Hello everyone
dkm wrote:
>
> I THOUGHT I could step out...Oh, well...
>
> Riff's TWO BYTES/MISC. MUSINGS...
>
> ROG:
> PPS...And they [memes] don't have to be stored in "people" they can be
> stored in computers, web sites, books, physical models, records,etc...
>
> RIFF:
> ...memo pads, in/out boxes, trash cans, garbage trucks, landfills...
> ...abandoned buildings, "subway walls/tenement halls"(P.Simon)...
> ...DEMOLISHED buildings, the "Conceptually Unknown"(Pirsig, 1995)...
> ...the metaphysical reality of non-actuality [(PzEph--am I getting Murdoch
> right?),i.e.,just as hiccups need not be re-invented merely because, for an
> instant, everyone stopped hiccupping, so, memes need not be in a state of
> actual transmission/assimilation or residence (even in an unobserved
> physical medium, such as a slip of paper at the bottom of a trash can on an
> uninhabited planet) to have reality. Their potentiality is as real, in its
> way, as any actuality (PzEph? y/n?)]...(Rog? "pseudo-sci"? y/n?)
>
> Otherwhich:
>
> I wanted to connect the following with direct quotes but this was becoming
> cumberome, and I trust youse' to make connections where unspecified.
>
> Rog, and All...
>
> RIFF on our BAIS AGAINST Positive Sum, Win/Win, InterVal.,Evaleach, and
> related anti-nihlist ideas whose ultimate summum bonum is Q/Value:
>
> Evolution, as we know, is almost exclusively concerned with
> survival and self-replication, and does not give a flying rip (as far as
> I can tell) whether we are happy with ourselves or our environment.
> As a result, the vast bulk of our instincts and memes are assigned to
> the task of handling what may threaten these functions. Observing what
> may be "good" in life, especially at the intellectual level is, in
> in raw survival terms, totally insignificant. The upleasant fact that
> aversion is far more powerful than affection leads to a negativistic
> style of perception. Instinctively and memetically, we are overwhelmingly
> predisposed to see only what is "wrong" with life than what may be right
> about it. Efficiency in evolution has left us with a built-in bias
> AGAINST "WIN/WIN"! How pervasive this is in our culture and ourselves!
Hi Riff aka dkm
Possibly another avenue of exploration here is to isolate as best we can
the patterns of value underlying Western culture that give us all this
built-in bias. In terms of raw survival, biological patterns of value
come exclusively to the fore front; a drowning person may panic and
inadvertently pull a rescuer under with them for the intellect has lost
all control and is, as you say, totally insignificant. According to the
MOQ, in the individual the intelligence of the cells (instinct) has
nothing to do with the intelligence of mind (memes) except the
historical evolutionary processes that produce all patterns of value.
The teachings of the Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed are major evolutionary
ratchet leaps for social patterns of value but have nothing to do with
the evolutionary forces that control the biological patterns of value
they evolved from. In fact those teachings often run counter to our
instincts for
survival and replication. Also note now that science has become a
dominant intellectual pattern of value it wants nothing to do with the
Church from which it evolved and is at war with the Church in a very
real sense; has been for over a hundred years now.
Evolution is harmony and whether we realize it or not we are all drawn
to we might call the pursuit of happiness; to Dynamic Quality. As I
write the sun is
streaming through an open window and one of my cats is sleeping
contentedly on the rug where the light is brightest (though if I look
very
close I can see her little nose moving, constantly sniffing the cool
sweet
late November breeze wafting through the window, so is she really
sleeping? Or just
pretending?). Every once in a while she wakes to move with the sun when
it moves off her. Sitting here it seems it seems to me that she does
that for it makes her happy to lay in the warm sun and there is nothing
more to be said of it, just as a mean and cranky person (maybe they have
a headache or toothache? Or maybe they're just plain mean and cranky!)
with no tolerance for
another is happy to denounce vehemently all who they fail to agree
with.
The notion of the pursuit of happiness as what is good for society is a
very
recent development so far as human history goes; only a couple hundred
years old. Before that time life for most people was very hard, spent in
servitude of the nobles and the Church, both keeping tight reins on the
peasants by taxation and virtual slave labor. The notion of the pursuit
of happiness evolved from Europeans with rigid social patterns of value
coming into contact with people who simply lived as they liked, the
Native Americans.
Evolution is itself a relatively new idea too, and newer yet is the
notion that societies can evolve as well, only in ways mysterious when
compared to biological evolution. Intellectually, the scientific notion
of evolution is opposed to the Biblical notion of Divine Creation and
has been for over a hundred years. Interestingly however, Charles Darwin
never saw his theory as running counter to his interpretations of
Biblical teachings.
So to get back to your point, I would say in light of the MOQ evolution
is much more than survival and self-replication. Far, far more. Nor do I
believe we are all necessarily programmed to see only what is wrong in
life. As I finish writing now the sun has gone down and rain is falling
and my morning sunshine kitty is curled in my lap purring softly. I feel
tired after splitting wood all afternoon, but its a Good kind of tired;
the kind of tired only manual labor induces. Neil Young is crooning
about a woman with long blonde hair riding a Harley Davison but other
than that the house is quiet. I can walk outside and I am enveloped in
the quiet. I've been living here six months and I still cannot get over
the quiet!
So. Other than a fast-developing phobia towards X-mas (Christ, I saw my
first lights today and had to fight the sudden urge to run into a
complete stranger's home and rip all the lights out of their sockets one
by one and stomp them all into the carpeting. There must be a scientific
term for this affliction, right? I can't be the only Grinch...) the
world is good...
>
> Ayn Rand (of all people) pointed out that the assumption that in order for
> ONE to gain, ANOTHER must lose, is a FALLACY. Christian tradition, in
> stark contrast, holds that man, unless redeemed through Grace, is
> inherently evil! And yet we tend to regard Christianity as humanitarian
> and Rand as nihlistic! What's wrong with this picture!?
The fallacy here is that gaining and winning are not synonymous. To gain
something does not necessarily mean someone else has to lose that which
is gained. Art, for example. A song writer writes a song and a writer
writes a story; something is gained but what is lost? On the other hand
winning has no significance unless there is also a loser! For example,
the Presidential election here in the States which is still unresolved
(no winner or loser) as yet. But they both cannot win!
It's interesting to note that game playing, with clearly defined winners
and losers, goes back to the
ancient Greeks just like subject/object metaphysics. The pre-Greek
nomadic tribal notion of "it's not whether you win or lose but how you
play the game" was replaced with "winning isn't everything, it's the
only thing." Vince Lombardi didn't invent that notion. It's been around
for over 2000 years.
>
> I have given this considerable, if unstructured, thought over the years
> and I feel there's something very important here, so I'll state my position
> as clearly as I am able:
>
> Evolution has left us with a BUILT-IN BIAS AGAINST A QUALITY CENTERED
> UNIVERSE. (SOM thinking has exacerbated this.)
>
> It is PART AND PARCEL of the biological level (among others).
>
> IT IS UP TO US, if we can, to bear this ever in mind, always doing our
> best to COMPENSATE at the intellectual level, and hopefully, in time,
> create NEW static latches at the social level.
Hear, hear!
>
> (y/n?)
maybeso?
>
> All The Bestest!
And to you
Dan
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