Teaching Social Competence

Parents and teachers can help teach social competence first by demonstrating it themselves. Second, by displaying faith in the child’s ability to achieve. Third, by explaining the existence and nature of the tools available to the child for the purposes of developing social competence (the ability to coordinate affect, cognition, and behavior). It is important that the expectations of patents and teachers for a child’s development of social competence be age appropriate.

Shall social competence have a different definition for each developmental stage? Certainly, the application of the definition requires addressing individual efficacy; it is important that children not be expected to perform beyond their developmental capacity. In that respect, social competence must be defined in terms of developmental achievement, but this task has been imposed upon us by the artificial stage demarcations that have arisen out of an intellectual construct that may have no more utility than a metaphor to help us, the observer to understand phenomena. Those demarcations may well be analogous to latitude and longitude lines drawn upon a globe. Developmental social competence underneath these lines of demarcation just might be a seamless spectrum. Far more important is a multi-dimensional criterion for assessment of social competence.

Research Validity

nternal validity is the result of an experiment being crafted in such a manner that the outcome of the experiment matches its teleology. That is to say it in fact does what it purports. In order to have internal validity the experiment must demonstrate that it was the variable manipulation and not some other extraneous cause that brought about the effect. External validity is the ability of the experimental results to be extrapolated to the general population or to another sample group.

Threats to validity are important considerations when designing studies because first the most effective response to validity threats is in the original design, specifically the design of the sampling procedure. The choice of participants must be made in such a manner as to maximize the similarity both between groups and between the groups and the population at large in order to minimize the threats to validity. There should be similarity between groups to increase internal validity; similarity between both groups and the general population to increase external validity.

Because studies take place over time the elapse of time itself can be a confounding variable especially in the study of children wherein the elapse of even a small amount of time can effect drastic changes in the operating parameters of the subjects. Also because experiments take place over time, attrition is a threat to validity not only mortality proper, but attrition due to relocation and simple dropout. These changes in the selected groups may alter the parameters carefully chosen at the beginning of the study.

During the time interval between the beginning and conclusion of a study, events may occur outside of the experiment which have a confounding effect even if irrelevant to the study. For example, a study of seasonal affective disorder in New York City conducted from August through December of 2001 might have confounded results through no fault of the study design. Outside influences can also threaten external validity, wherein a subset of a group receives an experience that enhances or detracts from the experimental treatment. Whereas the threat to internal validity is to the attribution of cause, the threat to external validity is to generalizability.

Naturally occurring developmental changes to the sample population may also introduce confounding causes. Activities of the sample population outside of the experiment may also have an adverse effect on the end result for example; a new exercise or diet fad amongst the general population may spoil the results of a concurrent weight loss study.

Pretesting may sensitize participants to not only the content of the instrumentation but also to the process of testing. Improved scores on tests may reflect improvement on what is being measured but it may merely measure the aspect of practice makes perfect. Test-pretest sensitivity is a threat to internal validity that threatens external validity as well in that the experiment repeated without the pretest may yield different results not attributable to any other factors in the repetition thereby adversely affecting generalizability.

When the administration or scoring of a test is inconsistent, the interpretation of the results has no sound basis. Validity can not only be affected by the interpretation of the statistics, but also by the statistical model itself. While regression toward the mean may be ameliorated by dropping outliers out of the equation, it is a trifle naïf to assume that the choice of the use of the mean or the median has no effect on the analysis of the data. Also the experimenters themselves may have a deleterious effect on results, whether in the administration of the test or by unintended non-verbal cues of the tester. The threat to external validity labeled reactive arrangement is also known as the “Hawthorne effect” which has been explained as an effect of participants being aware of the experiment. However there is a simpler explanation. Elton Mayo’s observations were of worker productivity at a factory (Bell, Paul A., Green, Thomas C., Fisher, Jeffery D., Baum, Andrew 2001). Anyone who has worked on a production line would be able to explain the increase in productivity when an experimenter changed the independent variable not so much as the result of condition changes but as a result of worker fatigue having a smaller effect on worker productivity when the worker is under supervisory or other observation. It is also trifle naïf to assume that observation has no effect upon the thing observed.

John Dewey Human Nature and conduct

There is a positive and negative side to morals. In ethics it may be sufficient to do no harm, but morals go beyond mere avoidance of the contumely of society. This is the spiritual pride of the prodigal son’s elder brother. Claiming moral praiseworthiness only on the basis of an absence of blameworthiness is above all only another permutation of self-concern. Not being the cause of ill is not the same as creating a new good. Yet there are some who do not break their arm when patting themselves on the back based upon not being a killer or bringing harm with the best of intentions. On the other hand, there are those whose exaltation of an ideal world wherein imperfection could be seen as an opportunity for real positive change instead of confirming evidence of the dichotomy between the ideal and actual and furthermore a confirmation of a neo-Platonic distinction between personal realities such as that theorized by Rene’ Descartes.

Indeed, the Cartesian solution for the mind-body problem leads some to give up real physical morality and ethics as a bad idea unattainable in a world not ideal, something only to be pursued within the individual consciousness. This aversion to the actual drags morality away form ethics; makes it something personal and not social. Something that is divorced from human interaction, something that is exclusively human inaction. All religions condemn this form do unto others . . . to practice compassion at all times to all creatures. Even Islam whose ideal is a religious society teaches that morality is a matter of social interaction.

Dewey elucidates two theories of social change, one wherein all social improvement is founded upon the preeminent change of individual character, and one for which improved morality “trickles down” from a primary change in social institutions. Each, in promoting its preferred theory of change, asserts the impossibility of the obverse. Each limits human individual freedom. One, by exalting it to exclusive ethereality, and the other by denying it completely. Shall a person contemplate their navel until it absorbs them, or shall society be condemned to follow some law of historical evolution or dialectical materialism into the new horizon? Some would deny this dilemma. Like Dewey these would point out that human behavior is the interaction between the individual and their surroundings. Environmental psychology for the natural surroundings and social psychology for group behavior. But is group behavior the same as interaction between the individual and social environment? We see that social change can stimulate individual change and individual change can stimulate social change but is this organic change that brings reform just as planned economies fail, planned social reform brings unintended consequences. One cannot merely do one thing.

Morals are a science of ends, means, and actions. Morality is not constrained to stasis as character alone. Morality is dynamic. Morality is a matter of intelligent design. It is teleological; involved with final causes. The forces of relativism confuse the actions of the individual, the interrelationship of the individual to the environment, and the individual themselves. The morality of an act is not the result of a changing environment, but the result of the individual’s choice of interaction with that environment.

Teaching children social competence

Parents and teachers can help teach social competence first by demonstrating it themselves. Second, by displaying faith in the child’s ability to achieve. Third, by explaining the existence and nature of the tools available to the child for the purposes of developing social competence (the ability to coordinate affect, cognition, and behavior). It is important that the expectations of patents and teachers for a child’s development of social competence be age appropriate.

