[FRIAM] the cancellation arc

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Steve, 

Isn't this the story of the 500 Spartans who, in defending Greece, backed themselves into a canyon and fought off the Persian hoards successfully, until some traitor showed the Persians a path around the canyon and they were attacked from behind?

N

Nick Thompson
ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Steve Smith
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2021 12:32 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] the cancellation arc

Glen -

> IDK. Maybe this is simply the inescapable optimum for some people. Rosen is a great example, ostracized and ridiculed as vitalist for so long, causing him to be reactionary and retreat further into his own game, followed only by a few brilliant acolytes and open-minded domain hoppers. And maybe little p pragmatists are simply lazy or cowardly, not willing to tilt windmills long enough to push through a paradigm shift, compromising away the baby, happy enough with the bath water. I have no hill to die on. Maybe that makes me pathetic.

What a great medley of colorful idioms... 

I was acutely taken by "I have not hill to die on" and your characterization of the "small p pragmatist"...  

I can't find (in my fragmented associative memory, aided only by my flimsy google fu) the historical/mythological reference
(Scythians/Parthians/Greeks) to the small band of warriors who deliberately trapped themselves on a ledge or a blind canyon (or their leader contrived it), knowing that having no other option than fighting their way out, they gained an advantage over the larger force who could always retreat to avoid individual self-extinction, supporting a collective will to yield to a smaller force?

I believe this is one of the charms/seductions of extremism...   and in the historical anecdote above, is that not a highly pragmatic tactic/strategy?

If we think of ourselves as cartographers/naturalists/archaeologists,
mapping a landscape, rather than trying to control it, perhaps the strategies shift?

- Steve




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