That shiny object - the silver bullet

 I love it when the bad guy/thing in a movie gets what they deserve, none more than in the "Blade" movies with Wesley Snipes. He uses bullets made of silver, hollow-point and filled with garlic, and bombs that emit ultraviolet light, to eliminate vampires and werewolves. 

A silver bullet is used to describe a simple, seemingly magical solution to a difficult or long-standing problem. As our world becomes more complex, very few people are comfortable with agnosticism - "I don't know, and I'm cool with that", and they crave simple answers, even to the most complex or chaotic problems where the answers will only become apparent they are tackled. 

So they reach for the silver bullet that will provide assurance and seemingly a solution - that conspiracy theory, those "shiny objects" - new technologies - dangled before us by the political and business elites, like renewable energy, electric vehicles, sustainable businesses, reducing agriculture (Netherlands) to reduce carbon emissions, vaccination, etc.

These all ignore an indisputable fact: every single living organism (including earth as a total system) is a complex system, with interconnections that we can only glimpse, e.g., the microbiome in our gastrointestinal tract that more and more is being seen to house microbes that are implicated in many mental and physical disorders, previously not known.

Vaccination and the preoccupation with antibody levels ignore both the important role played by T-cells (CD4+ and CD8+, mainly) and the microbiome, and that we each have a unique response to pathogen invasion - both "natural" and artificial (vaccination). Some individuals are afflicted with multiple sclerosis and glandular fever after infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, others with Guillain-Barré Syndrome after influenza, and then there's chronic fatigue syndrome after virus infections, "Long Covid" most recently.

Politicians and corporations will always push that silver bullet, to make money or to hold on to power. And to demonise rational sceptics who are suspicious of anything touted as a silver bullet for intractable problems, either locally or globally.

What do happy people do differently?

By and large, I would describe myself as a "happy" person.

Chiara Fucarino describes "those who choose to be happy, and those who choose to be unhappy", and that "It’s quite simple. Happy people have good habits that enhance their lives. They do things differently." She gives a list of 22 things happy people do differently:


1. Don’t hold grudges.
2. Treat everyone with kindness.
3. See problems as challenges.
4. Express gratitude for what they already have.
5. Dream big.
6. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
7. Speak well of others.
8. Never make excuses.
9. Get absorbed into the present.
10. Wake up at the same time every morning.
11. Avoid social comparison.
12. Choose friends wisely.
13. Never seek approval from others.
14. Take the time to listen.
15. Nurture social relationships.
16. Meditate.
17. Eat well.
18. Exercise.
19. Live minimally.
20. Tell the truth.
21. Establish personal control.
22. Accept what cannot be changed.


With regard to point (3), problems are for me an opportunity for creative problem-solving and an adventure. I do, however, have a BIG problem with the tendency these days to be politically correct and hyper-positive by never using the word "problem" because - it is falsely claimed - it creates a negative image. Everything is always a "challenge" - Government never has problems, only "challenges"! I disagree with this practice; "problem" immediately makes one couple it with "solution"; in other words, it evokes a need for action, which "challenge" does not.

With point (7), I find that I always (like TV lawyer Petrocelli) try to construct an alternative, kinder scenario that might explain why somebody did something that, on the surface, looks bad.
On point (13), though one shouldn't seek to be validated by someone's approval, it is important that one shows respect for what makes somebody else comfortable, for example, dressing for the occasion. I dress casually as a senior manager in the civil service (golf shirts, jeans) most days at work, but I always make an effort to wear a shirt and/or formal trousers when I attend a meeting the Provincial Minister who heads our department. Very few people will go to a job interview in their beach wear (unless it's a beach job).