tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post661428357323721873..comments2024-03-18T21:52:45.757-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: The dilemma - cars and gunsDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-37519372099076058412018-05-12T12:24:17.205-07:002018-05-12T12:24:17.205-07:00Onward to a big one. I'll be traveling a bit....Onward to a big one. I'll be traveling a bit. This next post is important. Please all, spread the word.<br /><br />Good luck to us all...<br /><br />and onward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17963879398088828932018-05-12T11:25:21.553-07:002018-05-12T11:25:21.553-07:00Slim Moldie: Up until December 2017, Fox's oth...Slim Moldie: Up until December 2017, Fox's other Janus face (the one that actually reaches to millennials) offered a whole other strategy: the NewsCorp side pursuing aging angry white men, the 21st Century Fox side pursuing a somewhat more diverse population, bringing us a litany of wonderful (and occasionally hideous) films and shows. Now that Disney owns it (after the $52bn buyout)...I wonder what to expect.<br /><br />The film side raised some of these questions too: look through their top 100 grossing movies, particularly the SciFi offerings, and see how they are asked and answered. Star Wars? Be wary of droids, BUT they're more likely to be friends or at worst, not very convincing enemies. Keep your guns handy, and drive a car like Tom Cruise's in 'Minority Report.' Teenagers are more likely to save us than kill us, particularly from the evil blonde witch behind the plans in 'Maze Runner' series. It's an eclectic set of questions - not nearly as fixated as the News Corp realm, and actually, full of possibilities.<br /><br />Do I trust Disney more than Fox? Well: they veer 'center right' in orientation, but strive to avoid any clear orientation (and 'center right' these days votes Democratic; the Reps have left them far, far behind). ABC is surely a storied piece of 'traditional media' that Trump & Friends routinely skewer (but like any traditional media, they sing for their suppers).<br /><br />Can we imagine a world where we can shift so many eyes away from the Faux-stream that it recedes in importance? donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-15170501501092822002018-05-12T11:06:40.340-07:002018-05-12T11:06:40.340-07:00Stephen Hammond: As an aside, (a) I share your lo...Stephen Hammond: As an aside, (a) I share your love of Tolkien, Rowling, and Scott (in descending order of preference), and (b) there's some component of our host who also loves the romantics he claims to despise...a modicum of love that occasionally shows itself with extreme expressions - "Yoda is the most evil character in all of literature!" "George Will is the vilest American of them all!" - romantic affectations that raise the objects into positions of importance, albeit by attacking them. <br /><br />Show me a novelist who puts forth a work of beauty at great personal cost and joy who isn't on some level a romantic, who puts that work out there to be judged by others, who wants it to be perceived as beautiful as he perceived it - if they're really not a romantic, then they'll shrug any judgments aside, and look to what their work does 'in the discourse,' financially, without an emotional pang of ownership. We are lucky though, as our host isn't just a novelist; he can criticize what vestiges of romanticism he finds in himself or others (and will doubtless flay me for daring to presume what has driven him if he even reads this).<br /><br />Tolkien, more than Rowling or Scott, also had a separate role, and looked at his hobby as a bit of a joke, cognitively dissociating from a masterwork of literature that he found preposterous (yet fun, maybe even obsessive). In Rowling, I see a shy yet devoted lover of Tolkien, Lewis, and mostly, children - when she tries to cover 'deep, serious problems' - she falters, because she doesn't really want to do the 'good v. evil' thing, so much as just play, enjoy the banter, let kids be kids (and dreads the thought of her own facing a grave world). When forced to do so, she tries her best, but that struggle was never her real interest.<br /><br />Medievalism is NOT romanticism. Indeed, the structure of 'lord - mob - peasant' opposes both a romantic ideal of independent individuals, and an enlightened ideal of diverse groups working in fellowship to achieve great things together: a medieval tradition THROUGH a romantic lens recasts the era as 'rugged, heroic knights' - but a medieval tradition through a medieval lens puts forth chivalry less to honor knights than as a strategem to discourage their persistent abuses of the peasants.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-57845829339645141602018-05-12T10:44:58.925-07:002018-05-12T10:44:58.925-07:00Oops! Reformed Tourist looks like you have some ex...Oops! Reformed Tourist looks like you have some experience keeping a meeting on course, too. <br /><br />so here's a few takes on how Fox might spin the "The dilemma - cars and guns."<br /><br />T.C. Are guns really safer than cars? Why the liberals might want to take away your keys.