Shall social competence have a different definition for each developmental stage? Certainly, the application of the definition requires addressing individual efficacy; it is important that children not be expected to perform beyond their developmental capacity. In that respect, social competence must be defined in terms of developmental achievement, but this task has been imposed upon us by the artificial stage demarcations that have arisen out of an intellectual construct that may have no more utility than a metaphor to help us, the observer to understand phenomena. Those demarcations may well be analogous to latitude and longitude lines drawn upon a globe. Developmental social competence underneath these lines of demarcation just might be a seamless spectrum. Far more important is a multi-dimensional criterion for assessment of social competence.

Global Warming?

Global warming is s shibboleth of the modern day.  Here in Oregon,  a few years ago the governor punished the chief climatologist of Oregon State University with excommunication (its equivalent) for insisting in the face of the dictates of current faith, the equivalent of the earth moving around the sun.
Without citing references the partisans  claim that the earth has warmed two degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years and seven degrees Fahrenheit since the last ice age.  I say equally without supporting references that Greenland ice cores show that during the last ice age, global temperatures varied through twenty degrees centigrade in the space of one year except I can provide references and will at a later date.

These same partisans attribute global warming to human activity as evidenced by the conversion of forest to farmland, but from the end of the last ice age, until the Holocene period, far more forest land in Europe was converted into savanna by naturally occurring global warming.
The consequences of global warming are climate change.  Patterns of erosion on the Egyptian sphinx indicating water flow and extinct tropical coral reefs off the coast of Norway, coal deposits in Antarctica and mammoths frozen solid in ice in Siberia so that their meat was fresh and edible as was the vegetable material in their teeth and stomachs show that the earth has undergone far greater warmings and coolings and far quicker than a few paltry degrees per century.  Again I can provide references and will at my convenience, I just want to illustrate how the partisans for global warming throw out supposed data just as some religious leaders throw out historical data without any backing.  Just how much we are talking about articles of faith here is exactly my point. 
Forty years ago ecologists made dire predictions, but better forest and farmland management resulting in greater productivity prevented a catastrophic explosion of the population bomb.  It was not that Thomas Malthus was wrong, it was just that man helped nature to set a bigger table.  Still it moves!
Global warming 55million years before the present, is evidenced by a sediment layer whose carbon is unusually rich in the carbon-12 isotope (light carbon) indicates a massive release of methane from oceanic methane hydrate.
Temperature variation is normal, because an ice age is really the earth’s answer to global warming to wit large massive sheets of ice do not form as a result of colder temperatures.  Ice draws moisture out of the air.  Frost is the result of cold temperatures.  Large massive sheets of ice are the result of snow pack.  Snow piled upon snow piled upon snow piled upon snow.  For a glacier to form, there must first be tremendous amounts of precipitation.  A prerequisite of precipitation is evaporation,  A prerequisite of evaporation is increased molecular motion of water molecules.  Motion will not increase without an influx of energy.  Ergo, an ice age evidenced by massive glaciation without a prior enormous heat wave will not occur.  Such a heat wave could occur as a result of an asteroid strike with a resultant shock wave traveling through the earth’s crust, disrupting tectonic plates, initiating global volcanic activity.  Whether large increases in atmospheric water vapor without volcanic smoke would lead to increased snowfall or more greenhouse effect remains to be seen.  But the decrease of global temperature as a result of the K-T event (evidenced by a deposition layer of iridium ash) has as its mirror image the Permian extinction whose deposition layer of light carbon indicates global temperature from a massive methane release either from a cometary strike or a release into the atmosphere of seafloor methane hydrate.

Gender Roles in a Subsistence Level Economy

Whether one believes in evolution or special creationism, at one point in human history, humans were greatly outnumbered by large carnivorous species.  At that time, social cooperation for defense was necessary for survival.  Whether the human economy was as hunter-killers or as scavengers is irrelevant as in either case that economy was subsistence level only.  Due to physiological sexual dimorphism, and the necessity of distributing labor in the most efficient manner possible, food provider roles became concentrated in the male.  This was because his greater size gave him greater ranging ability.  Also, nurturing duties became concentrated in the female, for breast feeding infants not only restricted her range, but also made her the most efficient mode of storing extra calories.  This division of labor developed into women becoming the servants of life, while men became the servants of society.  It is the nature of the case of child rearing that for some period of time at the beginning of one’s life, one must be the center of the universe, due to the inability of the human infant to care for itself.  Gender roles confer adulthood differently.  In a subsistence level economy, a girl becomes a woman purely by biology, the onset of menses determines her role, the ability to bear children and produce milk.  But the male role must be learned, larger musculature does not automatically confer skill with the spear or the thrown rock.  In a subsistence level economy, boys must be made into men.  They are initiated into warrior society.  They are forcefully taught self-sacrifice, to go out, gather food, and bring it back and give it to others.  Thus biology confers a certain self centeredness in the female role as the number of women in a population controls the number of potential individuals in the next generation, women are charged with the conservation of resources if only to preserve the ability, through good nutrition, to produce breast milk, which in times of distress can be a source of calories for the entire group.  Thus even though men may need more calories for the chase, it is to the advantage of all that the majority of food produced be given to the female.  The male, however, does not acquire weapons skill by virtue of his testes dropping.  He must be taught, not only the skills to acquire food, but the social necessity of bring it back home to feed the rest of the group.  Self-sacrifice must be integrated into the socialization of his gender role for the greater good.  Just as it is the female’s role to be who she is, it is the male’s role to go beyond what he is.  As the males were busy procuring food, it is more likely that the female invented agriculture through foraging near home, and through snatch crops, also invented animal husbandry and domestication.  Thus it can be said that civilization is the invention and gift of the female.  Once civilization was a going concern, agriculture and animal husbandry was absorbed into the male role.  While living in the garden of Eden or as arboreal proto-humans, food production was not an issue, all gleaned as their appetite dictated.  Survival issues were mostly defense against predation or invasion which was addressed by group action under the leadership of the “Big Man”.  The big man also prevented petty domestic squabbles from getting out of hand.  He kept order.  Once humans ate bread by the sweat of their brow”, greater social organization than a big man and a pecking order was needed; gender roles were developed by society according to what worked.  Males were bigger, males did the physical work.  Females gave and preserved life, females were, in their gender roles, the life of the tribe; thus they were a commodity that a failing tribe might seek to steal.

Territoriality

Robert Ardrey postulated that territory for early humans was a function of the pair bond.  Extrapolating from stamping ground behavior of certain ungulates, wherein males possessed of territory ignored available females outside of their personal territory, he developed the idea that territory was not for sex but that sex was for territory.  While early humans lived in communal groups, the greater and longer dependency of the human infant required greater care giving organization than that utilized by chimpanzees or baboons.  This required some modus of identification for the community sub-group unit known to us as family.  For this then territory was the glue which cemented the pair bond and kept family units from dissolving into the communal group as a whole.

