December, 2016

Niki, Britta, and Alice were ice skating at the Resort at Squaw Creek about a week before their 9th Birthday. Niki fell, and Alice plowed into Niki from behind, accidentally hitting the back of Niki’s head (Niki was wearing a knit cap) with the point of her skate.

Britta, who was pretty shaken up upon seeing this, ran to get Mama (I was not there). Britta was pretty hysterical.

When Andrea got there, Niki looked alright. But after rubbing the back of her head with her hand underneath the knit cap, Niki’s hand was completely bloody.

Niki lost it, but Britta lost it even more. At one point, Britta says to Mama through the tears:

“If Niki dies you are going to have to put me down.”

Classic. After almost 9 years of spending nearly every moment together, they can’t imagine life without the other. The bond is something to behold, as there are few comparable relationships in human nature. We should all be so lucky.

In the end, Niki was fine. No stitches, no headache, and we didn’t have to put Britta down.

A cheat sheet of “The Righteous Mind – Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion”, by Jonathan Haidt (2012).

Where does morality come from? Likely from all 3:
– Nature (nativism)
– Nurture (empiricist, taught by parents)
– Rationalist (from our own experiences)

Reason (Plato) and intuition (Hume); intuition is dominant (since judgements depend heavily on expediency), while reason will struggle to explain intuition after the fact. In support of intuition:
– people are obsessive about reputation
– reasoning works like a press secretary, after the fact; this may lead to deception
– If reasoning needs to justify an intuition, it will ask “Can I believe it?” when our intuition wants it to be true, and “Must I believe it?” when our intuition wants it to be false (intuition influences reasoning, not the other way around)
– In moral and political matters we are group orientated; always support the team

Reasoning is less important to the individual reacting to their intuition, and more important to the people the individual is trying to persuade (the individual uses reasoning [or rationalization] to influence other’s intuition).

Since intuition is more persuasive than rationalization, morality binds us together in our groups (individualistic (objects based) or socio-centric (relationship based)) rather than to “truth”, and blinds us to the reality that the “other side” has good people with good intentions. We don’t see the (moral) positions of the other group; we don’t recognize that there may be more than one form of moral truth, or more than one valid framework for judging people or managing society.

Moral domain varies by culture; it is narrow in individualistic (protect individual freedoms and autonomy) cultures, broad in socio-centric (communities, groups and institutions first) cultures. US might seem individualistic, but within the US you have groups (religious or conservative) which are more socio-centric (basic unit is the family, not the individual).

Morality breaks down into categories and all innate (but with different emphasis).
– Care (evolved due to caring for children)
– Fairness (evolved due to cooperation without exploitation; must be proportional)
– Liberty (band together to resist oppression)
– Loyalty (evolved due to forming and maintaining coalitions)
– Authority (evolved to forge relationships that will benefit us)
– Sanctity (popular with the religious right; invest objects with irrational and extreme value)

Liberals are pre-disposed (genes, neurology, etc) to novelty, variety, diversity, and are less sensitive to threats. Conservatives are the opposite. Liberals value care (predominantly), fairness, and liberty; conservatives value all 6 (they see, for example, that loyalty and authority supports liberty, while liberals might see liberty as ephemeral (since the emphasis is on the unaligned individual). Liberals are unable to grasp what loyalty, authority, or sanctity have to do with morality.

Which is more prevalent: competition within groups (individuals), or competition between groups (or both)? He asserts we are 90% within, 10% between. Conservatives, who value loyalty, authority, and sanctity (religion, which is a team sport), are better than liberals at minimizing intra-group warfare while maximizing inter-group warfare.

Annika is now competing in gymnastics at level 7; there are a number of new and difficult moves she now has to perfect. One of these, as an example, is the back hand spring on the beam. Annika is at the point where she can successfully do it, but only when her coach is spotting her; and barely spotting her at that. On the drive hope we talked about mental preparation; I’m not sure that this has been discussed in any depth at the gym, and I think Annika is at the point now where she needs to be aware of the importance of, and practice, mental exercises to get her ready for competitions.

This morning I found this link, to help introduce Annika to the idea and importance of your mental game. This will be the start of a new journey, beyond the physical realm. Some excerpts from that link:

Shannon Miller, an Olympic Gold Medalist in gymnastics, agrees that mental preparation is key to success—and she says she couldn’t have gotten to the Olympics on physical ability alone. “The physical aspect of the sport can only take you so far. The mental aspect has to kick in, especially when you’re talking about the best of the best,” she says. “In the Olympic games, everyone is talented. Everyone trains hard. Everyone does the work. What separates the gold medalists from the silver medalists is simply the mental game.”

Moceanu agrees. “I’ve seen so many gifted athletes not make it because they couldn’t handle the sport mentally. It’s such a huge part of gymnastics—really any sport once you get to a certain level. Only those with a strong mind are going to compete at a high level. Only those with a strong mind are going to win.”

Another link.