<br /> Can more guns keep you safe on the road? Why proposed gun restrictions will spill suicidal millennials onto our roadways. While tragic, most teenage suicide by unsecured firearms are a private affair, but what will that same teen do if they take away our guns? Will the gas metal replace the trigger?<br /> <br />It's too nauseating to continue, but it's easy. Question. Deep state. AI. Self driving cars. Enemy name. Replace you. Technology. Guns. Take away. Negative connotations. Fear. Question. <br /><br /><br />Slim Moldienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23308979036838590832018-05-12T10:43:36.216-07:002018-05-12T10:43:36.216-07:00Reformed Tourist looks like you have some experien...Reformed Tourist looks like you have some experience keeping a meeting on course, too. <br /><br />so here's a few takes on how Fox might spin the "The dilemma - cars and guns."<br /><br />T.C. <><br /> <> <br /> <br />It's too nauseating to continue, but it's easy. Question. Deep state. AI. Self driving cars. Enemy name. Replace you. Technology. Guns. Take away. Negative connotations. Fear. Question. <br /><br /><br />Slim Moldienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24245001479871451912018-05-12T10:38:20.848-07:002018-05-12T10:38:20.848-07:00Steven Hammond: Thanks for lifting back to that - ...Steven Hammond: Thanks for lifting back to that - Alfred, Reformed, and I suppose I have carried the thread into a few tangents, but I do think it's a good and fair question, and certainly one of our host's preoccupations.<br /><br />I think distinguishing feudalism from 'medievalism' may help: consider how a 14th century lord would have invoked without even recognizing it logic derived from the 'Great Chain of Being' - principles of Aristotle, Augustine, and many others justifying his estates, and the absolute need of the peasants to respect his property. Few 19th century feudalists applied the same sort of logic - except perhaps slaveholders - who argued 'this is good for the slaves!' with a line of logic lifted from much older sources, mutating some bizarre interpretation of Philemon in their Bibles, missing most of what Jesus said. Post-slavery, the feudalists shifted very quickly to rents, loans, and more sophisticated tools than a 14th century lord would have ever utilized, but for the same purpose of maintaining peasants in subject states.<br /><br />Late 19th century, the feudalists adapted a mutant variation on Darwin to justify their power - but attained it less through constant raiding, than through trusts (and monopolies that followed). Those feudalists built the world of WWI - and their collapse in 1932 brought what seemed the 'last gasp' of the struggle: a 3-way war of all against all - feudalism v. socialism v. capitalism (liberalism).<br /><br />But today's feudalists are neither interested in drawing authority from medieval traditions nor capable of doing so. They work through the most powerful AIs imaginable - to amass fortunes through finance, which magnify holdings in lands, rents, and local fiefdoms. They're nowhere near what they were 100 years ago - at the dawn of the federal income tax. Trump is a throwback to the cronyism that dominated presidents of the late 19th century - and the politics of interest that made 'railroad barons' among many others. But it's not a medieval approach: their fortunes are linked inextricably to global trade (the better to arbitrage rules and usurp them). Overtly, they stand against it to better exploit it covertly (and dominate through an entirely separate nativist discourse that consciously instills intellectual dishonesty and magnifies ignorance - anti-news 'newsy entertainment').<br /><br />The pieces are there. But this does not mean they've taken power, or even that we're on the verge of them doing so. When they do, they'll lift a whole new framework to justify their wealth, erect gated neighborhoods where they derive rents from select peasants, and elevate preferred servants dependent entirely upon allegiance to their lords to hold their positions. GRAVE concerns - but not fears, just understanding, are the order of the day.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63439756866880316402018-05-12T10:36:42.055-07:002018-05-12T10:36:42.055-07:00David says "Stop assuming we are like you! We...<br /><br />David says "Stop assuming we are like you! We do not think like you". <br /><br />Is this yet another magical declaration like 'Get thee behind me Satan'? Does this mean that you 'should not', 'ought not' or 'are not supposed to' think like those deplorables who have been erased by "steep disrepute"? Me thinks you doth protest too much. <br /><br />What David does here is argue that the western exception EQUALS a general rule, his assertion being that those who share his positive-sum worldview represent something 'universal' (and therefore 'correct') rather than WEIRD exceptions & statistical outliers.<br /><br />His trip to China will be educational, I suspect, once he is confronted by a truly universal human worldview that conflicts with his rather perverse & unique one.