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<p>A good friend makes the distinction:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Power does not corrupt, Power IS Corruption!"</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Money is a highly liquid (or even volatile?) form of power. The
issues many/most raise around cryptocurrency (untraceable transfer
of wealth) seems to revolve around the extreme case that "you can
buy anything" and another extreme case of human nature (if any
thing is possible, that thing will almost surely be pursued by
someone).<br>
</p>
<p>This all might sound trite or even "dead wrong" on first blush,
but I've been living with that statement for nearly 20 years and
it fits yet better as it (or I?) age(s).</p>
<p>Any system (game) can be gamed, so whether it is formal "social
purpose" or "non-profit" or even "best intentions", there will be
gamers of that game. <br>
</p>
<p>Epstein is just one of many (but highly public at this point)
individuals who managed not only to "game" a number of systems
effectively but seemed even to be adept at building "scaffolding"
among the different systems... playing on his own distorted
sense of women, youth, sexuality, he was able to draw others into
situations where he could siphon of some of their power via money
(possibly) or political power (highly likely) or social influence
(clearly) while indulging in his own ego-trip of having some
significant play in "the game of Science". <br>
</p>
<p>I think we should all be at least cautioned if not embarrassed by
whatever seduces (or intimidates) us... those who Epstein got to
via financial/scientific flattery are perhaps the least of the
ones who became "pawns" in his game. <br>
</p>
<p>When I left LANL, I was set on "making it" at least as well
(financially and professionally and personally) as I did whilst
"institutionalized" there. I discovered VERY quickly (why is
hindsight so good sometimes?) that if I wanted to make (a lot of)
money I had to work for people with (a lot of) money. Odd thing
was that the places there was (a lot of) money were the places I
was either fleeing by leaving LANL (e.g. nuclear weapons,
intelligence work) or things I had been (mostly) shielded from
whilst institutionalized (e.g. big Entertainment, big Pharma/Med,
big Fossil Fuels). More than anything I recognized how much my
institution had buffered me from those facts... and the fact of
most of the work being funneled through the Gub'mint adds an extra
level of indirection/leverage/abstraction. I've done "OK", but
mostly by trading improvements in my professional and personal
life for financial advantage and the aforementioned "buffering"
(innocence?).</p>
<p>The main thing I can echo from Marcus' rant here is that I think
it is a "good thing" for you Merle, that you don't have any
UberCapitalists in your circle... <br>
</p>
<p>Emergence involves collective action without central control...
money (power) facilitates centralization and control... that
kind of success can lead to it's own failure.</p>
<p>My $bc.02<br>
</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/12/20 10:14 AM,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a> wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Wow! Gives new meaning to the notion of
“money laundering”. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hard to have an opinion, here. Hard to
think of any institution not funded by ill-gotten gains.
Still, one hates to grant nasty people the offramp of
philanthropy. “He was a rapist but I gave to MIT”? “He Hated
Women But He Loved Man”?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is a lot of evidence that people are
nasty just to the extent they are wealthy. The wealthier one
is the more one is likely to see wealth disparities as
deserved, rather than accidental. Add to that the fact that
it often takes a certain amount of nastiness to become
wealthy, and it’s hard not to imagine that billionaires are
not a pretty nasty lot. I am not referring, of course, to all
the many billionaires on this list. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But it also follows that anybody who is
wealthier than anybody else is nastier than they are. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We all have a lot to explain. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nick <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nicholas Thompson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Emeritus Professor of Ethology and
Psychology<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Clark University<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color:#0563C1">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color:#0563C1">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> Friam
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com"><friam-bounces@redfish.com></a> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Merle
Lefkoff<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, January 12, 2020 5:43 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com"><friam@redfish.com></a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [FRIAM] more Epstein fallout<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">The
queen of strategies for how non-profits can squeeze
money out of those who have too much and have earned it
in nefarious ways (almost always) is a woman named Lynne
Twist. Lynne teaches a brutal workshop called "The Soul
of Money." The big takeaway from her workshop is:
"those of us advocating positive social change have a
sacred duty to move that money from where it was ill-got
and put it to use in rightful ways." Unfortunately for
us at the Center, we don't know any uber-Capitalists.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On Sat, Jan 11, 2020 at 4:45 PM glen
<<a href="mailto:gepropella@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">gepropella@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">At the risk of offense, I'm not sure
how I feel about Lloyd being put on admin leave. The old
trope about 'dirty money' has always rang hollow for me.
All money is always dirty. It reminds me of this guy:<br>
<br>
<a
href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/04/portland_man_accused_of_druggi.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/04/portland_man_accused_of_druggi.html</a><br>
<br>
I can't find it now. But he supposedly open sourced his
patents and was a member of the dorkbot community. At what
point do we forget the origins of some funding? I mean,
Bill Gates' money was aggregated via some filthy
monopolistic methods. Does that imply nonprofits should
turn down their help?<br>
<br>
On January 11, 2020 12:35:59 PM PST, Marcus Daniels <<a
href="mailto:marcus@snoutfarm.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">marcus@snoutfarm.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
>Waiting for the other shoe to drop..<br>
><br>
><a
href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mit-review-cites-big-mistakes-taking-epstein-donations-n1113911"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mit-review-cites-big-mistakes-taking-epstein-donations-n1113911</a><br>
<br>
-- <br>
glen<br>
<br>
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<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-- <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.<br>
President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy<br>
<a href="http://emergentdiplomacy.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">emergentdiplomacy.org</a><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="mailto:merlelefoff@gmail.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">merlelefkoff@gmail.com</a><br>
mobile: (303) 859-5609<br>
skype: merle.lelfkoff2<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff<o:p></o:p></p>
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">============================================================
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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