Persuasion

The more strongly held an attitude is the more difficult it is to change also the greater lengths of time of view is held the more difficult used to change there are Cross links to other attitudes and behaviors a social identity an attitude that is publicly known is the most difficult to change there are three components to persuasion the messenger the message and the audience and this would be the logos and pathos of rhetoric messenger the messenger needs to be perceived as being attractive in that the messenger is similar to the audience the messenger needs to be perceived as credible and reliable there are two types of message one-sided and two-sided.  One-sided message is preaching to acquire the and the two cited message is a told one system analysis type of message with the present hurt will present the audience's side of the argument first and contrary arguments last of this arises out of Carl Rogers concept of unconditional positive regard in the audience there's variety between an within the audience's the paces important a slow pace degrades the estimation of the messenger to the behavior feel the feeling in attitude change it is necessary to change itself talk the internal dialogue inhibition of counter arguments behavior that is ignore to drops out there appears to be a time limit to attitude's attitude no inoculation since he is a dual process highly motivated thinking is the process low motivation thinking is shallow process the quality of an argument the substance of an argument gives weight the relevance of the argument to the audience gives the argument await there is an inverse proportional ratio between the quality and the quantity of the argument the issue must be involving to the objects mood is important there are highly suggest will people they have low self-esteem and low confidence and a high interpersonal trust the very young and the very old are the most common members of this group

Group Therapy

The central issue to group therapy, as in any therapy is how does the therapy improve the quality of life for the recipient? The methodology of applying therapy is determined by this question as a paradigm.  The individual therapist has a vested interest in the theoretical foundation for the therapy (s)he prescribes.  Client improvement may well have different attributions based upon these theoretical biases.  Irrespective of theoretical and attributional changes, the life quality improvements that therapy brings to the client are often brought about by the same methods of change.  Obviously change only comes about by action, and that action is fueled by the hope of effectiveness.  Long term potentiation is an example of a physiological change brought about by a psychological state. 

In order to amalgamate differing theories of therapy, one must separate the letter from the spirit, the ritual from the life,  the mechanism of change from the actual change itself.  The core of therapy, like any other core is the definition, the seed, the means of renewal.

Non-traditional Gender Roles and Coping Skills

There is research that suggests women and men who are non-traditional in their gender orientation adjust better and more quickly to a marital breakdown.  The explanation for this is that androgynous women and men have better coping skills with which to handle the trauma of divorce than do women and men who behave according to traditional gender role expectation.  This latter point has major implications for how we socialize children to prepare them for adult roles.  These individuals are accustomed to coping with the challenges of being different.  This is a stressor and experience with stressors makes navigating stress both easier and harder.   Practice may make perfect, but constant long-term stress is a horse of a different color.

Another A for a final grade

Psy 509 Theories of marriage and Family Counseling

Marius and Sulla and the rise of Ceasarism

Caesarism only gave a name to a well established process in the fall of the Roman Republic.  The conflict between Caesar and Pompey was merely a reflection of the class conflict left unresolved by Marius and Sulla.  The conflict erupted when the counter weight of Crassus was removed and the familial ties between the men were broken.  The artificial friendship between Pompey and Caesar were plugs in a dam full of holes; a dam that had consistently failed to hold back the flood of conflict.  For a long time this conflict was exacerbated by men seeking power and self-aggrandizement.

Conflict was avoided in the beginnings of the Roman republic.  The head of state was alternated between the original classes, the Romans and the Sabines.  The roots of this conflict were evident in the attempted reforms of the tribuneship of the Gracchi brothers.  The Gracchi brothers resorted to violence in order to institute reforms such as a repeal of the law against intermarriage between the patrician and plebeians, land reforms, and extension of citizenship to Italian allies.  Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus both met their ends at the hands of aristocratic mobs.

At the beginning of his career, Marius took pains to alienate the patrician class.  He purposely chose soldiers from the lower classes contrary to tradition.  Flushed with unprecedented victories over the invading Cimbri, he embarked upon a political career feverish with actions against the patrician class.  His excesses were matched or exceeded by the aristocratic reaction led by his rival Sulla.

Caesar was a nephew of Marius, who flouted the enmity of Sulla.  When he might have escaped to exile during Sulla's dictatorship, he stood for the priesthood at Rome.  He was elected Pontifex Maximus or high priest.  In a celebration, he had statues of Marius erected at the capitol at night.  This ploy fooled no one.  But luckily for his safety, the aristocratic class despised his youth; they would not listen when Sulla warned,"In this boy are many Mariuses".

Pompey was the darling of the patrician class.  He was born a patrician to an illustrious family.  He fought for Sulla in the civil wars leading an army that he had gathered and trained while in exile.  He had fought wars in Parthia and Asia extending the eastern frontier of Rome.  He was given absolute powers to suppress piracy and to solve the resultant grain shortage.

They pledged mutual support for their candidates for office, for their aspirations to provincial governorships, and for legislation to provide public funds for their separate military campaigns.  Pompey also loaned troops to Caesar for use in Gaul.  This friendship was cemented with alliances by marriage.  Caesar also sent troops home in order that they might vote for Pompey and Crassus in return for favorable legislation upon their election.

Caesar learned much in Gaul.  He learned military science, and that he was a latent genius at that subject.  He learned that he could amass the wealth necessary to conduct bribery successfully.  He was finally able to suborn officials.  When he camped south of the Alps for winter, so many people came from Rome to visit and seek his advice and his bribes that at one time there were 200 senators at his camp.

This balance of power remained because if they fought openly, Crassus would have had opportunity to defeat the weakened winner.  Crassus died from an abysmally mismanaged military campaign in Parthia.  Since his death was quickly followed by the death of Pompey's wife in childbirth, and since Caesar's granddaughter by Pompey did not survive her mother, there were no longer any ties to hold back hostility.

The Senate became concerned over the rising power of Caesar.  The latest elections had gone against Pompey and open strife became conspicuous.  The lack of government was a reason that some gave for the need for a dictator.  Many in the Senate felt that a legal monarchy was preferable to government by the sword.  The Senate in the person of Cato also felt that Pompey would be the milder and more tractable candidate for monarchy.  They began to consider proposals to disarm Caesar and to remove him from lucrative provincial government.  Accusations of malfeasance of public funds were made.  Caesar's envoys, men of rank and position, were attacked in the Senate.  Worst of all, to be stripped of his legions and to return to Rome a private citizen would disqualify him from a public celebration, a triumph, commemorating his victories in Gaul.

