tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post7711159406100200592..comments2024-03-29T02:03:49.151-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: A kindred spiritDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-38806240648709574882011-06-23T16:33:26.642-04:002011-06-23T16:33:26.642-04:00Farrakhan: The White Man Made Obama Bomb Libya
ht...Farrakhan: The White Man Made Obama Bomb Libya<br /><br />http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20110623/cm_uc_crlelx/op_2418381;_ylt=ArU4kUZwdMtqiSttJMmljeXjOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTM2bDFjM3RsBGFzc2V0A3VjLzIwMTEwNjIzL29wXzI0MTgzODEEY2NvZGUDdG9wZ21wdG9wMjAwcG9vbARjcG9zAzEwBHBvcwMxMARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2ZhcnJha2hhbnRoZQ--Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-87144409380056955092011-06-22T14:57:46.645-04:002011-06-22T14:57:46.645-04:00By the way, I just got tipped off to the presence ...By the way, I just got tipped off to the presence of this Orwell correspondence in the BBC's archives: http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/orwell/index.shtmlJude Hammerlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00765872893740924266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-36631516298809763162011-06-20T13:40:51.031-04:002011-06-20T13:40:51.031-04:00I would put the start of the "decline of rati...I would put the start of the "decline of rationality in our civilization" as late 80s or early 90s. Certainly it was in full swing in the way the media covered campaign 2000. How else to explain the success of "Al Gore invents the internet"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-76100020335744061692011-06-20T07:53:38.809-04:002011-06-20T07:53:38.809-04:00Dear Dr. Kaiser,
It is good to read that you have...Dear Dr. Kaiser,<br /><br />It is good to read that you have made a sort of peace with the inevitable pendulum swings of rationality. The next step is to imagine how a good, open and successful society can sustain itself through an irrational interval without needing to create a Crisis to rally citizens around.<br /><br />The trick to such understanding is to concede that history is a simple non-cooperative game. While simple non-cooperative games are well understood, we nonetheless do not play them well. In such games the logical strategy is always to defect, but if we defy logic and cooperate, we invariably create value because we curtail reciprocal defections. <br /><br />A few basic changes would improve our play. These changes would require no sacrifice of ideology for any player, nor any substantive concession of any kind.<br /><br />First, we should know the structure of the game. The game has a center, and the center is surrounded by rebellions. At present the center is dormant because rebels are fighting each other for control of the rebellion. We should concede that opponents are simply mental models, and in the absence of real opponents we always create imaginary ones.<br /><br />Second, we should accept that the game has no end. Today, elections (for instance) function as ends in themselves, triggering endgame strategies and therefore reciprocal defections. Once we understand that the game has no end, defections are no longer in any player’s interest. <br /><br />Third, we should change our method of scoring. At present, we count only wins and losses. For a better future, we must switch to a scoring system that tallies combined payoffs for all players. In this regard, it is worth noting that the famous strategy Tit For Tat routinely beats all comers in classic combined-value tournaments, even though Tit For Tat NEVER WINS a single game.*<br /> <br />Fourth, we should disregard one another’s ideologies. The “whats” of society are seldom in dispute; it is the “hows” that divide us. We must measure all players by the overall payoff to society (employment metrics, standard of living, domestic and international security, principles of the Constitution, etc.), rather than by ideological and parochial measures like campaign promises and earmarks. <br /><br />Our game as we currently play it can only produce defeat for this society. As a nation, we sit with rapt attention as players on Survivor and other reality shows demonstrate the value of reciprocal cooperation, until (of course) the series finale triggers the endgame defections that produce one winner and eleven losers. When we turn off the TV, we return to our own game, which is structured identically, and produces a comparable majority of losers. <br /><br />With affection and respect, <br />Jude Hammerle<br /><br />* See Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, p. 112.Jude Hammerlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00765872893740924266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-65433754906337562122011-06-19T12:25:12.382-04:002011-06-19T12:25:12.382-04:00"Exactly why Barack Obama put so much more fa..."Exactly why Barack Obama put so much more faith in Larry Summers than in older men like Soros and Paul Volcker is a question I would very much like to understand."<br /><br />Good question.<br /><br />"... Roosevelt, a born aristocrat, understood that the ordinary man had to be convinced we were on the right track, while Obama, a bright young man from a relatively modest background who was adopted, if you will, by the elite educational system, apparently does not."<br /><br />Good answer. Larry Summers has the perfect establishment pedigree. Soros is too self-made to register with Obama. Volcker is too naive and non-political. Obama identifies with insider, political operators.Sethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16486234948199900568noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-25943776755981528702011-06-18T23:58:36.552-04:002011-06-18T23:58:36.552-04:00Professor
Many thanks for this essay.
