Every Presidential election cycle this question is posed: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The implication is that whoever is occupying the Oval Office is the singular cause of how we experience our economic and social environment. While the Presidency does have strong influence in certain aspects of our economy and our society, there is much less impact from a President’s actions than the question implies.
SHRM (the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional association of HR professionals and leaders whose aim is to advance the profession) has made a public announcement that the group will be dropping the “E” (for Equity) from the previously promoted acronym, “DE&I” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). DE&I seems to have emerged around 2016. Previously, the language used was “equal opportunity”, “diversity”, “equal pay”, “non-discrimination” and “affirmative action”. Most of these terms were found in laws and regulations that go back decades to the Civil Rights Act, subsequent executive orders, multiple employment-related laws and various court cases. All of these were part of a political and social trend of opening up the avenues of economic advancement to everyone based on capability, regardless of any non-job-related factor, like age, gender, ethnic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.
Continue readingYou’d think boredom was fatal, the way many people, assuredly teenagers, will go to great lengths to avoid it. From my observations of humans, including myself, it appears that irritating stimulation is preferable to no stimulation.
What do we do these days when, say, we’re waiting at a coffee shop for our friend to show up? We order a chai latte with almond milk. While that’s being made, we look around a bit, settle in our seat, maybe tidy up the table top’s condiments. Okay, that’s done. Now what?
The incredible urge at that point is to pull out our self-stimulation device and open an app.
Discrimination, segregation, persecution, revolution. These are the four sequential effects of psychological processes that are part of evolved human behavior, and which are part of many other animal species’ as well. The negative outcome from these four effects has reached a point where the evolutionary benefits are no longer compelling. And there have indeed been benefits from these processes, else humans (and other animals) would not have developed the behaviors in the first place. What are those benefits?
