Playing Mental Dominos

What is meant by “playing mental dominos” or “mental leapfrogging”?  Depending on context, William James described these as psychological terms for the way our thoughts flow—wandering in a continuous chain, one idea sparking another in free association, what he called the stream of consciousness.

Freud added his own twist, suggesting it’s the process of letting thoughts follow spontaneous links—where one memory, word, or image brings another to mind, sometimes exposing hidden connections.  And how often have we heard someone sigh, “I lost my train of thought,” capturing how easily this chain can derail or veer in unexpected directions?

Modern cognitive science calls this mind-wandering or cognitive drift, when our attention drifts from a task into a meandering sequence of loosely connected ideas. Studies suggest nearly half of our waking thoughts unfold this way. Though sometimes distracting, this drifting has also been linked to creativity.

When I began today’s post, I thought the New York City mayoral race might be an interesting topic.  And to illustrate the folly of electing a socialist mayor in the world’s most capitalist city, it occurred to me that history would be the best teacher because as a point of fact, socialism has failed the citizenry every place it’s ever been tried.

But then I paused and asked myself: where did the phrase, “History is the best teacher” actually come from?  Research didn’t reveal a single origin like many other old proverbs, but I did find Cicero’s famous line from the 1st century BCE: “Historia magistra vitae est” — “History is the teacher of life.”

That reflection nudged another memory: when and why did we begin using BCE instead of BC?  As a kid I was taught that BC and AD denoted the eras before and after Christ.  So why was the change necessary and when exactly did that change occur?  The answer, of course, lies in language and inclusivity.  BC/AD explicitly reference Christianity (Before Christ / Anno Domini—“year of our Lord”).  And changing to BCE/CE offered religious neutrality while keeping the same year numbering.

Meanwhile, some mistakenly think AD means ‘After Death,’ but if that were true, the years between Christ’s birth and death would fall into a chronological void.  Instead, AD begins immediately after year 1 (there is no year 0).  Nonetheless, by the late 20th century, scholars, archaeologists, and historians increasingly adopted BCE/CE in textbooks and journals to better address a global, interfaith audience.  So, while the labels changed, the timeline did not.  The year numbering is identical, e.g., AD 2025 is the same as 2025 CE.

As I was cogitating on these weighty matters the notion of the initials BC lingered for a moment and soon, I conjured images of Johnny Hart’s long-running comic strip “B.C.”  And to this day whenever I see at the initials BC, I cannot help but think of that gag-a-day cartoon strip.  The newspaper comic strip was set in prehistoric times and featured cavemen, quirky animals, lots of wordplay, minimalist drawings, punchline-driven humor, and of course, satire.

To be honest, I haven’t seen or read the ‘Sunday funnies’ in years, but I fondly recall the characters: B.C. — the naïve everyman caveman; Thor — the inventor and “brains” of the group; Peter — the sarcastic poet; Clumsy Carp — as his name suggests, awkward and prone to accidents; Cute Chick — the female character used for light romance or irony along with various animals like a talking ant, a clamshell that dispensed jokes, and a snake.

But then B.C. wasn’t really about history, the prehistoric setting was a backdrop for modern satire, puns, and social commentary.  Ah yes, social commentary, which brought me full circle.  The point of today’s post was to highlight how history has repeatedly shown that the promises of socialism are illusory.  Again and again, nations pursuing it have found not prosperity but disaster—often morphing into authoritarianism and sometimes leaving millions dead.

I’m sorry it took me so long to arrive at my point, but I was engaging in a bit of mental dominos.

Quote of the day: “Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and Hell where they already have it.” – Ronald Reagan