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<p>Dave -</p>
<p>I will take your claim that you do not enjoy this at face value,
yet your voice is not dissimilar to the many who seem to be
enjoying Schaden/Cassandra-Freude. I take you to be a "fellow
traveler" amongst travelers here, albeit along your own particular
(perhaps peculiar to many) winding path.<br>
</p>
<p>and yet, like Noakes, it does seem to be the collective
destination we have/are chosen/choosing? Either by our actions or
by our inaction.</p>
<p>As a former member of a strong gun and self-reliant culture (the
former an extension of the latter?) I am quite familiar with the
feeling that somehow the collective is not to be trusted or is
failing me in spite of my implicit trust in it, and the instinct
to pour all my resources into scoping down my survival unit to
something that seems manageable (e.g. nuclear family,
individual). I believe that most refugees, for example, have made
that decision by the time they flee their homeland for a "promised
land" or at least one where their survival does not seem unlikely.</p>
<p>And yet, as Glen alludes and I *try* to gesture toward, we are
also social animals who need other social animals. Our modern
technology gives us the illusion that we can survive alone, and
perhaps even neolithic hunter-gatherers could do so with their
"advanced technology" for obtaining meet, processing animal parts
into more tools, weapons, and clothing, shelter. But this siren
call to hyper-individualism needs to be just one voice in a
self-similar symphony at many scales.</p>
<p>It feels as if humanity is convulsing toward a pseudo manifest
destiny of having a role in the universe trying (replace the
teliologic "trying" with a more apt term "self-organizing") to
become self-aware. Whatever the negEntropy path we seem to be a
part of, it feels as if we are in an acutely near-chaos moment.
What we are up to feels to be an epitome of Lewin's "Life at the
edge of Chaos". <br>
</p>
<p>Are we on the verge of a Kurzweilian Singularity or perhaps one
of the many Utopian/Dystopian futures lined out by the speculative
fiction writers of the past century or two? A cultural
efflorescence or an apocalyptic collapse?</p>
<p>And more to the point, does our opinion, our ideas, our will have
anything to do with our path into that future?</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:46a1cfb6-af0d-4e7b-aa4c-d13e1e3a1f8d@www.fastmail.com">
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<div style="font-family:Arial;">It does not.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;">The data "came to me" in that it
was in something else I was reading for purpose; I did not seek
it out. At the same time, I was reading headlines about "burn it
down before they can vote," or "Hell no! By any means possible,"
or "the time for talk and politics is past." This , in turn,
generates scenarios that would have been inconceivable
yesterday. <br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;">I often feel like the character
Benny Noakes in a John Brunner novel> He is out of his mind
on hallucinogens, sits in front of a TV watching the news and
constantly utters the phrase, "Christ, what an imagination I've
got." All this "stuff" is so weird, so extreme, it beggars
explanation or sense making — it must be my imagination.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;">A bit of Marcus's fatalism,
'people gonna do what they do', some vestige of I told you so,
no pleasure.<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Arial;"><br>
</div>
<div>On Sat, Sep 19, 2020, at 5:20 PM, <a
href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" id="qt" style="">
<div class="qt-WordSection1">
<p class="qt-MsoNormal">And why does this give you pleasure?<br>
</p>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"> <br>
</p>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal">Nicholas Thompson<br>
</p>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal">Emeritus Professor of Ethology and
Psychology<br>
</p>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal">Clark University<br>
</p>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><a
href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</a><br>
</p>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><a
href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</a><br>
</p>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><br>
</p>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"> <br>
</p>
</div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"> <br>
</p>
<div>
<div
style="border-right-color:currentcolor;border-right-style:none;border-right-width:medium;border-bottom-color:currentcolor;border-bottom-style:none;border-bottom-width:medium;border-left-color:currentcolor;border-left-style:none;border-left-width:medium;border-image-outset:0;border-image-repeat:stretch;border-image-slice:100%;border-image-source:none;border-image-width:1;border-top-color:rgb(225,
225,
225);border-top-style:solid;border-top-width:1pt;padding-top:3pt;padding-right:0in;padding-bottom:0in;padding-left:0in;">
<div><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>Prof David West<br>
</div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, September 19, 2020 4:41 PM<br>
</div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a><br>
</div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> [FRIAM] hot time in town tonight<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"> <br>
</p>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">Epoch
Times Big Data Report August 2020</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;"> </span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">Gun
sales up 133% over same three month time frame of
2019.</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;"> </span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">12
% of registered Democrats bought guns this period</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">19%
of Republicans</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">22%
of those ages 18-29</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">21%
Black</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">32%
Union Members</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">19%
Urbanites</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">19%
of those earning over $200K/yr</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">1.8
million guns sold in July alone</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">more
than 423 million fire arms owned by civilians</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">18
million AR-15 in circulation <i>(personal comment —
probably just as many illegal full auto kits)</i></span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">gun
to people ration 5/3</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;"> </span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">That's
the gasoline. RGB replacement will be the spark.</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;"> </span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="qt-MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="font"
style="font-family:"Arial", sans-serif;">davew</span></span><br>
</p>
</div>
</div>
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