December 16, 2018 Breakfast – Lax and bagels. Lunch –
Pork and sauerkraut on mashed Baked Vegetables. Dinner – Sautéed Ribeye Steak, Mushrooms and Onions, New Recipe - Baked artichoke hearts, with baked Potato, and Sautéed Spinach Tapa
Today was both restful and a great wine and food day.
I started watching TV news and switching to soccer at 7:00. Fareed Zacharia was particularly good today. It focused on the increased level of anger in the world, with segments about the yellow shirt movement in France, the lack of any majority for Brexit in England, the increased poverty in England, and an Author of a recent article in Atlantic named Updike on good and bad anger and how political consultants manipulate your anger to get you to donate money to campaigns and motivate you to vote. Everyone agreed President Trump uses bad anger to hold on to his base, which is an effort by populist to exploit the anger caused by dissatisfaction and large segments of less well educated working class people’s loss of status and income in society as their traditional jobs are taken over by machines.
There is no answer to this problem currently but its effect on politics and society were noted.
Zacharia also mentioned Harari’s newest book, 21 questions for the 21st Century, which I shall read soon.
Here is a review of it.
Book Review: 21 Questions for the 21St Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Posted on August 18, 2018
by Elise "Ronan"
The Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, who vaulted to international fame with his highly acclaimed best seller, Sapiens, has written a new and interesting book that instead of looking towards the past to understand who we are today, looks at who we are today to try to see where the world is headed tomorrow. 21 Questions for the 21st Century, is a challenge to the failures of the political world, a celebration of the technological future, and a discourse on the nature of human society. Of course being a historian Harari does indulge in a brief discussion of the “isms” of the 20th century: liberalism, communism, and fascism.
He explains how each political doctrine came about, and why they all have disappeared, or as in the case of liberalism, is on the verge of disappearing. His analysis of why these historical events took place are more than a simply recitation of events. He analyzes each with unique frankness. Of course, he is without a doubt biased towards liberalism, and is rather unnerved to see it waning. Communism and fascism, on the other hand, don’t receive even the slightest note of a mournful dirge.
He explains why in a world where liberalism, the idea of free expression conjoined with an open economy, has freed and educated more people than in any time during human history, the world is seeing the advent of populism, nativism, xenophobia, and a slide towards authoritarianism. There is no political correctness in this discussion. He is unfettered in his exultation of a free society. How many people are trying to get into Russia, and comparatively, how many people are truly trying to seek refuge in the Moslem Middle East he asks? There is no comparison with those who brave trials and travails to find a future in the western world.
The world wants liberalism, but then he asks, why do we end up with the likes of Trump? In other words RUFKM? (and for anyone that doesn’t speak text speak, that means Are.You. Fucking.Kidding.Me?) The interesting aspect of the book is that he explains it. It is of course all
about fear. But not the fear that we think of as being exploited by the 1 percent, or wanting equality of purpose and the equality of a future. It is in fact, the fear of being forgotten, of becoming irrelevant. As Elie Wiesel said, “the opposite of love is not hate it is indifference.” And being indifferent to a large part of humanity, as we see through out history, can lead to a lot, a lot of anger.
Society has reached a new age. It is an exciting age full of immense possibilities in technology. Artificial intelligence is going to create a future that we cannot even imagine. Nothing like this has ever happened before in human history. As Harari explains, we have lived through the industrial revolution. Society went through enormous upheavals. But at least everyone had a place. Everyone knew that they had a future, of some kind. Everyone knew that in the end they were needed on some level. Not so anymore.
The issue with the future, is that there are possibly billions of people who will have no place in society. Technology will not only take jobs, but it will make most jobs obsolete. It’s interesting to think about that in a world today that is short on workers, and seems to have low unemployment, where the question of who will be tomorrow’s workers is the topic of the day, there will be no need for human workers.
Moreover, he discusses what will globalization look like, what in fact would that even mean? How will that even shape our view of universalism and how do we, with so many people in the world actually understand each other? He asks interesting questions: Can people from extremely diverse parts of the world, with different cultural realities, with different social expectations, with completely different life experiences, really truly understand each other? How will that shape for the future? How will this shape the world’s expectations?
