Cancer is an interesting metaphor here, and I find it somewhat apt.
I am not a big fan of allopathic medicine in the first place, so would
prefer to look to naturopathic remedies that involve a combination of
symptom relief, lifestyle change, stress reduction and general systemic
support. The specific threat of "cancer" aside, these are all things
one would wish on even a healthy person, no?
I sometimes feel that the bulk of our modern maladies (technological
such as resource depletion, pollution and systemic disturbances, or
sociological such as fascism, totalitarianism, xenophobia, misogyny) are
nothing more than the consequence of our last ham-fisted technological
or sociological *fix* of a previous malady... a domino of pain and
suffering so far removed from cause to effect that we don't bother to
recognize the patterns and interrupt them.
Extremism does seem to be implicated in our social problems, but it is
not clear to me that closing churches or mosques will solve the problem,
it seems almost as if this is like crushing a tumor and not expecting
the result to be metastasis and systemic spread. Don't our invasions in
the middle east seem a bit like that? What has been decried as
"surgical" (really) has been more like blunt-force trauma.
We may have just replaced a semi-competent, but under-equipped surgeon
with an untrained but eager butcher with inappropriate tools (i.e. his
forming cabinet). Bernie would perhaps have been the naturapath I was
wishing for? And HIllary? Highly skilled and well equipped but maybe
not as interested in the patient's well being as one would hope.
On 1/5/17 11:55 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
Interesting. Unfortunately the cancer of fascism (Trumpism?) has
already broke out in the US now, the only way to stop the cancer of
Nazism in Nazi Germany was to destroy the whole country by "surgery"
and bombardment. Good luck.
Chemotherapy means killing the fast replicating cells, this would
perhaps roughly correspond to closing mosques of extremists und
churches of aggressive sects (since they are the stem cells of
cultural cancer). Or to prohibit all organizations like alt-right
which grow extremely fast.
-Jochen
-------- Original message --------
From: Marcus Daniels <mar...@snoutfarm.com>
Date: 1/5/17 20:18 (GMT+01:00)
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
<friam@redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] What should we do?
*“*The early stages of this make me think of cancers. The reason they
are so difficult to deal with is that, for the most part, the cell
populations are not completely disintegrated and non-functional. Most
of their systems still function very robustly, which seems to be the
cause of different cancers' seemingly producing quite robust
phenotypes, even after the putative triggering problem has been
knocked out. Those systems have just been re-directed by control
signals of the wrong kind.”
I know you hate abuse of metaphors, but you started it!
Cytotoxic compounds: Remove tax deductions for dependents? How does
that happen with a conservative government?
Surgery or Radiation: Litigation (ACLU, EFF, SPLC, etc.). Other
things but keeping in mind Gandhi’s leadership.
Immunotherapy: Taking back state legislatures. Fire people up at
the local level.
Gene therapy: Education, propaganda.
Hormone therapy: Take away the money and red meat. Work behind the
scenes. Get people at risk out of harm’s way. Refocus on work and
investments decoupled from government.
Small-molecule drugs and monoclonal antibodies: Tease apart the
constituencies and identify risks from some of them, e.g. tag the
alt-right as Nazis and dangerous. Divide and conquer.
Controlling signaling / stopping transport: Stopping fake news
============================================================
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
