THANK YOU for taking the time to listen to My Pal Sammy Episode 1. This is a short podcast mini-series to keep me occupied during the Christmas break. An experiment if you will.
The second episode is up. Wanted to get the 3rd up before 2018 expired but it doesn’t appear like that’ll happen. Emphasis on break…as in Christmas break. The series is meant to capture some of my thoughts about what I’ve been consuming since this is my prime TV watching time.
What will not make the cut, however, is the following observation…
I randomly caught a Jordan Peterson interview today and it struck me…what he’s basically saying is…the Prime Directive from Star Trek. Don’t get involved in other things…in other cultures and situations because often the outcome of what we what (say to help trans people or whatever) is the opposite. It will backfire if we get involved. And we know this from Star Trek.
It’s that weird thing where you have plans and ideas for other people…if only Sammy started doing this, or you should apply for this job…if you only followed the things I suggested trust me your life would be so much better. For almost everybody in our lives, we can clearly see “good” and “smart” decisions they should be making yet we have trouble knowing what to do for ourselves or what’s the next step. It’s totally the Prime Directive.
The Federation with all their tech and spaceships and highly intelligent mentally healthy officers could instantly improve all kinds of planets and civilizations. But “that’s not fair” as the burgeoning civilization has to handle their own business. Deal with their issues as per their agenda as their own time and in their own way. That includes making mistakes (and hopfully learning from em too!).
I read Anne Lamott’s latest book (Almost Everything: Notes on Hope) and she talks about her son going to jail…that sounds awful. But her son was in the grip of addiction and it was the best thing for him…so she left him in jail she didn’t bail him out. That’s loving…as harsh as it is her son needed time to process and deal with his issues and that’s what jail time gave him. Reading that in warm comfort of my bed free from addiction it’s easy to judge her; thankfuklly I resisted and rejected that facile judgement instead opting for wisdom. Let’s see where this goes. Maybe’ll it work.
Anyways it’s the prime directive. I may not agree with everything but a big chunk of what Jordan is saying…yeah I agree with him and I agree with Captain Picard. prime directive, yo.
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