Because we love philosophy here (!), an excerpt from Simon Critchley's article in the NYT:
"The lesson of existentialism is that the nausea that we feel is actually the emergence of a genuine, lived sense of our freedom. Anxiety is the motor that drives the engine of freedom and that can take concrete shape in commitment and a vision of collective action in the world." http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/opinion/on-election-eve-a-brexistential-dread.html -----Original Message----- From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of ?glen? Sent: Monday, November 07, 2016 10:44 AM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Trump Is Just A Normal Polling Error Behind Clinton | FiveThirtyEight Dave's screed does not take the question seriously. It (over)simply accuses the Clinton campaign of over-simplifying. (Then it goes a step further and hopes Clinton's oversimplifying is fatal so that the other oversimplifier wins the election.) But we don't want to commit tu quoqe. Just because Dave's guilty of the same thing both Clinton and Trump are guilty of doesn't make him wrong. What makes Dave's screed wrong is that Trump is NOT typical, not even in the slightest. To say that Trump is not atypical of the population in general is a massive error. To say that Trump is not atypical even of his supporters is only a major error. Heck, even Peter Thiel (whatever repugnant political views he may hold) is so seriously different from Trump, any comparison will fail. So, were Dave to extract his gist from its surrounding wrongness, it would be a tiny bit better: Trump is not his supporters. He is (merely) the emergent tool (naturfact) latched onto by that demographic. Trump's success during this campaign reflects the populism that is gaining ground all over the world. And it's systemic (neither all good, nor all bad) to democratic systems. And the founding fathers knew about it. We've discussed it some on this list cf Arrow's Theorem, etc. Ranting about elitism throws the baby out with the bathwater. On 11/07/2016 09:04 AM, Owen Densmore wrote: > Thank God some of us are taking seriously the "But Why?" question re: Trump's > popularity. Thank you! > > We simply must take seriously the fact that nearly half of the US is going to > vote for Trump, and ask yourself "Why?". -- ␦glen? ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
