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<p>Jochen -</p>
<p>A little less, tongue-in-cheek:</p>
<p>Thanks for the positive thoughts... and I think you can add to
your list of "isms" we need to understand 'more better' to avoid
giving them more power over us are other abstractions like
"democracy" and "capitalism". I grew up worshiping the latter
two unquestioningly and climbing the ladders they offered as fast
as I could, even though I am pretty sure I "heard" the muffled
cries of those whose heads I was stepping on to "climb" and the
"feel" of their fingers under my feet as they tried to climb the
very same rungs I was clambering up.</p>
<p>_Democracy_ was summarized well for me (it is only a
point-indicator, but a significant one) as "Democracy is the
tyranny of the majority over the minority". It became most
poignant to me in 2000 when the Republican's used their outsized
lung-capacity to "blow the flipped coin of a hung-election over"
and then claimed a "mandate". The Donald and the very same
Republican Machine did it again (if differently in detail) in
2016, shouting MANDATE! even louder. Had the Dems been able to
blow the coin over the other way in 2000 or if they had been
better at gerrymandering and social engineering in 2016 (I claim
they were good enough at the latter to put Hillary in front of
Bernie for the "finals"), THEY would have claimed a mandate,
although probably with less overt belligerence, but perhaps to the
same effect... a significant tyranny of a pseudo-majority over a
pseudo-minority. <br>
</p>
<p>_Capitalism_ isn't entirely synonymous with _Consumerism_ but
they seem very deeply entwined... and the most obvious hazard of
Capitalism is the truism that we love to hate of "the rich get
richer" (and in complement, "poor get poorer"). In a time when
Bush-II could declare in the wake of 9/11 "just go out and buy
something!" (backed up by a small tax-rebate to get the spending
pump primed?) as a presumed remedy to keep the Terrorist's attack
on Wall Street from rippling into the consumer-confidence
(extravagance?) economy, and now with Trump imagining that tearing
down any regulatory feedback (legal and social) on our
exploitative economy is the same as "creating wealth" and that
hold interest rates near zero (effectively subsidizing
big-Capital) is the same as having "healthy growth". It might
also be noted that we don't have a phrase for "healthy
steady-state" or "healthy pull-back". We only know how to
stimulate growth/expansion/usery/exploitation every way we can
until the resulting bubble collapses under it's own
weight/thinness.</p>
<p>A decade or two ago *I* might have responded to this kind of talk
with a confrontational "so you would rather have
totalitarian/fascism???!!!!" without thinking far enough to
realize that a truly healthy way of being (locally and globally)
might be something fundamentally different than what we've
discovered in our myriad experiments in economics and politics.
At the same time, paradoxically, while *fundamentally* different,
that difference may be in subtle qualities, not in quantity. It
might not require us to deny the fact of human (animal appetites)
for material comforts and social relevance... and in fact, it may
depend on doing exactly that without extreme over-indulgences in
either. The Trump family is a pretty good example of how we
fetishize extreme indulgences in both material wealth and social
significance.</p>
<p>May 2019 unfold as it will! I for one, feel lucky to be living
in these "interesting times", no matter how "inconvenient" many of
the details seem to be for me, mine, and those much less fortunate
than "we".<br>
</p>
<p> - Steve<br>
</p>
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cite="mid:417c804f-c1e8-7a65-aee6-1feced157051@swcp.com">
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<p>I prefer the model of Twain's "history doesn't repeat itself,
it rhymes"... <br>
</p>
<p>It appears that the great poem of life has lapsed into a riff
of thug-rap (taking names and popping caps)... which could go
on for quite a while... apparently there are a lot of folks who
want/need that kind of angry/negative me-first energy?</p>
<p>And a slap-happy new year to you too!<br>
</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Dear Pollyanna, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It will end and we’ll all learn an
important lesson? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whew, I was worried there for a minute!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Marcus<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF
1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">From: </span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Friam <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com"
moz-do-not-send="true"><friam-bounces@redfish.com></a>
on behalf of Jochen Fromm <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:jofr@cas-group.net"
moz-do-not-send="true"><jofr@cas-group.net></a><br>
<b>Reply-To: </b>The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Coffee Group <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:friam@redfish.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><friam@redfish.com></a><br>
<b>Date: </b>Wednesday, December 26, 2018 at 6:53 AM<br>
<b>To: </b>The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee
Group <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:friam@redfish.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><friam@redfish.com></a><br>
<b>Subject: </b>[FRIAM] 2019 - The end of Trumpism<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Merry christmas and a happy new year
2019! I hope Mueller will finish his report in 2019 and I
assume president Trump will either resign or be impeached
like Nixon, since the House belongs now to the democrats
(Did you know "Mueller" is the German version of "Miller"
btw? As you know a miller is someone who creates the flour
we need for life) Then Donald will spend the rest of his
life in prison or seek asylum in Russia. This would be the
end of "Trumpism". But who knows, it's a complex world. In
hindsight we will learn more about "Trumpism" as well. At
the moment it seems to be a mixture of the original
Italian fascism and post-soviet authoritarianism, i.e. the
rule of an authoritarian leader who demands absolute
loyalty and trusts only his family. I believe we can only
decode social systems if we really understand the various
forms of *-isms like fascism, nazism or communism, and how
they are related. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">-Jochen<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a>
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