowdfunding law on January 1, 2020.

The wider problem. Ground floor room

Robert — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 00:06:43 +0500

Robert:

When something seems like a solution to a problem, look beyond.

This summer I stayed at a Milanese hotel for a night. I found some of its eco-policies to be admirable, while others to be ridiculous. One of the ridiculous ones was giving me a room on the ground floor. “We are afraid of wasting precious energy powering the elevator as this would harm the environment”, the hotel triumphantly declared on its posters. These are fancy words for “we want to save money”.

The hotel also did not think that sound pollution is more of a problem for me than using excess electricity. I might have come up with some fantastic idea if it weren’t for the dogs barking next door.

How to solve most of the world’s problems

Robert — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 01:37:08 +0500

Robert:

Take the problem, often a lack of something or a negative form of it, and turn it into a positive: just feed those who starve, just get the homeless homes, just get the unemployed work, just educate the uneducated, just stop wars (become neutral).