No No Your Honor, I Only "Tried" to Kill Him

            In the American legal system, there exists a troubling ideology, that asserts one’s actions are somehow more pertinent than their intent as to whether or not, and to what degree said person warrants correctional services. But of course, there also exists the inane notion that correctional services should take the form of an avenging punishment. So perhaps it makes sense that our society makes a distinction between a criminal’s actions and their motives. After all, no one has ever uttered the phrase: “I hope that rapist gets adequate therapeutic care while serving a reasonable sentence for his crimes, and then reintegrates seamlessly into society having gained an appreciation for the societal constructs we have put in place regarding one’s right to feel sexually secure in a societal environment. Furthermore, I hope that he comes to terms with his actions and uses his experiences to educate about, and advocate for, a sexually non-hostile society.” Of course, such an utterance would be completely misplaced within a casual conversation, but I feel quite confident that the layman’s equivalent, is equivocally scarce. But, I digress.

            Let me return to my title with a scenario. Imagine, if you will, two different men, in two different dark alleys, robbing two different strangers, for two different sets of personal affects. Now imagine each man is armed with a firearm. Let’s say neither victim agrees to part with their belongings, perhaps the thought of life without their smart phone for a day was simply too much to bear, and the alternative of suffering fatal bullet wounds sounded like sweet relief from the drudgery of experiencing the tangible world for several hours. Each perpetrator reacts with the same intention, to kill the person standing between them and their new smart phone. Both victims suffer significant wounds and are abandoned in the alley. Emergency responders attempt to resuscitate both victims. One man survives, but the other does not. These two men, each committing, essentially, the same act, are now facing separate charges and looking at a significant disparity in sentencing.

So, I ask once again, why distinguish between the attempting murderer and the successful murderer; the drunk driver that hits another car, and the one that drives into a tree; the burglar that hits a rich man’s house, and the one that, to his own dismay, finds himself in the house of a poor man. The point is to correct bad behavior, not punish based on outcomes. The dog that chews on your slippers needs the same response as the dog that chews on your 14k white gold watch that was handed down to you from your grandfather. Incidentally, locking the dog in a kennel will do nothing to correct either behavior.

-AMS

The Truth About Shields Is...

Two men stand across the room, eyes deadlocked, hands unwavering. Neither so much as blinks an eyelid, for an instant is all it would take for the twitch of a finger and the loss of a life. Arms bore, and sights set, neither can foresee the other’s true intentions, and so dares not lower his weapon.

In the absence of a true shield, one must defend with one’s sword. They say the best defense is a good offense, but I disagree. Tai chi would teach that agility and manipulation of momentum are the best offense. You can only brute against the sword for so long, but it takes little more than a single step to cast an attack aside. Weapons do not win wars, but neither so, do soldiers. Wars are won through endurance and manipulation of resources.

Run! Run until you cannot physically take another step. Run until you fall to the ground, your legs completely devoid of the energy necessary to maintain an upright posture. Try as you may, any man would give up long before they ever reached this state. The human mind is a quitter down to its core. We conserve. We cut our losses and give anything to go back to some level of comfort.

To win a war, you need not kill all of the humans on the other side, you simply need to wear them down. Take them from their families for long periods of time. Teach the other humans that the ideals on which they sent their pawns marching are not being realized as easily as they had imagined. Their biased utopia will remain, but their will to fight for it will quickly fade. Soon they will give anything to simply stop running, take to the ground, and catch their breath.

The chess master knows how to win the war, he is experienced, he is calloused. He knows not of the battles that make up the war. He sees only the path to the king. He will happily trade every pawn in his arsenal for another queen. Monarchy is a pyramid, though. The queen must be supported by a base of ever growing size. A world of royalty would find its residents helpless and at the mercy of the few pawns left alive who still knew how to reap the crops and bake the bread.

On the battlefield, however, there is no foresight, there is not even hindsight. There are only two men with the fate of each other’s lives in their hands. There is only this moment when they must face the prisoner’s dilemma. Do you trust your fellow human, such that you both reap the rewards, or betray him knowing that he would do the same and you are better off a murderer than a corpse?