<br /><br /><br />Best<br />______<br /><br />http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/weird_psychology_social_science_researchers_rely_too_much_on_western_college.html<br /><br />"WEIRD subjects, from countries that represent only about 12 percent of the world’s population, differ from other populations in moral decision making, reasoning style, fairness, even things like visual perception".locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-36964613956470007382018-05-12T09:22:20.710-07:002018-05-12T09:22:20.710-07:00--> does not equal =--> does not equal =reformed touristhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09723408582168455365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-66092765511183019302018-05-12T09:21:25.809-07:002018-05-12T09:21:25.809-07:00Stop assuming we are like you! We do not think li...Stop assuming we are like you! We do not think like you. That is what terrifies you most, about smartypants modernists. We understand you pretty well, after 6000... make that 100,000 years. There is a dark pool of zero sum inside us all.<br /><br />But you show no sign of even the faintest glimmer how positive summers think. When you try to parse us in your terms, it's like dealing with aliens, which is what you think of us.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-38594948097294058182018-05-12T09:03:54.576-07:002018-05-12T09:03:54.576-07:00Guns = Feudalism = Bullyism = Communism = Fox News...<br /><br />Guns = Feudalism = Bullyism = Communism = Fox News = Testosterone<br /><br />I fully expect the next assertion to be 'Feudalism = Climate Change'.<br /><br />The pattern I see is rampant equivocation substituting for reasoned discourse, a tactic that allows the practitioner to conclude that all things & actions equal their opposites.<br /><br />(1) White = non-Red; Black = non-Red; and non-Red = non-Red. Ergo, Black = White.<br /><br />(2) Feudalism = BAD; Climate Change = BAD; and BAD = BAD. Ergo, Feudalism = Climate Change.<br /><br />I therefore conclude that all who disagree with me are Nazis because all negative evaluations are EQUAL.<br /><br /><br />Best<br />_____<br /><br />How, exactly, does an act of redefinition like putting any thing or action "in steep disrepute (represent) an accomplishment"? <br /><br />This is medicare-grade bureaucratic nonsense. First, you assign a negative evaluation to an event. Second, you declare that such negative events 'should', 'ought' and 'are supposed to' NEVER happen. Third, you declare that negative events or actions NEVER happen because they are not 'supposed to' happen. Medicare does this. It calls such occurrences 'Never Events' & declares them 'non-existent' for medicare reimbursement purposes. <br /><br />Toot-toot-toot. I have declared all human failings & infirmities to be "in steep disrepute". Now, congratulate me because I have successfully banished all human failings & infirmities by magical declaration. locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9233860548613521032018-05-12T08:45:21.689-07:002018-05-12T08:45:21.689-07:00Hi David,
I do think that's an interesting po...Hi David,<br /><br />I do think that's an interesting point and in the last thread (I know you weren't around for a lot of it) donzelion was wondering about the continued attraction of feudalism. I'll just go ahead and copy my response here:<br /><br /><b>donzelion said:</b><br /><br /><br /><i>The point, rather, was to consider why feudalism endured, why it is attractive to so many even now, when liberalism is so self-evidently superior in so many ways. There are very few folks advocating the abolition of cars and asphalt for horses and cobblestones today. But feudalism itself has so many adherents looking to revive it in some form that the "liberal game" remains underway only with considerable effort.</i><br /><br />That's a very interesting question. I wonder if many of the adherents of "feudalism" in the political sense are actually more "medievalists"? The attraction to medievalism is much more apparent, I think, and continues in so many ways in popular culture. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medievalism" rel="nofollow">Medievalism</a><br /><br />I'll just add that I am no fan of feudalism, but I do continue to enjoy works of popular fiction such as Tolkien, JK Rowling (mentioned in the Wiki link above)and, yes, Sir Walter Scott.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18162963685411928666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58694315553107007892018-05-12T08:27:40.479-07:002018-05-12T08:27:40.479-07:00