Caesar returned to Pompey the loaned troops.  They acted as agents provocateurs.  They belittled Caesar's accomplishments, and the loyalty of his troops to Pompey.  Pompey had always despised Caesar's power, thinking that as he had raised Caesar up, he could reduce him just as easily.  Pompey also counted upon raising troops seemingly out of nowhere, as he had been able to do in the past, as he had done during the civil wars of Sulla and Marius.  Caesar also made counter-proposals.  He proposed that he should be treated equally with Pompey, either Pompey should disband his troops and they both present themselves to the Roman people for judgment, or that if Pompey should retain his provinces and troops, then Caesar should also retain his.  These proposals were received with joy by the people, and with contumely by the Senate.  In response, Caesar still offered compromise.  He offered to relinquish all but two of his provinces and all but two of his legions.  This proposal was rejected with greatest vehemence yet.

He halted his advance on the banks of the Rubicon.  The river which marked the boundary between his provinces and Roman lands, Here he stopped and considered the hostility of the Senate, his probable fate if he acquiesced, and the consequences to Rome and himself if he advanced.  Reaching a decision, Caesar suddenly advanced without waiting for his troops beyond the Alps to arrive.

Caesar may have said, "Let the die be cast." but the die was really cast long before by Marius.

Turn it Teal

Teal tutu any size fifteen dollars with 5 dollar shipping and handling

All proceeds go to Oregon/Southwest Washington Ovarian Cancer Awareness in honor of Marla Lenore Ackeret who died of ovarian cancer two years ago at age 27.

Fundraiser is being held by tutucorner found on facebook or www.etsy.com/shop/userbear4829

Email tutucorner@aol.com

The Scientific Method

The process of the application of the scientific method can be described as a feedback loop where in the output of one research question becomes the input of another. It has been said that with complex issues, the more answers that are found, the more questions that need to be asked. It is the important questions that are begged. The application of the scientific method is an incremental process as well.

The initial step in asking the question is the formulation of the question itself. Following the feedback model, the asking of the question begins with the answering of a prior question. Indeed the examination of prior questions is essential to proceeding without unwarranted assumptions. Also, whether by design or by default, other authorities may find a produced answer insufficient. The answer to a research question may conflict with someone’s pet theory or dogma. This will stimulate further research of an adversary own nature. Furthermore, an answer may point out unforeseen aspects of the topic to a friendly researcher. Just as any debate cannot continue without common definitions of terms, any answer to a question, define some terms in greater detail, unlocking doors to greater business, so to speak. The formulation of the question is analogous to the development of an algebraic formula; the factors must be identified like discovering the roots of any square involved. The components or terms of the equation must be isolated and analyzed to determine their exact contribution to the equation. Once the component of an unknown variable is determined, the nature of that variable can be investigated in terms of known factors. A telescope may provide information in isolation, but to determine interactions a wide-angle lens is required. The formulation of a hypothesis is the same thing as converting the original question into a format that is capable of measurement. Once the question has been translated into a testable hypothesis the collection of information can begin. Whether the information is collected with a butterfly net or a windsock the resolution of the matter depends upon the replacement of variables with values.

A question that cannot be put to the question, cannot be investigated. Its ineffable characteristics bring about a set of conditions upon which it can only speculated, this is the reason that it is the important questions that are begged, that these questions concerning ineffable concepts of a nebulous nature cannot be translated into measurable terms. The chemical composition of the soul cannot be determined because the soul cannot be put into a test tube and exposed to reagents. That it is the immateriality of the soul that resists the material constraints is irrelevant. In order to be measured, the soul must first be defined in measurable terms. While this has been said to be a limitation of the scientific method itself, this is not so. Consciousness is a construct postulated to claim the origins of behavior. While the mythology of consciousness may impede it does not preclude the study of behavior. The question of the nature of consciousness is a prior question whose irresolution does not prevent the continuation of investigation of phenomena from a black box perspective. To continue the algebra metaphor, the value of Y can be determined in terms of X without the determination of the value of X.

This does not lead to an answer as a final value, but this is why the scientific method is a cyclical process. The coming-into-the-nearness-of of that-which-regions is a product of peripatetic dialectical perception.

If I propose that there is an interactive relationship between the beating of a butterfly’s wing and wind currents, there will be someone else who will claim that the divergence in frame of reference or scale of observation between the two renders the resolution of the question dependent upon confounding variables, without the identification of potential multiplicative factors forming the bridge to any such relationship question this question will remain in the realm of articles of faith. In other words, while we may speculate about the performance of Boyle’s law as a contributing factor without common definitions in measurable terms, that remains mere speculation.

A pre-experimental study may stimulate true experimental research.

Physiological Psychology

Psy 540 Physiological Psychology final exam: A final grade: A

Human Nature and Conduct John Dewey

Dewey said that, “Morality is largely concerned with controlling human nature”.

Nietzsche would refer to this control as the sublimated resentment and self-congratulations of the controlled. This compensation for inferiority is the obverse side of the coin of the attempt to control human nature. Common to both is the view of human nature as evil. Dewey addresses the question that Nietzsche answers perfunctorily with the concept of ressentiment. Dewey's first question concerns the ways and wherefores of the dichotomy between the nature of humans and the nature of moral control. If, he muses, morality arose out of human nature, how is it that morality is something to struggle at rather than by something as natural and "second nature” as breathing. Like Nietzsche, Dewey looks for the answer in social stratification. Whereas, for Nietzsche, morality is the compensatory denunciation of the superior by the inferior, for Dewey, morality is the level of compliance of the controlled to the controlling agency. As Dewey looks to the origin of morality, while Nietzsche examinees the evolution of a morality of consequences to that of a morality of intent and preconditions, remember Polybius' words on the restructuring of a post-apocalyptic society.

Camouflage is the most effective defense against shame in a system of negative morals. Being "just like folk” as Clive Staples Lewis put it is just what Friedrich Nietzsche objected to in his condemnation of slave morality.

Dewey makes use of the interaction between the individual and the environment. In issues of ethics and morality, The person and social environment; considering Vision, the eye, the optic nerve, and light. He specifically Mentions that walking presupposes a surface that is walked upon. The question remains, which is preeminent? The eye? The optic nerve? The light? The interplay in between? Or would neuroscience more recent than John Dewey's Time point as toward the visual cortex in the occipital lobe as a processing center? Is This processing center the controlling factor or merely the focus from which the emergent property are call vision arises out of the matrix of light, eyeball and neural network?

Civilization presupposes infrastructure.

