Category: Fresno Bee Religion and Ethics Columns

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The Ghost of Christmas Future: Artificial Intelligence, Santa Claus, and Holiday Magic

Artificial intelligence is now part of the magic of Christmas and it’s sweetly weird

Fresno Bee, Dec. 15, 2024

Artificial intelligence is now part of the magic of Christmas. I recently made a video call to an AI Santa. Santa sat by a roaring fire and chatted with me about reindeer, elves and his penchant for cookies and cocoa. I asked him to bring world peace for Christmas. He told me I was kind to ask for such a wonderful thing.

This was fun and charming — and a little weird. But this cute example is just the tip of the AI iceberg. In the future, we may routinely call AI friends, coaches and advisors. This will put real people out of business. It is much easier to visit AI Santa than to fight the masses at the mall. Virtual Santa may leave portly white-bearded men out of work.

Beyond the immediate ramifications of AI Santa are deeper questions about imagination and belief — a great Christmastime topic. Christmas calls for the “voluntary suspension of disbelief.” A common theme in Christmas movies is that for Christmas to happen, you must choose to believe.

This is mostly harmless: We suspend belief quite often in culture and the arts. We choose to believe when we enter the world of a novel, a movie or a theater production. At Christmas, voluntary suspension of disbelief kicks into high gear. The imagination’s ability to jump into a fantasy world is what allows art and AI to happen.

When you chat with an AI avatar, you enter the world inside the screen. AI makes this easier and more realistic than cinema or theater. By responding in real time to your presence, AI lures you into an imagined world. As this technology improves, some people could end up mistaking artifice for reality.

Christmas also involves what scholars call “motivated belief,” something we believe because we want it to be true. At some point, kids start to suspect that Santa isn’t real. But kids may play along because they want the Christmas goodies. The myths of Christmas encourage this, telling children that their belief in Santa is part of the process.

We all do this from time to time: Despite the evidence, we believe things that support our desires or preconceptions. It is often benign. But conspiracy theories, cults and superstitions also work this way. These beliefs are supported by an elaborate network of rationalization and confabulation. When they are challenged, the motivated believer explains away the counter-evidence and accuses the challenger of spreading fake news.

At Christmas, the imagination is beguiled by a network of trickery and tomfoolery. To support the Santa story, we make a big show of pretending that all kinds of phony stuff is real — from flying reindeer to elves. Parents construct an elaborate ruse involving the Elf on the Shelf, letters to Santa and a trip to the mall to visit Santa (or a trip to the computer to chat with AI Santa). It all leads up to a big Christmas Eve finale and the magic of Christmas morning.

This is all good fun. But the season of believing opens lots of questions about culture and belief, myth and magic. A culture is, after all, an elaborate game in which we all collaborate. In a sense, culture is “artificial,” a kind of art and artifice in which we construct meaning. Artificial intelligence is the latest and most sophisticated example of how this works.

As long as we understand the difference between what is real and what is phony, it is amusing to play along. But we should worry that in the AI era some people will confuse artifice with reality. It would be tragic if people mistook artificial friendship for the real thing. And it is dangerous when fake news seems as true or real as actual facts.

We need to do our best to keep all of this straight. And perhaps Christmas can help. In this magical season, take time to enjoy the show. Try out AI Santa, or make a wish for world peace. But when the show ends, ask what you’ve learned about the human imagination and about the difference between wishful thinking and the truth.

Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article296998234.html#storylink=cpy

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Nepotism, Cronyism, and Meritocracy

Fresno Bee, December 8, 2024

Hunter Biden’s pardon: Nepotism undermines trust in institutions and breeds resentment 

Nepotism and cronyism undermine trust in institutions while breeding resentment. We see the problem in President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, and, before that, in President-elect Donald Trump’s pardon of his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner. Powerful crooks get pardoned, while the rest of us obey the law.

The problems of cronyism and nepotism are found in government, but also in businesses, churches and the rest of social life. There is a natural tendency to stick with your clique and to favor friends and family members. This is understandable, but it is no way to run a country or administer justice.

Nepotism in the justice system is galling because justice is supposed to be impartial. The goddess of justice is usually portrayed as wearing a blindfold. Nepotism lifts that blindfold and turns justice into a biased partisan.