Harari also discusses that the issue facing planners is about human usefulness, or what we call jobs.
What will happen to the average person when Article Intelligence comes full throttle? Will humans
be expendable? And with that comes another kind of issue. More than mere disdain for those who do
not give anything of value to human society. But what if there is nothing of potential for them to do?
What if people are going to have to change, grow and develop at such a rapid pace that for some it is
impossible to keep up? Or for those that could keep up, how will they live as they transition into our new world?
Society is going to face enormous questions in the next several decades ranging from economic, medical, educational, social and political. Luckily some of these questions are already actually being asked, which is a good thing. Discussions of a universal basic income, or universal basic services and what exactly do these mean and are they realistic or viable? Real national education geared towards not simply stuffing your head full of facts that you could find easily on google, but learning how to evaluate, understand and analyze these facts. Does that mean education for everyone who wants a Phd, or is it simply to make sure that every person can write basic code?
But more importantly, and especially in the era of the rise of authoritarianism , oligarchies and conspiracy theorists, people need to be taught how to figure out what is a post truth mythical nonsensical story, as opposed to what is reality. On this front, Harari does something completely unexpected. He explains that myths, fantastical stories and what we see as disinformatzia has always been with us as humans, only we called it religion. For this part of the book, no religion leaves unscathed.
Humanity has always relied on lies, Harari says. Fake news is nothing new. We made up stories for things we never understood and we passed these stories down through the generations. Now many would disagree with the author on his analysis of religion and mystical views of the universe, but in truth political lies and prevarications are not new in human history either. The Romans called it “Bread and Circuses.” In fact, one major backtracking from liberalism is that so many people actually are deciding that truth only comes in one forum. That if you don’t believe as instructed, then
your reality is false, heretical and either its the gulag for you, or Torquemada’s pyres. It’s as if the
absolutism of the Middle Ages has come full circle.
Unfortunately, while we want to think of ourselves as too sophisticated to attach society to such medieval thought patterns, it is interesting to witness just how humans do tend to fall back on age old
tried and true tribalism, ethnic alacrity, and out and out hatred of the other. The more interesting
question that has to be asked however, is why is this so comfortable, and why instead of fighting for the liberal world order, are we so easily swayed toward demagoguery and despotism.
And despotism does not need to come in the guise of a government or politician. It can come in the guise of an algorithm, of cryptocurrency, of an AI that thinks faster, more methodically and with out the baggage that humans carry. And we have happily given over our world to these technological wizards. They are unregulated. They are free to do as they please with our data and information. But more so, and even more frightening is that these unseen goblins have the power to decide who can and cannot be heard without us even knowing about it. Anyone who has spent any time on social media knows that there are just some opinions that are algorithmed out of existence. The question is what do you want to do about it, and is it already too late?
So what do you want the world of 2050 to look like?
Harari asks 21 Questions for the 21st Century, These issues are thought provoking. They are good questions. They make you uncomfortable. They make you think.
At 9:00 I toasted two slices of whole wheat bagel, smeared them with a bit of cream cheese and laid slices of Lax and red onion on them and drizzled a few capers on them that I ate with a cup of sweet lime juice in hot water.
I switched back and forth from the news programs and the MU v. Liverpool match, mostly watching the match when Willy came at around 10:00 and fixed his breakfast of bacon and eggs.
At 11:00 I switched between Fareed Zacharia and the Cowboys humiliating defeat by the
Indianapolis Colts, similar to MU’s humiliating defeat by Liverpool.
At 1:30 Willy left to ride his new motorcycle in the Pahjarito grant and Suzette and I discussed lunch and dinner. Her original idea was to eat the PPI Pork and sauerkraut with the PPI mashed baked vegetables (parsnips, carrots, and potatoes) for dinner, but we decided to thaw a steak and eat the pork and sauerkraut for lunch.
After eating a lovely lunch of pork and sauerkraut on a pile of baked mashed vegetables, we drove to the Bosque and walked for thirty minutes. It was a lovely warm 54 degree afternoon.
After walking thirty minutes I suggested going to Total Wine to replenish our rum and Suzette’s whiskey.
