<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">I do not take wacko literally — that was my point about the psychiatrist.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">I do think that wacko is a synonym for "THEM," hence my focus on aliens and cultures.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Have to affirm my <b>* observation/opinion *</b> vis-a-vis ethnocentrism. Happy to defend that position but doubt interest.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Callahan's Is my kind of place and I can see all of you as regulars.<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 style="font-family:Arial;">On Tue, Dec 1, 2020, at 3:24 PM, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> It's odd to me that Dave would take the string "wacko" so literally. As <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> a kid, my dad and uncle consistently greeted each other with phrases <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> like "Hey Ugly! It's good to see you." Anyone who actually heard such <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> exchanges wouldn't think they were being literal. The same is true with <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> my wak friends <<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wak">https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wak</a>>. <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> It's especially odd that Dave would be so hyper-literal and then <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> immediately follow it up with an accusation of ethnocentrism. If I were <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> to classify this group, I'd use the word "misfits". While most of us <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> probably fit in well enough to earn some sort of living, into some <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> stereotype (ethnocentrist demographic), I suspect what keeps many of us <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> paying attention is because we're all *wak* ... misfit weirdos in some <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> dimension or other. But what do I know? I fly my freak flag proudly.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> On 12/1/20 12:32 PM, Prof David West wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > In a different thread, Glen wrote:<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > /"what many of us purport to /*/*want*/*/... common ground with which to have a discussion with the right wing wackos in our lives."/<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > Although I have heard people express a desire for such conversations and questions about finding a common ground upon which to base them — I do not believe a single one of them was honest or sincere.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > There is only one circumstance in which a 'conversation' with a wacko has any point: a professional psychiatrist seeking to mitigate the mental condition of a patient.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > Perhaps "right wing wackos" is simply a label (RWW) for a group and not an assertion of their sanity.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > If RWW are an alien species, ala Martians, then conversation/dialog/exchange might be quite useful and even beneficial — the SciFi trope of "look how much we could learn from someone with such a different perspective." An alternative SciFi trope: "we can never understand each other so we must be implacable enemies and seek to annihilate each other;" is also possible. (Unfortunately, I think the second trope is far more descriptive of the majority of left-vs-right rhetoric these days.)<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > If RWW are simply an exotic human culture; conversation, dialogue, exchange; all are eminently desirable.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > However, there are preconditions — maybe just one — the ethical principle of cultural anthropology: relativism. There are no objective criteria by which you can judge the 'correctness' the 'rightness' the 'fitness' (there is no cultural evolution theory analogous to Darwin with species) or the 'morality' among cultures. To think otherwise is ethnocentrism.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > Ethnocentrism is perfect if your goal is to be a cultural imperialist or a missionary, but is not a foundation for constructive dialog or conversation.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > I love and respect you all, but you seem to me to be one of the most ethnocentric (Liberal-Scientism, for want of a better label) cultures around.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> > A common saying about the role of an anthropologist: /"to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange."/ An ethnography of the RWW would be, in my opinion, quite valuable; and, along with dropping the ethnocentrism, prerequisite to any conversation with them. You run the risk, however, that your study of the mote in the other's eye will craft a lens or a mirror that will reflect the beam in your own.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> -- <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> ↙↙↙ uǝlƃ<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 <a href="http://bit.ly/virtualfriam">bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> un/subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> archives: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">> FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a> <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">><br></div></body></html>