Jungian Archetypes

Archetypes are within the collective unconscious. They are mystical and artistic creations of ancient civilizations. Similarities in artistic images across cultures all the interpretation of unexpressed personal issues. Symbols give greater depth. Empirical testing is personal and subjective only. Is the collective unconscious something from beyond that extends downward into humanity or is it an emergent property arising out of the three dimensional matrix formed by interconnected human souls?Jung would have used the collective unconscious for more than the explanation of similarities in the cultural mythologies between cultural without physical contact. He would have brought in many kinds of phenomena beyond the explanation of a science restricted to the uniformity of natural causes within a closed system. A system closed to influences from beyond; the supernatural.
Individuation is the remedy for psychic imbalance. It is a return to a state of integration between conscious and unconscious.Persona is the mask that we wear for the world. The persona is dynamic. It adapts to the reactions we receive from the world. As we learn to value approval as a secondary reward, our persona mask is changed to elicit favorably reactions. Changes in Persona that are major life events are celebrated through ritual.
The Anima or Animus are like the shadow in that they are repositories for characteristics inconsistent with the ego but these characteristics inconsistencies are of a gender nature. A man’s feminine side or a woman’s masculine side. Biochemically all our bodies produce hormones indicative of the opposite gender. The amount to which the other side shines through may be more indicative of the potency, bioavailability, or the amount of other gender hormone produced. Certainly testosterone shows greater effects in post menopausal women, but even if estrogen produced breasts in older men would they still be as noticeable as the mustache on an older woman? Would passivity in an older man be as noticeable as aggression in an older woman? Are these phenomena interpreted according to cultural conventions? Are gender roles purely the result of social learning? 
The shadow is the repository for elements in the unconscious that have been neglected or shunted aside in the development of the persona. The shadow is the connection between the conscious and unconscious. It’s appearance represents moral conflict. The shadow that is integrated with the persona is the grey areas that give the image contrast. The shadow is the same gender as the persona. Cross gender images would be the Anima or Animus not the shadow.Self the most important archetype integration and balance; it provides the personality with unity and stability. During development aspects of the personality grow in a piece-meal fashion. The social identity and the internal identity grow at different rates. The part of the personality that works toward a unified whole is called the transcendent function. The unconscious participates in this function in a dynamic manner. It nudges the ego this way and that to focus attention on lesser development matters.

theories of motivation

The leader’s job is to help the work group achieve goals they desire. Leadership, in this theory is seen as a guide; a help to navigate obstacles in the path of goal achievement. In this theory, leadership is divided into four behavior categories. They are directive behavior, achievement oriented behavior, supportive behavior, and participative behavior. These categories are more intricately subdivided than the simple division of structure and consideration of behaviorist theories. Structure is broken down into directive and achievement behavior and consideration is broken down into supportive and participative behavior.

Happy Birthday, Malachi!

Today is my grandson’s eleventh birthday.

Alternative pay structures

Two alternative pay structures are merit pay, a pay structure which adds performance to a base pay rate, and knowledge based , or skill based pay, a pay system based on the knowledge and skills of the individual instead of the position the individual actually holds. Other alternative pay structures such as gain sharing and profit sharing are based on the performance of the company instead of the performance of the individual.(Knowledge based pay is a pay system wherein workers are compensated according to their skills and abilities rather than their actual position.) Knowledge based pay may lead to greater job satisfaction through cost effectiveness dictating greater worker utilization and job enlargement. Also workers may see skill based pay as more equitable, thus leading to more productivity. Workers might be more inclined to apply special expertise to increase productivity if this behavior is rewarded beyond the norm.  

Feb 4,2010

Had she lived, my daughter  would have celebrated her 29th birthday today

Sleep and Depression

Sleep is not an homogenous phenomenon. It is, of course, divided into sleep both with and without rapid eye movement (REM); Slow and fast electroencephalograph (EEG) wave sleep; sleep with or without muscular tonus. Sleep categories can be discriminated as to whether noradrenalin or serotonin is ascendant. As sleep is divided into dreaming or not, dreaming sleep is subdivided into tonic and phasic. If we include transitory phases, we can increase that division to three as the ancient Hindus did. Divided thus into light sleep, deep sleep and dreaming sleep, these divisions correspond to Vedic categories characterized by the nature of what the sleeper is cognizant. If we make distinctions based on the frequency signature of the EEG, then sleep is divided into four phases. EEG waves are divided into four categories: Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Theta. Wakefulness corresponds to Beta wave activity. Relaxation and drowsiness correspond to Alpha waves. A Hertz spectrum of brainwave frequencies in ascending order begins with the delta waves of deep sleep. The next higher frequency is that of the theta waves of paradoxical sleep. Then there is a .5 Hz gap between the theta frequencies and the frequencies of light alpha wave sleep. The .5 Hz gap between alpha waves and the Beta brain waves of wakefulness is straddled by the frequencies of the anomalous spindles and K complexes of light sleep (Carlson, 2005, Levinthal, 1979).

Light sleep corresponds to slow EEG waves. (Although there are sharp jumps called spindles presented in stage one light sleep.) Light sleep is also characterized by retention of muscular tonus. (The high voltage spikes, characteristic of the phasic portion of dreaming or paradoxical sleep resemble the spindles of light sleep except that they come at a relatively stable rate of 60-70/minute and that they are specifically located in the Pons and the Occipitus.) Slow wave sleep seems to be dependent upon the cortex and thalamus as opposed to the Pons and Occipitus as animals without a cortex fail to present light sleep. Also animals whose brains have been sectioned at the level of the Pons oscillate between deep sleep and dreaming sleep without transitioning through light sleep. Light sleep is correlated with serotonin as injections of serotonin precursors can induce light sleep while artificial serotonin deprivation produces wakefulness (Jouvet, 1967).

EEG frequency decreases as arousability declines indicating a positive correlation. Sleep consists of alternating periods of REM and slow wave sleep. Stage 4 sleep is the time wherein metabolic repair occurs. REM sleep is a time of intense physiological activity despite the lack of muscular tonus. As many as 10% of the population do not present alpha waves. Drugs related to the parasympathetic function of Acetylcholine (ACh) such as atropine present slow waves and arousal in paradoxical simultaneity. Physostigamine, an ACh agonist presents with fast waves and sleep or quiescence. Self reports of dreaming are associated with low amplitude waves indicative of wakefulness during sleep. High frequency asynchronous brain waves and eye movements of 60-70 minutes are also thus associated.

90 minutes after sleep and 45 minutes after stage four EEG enters asynchrony and Theta waves appear. REM begins; muscle tonus disappears perhaps to the point of paralysis punctuated by occasional twitching. People deprived of sleep will recover slow wave and REM sleep but present no need to recover stage one or two sleep. Sleep progresses on a 90 minute cycle containing a 20-30 minute episode of REM sleep. Most stage 3 & 4 sleep occurs early in the night with the proportion of stage 2 sleep increasing as the night progresses. The oscillation between slow wave sleep and paradoxical sleep appears to follow a production and depletion through usage cycles of neurotransmitters perhaps the result of a continually shifting balance of serotonin and noradrenalin similar to the water and oil mixture in a decorative wave machine.

