The Stunning Phenomenon of Belief in False Truths

by C. O. Jones

Presidential hopefuls eschew a stream of lies, falsely depicting our national reality — a reality readily observed by all — without the slightest reserve. Incredibly, these politicians — even with our national cynicism over “lying politicians” — proceed without fear of reprisal or relegation to complete irrelevancy. 

In fact, our most noted proponent of this tool has taken it to the extreme, along with a cascade of insults, any one of which in election years past would have sent his candidacy to the dustbin; and he’s ridden it to the top of polls.

To those on the outside, the most perplexing quality of this phenomenon is our presumption that our fellow citizens are aware that these “truths” are false. We even have a word to describe it: “truthiness!” Truthiness, although a "stunt word", was named Word of the Year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster.^[7][8] The concept is endorsed, if not mocked, by our culture!

Still, in a culture where we nominally consider ourselves to be intelligent and “the greatest nation in the history of mankind,” how can that be?”

Most of our believers (on the right) who accommodate this phenomenon are Christian. Is this a co-incidence? We think not. It would appear that there’s a strong connection. 

Picture a young person — 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 — growing up in a good, Christian home, especially in the fifties, even the sixties. Not only does he learn that Jesus loves him, but he learns to love Jesus. Who’s Jesus? From the time that he can understand the concept, he learns from his parents, church, school, media, relatives — maybe even friends — that being a “Good Christian” as an act of faith makes him or anyone a good person…. popular, respected. Beyond good, it delivers eternal happiness. The authority here, a “text” for this faith, is a tome that all but the most ardent acknowledge is filled with myth, contradiction, wild tales, parable and metaphor. Still, as the brain develops, lessons are learned and stored in our amygdala. These early lessons are extremely powerful.

Note that “faith” here means believing something implausible and unprovable. But it’s presented as a very good attribute. Sometime, oh maybe in our teens — long after Santa Claus and the tooth fairy fade into fancy, we may be exposed to doubt. But doubt comes with pejorative labels: Heathen, Infidel, Apostate. For an impressionable teen, preoccupied by the exigencies of chasing popularity, who needs this?

We can find joy and safety riding the cultural wave. We live in a Christian nation. All one has to do is believe what others want him to believe. He wants to believe. He’s a good person. 

And here it is, my friends: From our youngest and most impressionable moments, our culture has taught us and stroked us — for believing what we want to believe. But what could be more personal than the essence of who we are? Against logic — in absence of evidence, we accept a fanciful notion of WHO I AM. 

Wait a minute! Am I not the final authority on who I am? When we were MOST impressionable and vulnerable, our parents didn't tell us: “Here’s a popular explanation of where we come from and why we’re here. There are many other theories about this to explore as you grow up.” Instead, we were force-fed religion — as truth.

How much of a stretch is it, then, to accept as truth what we hear about other abstractions, that we realize we know practically nothing about. Politics! It’s a lot safer to accept the wisdom of those who study these matters. And their wisdom “feels good” coming in — all the better! The information, you see, comes with a continual stream of warnings — threats to our safety and to our world; but their society of saviors will protect me and my family, if I support them. 

Most of all, these people know my pain! They understand how I am victimized by cruel circumstances. They realize that my problems are NOT because of the bad choices that I’ve made my whole life. OTHER PEOPLE have stolen my prerogatives. It’s convenient that these thieves don’t look or talk like me — oh, and they never seem to have political power. But this message feels g o o o d. I know the feeling, and I’ve had a lifetime of conditioning to accept this as truth.

So the next time you are stunned to find that people believe nicotine is not addictive, that lead is not poison, that burning petroleum is not making climate change, that YOU are threatened by Islamic terrorists, that our economy has not recovered, that President Obama has destroyed the prosperous country that President George W. Bush left us, realize that they — maybe even YOU — also believe the orthodoxy of some religion. We have been taught to accept as truth that which we want to believe.

On the near horizon lies change. Our children of the digital age — children of the internet — have a different reality. We will soon witness how this generation, over-exposed, under educated, berated by its elders, jaded by and unprotected from the harsh world they inhabit — takes to the concept of “truthiness.” By and large, this generation hasn’t bought into, as we did, the “very unlikely.” We are on the cusp of Future Shock. Stay tuned.

C. O. Jones is a Robbinsense staff writer

Myths of the Road, and Internet Wisdom

by C. O. Jones

I love it when friends forward emails filled with information and caveats that I’ve have never heard before…..especially when there’s no documentation! Among our favorites are driving tips.

