[FRIAM] Forum abuse! (was Revising the American Revolution)

Thu Oct 28 13:31:38 EDT 2021

All, 

The thing below is an elegant essay, a cri de coeur, that will reward reading, if you haven't done so already.  I want to let it stand as is, before I agree or disagree with it.  

N

Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2021 10:40 AM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Forum abuse! (was Revising the American Revolution)

There's an opportunity to dovetail the pandemic-hastened restructuring of the work force, cancel culture, upward trends in socialism, and climate change. At the last salon, I was berated, yet again, for allowing my pet cats free access to the outdoors. The tack I took in the conversation, because we weren't just chatting, we were "in salon" (whatever that means), was a crypto-criticism of Utilitarianism. I chose this because my gank [🎮] of opponents are "ecologists", asserting the debatable devastation of domestic cats on biodiversity. Yes, this post is also about value alignment and the arrogant grand narrative of Societal Engineering for Biodiversity.

I will not be able to retire, nor will most of the people my age or younger. Or, you could slip a little on the binding and say most of us have retired many times, from many different jobs, to clear space so we can launch a career in another dead-end job. What is it we're doing, as a society? If we buy that cultural evolution is a thing, what are the operators? Are we witnessing new operators or are these the same old operators, just percolating into our privileged space from their endemic home amongst the underprivileged classes. There are several essays on how tribal life was NOT "nasty, brutish, and short", but more laconic ... like a cat's ... explosive efforts of hunt or defend, punctuating periods of resting and futzing with the tools. Modern "anti-workers" < <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/27/quit-your-job-join-anti-work-movement-elle-hunt> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/27/quit-your-job-join-anti-work-movement-elle-hunt> sound a bit like cats, to me.

Of course, there is the stereotype of a solitary stray living under constant stress, scraping through dumpsters or hunting moths between desperate fights with other strays and their bacteria-poisoned teeth and claws. But this is, I think, a bit of a myth born of fallacious inter-species mind-reading by hedonic humans. Part of the reason cats are so devastating to "wildlife" is because they are not hedonic at all. They've all got a thrill-seeking death wish. Well, most do. We have a cat who has a mental illness, maybe many. She stays in her Princess Dungeon all day every day, only exiting to use the box or make the terrifying journey to the water and food upstairs. But every other cat I've ever interacted with is part of the nihilistic thrill-kill cult. Of course we'll take the rare opportunity to rest comfy in a dry puff of dirty laundry sometimes. But mostly, we'd rather be squinting in the cold rain, statue-still, waiting to pounce, chase, kill, and rend.

So, like my cat-hating ecologist gankers, I don't feel pity for the homeless, suffering kitten scraping by out there. This is the world. Life sucks. Then you die. The trick is learning to enjoy it.

I realize, at the end of my little essay, that it may not be clear how this relates to cancel culture or climate change. But, like a joke, explaining it ruins it.

[🎮]  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_video_game_terms> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_video_game_terms

On 10/27/21 1:32 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:

> It is confusing to me why retired people would be particularly cautious in their remarks.   What difference does it make if they inflame?  It isn't like they could be fired for it.   Old habits die hard, I guess.    

-- 

"Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie."

☤>$ uǝlƃ

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