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

[Frank Wimberly]

You observed correctly, Steve.  When I drove bumper cars my goal was to
"win the race".  Others' goals were to crash into as many people as
possible.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:34 AM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

> 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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