#Trash, #Trump and #Orangutans

Orangutans are currently only found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.  They are about to become extinct.  Wikipedia

Nearly every day I walk a particular way to a coffee shop and get a little exercise.  Sometimes I change the path - a side errand, avoid the prevailing wind or simply to engage in a little variety.

One day I noticed there was a little more trash than usual on the sidewalk but mostly in the gutter.  As I continued along I thought about where the trash came from?  The city I live in, Madison WI, has a vibrant social infrastructure full of weekend events and other times as well - farmer's market, art fair, marathons, music and food celebrations and many activist events, etc.

The City, implicitly my neighbors, does a good job accommodating these events and cleaning up. Usually - this was an exception, a small one I hoped would be remedied.   Ironically this might be an occasion for "the politics of resentment".

The next day, as I took the same journey, the trash was still there - blown around and in slightly different positions.  Hmmmm!

Earlier that morning as I listened to a podcast, read an article - I was reminded of a theme I have heard often - "We make bad decisions because we are so focused on the near term and discount the future, costs and uncertainty, i.e., the future can't be known or you can't control it."

We think, when we see the trash, it will be taken care of, that it burdens us with no cost, since we are almost past it, a second time.

I looked around and tried to remember which corners also had containers for passerby's trash.  I stooped and picked up some garbage.  If I left it there I was being burdened with it's unsightly presence, everyday, as were my neighbors.

We make poor choices everyday thinking we can't affect the future and because some tell us we can't affect the future.  In a small but significant way, I can make my daily walk a lot more pleasant.

There are things we collectively care about but facts are not going to stir us to act.  We need to recognize our own nature, that we discount the future, discount the costs, rationalize uncertainty as an excuse and thus make really bad decisions.

I wonder why the orangutans of Borneo do not organize and stop the special-interests from clear-cutting their rainforests.

Why we make BAD decisions !

War on the Elderly, Rural, Middle Income and Poor of Wisconsin


#Trash, #Trump and #Orangutans #Politics #socialorder

Why we make BAD #decisions !  #Elect the wrong people!  Believe obvious liars !  > #Trump WI 1848 Forward #TED Dan #Gilbert - In our psyche.