From observation (yours and mine) this seems to be the way people behave.
If one is carrying out a study of people, it would seem sensible to treat them they are rather than as they aren't.
So you would call this sensible prelude "trivial or ludicrous (AKA "stupid") or beside the point"
Interesting.
What are the desires of those grunting people? We don't know, but surely we can make a shrewd guess. On the other hand, a pill that promises to accomplish those desires without leaving the couch might be a seductive way to go (if one believed that was the way to satisfy one's desires with the least exertion).
Of course Roger and Edmund had to husband their energies, or that last 200 fast yards for Roger, and 4,000 ft for Edmund would have been impossible.
Then you say:
"Of course when I climbed 140 flights of stairs in under 30 minutes back some 15 years ago, I was trying to satisfy my desires with the least exertion
(if I wasted energy I would have had to give up before reaching my goal which still lay some 60 flights beyond...)."
By George, I think you might have it!
It's said that only the complicated can appreciate the simple.
And it's important to start simple - or you will never satisfactorily reach the complex.
Harry -------------------------------------------------
Brad wrote:
Harry Pollard wrote:Ed,[snip]
I'm not picking on you. Just that both of your posts invited comment.
The lesson is that "People seek to satisfy their desires with the least exertion."
Harry! How do you explain the people grunting on rowing machines, treadmills, stairmasters, and other contraptions at fitness centers ("Workout World"...).
Of course when I climbed 140 flights of stairs in under 30 minutes back some 15 years ago, I was trying to satisfy my desires with the least exertion (if I wasted energy I would have had to give up before reaching my goal which still lay some 60 flights beyond...)....
But I think that most persons would find such an assertion either trivial or ludicrous (AKA "stupid") or beside the point (what point? just about any point).
Roger Bannister and Sir Edmund Hillary werer trying to satisfy their desires with the least possible effort.
On the other hand, couch potatoes take pills that they think will cause them to burn calories without doing anything --> are they thereby thus satisfying their desires with the least possible effort, too?
This sort of reminds me of Donald Rumsfeld's recent resplonse to a reporter's query what he thought Osama bin Laden was up to these days. Rumsfeld replied:
I think he is either alive or dead.
Who could possibly disagree?
\brda mccormcik
**************************************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 -- Fax: (818) 353-2242 http://home.attbi.com/~haledward ****************************************************
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