Of course, this is all to be expected. It is, after all, human nature. Killing is only murder when it is done in one’s own name. Killing on the bequest of a government is a service to your country. We know this is so, because the other humans do it too. We cannot not kill them, lest we be killed ourselves.

So, those men, standing across the room, a moment each from death, will not lower their arms. They will not call upon their fellow human for a truce. They will not even leave the room, knowing that outrunning a speeding bullet is much easier when the rate determining step is the human reaction time. No, they will stand their ground and pull their trigger.

They will then spend the rest of their life telling themself, that they had no choice but to outdraw their adversary. They will speak of this day, as the day they defended themself. They will make their sword into a shield, lest they have to bear the burden of knowing that their fellow human was never going to shoot. Their fellow human was afraid, torn between self-defense and murder. Their fellow human was hiding behind their sword in lieu of a proper shield. The truth about shields is… that shields do not kill.

            -AMS

Self-Inflicted Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

            In this life, there are a myriad of things out there trying to kill you. As a species, we humans have gotten pretty good at preventing most of those things from killing us. We have shelters that protect us from other animals. We have ways to generate heat to fend off the harsh winter chill. We even have pills that you can swallow, that then dissolve in your digestive tract, release chemical compounds that are subsequently absorbed into your blood stream, and then those chemicals selectively kill organisms within your body while leaving your own cells unscathed. Humans have greatly shifted the leading causes of death through medical intervention. Yet it begs the question who deserves this medical intervention. There are debates about serving the poor, the isolated, the aliens, but the focus today is on the self-inflicted.

            Naloxone is a drug that can be used, in the event of an opioid overdose, to save that person’s life. Some dissent the use of naloxone, as they feel that drug overdoses are self-inflicted, and that somehow effects whether a person deserves to live or not. The logic is that the person brought this upon themself and should suffer the consequences of their own actions. The problem, however, is that those making this argument seem to forget the introduction paragraph in which I mentioned that human deaths have largely shifted over the years. There are still people killed every day by things completely outside of their control. On the other hand, smoking, poor diet, lack of physical activity, these are all lifestyle choices. So, before you judge someone for their inability to kick that pesky heroin habit, remember the thousands of people who couldn’t even lose forty pounds. While we may be doing well on reducing stigma against overweight individuals, the stigma against drug abusers is still very prominent.

            This stigma, unfortunately, carries over to the pharmacy all too often, an area I am intimately familiar with. Prescription drug misuse is a very real problem in the United States, however there is one very important thing to remember about drugs of abuse. Not every person using a drug of abuse, is abusing that drug. One statistic put prescription drug misuse at around fifteen percent of prescription drug users. While that number is disturbingly high, one must not forget that every statistic has two sides. Always remember that eighty-five percent of prescription drug users are using legitimately prescribed medication as directed by the doctor for the purpose of curing or alleviating a medical condition. So, while there will always be people that lie or steal for the purpose of obtaining prescription drugs illegitimately, they are in the minority.

            -AMS

The Metrics System

            Oh boy! An entire blogpost dedicated to why the United States should switch over to the metric system. Wait, why is there an “s” at the end of metric? No, this isn’t a post about switching over to the metric system of measurement. Honestly, I am pretty sure everyone that has ever traveled outside of the United States would agree that the switch is long past due, and the only reason, I believe, that we haven’t yet made that fateful transition to the base ten method, is the expense associated with changing all of the speed limit signs. Of course, we also have to change all of the speedometers as well, although most modern cars have the capacity to switch, or have dual displays. No, this post is all about the use of metrics as they apply to a job site.

            I have already talked a lot about how the education system has become so bogged down with standardized tests, that the teachers don’t even have time to teach anymore. Well, unfortunately education is not the only field that has been burdened by the cold, unbiased judgement of a job metric. Take fast food restaurants for instance. They are measured on how quickly each person is moved through the line. Now, of course, it is fast food, so I understand wanting to emphasize quick service and ensure that your employees are trying to maintain that standard, however, there are many situations that may chance happen, and the metrics never reflect these circumstances. For instance, what if one man decides to order one hundred fifty-four combo meals out of the blue, because he is feeding an entire staff, and a last-minute change in schedule (or lack of common decency) didn’t allow for him to give advanced notice. Surely the staff cannot be expected to get this man through on time. And, even if his particular datum is disregarded, the labor dedicated to his order would still take a toll on the rest of the orders slowing down the overall time.

