On Oct 29, 1:11 am, Day Brown
hughes.net> wrote:> On Oct 28, 4:14 pm, Jerry Kraus
yahoo.com> wrote:> Unfortunately, those motivated by heedless self-interest now control>> perhaps three-quarters of this nation's material wealth. And that
>> makes it very difficult for the rest of us to get anything done! We
>> do need something to work with, after all. We are being given nothing.
>
> What we lack, more than anything else, is the ability to cooperate,
> reach consensus, create a business plan. Mostly the postings are used
> as if they are debating contests to win points rather than point a way
> forward. People do not really know what progress is anymore.
>
> Some are lucky, can be raised on sugar cereal, junkfood, & soda, and
> turn out to be rational adults anyway. But there's a vast mass of
> partisan zealots and fundies who are too irrational to handle the
> ambiguities of all that is going on, and choose a faith with simple
> black/white, good/evil, blessed/damned rich/poor views of everything.
> The wingnuts are motivated, and drive the agendas to absurd,
> irrational extremes that they assume have no downsides.
>
> Whether liberal or conservative, the carbon footprint of the nuclear
> family home is no longer sustainable. And neither is able to give up
> on the monogamous ideal of romantic partnership forever. Despite the
> divorce rate. From "The Forest People", an anthro classic on the Mbuti
> Pygmy, and "Life in a Medieval Village" taken from the 13th century
> English midlands court records, we see that about 1/3 of the people
> are able to find someone at puberty and remain mated for life. But the
> rest of our ancestors... screwed around.
>
> 20-25%% of the Y chromosome lines dont come from where the birth
> records say. It seems that a lotta women were lying; but let's face
> it. They hadda have some one else to lie with. And now, its not upta
> us, but the women, to wake up from the romantic delusion, and work out
> some other lifestyle along with the small business plan to support
> it.
Good points, my friend. The greed principle mitigates against
cooperation. People actually should read the whole of Adam Smith's
"The wealth of nations", not simply quote the "invisible hand" totally
out of context. One advantage they have in Europe and Canada over the
U.S. is that people are actually brought up with some sense of social
responsibility -- the social contract. This is virtually nonexistent
in the U.S., with a scumbag like George Bush exemplifying stupidity,
selfishness and greed as the head of the nation. And, as you say,
greed also mitigates against any meaningful sense of direction in
life. People almost don't undestand the concept of a sense of purpose
anymore in the U.S. It used to be what the country was all about.
Women are drunk on media images of romanticism now
-- they like to see
life as one great Halequin Romance. It makes them very easy to
manipulate. But it also makes them waste a lot of time a money that
could be used much more productively. That is, of course, the idea of
the advertisors!