We first drove to Trader Joe’s where I bought 20 bottles of wine. We decided to serve white wines and perhaps sake with the salmon dishes instead of mulled wine this year.
The big surprise at Trader Joe’s was a Spanish Gran Reserva for $5.99. It was a blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Syrah and not from Rioja, but I have never seen a Gran Reserva for under $15.00, so I bought 7 bottles of it, along with 13 bottles of
the usual suspects.
We then drove to Total Wine, where Suzette bought two bottles of her favorite scotch and a bottle of Black rum and I bought a bottle of my favorite XO Bernaroy Calvados .
We went home around 3:30. Suzette watched TV while I read and rested my eyes until around 6:00. I called Willy and told him we were cooking dinner and invited him. He was not feeling well because he had hurt his back lifting his new bike when it fell over this afternoon.
Suzette had found a new recipe for baked artichoke hearts that she wanted to try because we have lots of artichoke hearts left from Friday night’s tapa. Essentially the recipe calls for dredging the hearts in
liquified butter and then a mixture of grated Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs to coat them, laying them on a cookie sheet, and then baking them in the oven.
At 6:00 I put five russet potatoes into the oven to bake at 375 degrees.
Then Suzette prepared the artichokes and placed them in the oven to bake with the potatoes. Suzette sliced two mushrooms and a few slices of yellow onion and sautéed them in a large skillet with the ribeye steak, while I de-stemmed a colander full of spinach leaves.
Willy came at 7:00 and finely diced an apple for the spinach dish.
When everything else was close to ready, Suzette toasted a handful of piñon nuts in a skillet with the diced apple pieces and then added the spinach and quickly cooked the spinach until wilted, while I opened a bottle of the Spanish Gran Reserva red and Willy set the table for dinner.
I sliced the steak and a Suzette plated each plate with baked artichokes, a baked potato and sautéed
spinach. We each served ourselves steak slices and garnished them with a spoonful of sautéed mushroom and onion. I fetched butter and sour cream for the baked potatoes and poured the wine.
The wine was interesting. It was essentially a Southern Rhone blend of Grenache and Syrah, but much smoother with an elegant finish than Southern Rhone blends I buy for twice the price, due to the greater care in production and longer aging.
Wikipedia states,
Spanish wines are often labeled according to the amount of aging the wine has received. When the label says vino joven ("young wine") or Sin crianza, technically the wines have not been aged at all,
but some will have undergone up to a few months oak wood aging. Depending on the producer, some of these wines will be meant to be consumed very young - often within a year of their release. Others will benefit from some time aging in the bottle. For the vintage year (vendimia or cosecha) to appear on the label, a minimum of 85% of the grapes must be from that year's harvest. The three most common aging designations on Spanish wine labels are Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva.
Crianza For Rioja red wines these are aged for 1 year in oak barrels. Crianza whites and rosés must be aged for at least 6 months in oak barrels.
Reserva red wines are aged for at least 3 years with at least 1 year in oak barrels. Reserva whites and rosés must be aged for at least 2 years with at least 6 months in oak.[citation needed]
Gran Reserva wines typically appear in above average vintages with the red wines requiring at least 5 years aging, a minimum of 2 years in oak and a minimum of 3 years in the bottle. Gran Reserva whites and rosés must be aged for at least 4 years with at least 6 months in oak.
I am always amazed when we spontaneously create a lovely meal. This was one such meal. Suzette’s desire to utilize the PPI artichoke hearts led her to an interesting new recipe for baked artichoke hearts. Willy’s love of the Spanish tapa with apples and roasted piñon nuts lead us to use up the last of our spinach to prepare that dish and my love of steak with mushrooms and Willy’s love of sautéed
onions led to the meat entrée. With a baked potato, we had four dishes combined into a great meal that was complemented by a very good wine for the money. The longer the 2011 Vega de Origon Gran Reserva sat the more it opened up, finally reaching a robust dark fruity richness. Terra Alta is a a domaine de Origen located in Southern Catalonia in the mountains just west of Tarragona.
This wine is seasonal, which means it is not a large production wine. It is a special wine at a special price. Buy it while you can and put it down and enjoy it over time.
Bon Appetit