            More ridiculous than these measures of output however, are expectations of input metrics. Sales, for instance. Many corporations put expectations on their businesses to make continually growth. First of all, one cannot control the level of demand for a particular product or service for a particular geographic. Secondly, an expectation of continual growth equivalates to infinite growth. Even if your service is so efficient and your quality so superior, that you take control of the entire market, you will eventually level out. You can’t rightfully expect someone to visit the same store four times in one day.

            Let’s talk about the problems with these metrics. As I have already said, they do not account for extenuating circumstances, and explanations of such bad data typically fall on deaf ears. More severe than that, is the effect the metrics have on the employees. Job stress is too often related to meeting unrealistic metrics with undersupplied labor allowances. This equates to jaded employees and an overall decrease in moral. A decrease in employee attitude, of course leads to, and here is the kicker, dissatisfied customers, and an overall decrease in business.

This becomes even more problematic when these metrics leech their way into more sensitive areas, such as healthcare, public safety, or, as I said before, education. The problem with metrics in these fields, is that, while the customer might always be right, the patient/patron/student should always come first. Businesses have to put themselves first sometimes in order to stay profitable, which is, obviously, crucial to maintaining a running business. Public services, however, even if (unfortunately) privatized, still have an expectation to act in the best interest of those they serve, as it rightfully should be. I, personally, feel that none of these fields belong in the private sector, but until that day changes, I still will hold them to a higher standard and can only hope that the free market will side with me on that.

-AMS

Figurative Smiles

            The problem with the world today, is that everyone knows what the problems are with the world today. Everyone knows that our healthcare system is a nightmare, that our schools are underfunded, that poverty is still widespread, and that violent crimes still take innocent lives. What about the good things going on in the world today? If you have ever heard the advice, to smile while answering the phone, it supposedly improves your overall demeanor and makes you come off more personable to the other party, despite the fact that they will never actually know that you were smiling. As ridiculous as it sounds it does work. So why don’t we expand that advice.

            What if everybody was smiling all the time, always? Well then, our faces would hurt from overworked cheek muscles. But what if, and hear me out here, what if we all smiled metaphorically. This is probably tired advice, but trust me it is underutilized. I know because I have lived in the world. Now, I don’t expect the guy ringing out my groceries to build a deep relationship with me. I know that if I see that guy again next week, I probably won’t even recognize him, but we have all had that run in with the person who dare not speak a word that is not absolutely necessary to the immediate job at hand. Is it really that hard to throw me a “Hi, how are you doing today?”

I would like to take this time to briefly berate every company that has mandated their employees use a standardized greeting. (Hi, welcome to _____). It reinforces the brand, I get it, but it is fake and the world knows it. Also, I know where I am. I didn’t wander in here blindly without intention. So, for everybody that works customer service, or everybody that interacts with persons who work customer service (read everybody), here is the secret. Charisma is a characteristic, but personability can be learned. Want to improve yours? Try this. Throw them something unique. Everyone says “Hi, how are you?” Be the person that instead says “Isn’t it a great day today?” Don’t say “I’m good,” rather, say “I’m fantastic.” People largely tune out everything you say to them, because they think they know what you are going to say. So, say something different. Pull them back into the interaction. Don’t believe me? Try this then. Ask a hundred people for a dollar. Then ask a hundred people for 73 pennies. You’ll make more money the second time even though you’re asking for less money.

Now you know how to be a better person. If only everyone did. There are of course those people that are just angry at the world. No matter what you do they will never be happy. What do you do with them? My advice. Kill them with kindness. The nastier they are to you, be that much nicer. Something wasn’t done correctly take responsibility and apologize profusely, even though you likely had nothing to do with it. Be so apologetic, that they feel bad for being dissatisfied. Of course, there are limits. Some people just take things too far, and the only thing you can do is confront them. Let them know that they are a burden on you and everyone else involved and that their behavior will not be tolerated. Everyone is entitled to one bad day, but some people just need to be reminded that employees are all people as well, with their own problems and their own bad days. I know that took a negative turn at the end so let’s all put on a nice figurative smile and have a first-class day.

-AMS