Russell Festivus Grievances

The Airing of Grievances is a key part of the traditional Festivus celebration.

My public grievances are with systems rather than organizations. Part of that is that I don’t know that I know where exactly the blame lies or who has the power to correct it. Talking about any particular organization might be a distraction. There might be a legitimate argument, but more importantly, as Upton Sinclair wrote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. — Upton Sinclair

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to profit personally while harming others.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to put our efforts into transferring wealth to ourselves rather than to creating more wealth.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that focus on solving problems rather than preventing them.

I am even more aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to ignore, hide or profit from problems rather than solving them or preventing them.

I applaud the work of 80,000 hours.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that encourage us to devote our lives to trivia rather than making things better. I applaud the work of 80,000 hours in combatting this.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that reward amplifying divisiveness and mistruth. I mourn the unnecessary deaths and suffering that this has brought our country and our world.

I am aggrieved by systems and incentives that discourage solid useful ideas because they won’t lead to exit-focused hypergrowth.

Most of all I am aggrieved by my own compliancy and in this case, I know who to blame and who should do something about it.