[FRIAM] Can you guess the source.

[Stephen Guerin]

> Does anyone remember the Port Huron Statement?  I'm reaching 
> here, and I don't remember the date.  Hell, most of you 
> probably weren't even BORN yet!

I cheated with Google and still didn't know who it was. Yep, 6 years before I
even saw light.

Thankfully, things have turned out nothing like what was described there ;-)

-Steve

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Merle Lefkoff [mailto:merle at arspublica.org] 
> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 8:58 PM
> To: nickthompson at earthlink.net; The Friday Morning Applied 
> Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Can you guess the source.
> 
> Nicholas Thompson wrote:
> >
> > I am curious to know if anybody in Friam-land will recognize the 
> > following passage.  No Fair using google.
> >  
> > It is NOT from the Gettysburg Address. 
> >  
> > *"Our work is guided by the sense that we may be the last 
> generation 
> > in the experiment with living. But we are a minority--the vast 
> > majority of our people regard the temporary equilibriums of our 
> > society and world as eternally functional parts. In this is perhaps 
> > the outstanding paradox; we ourselves are imbued with 
> urgency, yet the 
> > message of our society is that there is no viable 
> alternative to the 
> > present. Beneath the reassuring tones of the politicians, 
> beneath the 
> > common opinion that America will "muddle through," beneath the 
> > stagnation of those who have closed their minds to the 
> future, is the 
> > pervading feeling that there simply are no alternatives, that our 
> > times have witnessed the exhaustion not only of Utopias, but of any 
> > new departures as well. Feeling the press of complexity upon the 
> > emptiness of life, people are fearful of the thought that at any 
> > moment things might be thrust out of control. They fear 
> change itself, 
> > since change might smash whatever invisible framework seems to hold 
> > back chaos for them now. For most Americans, all crusades 
> are suspect, 
> > threatening. The fact that each individual sees apathy in 
> his fellows 
> > perpetuates the common reluctance to organize for change. 
> The dominant 
> > institutions are complex enough to blunt the minds of their 
> potential 
> > critics, and entrenched enough to swiftly dissipate or 
> entirely repel 
> > the energies of protest and reform, thus limiting human 
> expectancies.
> > Then, too, we are a materially improved society, and by our own 
> > improvements we seem to have weakened the case for further change.*"
> >  
> >  
> > Nicholas S. Thompson
> > Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM (nick at redfish.com
> > <mailto:nick at redfish.com>)
> > Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University 
> > (nthompson at clarku.edu <mailto:nthompson at clarku.edu>)
> >  
> >  
> >  
> > 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --
> >
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 
> 9a-11:30 at cafe 
> > at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at 
> > http://www.friam.org
> I was teaching in the sixties to put myself through grad 
> school.  This is definitely from that period, probably SDS or 
> one of those groups.  
> Does anyone remember the Port Huron Statement?  I'm reaching 
> here, and I don't remember the date.  Hell, most of you 
> probably weren't even BORN yet!
> 
> Merle
> 
> Merle Lefkoff
> Change Factors
> Santa Fe, N.M.
> 
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College 
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
> 
>