Pet Peeves

Peeves are the sort of thing that make me feel somewhat frustrated or angry, but not enough to do much or anything about them. Peeves make me feel hot and steamy. Some of them bring me to the point of wanting to explode. Somehow being peeved is associated with being puffy, but not usually red, in the face, and having to swallow to contain whatever "came up." Maybe being peeved is a form of colic.

There is a mysterious force in the Universe which wants to test me, sometimes every day. Perhaps it is for proof of my having become an adult rather than a tempestuous child. Perhaps it is to train my discrimination so I will only respond to what is truly worth it. Perhaps it is because being peeved is an emotional state, lacking in any reason whatever. Perhaps it is a quantum in the eternal struggle between chaos and order of which I am otherwise unaware. Whatever its nature, I try not react to what instigates my peeved condition ("bepeevement"?) because I realize it is useless. Letting loose will only make matters worse. This, too, shall pass.

Being peeved is always a present condition, not something which has a history. While I can sometimes remember occasions of feeling peeved, particularly when the instant peeve is a repeat performance, there is no long history of causes building up to being peeved. I may be susceptible to feeling peeved when provoked by a specific set of conditions, a weakness my detractors might exploit, but this is still not an historic confrontation. Peeves are happenings in so far as they arise suddenly, even if repeatedly, without prior grievance. Thus, peeves are a form of displeasure attributable to the peeved person; i.e., they are part of one's character, not something found in Nature or the inter-personal environment.

Supervisors

I detest being badgered or harassed, especially about things of little consequence. If I am cooking something for myself, and I will clean up after eating, does it matter if I have not done something "right?" On TV cooking shows, there are endless admonitions about washing one's hands and equipment used in cooking. These instructions are intended to prevent the spread of disease and toxins frequently found in  food stuffs, especially when one is cooking for others. The larger and busier the kitchen, the more important those counsels. But there is a tendency to overstate the danger and forget the underlying causes of food borne illness. There is also a tendency to ignore the fact that everything is a matter of probability. Thus, all poultry are treated as if inherently poisonous even though bacterial and viral infections are not unusually found in processed foods. When there is a problem, it almost always has its source in a single location or supply chain. Such problems are widely noticed in the news. The most dangerous problems can be avoided by not purchasing goods produced or distributed by offending companies and not attending public eating places that have recurrent problems. (Most food problems seem to happen in public eating places, not at home.) So, yes, one should observe health and safety precautions, but those practices need to be adjusted to risk. I get peeved when persistently reminded of the need to obey some cooking commandment, although I have not had any food contamination incident in 50 years of cooking at home. I have had problems a few times after eating out. Moral: To avoid dying, do not eat, especially out.

Politicians

In my old age, I am impatient with academics, economists, politicians and others who seem stuck on a point without progress. The worst of it is those people either do not know or do not care they are stuck on the point. For example, a recent Sunday "talking head" show featured spokesmen of two leading presidential candidates who repeated themselves several times in just 15 minutes, using somewhat different words each time to express the same idea. Since "giving up" politics a few years ago, I have watched few of those Sunday discussions and other made-for-TV political events because they are not moving the ball anywhere, much less toward any goal post. The "debate" between the major parties has not changed during most of my adult life. The last time anything really changed was during LBJ's Administration in the 1960s. There were also changes for a short time following Richard Nixon's resignation in reaction to the widespread corruption of that Administration. After that, things moved steadily in a Conservative direction, intensified by the election of Conservative Presidents and Congresses. The 2008 election represents a lightening up of the dominant Conservative tone, but not a move away from it. So it is always a rehash of the same old claims while none of the pressing problems are being solved. In fact, things are getting worse because there is always a faction which cannot tolerate whatever the solution might be. So, why bother with all the fuss and noise? I think the outcome would be about the same if the Democrats sat in the Oval Office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the Republicans held out there on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and all other contenders flipped an honest coin to be seated on Sundays. (By the time the flipping would be over, so would Sunday.)

Academics

In the same vein, when I open the latest issue of many a journal, what do I read but the same hackneyed phrases, the same insipid issues and the same unanswerable questions. I will grant that some of the reasoning and corresponding sentences are truly wondrous contortions, seeming to say something, I know not what. Sometimes in the unraveling it turns out that the complexities are just a Rubik's Cube of the same old stuff. It only seems new because of the curious packaging.

I think professors become convinced of whatever they teach because they teach it. The more they teach, the more they are convinced of it. This may be the reason creativity drops off rapidly after age 26 - about the time most people get their doctorates and become a permanent part of Academia or another Establishment. When life becomes a daily test of what was stuffed into one's head since early childhood, no time or incentive is left for challenging thoughts.

Schools educate the young starting with 3 year olds and ending with 30 year olds. What goes on in schools is learning the wisdom of the ages and controlling the sometimes overwhelming experiences of growing up. I am fortunate in that I can remember some of those exhilarating times when, suddenly, everything just clicks and snaps together. There were those depressing teenage experiences of becoming an adult. Almost everyone has similar thrills on the roller coaster of young life. What teachers do is introduce the young to the accumulated body of experience which constitutes the local culture. As the students get older, the cultural teachings become broader, more generalized. At the end of the process, the student participates in rites of passage and is deemed an adult. After that, adult life - the "real world," as it is called by students - is completely different from youthful life, primarily because it is boring. Adults are expected to apply themselves to the on-going drudgery of the community.

What is my peeve about all that? Most teachers forget that what happens in schools is not the same as the "real world." That is why University professors mistake old issues for burning issues of the day. In the schools, students and teachers are enthralled by considering ideas, practices and problems as if first encountered. That is, of necessity, the attitude students will have. It is easy to be seduced by the enthusiasm of young people because it keeps teachers feeling young. Altogether, the academic environment keeps alive ancient knowledge and the atmosphere in which it was generated. But most of what academia engages in does not help us get along. So, I think academia should be consulted about problems, but not asked to recommend solutions. By and large, I believe new ideas and methods - solutions to problems - originate outside the schools and generally outside the Established Orders of Business and Government as well. I become restless, and then peeved, when same old, same old is presented over and over again in the face of the brand new. They know not what they do.

Idiots

It seems to me the world's major problems fall in this last class. We have a serious, planet-threatening overpopulation of H. sapiens - ourselves - which we must reverse for the good, possibly the survival, of the species. We have a serious, planet-threatening overuse of the planet's resources which we must reverse for the good and survival of most species other than ourselves. We must learn to live with our planet, Gaia, in all respects, if we ourselves are to survive. These are not problems to be solved in centuries; they require solutions and action today. We are confronted with the Last Tree problem writ large. What is my peeve? That people, even people who recognize the demands, do very little about them. They just go about their lives. When the tsunami arrives, they are transfixed, so do not even run away. When they finally realize what is happening, it is too late. Après moi, le déluge.

Posted 08/21/2008 02:19:06 PM                Last update: 08/21/2008

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