Find the Pattern

I was just talking to a friend who said he booked a trip to Ireland on Aer Lingus. This made me wonder what would happen if that airline merged with, oh, let’s say Continental Airlines. This new company, potentially named Conaerlingus, would get people’s attention. But would you be concerned about your flight going down?

For some reason this reminds me of one of the great mysteries of life: Why do attractive women pay for massages? For most of us, there’s a good reason we pay another human to rub us for an hour. If we didn’t offer money, or reciprocate with some rubbing of our own, no one would take the job. But if you are a hot woman, lots of people would volunteer to spend an hour rubbing your nearly naked body for free. So in a sense, an attractive woman isn’t paying for the same thing everyone else is. For her, the massage is always free, and she’s paying someone to pretend it isn’t.

Moving along, I have long maintained, and have been mercilessly mocked for, my opinion that voting is irrational for an individual. While I support the system as a whole, wherein potential revolutionaries are transformed into docile citizens via the illusion of having some influence on election outcomes, it is irrational to vote as long as many others do. Here’s a better take on this idea from some people who have something I don’t, i.e. credibility:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/magazine/06freak.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fFeatures%2fMagazine%2fColumns%2fFreakonomics&oref=slogin

What did my three topics today have in common? (There is a real answer.)

[Answer:  All three topics are things that happen before you get screwed.]

Comments

[keri]

Why bother voting if the person elected wasn't the one voted for anyways?? Perhaps you Americans should take a step back to the paper ballot?

ps. the Conaerlingus was pretty funny ;)

[Richard Hare]

"Conaerlingus"! Wahey! Are they re-running 20 year-old Jasper Carrott shows over in the US?

[Ron Davison]

Beautiful women don't pay for a massage. They pay for a massage to stop.

[J]

Most men give crappy massages. Plus, at the sight of a beautiful naked woman they give two perfunctory rubs before wanting to rush into other activities.

[amenot]

Correction to my previous post:

Scott ADamds' the "Unified Theory of Everything Financial".

[amenot]

From the today post (Nobel Prize), the common pattern of the post "Find the Patern" is:

Scott Adams' the "Unified Theory of Everything".

[amenot]

Voting or not-voting:

The last 2 elections: many rational & smart people did not vote, or voted for third party: the result was decided by irrational people: a moron won.

[Justin]

Just found an interesting link about voting that I thought would pertain to the voting discussion: http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/10/a_wrinkle_in_the_voter_turnout_1.php

Sorry if this has already been alluded to.

[Catherine Jones]

I'm an attractive woman. I pay for massages because I'm happily married and trying to stay that way, and my husband isn't always available for the job.

[Jabba]

"...wherein potential revolutionaries are transformed into docile citizens via the illusion of having some influence on election outcomes..."

Isn't that backwards? Wouldn't the illusion of controlling an election turn a docile citizen into a potential revolutionary?

[Archer]

The NYTimes is a very credible source for say... al qaeda? For the Massage well whomever is doing massage for the lovely woman may indeed enjoy and getting paid for it... sounds good all around.
Good men died for us to have the right to vote... to decline to do so may be an exercise of that right but those who practice leave the choice of leaders to a dwindling number and increasingly extreme minority who will choose to vote. We will inevitably end up with politicians who not of owning a credit card let alone worthy of holding a position of power. Bush may not be the best but he's a damn-site better than a group who is known to take money from communist countries.

[PJD]

Pleasuring women!
(Read the link)

[fuzztop]

> ...been mercilessly mocked for, my opinion that voting
> is irrational for an individual.

I think your premise is flawed, Scott. Voting is a team sport; always has been. It doesn't matter if an individual vote changes only .00001 percent of the outcomes; that's not the point.

We vote en masse to both establish and promote common notions of how we desire to be governed. I vote alone, but I also vote with those of like mind. Which, it seems to me, is a rational and reasonable way for a democratic republic to ascertain the will of the governed.

[jerry w.]

You certainly are a cunning linguist to mention an airline renamed only a few weeks

after NASA (they're not only about space shuttles) finished a huge multi-year and multi

million dollar research project about airline safety. NASA sandbagged the report then

destroyed it, saying it would be damaging to the airlines with the loss of passengers.

If that's the case, what are the next "LOST" passengers supposed to say? Who knew?

But on the other hand, you sure are a master-debater. Woody Allen once said:

"Sex is like poker, if you don't have great luck, you better have a good hand".

I'd have to add..... "or at least be good about talking about it.".

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[mason]

Cute answer.

Personally, I figure voting is fine and all, not because your vote determines who wins, but so anytime you vote for the loser you can always tell people "it's not my fault, I voted for so-and-so." Didn't work so well for Nader fans in 2000, but normally it's golden.

Seriously though, if you can convince all the apathetic people to stay home, you've just swept a huge portion of the electorate out of the picture, making it possible for a small but very energized group of citizens to make a strong positive impact at the polls. This is why I think Ron Paul has a better chance than anyone seems to realize. He's one of only 2 republican candidates (with Mike Huckabee being the other) whose supporters, though few in number, are actually excited about seeing their candidate get elected.

Keep doing what you're doing man! Get the apathetic to stay home and out of the way of our Ron Paul Revolution!

http://www.ronpaul2008.com

[daloon]

Beautiful women pay to get massages from
A: people who know what they are doing
B: people who know that there is no implied promise of returned favors.

As for voting- yes it is unlikely that my particular vote will be the deciding one- however it does matter if I help creat the feeling of civic duty within my social circle (who are likely to be from the same segment of society, income distribution, and political views) thus helping my particulare segment of the population to be better represented. The important thing about voting is not what you do- but what you do compared to what others do. Low young voter turnout is only a problem because theres good turnout in other population segments- making for uneven representation. But then again in the US electoral college and the state representetive system already screws virtually all minorities out of political power- because you don't just need 10 % of the pop to agree with you, you need them all in the same state.

[Sara]

It's all masturbation.

[GLK]

The flipside of a growing number of intelligent people not voting is that morons then become the voting majority. Hmmm? That explains a lot!

[Ramas]

What did your three topics today have in common?

- Bush (you can figure it out).

[-Luigi]

Credibility, or the difference between external image and inner substance. Declined in three different ways.

[Alan]

when people tell me I HAVE to vote because people gave their lives defending my right to vote, I point out that what they died for was my right to CHOOSE and so long as I choose not to vote rather than not being bothered, then I have fulfilled my rights and honoured those we will honour on Sunday.

and in answer to your question, they are all illusions of free will.

[syn]

Voting within your family counts - you are making palpable decisions that affect you.

Voting within your village counts a little bit - you are making decisions that affect you a little bit.

Now, voting for empire counts for shit - it is like licking dead skin, the real decisions are made for you. No matter how you cut it, you loose. Check your IRS bill. You vote with the herd to feel important, but the guy you vote for is far removed from your reality so he sit there in the office and serves his own interest. I know you can find examples where you made a difference. But I say to you, exception proves the rule.

If you were half-smart, you will vote for disbanding the IRS and, by extension, the empire.

But you are not, and I am scared shitless.
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Yeah! rage against that machine! (Dont forget to wash your Che shirt)

[BobD]

Do you know what the merger of El Al and Alitalia will be called? VelAl Tellya

[Seth]

economics?

[Regis]

Couldn't identify any pattern, but I'm sure the answer has to do with one of the following:

* Absence of free will;
* Flaws in the Theory of Evolution
* Your new book.