Favoritism is fundamentally unfair. Justice is not a matter of preference or personality. Power and authority ought to be based on expertise, knowledge, wisdom and virtue. Unfortunately, this is not how things work in a world of cronies and nepo-babies.

Cronyism is a colorful term for this corrosive phenomenon. A crony is a reliable but crooked comrade, someone who keeps your secrets and who has your back. The word crony usually implies corruption. A buddy is a friend you have fun with, but a crony is a partner in crime.

Cronyism is related to the “spoils system,” a system of political patronage based on the old adage that the victor gets the spoils. In this system, the powerful dispense privileges and benefits to their cronies, without regard for justice, virtue, intelligence or expertise. In this system, it’s not what you know but rather who you know that counts.

Cronyism ignores the basic wisdom of “meritocracy.” The Greek philosopher Plato immortalized the idea of meritocracy in his vision of a world ruled by virtuous and wise philosopher-kings. In a meritocracy, power ought to be correlated with intelligence and goodness. The decisions of saintly and sagacious authorities would be based in knowledge and justice. In such a system, power is not viewed as an end-in-itself. Rather, power ought to be directed toward producing wise and good outcomes. Cronyism subverts this. Sycophantic know-nothings and faithful family members are appointed to positions of authority and rewarded for their loyalty. This is more about consolidating power than administering justice. The sidekicks and accomplices of the crony system are not oriented toward wisdom or goodness. Rather, cronies are focused on gaining dominance and keeping it — while milking the system for profit and the privileges of power.

In cronyism, political power is often distributed to corrupt and criminal types, as long as they are faithful servants of the crony-in-chief. Indeed, morally flawed individuals (drunks, drug addicts, sex abusers and the like) are easy to manipulate. They have secrets to hide. They are shameless and sneaky. And they owe allegiance to the one who has granted them power despite their inadequacy.

In a meritocracy, the moral fiber and wisdom of good people is resistant to manipulation. Good and wise authorities will refuse to abuse their power or follow unethical orders. Their loyalty is to the good and true rather than the crony-in-chief.

Wise and virtuous people do not cling to power. When virtuous people make mistake — and we all make mistakes — they feel ashamed. Rather than denying and covering up wrong-doing, good people admit their faults and work to make amends. And when they reach the limit of their powers, they humbly admit their inadequacy and step aside to make way for a more worthy person.

Nor will wise and virtuous people support a dishonest system ruled by cronies and powerful cliques. Indeed, the corruption of the system breeds resentment and distrust among those who expect justice to be blind and authority to be based on merit.

The solution is to reaffirm the importance of merit. Power and authority should go to those who are knowledgeable and good, rather than to suck-ups and cronies. The scions of the powerful should be subject to impartial justice. And favoritism should be rejected as unfair and irresponsible. Until wisdom rules and justice is blindfolded, there will be no end to trouble.

Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article296621899.html#storylink=cpy

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Gratitude, Grace, and the Biden-Trump Handshake

Fresno Bee, Nov. 24, 2024

This post-election Thanksgiving, we all have the power to soften our hardened hearts.

One of the strangest scenes of this odd political year occurred when Donald Trump and Joe Biden exchanged pleasantries in the White House in front of a roaring fire on Nov. 13. Trump said “Thank you” four times within that minute-long meeting, while Biden said “Welcome,” “Welcome back” and “You’re welcome.” The men smiled and shook hands.

For a moment, you might imagine it was possible to forget the acrimony of the past. But one minute of staged courtesy is unlikely to heal a broken republic. As soon as the moment ended, the spark of grace was extinguished. The pundits were quick to remind us that Trump did not invite Biden to the White House for a similar handshake in 2020, and that Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration in 2021. Partisan animosity continued apace. And this strange ritual was revealed to be a show for the cameras, lacking in sincerity and depth.

As we gather for Thanksgiving, the Biden-Trump handshake provides food for thought. During the holidays, we hope that gratitude, forgiveness, hospitality and love can work wonders. We don’t have to hate each other. We are not bound to return tit-for-tat. Human beings are free and creative. We can choose to forgive, to forget and to turn a new leaf.

There is an important difference between ritualized civility and a deeper spirit of sincere gratitude and generosity. One could, after all, give thanks mechanically or as a matter of courtesy without actually feeling grateful. The deeper spirit of gracious generosity is not a ritualized performance. Rather, it is a way of being.

