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<p>Nick -</p>
<p>I share your appreciation for Glen's summary of our weekend's
fecundity... thoughtful yet analytically sharp as always. It
helped me to see those entertwined riffs en-synopsis. I'd pay for
a subscription to such a service... If Glen were closer, perhaps
a beer every week or two. <br>
</p>
<p>I definitely appreciate the broad parallax offered by the
(relative) diversity of the constituency of this list. Age,
educational background, personal style, etc. We *do*
significantly lack the female perspective here, though several if
not many are overtly aware and *sympathetic* with gender biases
and perspectives. Merle sticks in here with us despite our
limited range of response to her participation. As some may know,
she is in Glasgow right now carrying forward her good fight for
the role of a complex systems perspective on big things like
diplomacy and in this case climate change. Jenny may yet read the
occasional post here, but I know we have lost several other
significant female voices over the years. Our younger members (to
my knowledge) are already or soon to be 40+.<br>
</p>
<p>I appreciate your elderest of the eldery status and perhaps even
your self-appointed Dean role, though not being an academic myself
I don't know that I appreciate the nuances of that term. <br>
</p>
<p>I also appreciate Jon's "youthist" (as you put it) throwdown. I
can't align my political-representational preferences *strictly*
with age, but have numerous reasons for believing that our current
socioeconomic/political system yields an undue amount of
influence, or more to the point *control* of the economy and of
national policy to an increasingly older and in many cases,
mis-tuned populace. Age generally brings experience (both
breadth and depth) which sometimes brings wisdom and perspective,
and should therefore be recognized, solicited and respected *for
what it is worth*. This does not mean that we, as relics of
various eras such as Depression, WWII, postWar Boom, Vietnam,
Sex/Love/RockNRoll, Cold War are best suited to make good
decisions about current and near-future circumstances more
influenced by the Information Age, War on Drugs, 9/11, Pandemic,
Climate Change and Post/Trumpism, much less what is just rolling
up on us over the fore horizon that we can't hardly guess at.<br>
</p>
<p>I'm not seeking the *respect* of my youngers, but rather their
help in understanding how I might wield what influence I've
accrued, whether that be financial, political or spiritual? It
*is* frustrating when I deal with my youngers (my own daughters in
their early 40s with their own young children) and I feel that
they simply haven't lived long enough yet to have the perspective
I have, but then I run my personal newsreel back to when I was in
their phase of life (rising career, growing family, etc.) and
realize that I knew things my parents generation couldn't have and
*I* had to sift through their opinions and advice at the time,
taking into account *their* depression childhoods and WWII
coming-of-age and the economic and tech booms that defined their
adult-career period. They were not looking to me for advice and
in fact tumbled down the hill from being fairly socially
progressive to becoming Trumpsters (my father was merely proto,
having died about the time Trump started his birtherism nonsense).</p>
<p> I try to defer to my youngers on matters that will matter to
them in their lifetimes (and their children's). I was a big fan
of Buttigieg in the Democratic primaries and listened to Tulsi
Gabbard in spite of some of her extrema. I did like Bernie but
was highly suspicious of Joe for ageist reasons... I don't know
how much Kamala balances/counsels him, but he *does* seem to have
a reasonably younger cohort of advisors which he seems to be
listening to.<br>
</p>
<p>- Steve (born under the rising sign of Sputnik)<br>
</p>
<p>On 11/1/21 10:55 AM, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a> wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:01c601d7cf41$4e5c88b0$eb159a10$@gmail.com">
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<p class="MsoNormal">Ahem. Speaking as the “Dean” (oldest
surviving member) of this distinguished mostly geriatric
community, I think respect goes both ways, or it goes
nowhere. So, those of us who seek to command respect must be
prepared to give it, particularly to such memes as OK Boomer,
which I think expresses quite aptly an impatience with anybody
who asserts old knowledge just because it is old. I, of
course, am Pre-boomer, a Silent. If a meme were started, “Be
silent, Silent!” I would resist it (obviously) but I sure as
hell would respect it, and try to mine it for its implicit
content. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I quite like my status as Dean, by the
way. When FRIAM is given a collective Nobel, I expect to lead
you all into the celebratory dinner, bearing our staff in my
crooked hand, shuffling along in my bedroom slippers, my shirt
untucked from my honorific belt, muttering over and over
again, “Metaphor all the way down, you fuckers!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By the way, Jon, it’s funny to see you take
so stridently a “youthist” position, you, who have perhaps
more than any other, sought to support and harvest value from
the fading <i>eminences grises</i> amongst us. Still. Point
taken. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Oh, and, Glen: thanks for collecting the
products of the firehose into puddles. Otherwise I would
surely have drowned. <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">Nick Thompson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<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>Jon
Zingale<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, October 31, 2021 2:23 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [FRIAM] Unrecognized Thinkers<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">"</span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Memes
can spread as if they are amplified, for instance the
stupid 'Let's Go, Brandon' meme or the dull 'OK Boomer'
reply."</span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Well,
it certainly is your thread to bend. My feeling is that
corrosion and destruction can often arise as part of a
creative process. Age demographics in politics in the
United States, to my view, are pretty off balance. My
personal plan is to help cultivate a different one.
Nothing against old people, of course, but in the next
elections I plan to rank choice not by party but simply
by age.</span><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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