Very thou...Professor<br /><br />Many thanks for this essay. <br /><br />Very thoughtful summation of several areas of deep concern. <br /><br />There are many reasons for the way things have now been going. As you have shown many times here, they go back a long way, regardless of how viewed. <br /><br />Wish we could have altered this course long before I was born, but no dice.<br /><br />Contrary models have shaped our 'vacillations', so to speak; a Yeatsian metaphor.<br /><br />Deep nationalism on the one hand, deep individualism on the other, and understandably deep, if nevertheless not that well founded, suspicions of strong government, <br /><br />have predetermined both our course, and our decline at once, it seems.<br /><br />It was in many ways a fortuitous, and frankly ideologically undeserved, pinnacle (not by any means a solid victory, given the Cold War aftermath) <br /><br />which we achieved, for a moment, at and after 1945. <br /><br />It would not have happened in the absence of abject weakness in Western great powers at that moment; and a temporary abundance of resources and opportunity here, resources and opportunities all too quickly squandered since then.<br /><br />About 'enlightenment', or rationality, unfortunately, as a society we never had, or developed, very much of that over here.<br /><br />All the best,<br />GMBozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-13525815029229612482011-06-18T23:39:25.395-04:002011-06-18T23:39:25.395-04:00I enjoyed very much your article.
Though I do th...I enjoyed very much your article. <br /><br />Though I do think that reason and emotion are not the only two poles. Character and a certain transcendental understanding (called in the east "enlightenment") are also elements necessary for a functioning society, and by functioning I mean generally non-op/repressive (just), fluid class structure (dynamic), and in balance with the systemic whole (the earth's ecoystems) from which we are an emergent property.<br /><br />It's funny that we both (the east and the west) use the term enlightenment for generally the same thing. For us it seems an alchemical, and yet laughably quixotic, quest wherein we mix a little bit of this and a little bit of that and get something different. <br /><br />Those in the east haven't ever really worried about getting just the right proportion of emotion and reason, and whether the governmental structures are best suited to the propagation of such acts. As there are quite a few examples of enlightened kings undermining their own power by setting up vast networks of unproductive temples.<br /><br /> To those in the east the path to enlightenment is simple and linear in theory, but like a snowflake in practice: enlighten yourself! It's a deeply internal quest of deep realization that transcends symbolic recognition and a letting go of all things-- some argue even the pursuit of enlightenment itself must be let go of. <br /><br />It's not something that we create, it's something that finds us. it's something that we can't contrive, only propagate.<br /><br />mpowered.tumbler.comGreatMysteryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16095947287495282670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-29923808992556247912011-06-18T18:05:00.312-04:002011-06-18T18:05:00.312-04:00My old boss and friend John McMahon said in the NY...My old boss and friend John McMahon said in the NYT's article "Rethinking the Ban on Political Assassination" of 30 Aug 1998, " We received {in 1985} a draft secret executive order telling telling us to knock off terrorists in pre-emptive strikes. I told our folks to send it back and tell them." When the president revokes the executive order which precludes CIA from assassination , then we'll take this on.' That hit the guys on the NSC staff. They went ballastic." James Woolsey told the President more lor less the same thing when he was DCI . What has happened to the integrity of our public servants ? How do we bring back into government men who know how to demand proper leadership. <br />AlohamacAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-9783976608106808302011-06-18T16:56:32.278-04:002011-06-18T16:56:32.278-04:00The American Dream is a famous phrase. Trying to m...The American Dream is a famous phrase. Trying to maintain the fantasy of a utopian progress is this American Dream, the "Pursuit of Happiness" of the founding fathers. The right and the ad men learned to manipulate this reality in an expanding capitalist cosumer system. Hollywood and advertising came to dominate/replace reality so that a rational reality became unimportant. Perception is everything in a controlled environment (we are like animals in a zoo being spoon fed reality by sound bites, etc.). Putin learned how to fabricate a "controlled democracy" to satisfy western perceptions and desires of his own people without rocking the boat of the rich too much. America is going the same way though is seems more subtle. Eventually the finances will break down and the democratic facade will fail. Nobody votes for austerity after all and when nothing else is on offer then rebellions agains govts. are all that can happen and tehn a strict military type takeover to avoid disorder and impose discipline. The two parties are dreaming the American Dream whic has been dreamt out. The reality is different and austerity will not be democratically imposed(except as in "Hitler got elected then made himself a dictator".)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com