But the rituals of civil society are important. Symbolic gestures like handshakes are powerful, and virtues are developed through practice.

A student of Confucius once asked the master how to learn to be good. Confucius replied, “Overcome yourself and return to ritual.” We learn to be good by setting aside our egos and playing along with the customs of civilized life, even when we don’t want to.

We teach young athletes to shake hands at the end of a game, whether they win or lose. And we encourage our children to say “please” and “thank-you” at appropriate moments. We model civility by saying and doing these things, even when we don’t feel like it. During the holidays, these rituals reach a climax. At Thanksgiving, we ought to give a prayer of thanks, even if we don’t feel particularly grateful.

While rituals are useful, they are not enough. A deeper engagement is required for genuine spiritual development. For swords to become plowshares, profound spiritual transformation is needed. This transformative growth may depend upon what Christians call “grace” — a mysterious and renewing gift of God. It also depends upon the hard work of wisdom.

None of this occurs in a moment. Saying “I’m sorry” does not instantly make everything better. A handshake cannot magically undo animosity, nor does a kind word eradicate decades of hostility. Love takes years to develop even in the best of circumstances. Trauma, anger and guilt are not easily overcome. And resentment is a powerful poison.

It may be too much to hope that enemies can become friends, but we can become less hateful and more civil if we choose to do so.

We do have some choice in the matter: It’s not possible to force someone to feel grateful, nor can we be compelled to love or to forgive. But we can choose to extend a hand or to say “thanks” and “you’re welcome.” We can also choose to keep our egos in check while we play along with the rituals.

Things won’t get better unless we choose to make them so. As the larger world careens about us, it is important to remember that we have the power to soften our hardened hearts. We can discipline our egos and return to ritual. We can extend a welcome hand to those we have written off as enemies. We can forgive those who have wronged us. We can offer thanks, even to those we think do not deserve it. And if this proves to be too difficult, we should at least encourage our children to be more gracious than we are.

Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article295924914.html#storylink=cpy

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Tragic Wisdom for Turbulent Times

Fresno Bee, Nov. 16, 2024

The American electoral scene offers some lessons in wisdom: When Trump lost in 2020, Republicans went mad with accusations of a stolen election. Now, it is Democrats who are outraged and wailing in grief and anger.

These wild swings of emotion are a sign of a culture out of balance. Our world is afflicted by an immoderate temper and a lack of wisdom. Part of the problem is the expectation that things will always work out as we want them to. But it is not true that everything happens for a reason, nor is it true that the arc of the universe bends toward justice or that progress and enlightenment are inevitable.

Progress is painstaking and never guaranteed. The crooked timber of humanity cannot be made straight. Corrupt individuals seize power, people make unwise decisions and sometimes evil triumphs over good.

Most of the world’s wisdom traditions affirm this tragic insight: The first truth of Buddhism is that life is suffering, and Christianity requires a bloody sacrifice to wash away the wages of sin.

We should not be surprised when things go wrong. The political world is not a morality play written by a benevolent author. Rather, history unfolds by hook and by crook, as mortal men struggle for power. Acknowledging this ugly feature of human reality can provide some comfort. Suffering is par for the course and no one can escape the agony of defeat.

In stormy times, it helps to consult the tragic wisdom of the ancient philosophers. Aristotle teaches that happiness requires a rare conjunction of wisdom and good fortune. He reminds us to count no one happy until they are dead. He meant that decades of good luck can be destroyed in an instant when things go horribly wrong. And, in fact, Aristotle had to flee for his life as Athens collapsed around him.

The Stoic philosophers cultivated similarly tragic soil. The Roman Stoic Seneca advises us to distrust prosperity, to prepare for adversity and to realize that fortune will do whatever she pleases. Like Aristotle, Seneca was buffeted by political misfortune (he was ordered to kill himself by the emperor Nero).

Stoic sages advise us to stop wailing and complaining. Do not be disturbed by the way things are. Things rarely work out according to plan. This is simply the way of the world. There is nothing you can do about history and the larger forces of the universe.

But you can control your own virtue. You have the power to choose how you respond to life’s tragedies. Key values here are courage, fortitude, resilience and tenacity.

It is important to avoid the despair and anger that appear when we find out that it’s not “all good.” If you expect everything to work out as you want it to, you will be sorely disappointed. You may be tempted to give up or lash out in furious frustration, but it is wiser to acknowledge that things often do go wrong.