Twenty years ago I attended a dinner party with about thirty middle-aged, well-educated people, split between sexes. Something came up, and one of the men announced: “Oh yes, you should NEVER use your emergency brake for normal driving because it could put you through the windshield.” It’s hard to imagine braking that could rip seatbelts from their mounts; but nonetheless, several men nodded and grunted concurrence. Since it was the host who said this, none but your intrepid reporter had the gall to question this bit of wisdom. I had heard it before.

In the early days of motoring, mechanical problems occurred often. Before the advent of safety glass, head-on collisions were frequently fatal because going through the windshield produced severe lacerations. Even in minor accidents, motorists often bled to death. Braking systems were inefficient, often faulty. In the event of brake failure, the “emergency” brake, if there was one, was so poor that generally the vehicle could not be stopped. This is perhaps the source of this connection between use of the emergency brake and going through windshields. 

It really seemed that the brake to use in an emergency would be the “emergency” brake. Surely that would produce the shortest stopping distance. The problem with this illogic is that the only emergency for which this mechanism is designed is failure of the normal braking system. So in the face of this myth gathering steam, about 30 years ago auto makers stopped calling the auxiliary brake an “emergency” brake. The unit became called a “parking” brake, and usually came with the caveat of never being used while driving…not because it would put motorists through the windshield, but because the crash resulting from the unit’s poor performance might actually produce this result. 

Parking, or “emergency” brakes, usually use mechanical linkage to the back wheels only. The back wheels produce less than 25% of braking performance because the units are smaller and during heavy braking the great majority of the vehicle weight is thrown to the front tires. There are no anti-skid systems linked to parking brakes and they easily lock up, which reduces braking even more.

OK, next:  A couple of times in the last few years we have seen emails circulating with warnings about using cruise control on slippery pavement. According to an unnamed Highway Patrolman, “Driving on wet pavement using the cruise control risks runaway acceleration if the vehicle hydroplanes and exits the pavement.” Really!!? I’m afraid this fails the Robbinsense Bull#@&t test.

Let’s consider: 

1) Modern highways are crowned to prevent water accumulation, and grooved for added traction. The grooves in the pavement act the same as tread on tires, channeling water, which prevents hydroplaning. At “normal” speeds this will not occur.

2) Most of the data accumulated to study hydroplaning is for aviation, where takeoff and landing speeds are necessarily high. Formulas center around air pressure in the tires, which is critical because aviation tires are rounded like on a motorcycle. Rounded tires help prevent hydroplaning, but are poor for cornering traction, which airplanes don’t need. For automobile tires that have flat surface area at the road, the most significant factor is speed. 

For most drivers, accustomed to tooling along at 70+ miles per hour, driving on a rural highway, which may not be crowned or grooved, may easily present a challenge in speed control. On wet roads the absolute best thing you can do is keep your speed down! There is no better tool for this than a cruise control. A cruise control set at 52 will not waver from that speed, unlike a momentarily distracted driver on foot control, for whom 52 mph feels like standing still. Clearly, under circumstances where road conditions are rapidly changing, greater caution is required, and in this case the driver will probably be attentive to his task and the cruise control is a nuisance anyway. For every driver who (may, conceivably) encounter the aforementioned bout with hydroplaning and uncontrolled acceleration, there are probably ten who would stay on the road because they’re not driving too fast!

3) Let’s look at the operation of a modern cruise control, which does not monitor vehicle speed. In the alleged scenario above, a vehicle loses traction, which causes the vehicle to slow, which causes the cruise control to increase the throttle. An antiquated throttle lock, or “throttle friction” would do this. Instead, a modern cruise control monitors drive train speed. When the tires lose traction, the wheels speed up, while the vehicle may or may not be slowing down. As the drive train speeds up, the cruise control will decrease throttle, and if engine speed increases fast enough, will disconnect, perhaps sooner than a distracted driver would release the throttle.

4) Modern vehicles respond to irregularities in the road much faster even than the cruise control can intervene. Most expensive cars are equipped with an “active handling” system. This measures traction at each tire and applies braking and throttle inputs that are individual and beyond the scope and awareness of the driver. Active handling would intervene to disconnect a cruise control. In addition to that, basic “traction control,” standard on almost all newer cars, would do the same.

So there it is, friends! Merit or Myth? You choose. To stay on the road, keep your speed down! Meanwhile, be skeptical of the stuff you get on the internet. Most of the people writing these tracts have an ax to grind, or just want to propagate their opinions.

C. O. Jones is a Robbinsense staff writer

More Mayhem Among Money Mavens

by C. O. Jones

Jon Corzine was a star, a shooting star: CEO of Goldman Sachs, U. S. Senator (D.NJ), spending $62 Million of his own money in the 2000 election, recipient of the coveted Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service in 2005, Governor of New Jersey in 2007, (another $38 Million). Corzine made things happen; he was a prince of the revolving door.

Returning to the public sphere in March 2010, he was appointed CEO and Chairman of MF Global, a multinational futures broker and bond dealer. With experience, political connections and a veteran of the revolving door, he was expected to turn around this mid-level company with a struggling balance sheet.

Always known as a risk-taker, Corzine took personal control of investment decisions and surreptitiously began buying European “sovereign bonds,” i.e. he began betting on the bailout of troubled European economies.

“Accepted" accounting procedures for these nefarious instruments allow profits to appear immediately after purchase of the bonds. Investors began taking notice that the firm was making a profit, and stock prices rose; but “customer” funds, as required by law, were kept aside.

 The cycle was augmented by pulling in funds from other sectors of the company through a highly risky and discredited financial practice called “Internal Repo.”  This led to the inevitable growing pyramid of profits: as long as the funds came in, more of these highly risky derivatives could be purchased, which led to ever greater profits shown on the books. With the funds leveraged to 40:1, staggering profits might be realized with a swing of a mere 2 or 3%. This, of course, promised enormous bonuses for Corzine. Conversely, a drop of 1 or 2% would produce margin calls from J. P. Morgan, Global’s banker, and trouble for investors---but not for Jon Corzine!

Finally, with Euro Bond holdings exceeding $6 Billion, word started leaking out, investors became nervous, and the bubble burst. MF Global now stands as the 8^th largest bankruptcy in US history. With $1.2 Billion in customer funds “missing,” we speculate that the funds were slipped into margin calls.

Testifying under subpoena at a House Agriculture Committee hearing, Corzine professed ignorance about the massive shortfall that emerged as regulators and federal investigators began probing MF Global's Oct. 31 bankruptcy. Though several committee members still thanked Corzine for opting not to cite his Fifth Amendment right to avoid testifying, others appeared somewhat irritated by his carefully chosen answers. Several described the financial jeopardy now faced by farmers and other agriculture constituents who were MF Global customers.

This sad, troubling tale comes four short years after the previous, massive collapse of the financial services industry, generated by industry fraud, and bailed out by government and future taxpayers. The point here is that the nabobs who run this industry know no bounds in greed and duplicity. The Obama administration has not brought justice to the men who cooked up the myriad of fraudulent schemes from the last mess, any more than it has brought Jon Corzine to justice.  There have been no trials, no jail time. In fact, the same people who brought down the world economy are still pulling the strings, and claiming even greater salaries and bonuses than before the crisis.

In another, recent financial corruption case, United States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm, a threesome of bit players on Wall Street got convicted of obscure antitrust violations. This just-completed trial in downtown New York against three faceless financial executives, over 10 years in the making, allowed federal prosecutors to make public for the first time the astonishing inner workings of the reigning American crime syndicate, which now operates not out of Little Italy and Las Vegas, but out of Wall Street.

The defendants in the case – Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm – worked for GE Capital, the finance arm of General Electric. Along with virtually every major bank and finance company on Wall Street – not just GE, but J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, UBS, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Wachovia and more – these three Wall Street thugs spent the past decade taking part in a breathtakingly broad scheme to skim billions of dollars from the coffers of cities and small towns across America. The banks secretly colluded to rig the public bids on municipal bonds, a business worth $3.7 trillion. By conspiring to lower the interest rates that towns earn on these investments, they stole from schools, hospitals, libraries and nursing homes – from “virtually every state, district and territory in the United States,” according to one settlement. And they did it so cleverly that the victims never even knew they were being ­cheated. No thumbs were broken, and no cement goulashes were recovered, but lots of money disappeared, and its manner of disappearance had a familiar ring: organized crime.

In fact, stripped of all the camouflaging financial verbiage, the crimes the defendants and their co-conspirators committed were virtually indistinguishable from the kind of thuggery practiced for decades by the Mafia, which has long made manipulation of public bids for things like garbage collection and construction contracts a cornerstone of its business. What’s more, in the manner of old mob trials, Wall Street’s secret machinations were revealed during the Carollo trial through crackling wiretap recordings and the lurid testimony of cooperating witnesses, who came into court with bowed heads, pointing fingers at their accomplices. The new-age gangsters even invented an elaborate code to hide their crimes. They spoke in thieves’ cant, or as Italian mobsters talking about “getting a button man to clip the capo.” On tape after tape these Wall Street crooks coughed up phrases like “pull a nickel out” or “get to the right level” or “you’re hanging out there” – all code words used to manipulate the interest rates on municipal bonds. The only thing that made this trial different from a typical mob trial was the scale of the crime.