Slim Moldie is eloquent about the SnapChat bullyi...<br />Slim Moldie is eloquent about the SnapChat bullying. I never claimed that human nature had changed. But putting bullying in steep disrepute is an accomplishment.<br /><br />See my blog posting: “Was 1957 America Better Than Today?”<br />http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2011/10/was-1957-america-better-than-today.html<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-37181633708634972732018-05-12T08:18:43.350-07:002018-05-12T08:18:43.350-07:00Steven, Mark Twain attributed the Secession Treaso...Steven, Mark Twain attributed the Secession Treason and the Confederate madness to the popularity of the novels (and romanticism and worship of feudal lordship) of Sir Walter Scott.<br /><br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17756390931413557772018-05-12T07:43:38.546-07:002018-05-12T07:43:38.546-07:00"I'd say the current Anti-Bullying moveme...<br /><br /><i>"I'd say the current Anti-Bullying movement is, perhaps, ineffective..."<br /><br />Utter bull puckey. Assholes attempted to brutalize me monthly, in Jr. High, till I bloodied enough noses that they went elsewhere looking for softer victims... like my brothers.<br /><br />My kids not only reported none of that. At all. But reported seeing or knowing nothing like it. While you have all seen me get very sharp at the genuine "PC bullying" of leftist jerks, that is the obscene froth on a completely wholesome wave.</i><br /><br />I have to wonder, though, if physically violent bullying had already declined before the current anti-bullying movement. Might the decline in violent bullying be attributable to--banning leaded gasoline? <br /><br />I'm not entirely convinced that cyber-bullying is on the decline (and I include adults being bullied such as the whole "Gamergate" situation and Twitter bullying)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18162963685411928666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25036626415186675512018-05-12T06:08:13.613-07:002018-05-12T06:08:13.613-07:00And WTH, one more bit of data. Somebody upstream m...And WTH, one more bit of data. Somebody upstream mentioned Bob Sapolsky...his first book (non-academic publication) was....drum roll.... "The Trouble with Testosterone."reformed touristhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09723408582168455365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-15149571774838346642018-05-12T06:02:41.921-07:002018-05-12T06:02:41.921-07:00Oh, should have added note re Fox "news:"...Oh, should have added note re Fox "news:" informational (negative) bullying<br /><br />have to work on link between Dickens and Murdochreformed touristhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09723408582168455365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-19508141977641387992018-05-12T05:56:49.919-07:002018-05-12T05:56:49.919-07:00whoops - forgot and not sure how to include cheerl...whoops - forgot and not sure how to include cheerleaders... benign (mostly) sexual bullying?reformed touristhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09723408582168455365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64778525977336652562018-05-12T05:45:53.360-07:002018-05-12T05:45:53.360-07:00Thought there was some topic drift, but upon consi...Thought there was some topic drift, but upon considering I see the following:<br /><br />Prime topic: Guns (a device to compel through actual or threatened violence) with carryover of Feudalism (a political/economic system that compels obeisance in all things through High, Middle, and Low justice administered by {and for} a single Alpha and his descendants). --><br /><br />Divergence into locumranch's divergence --> <br /><br />Bullyism (anybody need a definition?) --> <br /><br />divergence into 19th century literature/Fox "news" --> <br /><br />Bullyism/Feudalism...<br /><br />Yes, I suffer from a pattern-seeking compulsion to, in my own words, connect thigh bones to thyroids, but from the eponymous title of James Gleick's BBC show, Connections (?) reformed touristhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09723408582168455365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-18066257513860828902018-05-12T04:06:19.245-07:002018-05-12T04:06:19.245-07:00Duncan Cairncross:
And "Cheerleaders" !...Duncan Cairncross:<br /><i><br />And "Cheerleaders" !!!!! - getting schoolgirls to dress in suggestive outfits and shake it all about - you have got to be KIDDING!<br /></i><br /><br />Over here, cheerleaders have been part of high school and college sports since forever. The small town girl whose social career peaks in her high school cheerleader days is a pretty well-worn cliche.<br /><br />It was when professional teams (i.e., Dallas Cowboys) started having cheerleaders that it started to feel creepy.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-42654516522324686542018-05-12T03:55:38.557-07:002018-05-12T03:55:38.557-07:00Oh, apparently Master Bates is a character in Oliv...Oh, apparently Master Bates is a character in <i>Oliver Twist</i>, not <i>Great Expectations</i>. My bad. They all run together, except for <i>A Christmas Carol</i> and <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>, neither of which can be confused for anything else.<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-22616806652984920292018-05-12T03:53:18.773-07:002018-05-12T03:53:18.773-07:00Steven Hammond:
to Dickens (wonderful! With names...Steven Hammond:<br /><i><br />to Dickens (wonderful! With names leading to Uriah Heep and really great stories.)<br /></i><br /><br />It was only a few years ago that I finally got around to reading <i>Great Expectations</i>, and I was wryly amused to see that there was actually a character in the book called Master Bates. I wondered if that was a knowing wink to the 19th century audience, or if it was expected to go over their heads.<br /><br /><br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-37590499894390810022018-05-12T02:33:45.620-07:002018-05-12T02:33:45.620-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Kolkata Escortshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15929582816728277999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-59112627884167014412018-05-12T00:30:37.943-07:002018-05-12T00:30:37.943-07:00Hi Slim
One of my hobby horses
US High schools an...Hi Slim<br /><br />One of my hobby horses<br />US High schools and colleges have a very nasty and counterproductive "Sports" culture<br />We have sports here (NZ) but we don't have huge stadiums and the "Coach" is just another teacher <br />When I went to Glasgow we had 12,000 Scots - but no "Jocks" <br /><br />And "Cheerleaders" !!!!! - getting schoolgirls to dress in suggestive outfits and shake it all about - you have got to be KIDDING!duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-10526301382089701622018-05-11T23:44:37.512-07:002018-05-11T23:44:37.512-07:00Dr. Brin,
On bullying. "The obscene froth on...Dr. Brin,<br /><br />On bullying. "The obscene froth on a completely wholesome wave" is apt. But I think the issue is more complicated. (This is my 18th year teaching middle and high school and while I agree the frequency and magnitude of overt verbal/physical bullying has diminished--you might be neglecting the veracity of social media. We're on the cusp of Vinge's "Rainbow's End" in some ways and social media has opened a whole new can of worms. You describe bullying in 3-D. Verbal. Physical. Time and place. Now you might say it's going on in 4-D because the one time incident rotates and translates and reflects across time and location as for example somebody picks their nose or grinds on someone at a dance. The moment is gone in less than a second. But another kid takes a 1 second snap chat of it. It goes viral and half the school has seen it, and they watch it over and over and the adults don't know about it and then you have a kid who doesn't show up for two days or with their head down at their desk. Don't take my word for it. Go to fast food restaurant and ask a teenager if they experience bullying or something of the like. There's a whole other world going on under their desks, behind purses, books, backpacks and calculators that's going to make chiropractors and therapists employed for years to come. That said, I DO agree with you because the culture in my buildings has improved and more and more I do see kids tolerate each other, accept differences, diversity, hardship, disability, intelligence, bad hygiene you name it. They are for the most part behaving nicer as humans more in the flesh, and they are more mellow--but maybe I'm just projecting as this is anecdotal. Slim Moldienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55392737848718403422018-05-11T22:38:09.353-07:002018-05-11T22:38:09.353-07:00Alfred: "I'll go along (grudgingly) with...Alfred: "I'll go along (grudgingly) with the need to play feudalists off against each other. It is a skill we still need. I'd rather shoot the lot of them, but I'd be violating my own principles if I actually tried to follow through on it."<br /><br />LOL, yes, you will always be the Pitchfork Patriot in this respect. Personally, efforts to just shoot them...turned out so badly (French Revolution, Russian Revolution, Chinese Revolutions), that I'd prefer to avoid that tactic wherever possible.<br /><br />In my view, from about 1932 through the Cold War, American would-be feudalists were in something of a panic: existential threats (nazis! nukes!) posed by the Soviets made any long-term designs for ensuring the ever-increasing size of estates tenuous. The feudalists receded somewhat, though the scions of the feudal powerbrokers of the 19th and early 20th centuries remained preeminent in America. Dormant, but never defeated.<br /><br />"Feudalism CAN die,"<br />In certain formulations, sure, but rather than 'die out' - so long as those who amass vast holdings can develop strategies that ensure those holdings transfer intact to their heirs and most likely their grandchildren and beyond, some sort of feudalism can and most likely will persist. The peasant support base may embrace them now, renounce them tomorrow - but they're wily enough to have that covered; the ones that do not will lose when they miscalculate, and new ones will replace them.<br /><br />"The fight worth winning is the one that converts peasants to bourgeoisie."<br />On this, we are absolutely aligned.<br /><br />But I'd look for allies among SOME of the feudalists: there are billionaires who recognize the existential threat climate change may present to their vast estates, and then there are those who devise means of profiting from messes likely to recur. We need the former. We do not need the latter.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.com