Prepare for the worst, and do your best. The only thing in your control is the way you react to life’s vicissitudes.

It is also useful to give thanks when things go well. The good times should be greeted as welcome exceptions rather than the norm. There is usually something to be grateful for, even in a storm.

You should also forgive yourself when you fail. Everyone fails. It’s not easy to be good, so when you do fail, don’t beat yourself up about it — failure is par for the course. The heroes of living respond to failure with tenacity and they keep working at living well, even when the odds are against them.

The true test of character is not found in success. It is found in how well you recover from defeat.

Tragic wisdom offers consolation. Truth, virtue and happiness are rare commodities. The good is often overpowered by falsehood and vice. In this vale of tears, a good life is not guaranteed. It is unusual for intelligence, righteousness and good fortune to converge. But in understanding the fragility of goodness, we discover wisdom. And if we work at it, we can find the strength to remain upright in the face of the storm.

Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article295556909.html#storylink=cpy

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The rule of law vs. the will of the tyrant

Fresno Bee, Nov. 3, 2024

This week, an arsonist burned ballot boxes in Washington and Oregon. This attack on the vote is, thankfully, a rare occurrence. But it is an ominous warning of threats to our rule-governed democracy.

Our country has established an orderly, rule-governed process for elections. Unfortunately, the rules have been recently disputed, specifically when Donald Trump challenged the idea of a rule-governed process when he refused to admit defeat in 2020. Some Americans are now confused about why the rules even matter to begin with.

Sadly, a number of Americans seem to admire a willingness to break the rules. A Marist poll from April of this year found that 41% of Americans agreed that “America has gotten so far off track that we need a leader who is willing to break some rules to set things right.” Fifty-six percent of Republicans agreed with that sentiment, as did 28% of Democrats.

This result was reiterated by a more recent poll from the Public Religion Research Institute which found that a third of Americans, and 55% of Trump supporters, agreed with the need for a “strong leader willing to break the rules.”

This attitude is Machiavellian and authoritarian. What matters, from this perspective, is gaining power. It does not matter how this is achieved because the end justifies the means.

This cynical idea is morally disastrous. It can be used to justify cheating in the whole of life. The cynic thinks rules are for suckers. And for some arch-cynics, rule-breaking becomes a way of life. What matters to the Machiavellian is outsmarting the saps who follow the rules.

Tyrants think that rules are made by the powerful for their own self-interest. From this standpoint, if you can rewrite the rules to maximize your own power, you’ve won. Not only have you defeated the old system, you’ve also created a new system in your own image.

In response, we ought to reassert the value of a rule-governed world. Rules create stability, structure and order that benefit everyone. Shared allegiance to a system of rules defuses violence and helps establish the possibility of social trust and cooperation. Shared rules allow us to plan for the future and develop common projects.

We rely upon rules to think, communicate, create and build. Grammar, logic, music and mathematics are fundamentally systems of rules. The sentence you are reading now makes sense because it follows the rules of the English language. The rules of language are mostly a matter of custom and habit. They are arbitrary but also important.

Games are like that, too: You can’t make a forward pass beyond the line of scrimmage in football, despite there being no necessary reason for that rule. Someone made it up long ago, and now we just play along. But if you break the rule, you’ll be penalized. And if you refuse to play according to that rule, you are not really playing football.

The legal system is presumably less arbitrary. Some laws appear to reflect the necessary “laws of nature,” as the Declaration of Independence put it, including the self-evident right to life, liberty and happiness. But the legal system also includes conventional and arbitrary elements, including laws about driving, paying taxes and voting.

The electoral college and our winner-takes-all system of voting does not reflect a law of nature. Rather, this system is a social and historical construction. This means that the system can be changed. But there are rules for changing the system, as defined by the Constitution and its amendment process. Burning a ballot box does nothing to change those rules. Nor does refusing to concede an election.

The American system of checks and balances is supposed to prevent a tyrant from corrupting the system of rules. But that system depends upon public trust. Beyond institutional checks and balances, we, the people, need to remind ourselves that rules matter.

The Machiavellians are wrong. The end does not justify the means. And those who are willing to break the rules to gain power are a threat to the very idea of a rule-governed democracy.

Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article294831724.html#storylink=cpy