Depression is characterized by disordered sleep. Light transitional sleep is increased at the expense of stage 3 & 4 deep sleep. The sleep of depressed people is punctuated by periods of wakefulness. The first half of their sleep period contains more REM sleep with increased rapidity of the eye movements. Depriving depressed people of either sleep in toto or of merely paradoxical sleep have a positive therapeutic effect resembling that of antidepressant medications. Comparative psychology experiments have demonstrated a connection between monoamine oxidase inhibitors, alleviation of depression, and the suppression of dreams. Like antidepressants, the effects build over time and may continue after discontinuation. Some treatments for depression suppress REM sleep, delaying onset and reducing duration.

free will vs. determinism

The theory of Materialistic Monism lends itself to a denial of free will.  There are those that would attribute this theory to evil in that a denial of free will is in effect, a denial of moral responsibility.  The observations of Konrad Lorenz, and Robert Audrey have great value, but do they really support a denial of spirit without prejudiced interpretation.  Does one’s philosophical presuppositions determine one’s opinions.  Does De Omnibus Dubitandum apply when looking in the mirror?

Man is not a moral agent. Man does not make choices. He merely gravitates sensationally in one direction or another due to the electro-chemical disposition of the body at the moment. God has a mind which is greater than mine, however, the mind of God encompasses mine; absorbs it. I am part of it, therefore God understands my mind even more so than I understand myself, and since God teaches us to accept, (S)He Her(Him)self accepts. God accepts and understands me, this follows naturally and logically from the fact of our mutual existence. Inadequacy is the natural result of finitude just as excess is the result of infinity. However, the finite and the infinite are not separate; the finite is contained within and is part and parcel of the infinite.

Modern research on long-term potentiation  gives an appearance of a denial of Materialistic Monism in this respect.  For it may well be that in making choices, we alter the manner in which individual neurons in the brain are more (or less) likely to activate in response to similar stimuli.

Ooops!

I am currently moving 500 gigs interrupting many operations sorry

Animal Research

Argument in favor

Animal research is necessary because some information cannot be had any other way. Animal research provides valid and useful information because of the advances in medicine that it has help develop. Animal research is beneficial to the subjects because the care and habitation conditions are held to a higher standard than pet ownership.

Research involving experimenting on animals is necessary if certain information is to be obtained. For example, all information on medicating children is pure guesswork; even proper dosage is only a best guess extrapolation from clinical trial experimental information culled from adults. Those guesses about dosage modification from adults to children must be assisted by the experimentation upon animals; the alternatives are a) to do clinical drug trial experimentation on children or b) to discover toxic effects on development and teratogenic effects of drugs in the same manner as the teratogenic effects of thalidomide were discovered. Irrespective of kids’ plasticity, adaption and adjustment, the minimal suffering of an innumerable number of laboratory animals weighs less than the suffering of one child poisoned by medical guesswork without the knowledge provided by comparative physiology.

Animal research is beneficial because, even though we need not concern ourselves with a psychosomatic ‘placebo’ effect on animals, we still must use placebos, but the necessity is to discover the baseline stress effect of the administration method. That is to say the animal must be forcibly removed from its environment and restrained for the administration of the medication or placebo. While they can be acclimated to be handled by humans, it is not in the nature of rats’ natural experience to be picked up and held down without being the subject of predation. To minimize this as a confounding variable, the successful researcher must learn to handle and test an animal in the most humane and gentle manner possible. The humane treatment of subjects of research whether animal or human is an integral part of the procedure. Inhumane treatment would introduce uncontrolled variables into the procedure that would render all information thereby gleaned useless. The skills and knowledge exists to prevent or reduce suffering that of noscomial infection. The habitation of subject animals is maintained is a salubrial condition (Carlson, 2005).

Animal research is beneficial because research is not the only purpose for which humans use animals. They provide us with nutrition, clothing, entertainment, and even medicine and companionship without consultation of their will in the matter. Laboratory research is held to a higher standard than pet ownership. And that is as is it should be if for no other reason than controlling confounding variables.

References

Carlson, Neil, R. 2005 Foundations of Physiological Psychology 6th Ed. Pearson Ally and Bacon Boston Ma.

Fischer, Alan E. June 1964 Chemical Stimulation of The Brain page 295-6 in Readings from Scientific American Physiological Psychology W. Ho Freeman and company San Francisco

Jouvet, Michel The States of Sleep Feb. 1967 (pp. 329-336) In Readings from Scientific American: Physiological Psychology W. Ho Freeman and company San Francisco Ca.

Argument in Opposition posted at http://wholesalememories.wordpress.com/

From the jungle to the new horizon a video history

slowing down

I am currently designing a web  page and as I am just beginning at this my output is some what erratic, but graduate school, gainful employment, and two small children can do that to one.  But as a beginner, my essay on Alzheimer's disease was selected as a featured topic on Bestthinking.com   to be posted here soon Alzheimer's

Is an intelligence quotient an illusion?

This practice is consistent with Spearman , but wholly inconsistent with Gardener

A Single IQ score is consistent because, The concept of IQ as a singular phenomena has been called into question The absent minded professor is nearly archetypal in popular culture. . There may well be some truth behind a concept so prevalent and pervasive in western culture. If intelligence is a composite of many factors then the image of an intelligent person behaving as a fool would not be incongruent.

Spearman’s concept of g was a theory of intelligence wherein “g” or general mental ability is a set of which many factors of intelligence are elements.

There are differences in the way people deal with problems of daily life There is a positive correlation between tests that observe mental processing, retrieval or manipulation of information and tests that measure cognitive ability. In other words, someone who does well on one kid of cognitive test is likely to do well on other different kinds of cognitive tests. Despite the fact that there is no agreed upon definition of intelligence, there is a continuum as such whereupon people differ.

Spearman, due to the consistency of scores across different tests, proposed a single entity concept of intelligence as a factor of general mental ability or “g”. Some theorists equate general mental ability as information processing.

Intelligence is an abstract concept. It is not even a metaphysical thing. Intelligence is, at best, a set of behaviors. General mental ability is systematic individual differences in the performance of tasks that involve the manipulation, retrieval, evaluation, or processing of information. General mental ability is related to basic cognitive and physiological processes, but it is not certain whether these underlying processes can be described. Behaviors can be observed, so intelligence can be described in terms of behaviors..

Scores on any cognitive tests are influenced by general mental ability or “g”. Correlations among test scores are due to each test presenting a partial measure of g. Each test measures some factor of g and is also influenced by measurement error. For example, the score on a test measuring intuitive geometry is affected y measurement error and the test takers level of intuitive geometry and the individual test taker’s level of g. This theory asks us to make intelligence tests highly g loaded, that reducing the influence of measurement error and the influence of any specific factor of intelligence will give better results. The upshot of this is that an intelligence test could be measuring some aspect of intelligence and not general mental ability per ce. There is considerable evidence that intelligence is generalizable. There are broad and general differences between individuals on a broad range of cognitive tasks and a general factor arises out on nearly every analysis, One’s standing or level on this general factor is the best single predictor of performance on any cognitive task. Once g has been factored, there are no specific abilities that add any predictive reliability or validity.

