[FRIAM] Forum abuse! (was Revising the American Revolution)

[Steve Smith]

The "bumper car" image does sound apropos in many ways.

I never actually climbed into one of those but was fascinated the couple 
of times I saw them at the State Fair...  as I remember it, there was a 
grid on the floor and one on the ceiling providing the two "rails" for 
power and there were copious sparks where the "brushes" on the end of 
the flexible wand contacted the ceiling grid.   As a country hick, the 
whole arrangement looked really sketchy to me.   But as a (somewhat) 
rational observer, I was pretty sure nobody died in those rides, or at 
least not from flying sparks.   I suppose, in the spirit of 
play-as-practice or play-as-learning there is a significant element of 
"just jumping in and smashing into one another".  Being the hick that I 
am I sometimes have a hard time ignoring the sparks that fly off of the 
floor and ceiling.

I've also watched groups of guys (brothers, friends, frats) racing 
around mini courses in go-carts and noticed that many of them seem 
happier bumping into one another and impeding *others'* progress than 
actually making their own progress.  Occasionally women/girls join in, 
but not so much usually.  Maybe the calculated obstructionism in a game 
of Hearts or Spades is more gender-inclusive?  Some are better at 
"shooting the moon" than others...

I munno, as usual I am probably stretching this too far.

Carry On,

  - Steve

> Steve writes:
>
> < I think some of what Nick and Jon might have identified here as 
> "bullying" might actually be more in the spirit of "Counting Coup", 
> but I'm not really clear on where the two fit together in the 
> GrandUnifiedOntologyDuFriAM >
>
> In think it is more in the spirit of bumper cars.   Here, gentle 
> reader, we have a car, and we can study its wheels and the electricity 
> delivery mechanism, its motor, and controls.  We can take copious 
> notes and make predictive models of the maximum displacement it could 
> impart to another bumper car.  Or we can just jump in and smash into 
> each other.
>
> Marcus
>
>
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