Some progress is being made. Last month the SEC announced a $150 Million refund to Capital One credit card customers for abusive, misleading, even fraudulent lending practices. OK, this is nice, but it represents hardly even a wrist-slap to the managers who carry out this chicanery. 

On cue, the international system brings us TIBOR, or LIBOR. This bank scandal is so large that Barclay’s Bank set aside $300 Million just for litigation. Fines for Barclay’s alone are near $500 Million. This scandal involves massive collusion, among the largest banks, worldwide, to manipulate interest rates (as in the Carollo case) to suit the individual bank’s portfolio.

While the fines here may reflect the magnitude of the crimes, the important factor is that Barclay’s share holders will shoulder the burden of the penalties. Those who committed the crimes go scot-free. These people belong in jail, for God’s sake, not idling around watching for the next big opportunity for a killing. Our political leaders don’t have the gumption to go after the criminals. We need new laws---a return to Glass Segal. We need regulatory teeth to enforce our existing laws. Legislative injunctions to prevent fraud and collusion are impossible because the bankers control our politicians.

Millions in this country alone live in crushing poverty. Scores of Einsteins and Mozarts live in squalor without a chance to present their gifts to the world. Bankers, who contribute nothing, control our politicians, travel the oceans in yachts and hide their millions/billions in foreign tax havens. We need to be aware, my friends, of the faceless threat from the reigning oligarchy that controls our country, our public dialog and us!

As we move toward what looks to be a pivotal election in November, consider the likely positions of our two candidates on confronting this threat to our democratic structure. We can conclude from the last 3 years that if re-elected, President Obama is unlikely to take dramatic steps to control the banks.

Mr. Romney, on the other hand, refuses to be specific on any policy issue. From what he does say, however, we can assume that he will continue the trend of taking the teeth out of regulatory agencies. Given that these are the only things that stand between us and the rapacious bankers, we must conclude that under his government this disturbing trend will continue unfettered. Take your pick.

C. O. Jones is a Robbinsense staff writer

The Face of Tragedy

by C. O. Jones

In all the hoopla over the tragedy of Trayvon Martin, perhaps the most cynical comment comes from (would-be) news correspondent, Geraldo Rivera: “Parents, don’t send your children out with hoodies.” WHERE is the national, political, social outcry (in the face of the NRA during an election year) suggesting that parents: “Don’t send your children out with guns!” This includes our 15, 28 and 60-year-old children! There are millions of “George Zimmermans” out there whom we cannot order off the streets. George Zimmerman, and those now stepping forward to vouch for his “sweet” nature, is not the problem. The problem lies with US! We allow people like him to prowl the streets with guns. States like Florida, with comical laws, even encourage it. Arizona has gun laws now more permissive than the law whose enforcement led to the legendary gunfight at the OK corral in Tombstone in 1881.

Florida gun laws endorse a “vigilante” system of bounty hunting, with tacit immunity to what would otherwise, clearly be second degree murder. This self-promoted “protector of the community,” was clearly instructed by the police dispatcher to stand down. This incident is one more piece of a puzzle in which violence in our culture has become more and more accepted, to the point of veneration. Our street thugs who find glory in pounding each other to a pulp now make mega-bucks on TV in (respectable?) “Ultimate Fighting” leagues. I would rather watch a cock fight. Young people attend “slam dances,” in which violence is part of the fun(?) The U. S. Army now endorses “cage fighting,” in which many of the women, encouraged to participate, are carried off on stretchers.

Violence in sports runs the gamut, from the NBA, where it’s strongly discouraged, to the NHL, where it’s openly encouraged….to attract more fans. Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, was praised for his tough stance against the New Orleans Saints coaching staff for imposing stiff sanctions in a “bounty hunting” scandal. Fines and suspensions? Am I missing something? We’re talking mob violence here, with bosses and goons. These men, passing out “contracts,” are guilty of assault and battery at least. They belong in jail, banned for life! Hey, Pete Rose just had a gambling problem; he wasn’t hurting anybody. Instead, our prisons are filled with people who want to smoke an occasional joint…or with kids whose only hope to escape inner-city madness is the drug culture.

Our children are encouraged to sit in front of television sets from age 1, where they watch violence and mayhem that makes Roadrunner Cartoons look like “.…a Jolly Holiday with Mary (Poppins.)” Is it any wonder that we, (THAT’S YOU AND I) are tolerant of our government conducting multiple wars all over the planet, killing thousands of innocents including assassination of our own citizens, for the sake of protecting commerce and our prerogative to dictate to these people how they should run their lives? Our so-called “liberal” president is just as guilty as the last ignoramus we ran out of office, with the help of term limits.

Take note, my friends, of the many forms and the degree of violence that permeates our culture and take a stand against it.

C. O. Jones is a Robbinsense staff writer