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is that the concept of general intelligence is not useful as people can be intelligent in many different ways.

Global comparisons between people or groups emphasizes only a small part of intelligence. The single score might be a composite score made up of many disparate factors.

Other theorists posit other types of intelligence from the existence of other abilities such as a ballet dancer or basketball player said to possess bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence.

While there may be some justification for considering intrapersonal intelligence, the capacity for empathy and compassion are more that just a bridge between the two. Furthermore the linguistic intelligence from the mathematico-logical intelligence and musical intelligence could well be spurious, as it is often said that mathematics is also another language. Concepts are concatenated in language. Subtraction is merely the addition of negatives. Sentences are diagrammed into formulae noun plus adjective plus verb plus adverb = statement in logic concepts are manipulated like integers in math. AND the later career of Ludwig Von Beethoven demonstrates the congruence of music and mathematics. Are these multiple intelligences of Gardner merely different facets of the same jewel? As is said in the Rig Veda, “the truth is the same, the sages know it by many names.”

Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence

Sternberg however divides intelligence horizontally instead of vertically into context, experience and process. I would argue that context is no more than the predeterminants of intelligence and process is after all a process. Once again we are not looking at different jewels here, but looking separately at the cut, clarity and quality of a single gem.

The why, what, and how can be lost if one concentrates too much on g, but multiple intelligences lack empirical support. Mental activities have components and different components are used to acquire different sorts of information. Adaptation to the environment is the critical measure of intelligence. Intelligence is coping and coping is self efficacy. Intelligence is more than information processing.

Sub theory one: componential theory is concerned with how intelligent behavior ias generated.

Sub theory two: contextual theory deals with what behaviors are intelligent in what context

Sub theory three: experiential theory when is a given behavior intelligent.

Theories of the nature of intelligence will influence the designing of intelligence tests.

However, we should be thankful for these attempts to divide the indivisible, for without them our concept of intelligence and attempts to manipulate that concept would be too simplistic for practical usage. On the other hand the opposite extreme has practically issues also. Shall we develop eight different measures for eight different intelligences? How can any other test besides a performance measure evaluate bodily kinesthetic intelligence? On the other axis, how shall we measure the experience strata of an individual’s intelligence? Shall we do a longitudinal study of each individual to measure their intelligence?

If our focus is to be education then let us confine ourselves to mastery and adaptability and relegate all questions of intelligence to a naval contemplating sidetrack wherein the waiting itself will bring about the new universe of peace and love.

creation myth

In the beginning there was Entropy.  Since entropy encompassed all, it was an infinite sphere.  As Entropy transcended itself through its internal identity the naval of the NON Individuality and Divergency were born, therefore this and that came to be such.  As thisness came to be itself and congealed it came to be the other to that and vice versa the opposition of thisness to thatness gave birth to twins likeness and unlikeness likeness gathered, unlikeness dispersed likeness and unlikeness alike worked together to homogenize individuality and diversity likeness brought forth mass and density, unlikeness brought forth molecular agitation and rarification these two in merging created Osmosis.  Now osmosis, was much beloved of both unlikeness and likeness and thus was given power over the dispersal and collection of matter and the off-ice thereof.  Osmosis assumed the goal of the resurgency of homogeneous entropy, however individuality and divergency were not pleased at their plotted absorption into the world soul.  they came in unto mass and density and took them by force this resulted in the birthing of form and substance.  Individuality diversity and substance were absorbed by osmosis but form resisted absorption by countering with stamina static inertia and adsorption.  Entropy who had transcended into evolution by absorbing substance along with diversity and individuality enspelled form with a defense against osmosis in that form without substance is immaterial and thus immune to Osmosis.  The elements gathered and took counsel on this matter.  It was decided that the absence of form in entropy had brought about their own existence instead of another cycle of cosmic implosion the inevitable result of a truly universal homogeneous entropy it was therefore decided to introduce a mortal into the equation in order to keep and maintain the balance to which they owed their existence. Earth provided a body water gave the body motion, air gave the body pneuma-ruach, fire gave psyche-nephesh. Thus a new thing was seen in being, a man.  As Andros needed, he thought.  If he hungered, he thought of sustenance.  The perfect co-operation of the elements shaped his environment as he desired it. they had a grander scheme in mind.  Although they knew that it would spell the eventual end of their concert, they brought forth a woman and did not bring them together immediately the counsel of individuality and diversity operated thuswise.  It was desired that the humans have time to develop themselves before they were brought together, it was also felt wise to wait for the rebirth of Entropy-Evolution.  They on the other hand had no wish to be reborn, contrariwise it wished to merge with mass in order that gravity might come into being who would prevail against osmosis in the tug of war over the existence of substance Then and only then with gravity and substance in existence and form not necessarily attached nor detached from them as mankind spread and grew and multiplied, evolutionary entropy saw that man was ignorant, thus provided with them with gods to lead them "Expedience" and his mate "Utility" who gathered men into groups in order to promote the general welfare and when the fruits of this divine marriage were born they were found to be twins (the divinity being highly fecund), a boy Law and a girl Order They were given dominion over the groupings of man.  There does exist rumors of the alleged infidelity of utility with Social Contract or Common Consent.  But those who perpetuate such slander are subversive guttersnipes who wish to degrade the honour of the gods in order to absolve themselves of their own guilt or do we evade the question do we degrade the honor of the gods when we shackle them with our limitations which are based upon mortal survival in a physical world.

taxation with representation

The reason that the Gods of ancient myth practices incest was not to glorify it; but to give object lessons in family unity, to demonstrate the inevitable evil results. Taxes must be kept pleasing to the populace in order to maintain a contented payment motivation. In respect to present-day taxes the populace would like a "soak the rich" program and steps to that effect would appease them, until they learn the price of negative economic growth. Taxes must not be too heavy. Solomon extracted heavy taxes in order to raise Israel to its highest pinnacle of prominence. However, when his successor Rehoboam chose to continue this practice at an accelerated pace, the revolt of the ten northern tribes was the subsequent result. Also, taxes must be adequate, as the Sumerian says, "The city that is weak in armaments, the enemy will not be driven from its gates." Without taxes Solomon would not have had the money to but the cedars f, gold and silver from Hiram with which to build the temple, palace, and other architectural ornations for the land and more, especially the pride of Israel. Herod the Great (circa 6 b.c.) in later times would never have rebuilt the temple or the amphitheaters and the other cultural retreats for the Israeli populace that his reign was noted for, without tax money, but he kept the Israeli populace satisfied enough to forestall revolt for half a century. TAX GROWTH, NOT CAPITAL!

