chickenfeet

chiller asks about:

competitiveness

I guess one can think about this at either a personal or a societal level. At a personal level I am in many ways wickedly competitive. I like to win. I'm not completely stupid about it. When I'm coaching kids I don't get on their case because we don't win every game and I won't do stupid or cheating things to win. I'm not above passing on "the tricks of the trade" though. No reason why the kids should suffer by being naive.

More broadly, I'm agnostic about the value of competition in areas like the provision of public services. I can easily accept that where enterprises are competing for individual's money in areas where they can make a reasonably informed choice then competition is good and stimulates innovation. Do I want a Mars bar or a Crunchie, a Mac or a Dell; that kind of thing. OTOH I've seen far too many examples of the public sector buying things, whether in internal markets or from the private sector to think that any rational form of competition is operating. The incentives aren't (and can't be) aligned to make the process work in an economic way. So it doesn't

freedom

It's mostly a good thing. That said, I'm not a propertarian. I believe that there are basic human rights that transcend the right to buy and sell. There are very good reasons why all legal systems evolve some sort of equity based system alongside more contractually based ones. More broadly, ideas of freedom need to be reconciled with understanding that we live in power structures where individuals are not always or entirely free agents. Whether Mrs. Thatcher liked it or not, society is, as Carlyle recognised, more than the sum of the individuals in it. So my take on freedom would be sort of utilitarian. I believe in the greatest freedom for the greatest number.

Trading off freedoms is complicated. Trading off freedom for an illusion of security is just plain stupid. You can take your surveillance cameras and Gitmos and detention without trial and torture and stuff them very hard up the arses of the fascists who dreamed them up.

lettuce

I'm fond of lettuce. I eat quite a lot of salads though perhaps not as many as I should. I think romaine (cos) is my favourite. A properly made Caesar salad is a wondrous thing. The thing that all too often passes for a Caesar salad is not.

cellphones

Like most new technologies it wasn't one I adopted immediately. In fact for quite a while I resolutely refused to carry one except during working hours. That said, I've had one for about fifteen years back to the days when 'portable' was a relative term. Nowadays I have a Samsung Jack which doubles as a phone, email device (work and personal) and MP3 player. It's small enough for that to be OK.

rain

I spent the first half of my life in places where it rains often (ie whenever one wants to go climbing or watch cricket) but rarely torrentially. Now I live where it doesn't rain nearly so often but when it does it tends to be deadly serious. An electrical storm blowing in off Lake Ontario is truly awesome to watch. I have an especial fondness for the sort of 'fret' that is endemic on certain coasts. The Olympic coast of Washington would be an excellent example where rocks and sea and sky merge into a shifting pattern of greys. It's really rather lovely.

Feel free to ask for five topics of your very own.