Headline July 31, 2017/ ''' *CHICKENS?* NAY CHUTZPAH! '''

''' *CHICKENS?* NAY CHUTZPAH! '''

*THIS SEEMS MORE LIKE  A TORTURE LIST*,  ZILLI?    How on Almighty God's earth,...............  did you get to make this? 

*I always thought  and reasoned,*  Zilli, that There' NOBODY here but us chickens?   

True, that  Risks   makes us happier, but we always seem to turn Prudence into an excuse for hopeless cowardice.

This September, the  United States District Court for the  Eastern District of Washington will hear   Salim  vs  Mitchell,  a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union- On behalf of three former-  C.I.A detainees. 

The law suit names as defendants the  two psychologists who devised the ''enhanced interrogation techniques''  that became the basis for  C.I.A. torture program-  Described in  shocking detail  in the  Senate Intelligence Committee's 2014 report.

Despite the adoption in  1948  of the    Universal Declaration of Human Rights,  which held that  ''no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by punishment''-

These violations of body and mind- continue to be exculpated and justified by the idea that they save lives. That, indeed, is the argument made in depositions by the psychologists in  A.C.L.U. case.  

All of you may never know, what  Zilli  and  I  discuss  one-to-one. But let me assure you all, that it is always limited and confined to state-of-the-world.  

THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY'S  STRUGGLES   over all these many years, against heavy odds, and its grand entry onto the world stage-

And its  rather feverish preparations for   *Global Elections*    under the auspices of the  great students of America,  just about this coming year, has gone as exciting and theatrical  -as all great and ground breaking ideas ever get.

Even the students of Pakistan, ever unconnected to the world and just so excessive in their pretensions,  seem to be roused from their torpor. 

No doubt, miracles happen, and they happen, where and when,   you least expect them. 

!WOW!   -just so lovingly called,   in all nooks and corners of the world, and by that  I mean the  World Students Society, is all simmering to make waves in the future. 

But as pragmatists, we all must stay wary and clear headed. After so grand a  struggle, and with so ambitious a programs, there is bound to be a  *push back*. 

But if and when that comes, all we are going to ever let out is that : *Nobody here but us Chickens*. The beautiful symbols of !WOW!, totally owned by every student in the world, make ever for a great  Humanity Serving debut.

And the real action O'' Students of the World...... and...... 

Merium,   Rabo, Haleema, Saima, Sarah, Dee,  Ambassador Malala Yousafzai [Nobel Prize],     Eman,  Zainab, Zara, Aqsa, Areesha, Sameen, Hadiqa/Australia,  Paras, Sorat, Tooba, Nina, Sanyia.

Hussain, Shahzaib, Haider,  Vishnu,  Salar, Bilal, Jordan, Zaeem,  Danyial, Faraz, Ali, Wajahat, Umer, Ghazi, Reza,  Hammad, go on to relate to the great wisdom of:  

German Philosopher Josef Pieper's  ''The Four Cardinal Vurtues''  argued that we have bastaridized this classical concept of  *Prudence*.

We have   refashioned prudence  into an excuse for  COWARDICE, hiding behind the language of  virtue to avoid what he calls  ''the embarrassing situation of  having to be brave''.

The correct definition, Mr. Pieper argued, is the willingness to do the right thing, even if that  involves  FEAR  AND RISK.

In other words,  to be rash is only  one breach of true prudence, It is also a breach to be  Timid. So which is more common today? :

O'' students of the world? and then : Merium? Rabo? Haleema? Dee? Ambassador Malala Yousafzai? Saima? Sarah? Eman? Saima? Hadiqa? Areesha? Sameen? Lakshmi? Dantini? Toba? Shahbano? Sanyia? Nina? 

Worth many a repeat : A new study by the  University of  Chicago economist  Steven Levitt helps answer this question.

He started with the  premise  that people who agonize over important choices may systematically make wrong decisions, defaulting to either ''yes'' or  ''no''  with too much regularity.

To investigate, Mr. Levitt found several thousand people in the throes of difficult decision, weighing choices like job offers and marriage proposals, who volunteered to let him make decisions for them  -with the help of coin.

Heads meant  to decide in the affirmative; tails meant to decline.  [Let it sink in that thousands of people agreed to have their most important decisions made by a stranger   - worse,  an economist   -flipping a coin].

When given heads, Mr. Levitt found people were much more likely to take the decision affirmatively than they would if left to their devices, so the experiment was very effective.

*But the really interesting result concerned the  participant's happiness. In follow-up interviews six months later, Mr. Levitt found that the average ''heads''  person was significantly happier than the average  ''tails'' person.

Here's what all this really means :  Our sin tends to be timidity, not rashness. On average, we say  ''no''  too much when faced with the opportunity or dilemma.

Once you start looking for this  imprudently  risk-behaviour averse, you see it just about everywhere,  particularly among young people.

According to data from the  General Social Survey collected by the National Opinion Research Center,  people under age 30 are almost a third less willing than  under-30s in 1996 to relocate for their careers.

And as the  economist  Tyler Cowen observes in his new book  :................. ''The Complacent Class'',    the fraction of people in this age group who own their own businesses has plummeted by about  65 per cent  since the 1880s.

Economic changes have contributed to both trends.  to be sure. But there is another culprit   :   * a diminishing frontier spirit *  and  an increasing paranoia  -about taking big leaps.

Family formation, perhaps the ultimate personal leap of faith, looks to be another victim of this important hesitation.

In America,   Census Bureau demographers  recently reported that while only a quarter  of    24 -to-  29-year-olds  were unmarried in the 1980s, almost half of that age group is unmarried today.

And delaying the jump to adulthood has real  social consequences. Last August, the  Centers for  Disease Control  announced  that the  United States fertility rate had fallen to its lowest point since they began calculating it in 1909.

My  checkered past,  it turns out, may not be a litany of imprudent decisions. True  prudence means eschewing  safety and familiarity in favour of entrepreneurial living.

*It requires clear eyes, a very courageous heart, and an adventurous spirit.

So go take a risk, Be prudent.  Don't wait for  social scientists  to flip a coin on your behalf. 

Choose Heads. 

        

With most  respectful  dedication to the Parents,  Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW!   -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Worth & Waves '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless