2–22 at 2:22 pm: Revolution and Communication

I find myself a bit bemused when folks make a big thing about dates and numbers like “2–22 at 2:22 pm.” Seems like rolling three 20s in a row on a 20-sided die. You know: it happens, it’s unusual, but it means very little. We as humans like to find patterns and our brains go “ding” when we find a somewhat unusual one. But just because the bell goes “ding-dong” at noon does not mean that the minute from 12:00 to 12:01 is better than any other. They’re ultimately all just as good — it’s just our goofy brains that think a pattern is special. (Though, I’ll have to say, when you’re fighting an ancient gold dragon, those 20s can come in handy!)

Two things today.

First: revolution in Myanmar (Burma)! As in Thailand recently, the people there are reacting to a government crackdown with full anti-government protests, and the predictable repressive crackdown. I’ll give you the link to the one magazine I read regularly and subscribe to: The Economist. Subscribers get a very good, relevant, and “no-hype” digital news blast every morning. I’ll link you to this morning’s on the events.

Crackdown: the Burmese army begins killing civilians

Here’s a longer story from the same magazine.

Myanmar's coup turns the clock back a decade

So my question to you folks is this: if you where there, what would you do? Would you be out on the streets risking your life? Or would you sit at home watching TV and waiting for someone else to sort things out for you?

Also, what does it take to spark a revolution these days? And do you think they’ll have enough public support to make it work?

Second: something not very ancient that addresses a problem we’ve had since ancient times — effective communication.

I’ve been listening to a great series of lectures by a professor at York University in Canada, Dalton Kehoe, about effective communication. The lectures do a great job of explaining what about our brains that makes it so hard to really “hear” one another — in daily life, relationships, and political discourse. Fortunately, in addition to describing the pitfalls inherent in human communication, Kehoe also has some great practical suggestions about how to get over those hurdles and communicate more effectively.

Here is the link to the lectures on Amazon.

Effective Communication Skills

You can listen to them with Audible fairly cheaply, and you can also get them for free from the library. They’re really informative. One thing they do is help us look at our own role in messing up communication — so that we don’t resort to “tyranny” to solve our disagreements. It’s understanding those kinds of patterns, not “wacky dates,” which helps us to talk and listen better so we don’t have to resort to violence — or revolution — to make ourselves better heard and understood.

That’s it for today. I look forward to reading any comment you might have.

Best! JM