Aristotle

Aristotle says, in effect, that humanity (mankind) it's not "present" in a person because one person does not contain humanity. That is to say the existence of humanity is possible separate from a single individual. A colloquial interpreter would claim that this excludes the individual from participation in the class of humanity. This is the sort of quibbling that brought about the entire realism versus nominalism debate of scholasticism. Yet, in Aristotle's case it was not so much quibbling as putting some sort of brake on Platonic other-worldliness. So then mankind is predicated of the subject this man. This would seem to be a much better example of a statement wherein the predicate is contained within the subject than the statement "sugar is

sweet" or the object of football is to score goals. In respect to the possibility of a priori synthetic judgments, we may be doing no more than treating words and concepts as shuttlecocks in a semantic game of badminton. The question remains whether, when we design a conceptual construct for the purposes of theory, are we ever doing anything else. From the categories of Aristotle, "Now the same relation which subsists between primary substance and everything else subsists also between the species and the genus: for the species is to the genus as the subject is to the predicate, since the genus is predicated of the species, whereas the species cannot be predicated of the genus.” First: primary substance, is this the ontological predicate? Is being a being or is being a thing? Is existence a phenomenon or are phenomena an aspect of existence? or merely its image? Which subject and which predicts which is object or, if you will, which is genus & which species? If the species cannot be predicated from the genus, where does that leave Natural Theology? Is God not present in creation because creation does not contain God? The existence of God is possible separate from creation. Creation is excluded from Divinity.

predication

In consideration of Aristotle's Categories, a definition of predication becomes even more necessary and mysterious than in Kant's critique Kart claimed that a predicate contained within The subject is meaningless, Aristotle claimed that The Two were mutually exclusive in That a characteristic, quality or condition (i. e. a subject) could not both be present in, as well as predicable of an object.

decay of democracy historical evidence

Caesarism only gave a name to a well established process in the fall of

the Roman Republic. The conflict between Caesar and Pompey was merely a
reflection of the class conflict left unresolved by Marius and Sulla. The
conflict erupted when the counter weight of Crassus was removed and the
familial ties between the men were broken. The artificial friendship between
Pompey and Caesar were plugs in a dam full of holes; a dam that had
consistently failed to hold back the flood of conflict. For a long time this
conflict was exacerbated by men seeking power and self-aggrandizement.
Conflict was avoided in the beginnings of the Roman republic. The head of
state was alternated between the original classes, the Romans and the Sabines.
The roots of this conflict were evident in the attempted reforms of the
tribuneship of the Gracchi brothers. The Gracchi brothers resorted to violence
in order to institute reforms; such as a repeal of the law against intermarriage
between the patrician and plebeians, land reforms, and extension of citizenship
to Italian allies. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus both met their ends at the
hands of aristocratic mobs.
At the beginning of his career, Marius took pains to alienate the patrician
class. He purposely chose soldiers from the lower classes contrary to
tradition. Flushed with unprecedented victories over the invading Cimbri, he
embarked upon a political career feverish with actions against the patrician
class. His excesses were matched or exceeded by the aristocratic reaction led
by his rival Sulla.
Caesar was a nephew of Marius, who flouted the enmity of Sulla. When he
might have escaped to exile during Sulla's dictatorship, he stood for the
priesthood at Rome. He was elected Pontifex Maximus or high priest. In a
celebration, he had statues of Marius erected at the capitol at night. This
ploy fooled no one. But luckily for his safety, the aristocratic class
despised his youth; they would not listen when Sulla warned, “In this boy are
many Mariuses".
Pompey was the darling of the patrician class. He was born a patrician to
an illustrious family. He fought for Sulla in the civil wars leading an army
that he had gathered and trained while in exile. He had fought wars in Parthia
and Asia extending the eastern frontier of Rome. He was given absolute powers
to suppress piracy and to solve the resultant grain shortage.
They pledged mutual support for their candidates for office, for their
aspirations to provincial governorships, and for legislation to provide public
funds for their separate military campaigns. Pompey also loaned troops to
Caesar for use in Gaul. This friendship was cemented with alliances by
marriage. Caesar also sent troops home in order that they might vote for
Pompey and Crassus in return for favorable legislation upon their election.
Caesar learned much in Gaul. He learned military science, and that he was
a latent genius at that subject. He learned that he could amass the wealth
necessary to successfully conduct bribery. He was finally able to suborn
officials. When he camped south of the Alps for winter, so many people came
from Rome to visit and seek his advice and his bribes that at one time there
were 200 senators at his camp.
This balance of power remained because if they fought openly, Crassus would
have had opportunity to defeat the weakened winner. Crassus died from an
abysmally mismanaged military campaign in Parthia. Since his death was quickly
followed by the death of Pompey's wife in childbirth, and since Caesar's
granddaughter by Pompey did not survive her mother, their was no longer any
ties to hold back hostility.
The Senate became concerned over the rising power of Caesar. The latest
elections had gone against Pompey and open strife became conspicuous. The lack
of government was a reason that some gave for the need for a dictator. Many in
the Senate felt that a legal monarchy was preferable to government by the
sword. The Senate in the person of Cato also felt that Pompey would be the
milder and more tractable candidate for monarchy. They began to consider
proposals to disarm Caesar and to remove him from lucrative provincial
government. Accusations of malfeasance of public funds were made. Caesar's
envoys, men of rank and position, were attacked in the Senate. Worst of all,
to be stripped of his legions and to return to Rome a private citizen would
disqualify him from a public celebration, a triumph, commemorating his
victories in Gaul.
Caesar returned to Pompey the loaned troops. They acted as agents
provocateurs. They belittled Caesar's accomplishments, and the loyalty of his
troops to Pompey. Pompey had always despised Caesar's power, thinking that as
he had raised Caesar up, he could reduce him just as easily. Pompey also
counted upon raising troops seemingly out of nowhere, as he had been able to do
in the past, as he had done during the civil wars of Sulla and Marius. Caesar
also made counter-proposals. He proposed that he should be treated equally
with Pompey, either Pompey should disband his troops and they both present
themselves to the Roman people for judgment, or that if Pompey should retain
his provinces and troops, then Caesar should also retain his. These proposals
were received with joy by the people, and with contumely by the Senate. In
response, Caesar still offered compromise. He offered to relinquish all but
two of his provinces and all but two of his legions. This proposal was
rejected with greatest vehemence yet.
He halted his advance on the banks of the Rubicon. The river which marked
the boundary between his provinces and Roman lands, Here he stopped and
considered the hostility of the Senate, his probable fate if he acquiesced, and
the consequences to Rome and himself if he advanced. Reaching a decision,
Caesar suddenly advanced without waiting for his troops beyond the Alps to
arrive.
Caesar may have said, "let the die be cast." but the die was really cast
long before by Marius.