Re: Co-stupidity
Douglas P. Wilson wrote: (snip) It might help if I use (and abuse) a metaphor from the days of logical positivism. Let us imagine our society (and system) as a boat floating in the middle of the ocean. I would prefer thinking of it as a body that contains all of thepersonalities that are the sum total of its experiences. At the present it is in the process of trying to negotiate the meaning of and perpetuation of its physical health.The boat is dead, the body is alive. I find the consideration of a relationship between an alive system and the entities within that system a more realistic metaphor for my imagining. Actually requirements analysis should precede designing or planning, (viz. http://www.island.net/~dpwilson/requirements.html) but that's another issue. True for a bridge but again, I believe the problem is the belief inthe very objectivity which you seem to strive for. Am I wrong? Plans always go before that which is known. But the future is more appropriately explored as an unknown with history to keep us from being totally blind. But what Mr. Atlee has is (apparently) a resolve, or resolution, or firm intention to plan things very well -- it is not itself a plan for anything. That's why I said I couldn't actually detect any idea in Mr. Atlee's prose -- all I saw were good intentions. What I saw was a critique with an implication. I could well be wrong about that -- I'm wrong about lots of things, though I never admit it. Perhaps there is some idea there that I've missed. Me too. As for the comments of Thomas Lunde, I am sure I have missed something in what he wrote, because I just didn't understand much of it. Try the formula "Structure determines the form of the processes" in which structure is a defined state. ... Tom is capable of speaking for himself but I read it asa statement of simple classicism. In the Classical style of Western music (like Mozart, Haydn, etc. ) "Structure determines the form of the processes." or we could use terms like Mies Van der Rohe in architecture "form defines content" or "less (content) is more." Have you ever read Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead? Ah, I didn't think so -- I don't think anybody has. I've read some of Whitehead and liked him but not the above.My favorite was a little practical book called "The Aims of Education" and I once slogged a little of his and Russell's Principia (how's that for name dropping?). To the best of my knowledge he is saying "Process determines the form of the structures", but I've never figured out what that means, either. That is "Romantic" within the same artistic structure.Emerson in America with Lord Byron, Marx, Darwin, Freud and Wagner in Europe. An interesting deviant from this is Ives and Frank Lloyd Wright, both of whom insisted that form defined content but that each form was the content of a greater form. Generally Romanticism says that the form is the "skin" of content and exists as a kind of limit to the process that is going on within the content of the form. In art they are not polar opposites but exist as a dual symbolization of the whole. They are synergistic and also a conception of the human mind meant solely to make the incomprehensible useful. First Nations peoples generally consider that there are not two but seven. Each as aspects of time/space which is a unity. On the other hand you might also consider it with the Greeks Dionysian (you and Whitehead) or Apollonian (Tom Lunde). Representative Democracy is in my opinion a structure for political goverance selection. ... I'd be happy calling it either a system or a process, not a structure. But the words don't really matter. I think the problem here is the way English mixes time andplace. Systems generally refer to time while structure refers to place. But you would not call a Sonata Allegro a system even though it is a form in time. Instead it is called a structure, i.e. one of the structures of music. Process is analogous with system because they are both time rather than space but even that is not really true. English is not Latin. It flows and becomes an objectified structure when needed or a system and process when that is required needed.Music provides the reverse phonetic of speech while nouns become verbs, adjectives become nouns, etc. and the reverse based upon need. The process here is a Gestalt one. The first person to define the reality being discussed is the one followed no matter what you believe unless you wish to destroy them with a withering criticism. That is the realm of Thesis committees and Ivy league academics.So I find you picky on this one but not convincing. What matter is that Representative Democracy isn't a very good (whatever it is). I think of it as technology, a tool or technique for making government work. Something we invented. A long time ago. Before we really knew what we were doing. I often
Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century (fwd)
-- Forwarded message -- Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 19:46:26 -0700 From: Michael Givel [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century /** labr.global: 223.0 **/ ** Topic: Online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century ** ** Written 6:13 AM Jul 29, 1999 by labornews in cdp:labr.global ** /* Written 2:59 AM Jul 29, 1999 by [EMAIL PROTECTED] in igc:list.labor */ /* -- "Online Conference on Organized Labo" -- */ (Apologies for cross-posting) ANNOUNCEMENT Juan Somavia and Bill Jordan to open online Conference on Organized Labour in the 21st Century Juan Somavia, the Director General of the ILO, and Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the ICFTU, will launch a debate in an online Conference "Organized Labour in the 21st Century". The Conference will be run by the International Institute for Labour Studies, of the ILO, in cooperation with the ICFTU, and will begin in mid September 1999. Participation in the Conference, which is aimed at trade unionists and labour researchers, will be open, and those who have signed up in time for the opening (before mid-September) will have a chance to react and put questions to the keynote speakers by e-mail, or over the web. Anyone wanting to participate can learn more by going to the Institute's website, where it is possible to sign up from today to participate in the Conference: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/130inst/research/network/index.htm (Background documents are also available from this web address.) The Conference focuses on the future of trade unions around the world, and is expected to run for approximately twelve months. Guest speakers will be invited to act as "panelists" every month. Each month, a new topic (with new "speakers") will be launched. The topics will be announced about a week in advance and are likely to include: - Employment and development - The law and trade unions - Responses to globalization (trade, investment, labour standards) - Unions and structural adjustment - Transnational industrial relations - Collective bargaining and social dialogue - Informal sector and marginalised workers - Social protection - Recruitment and organizing - Political strategy (party politics, alliances with NGOs, etc.) - Women in unions - Youth in unions - Union structures and services (membership participation, mergers, finances, etc.) If you do not have access to the World Wide Web, but would like to participate, send an empty e-mail message to this address, and you will be subscribed automatically. [EMAIL PROTECTED] FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONFERENCE ON LABOUR IN THE 21st CENTURY Please contact: Mr A.V. Jose [EMAIL PROTECTED] ** End of text from cdp:labr.global ** *** This material came from the Institute for Global Communications (IGC), a non-profit, unionized, politically progressive Internet services provider. For more information, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (you will get back an automatic reply), or visit their web site at http://www.igc.org/ . IGC is a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. *** -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
[bearslist] Psychopaths fuel US share boom-Germany's Schmidt(fwd)
-- Forwarded message -- Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1999 17:40:44 -0500 (CDT) From: Danny Cox [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [bearslist] "Psychopaths" fuel US share boom-Germany's Schmidt From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Danny Cox) "Psychopaths" fuel US share boom-Germany's Schmidt SUNDAY, AUGUST 01, 1999 7:47 AM - Reuters FRANKFURT, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt said in remarks published on Sunday that U.S. share prices were being driven to unsustainable heights by "psychopaths" on Wall Street and that a slump was inevitable. Schmidt told Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the United States, despite being presented as a shining economic example to Germany, had a private savings ratio below zero and was creating an underclass of the working poor. "Many people are enthusiastic about the United States at the moment. But people don't realise that the share price boom is totally overvalued and that psychopaths are driving the prices up," said the 80-year-old Social Democrat who was West German chancellor from 1974 to 1982. "It's only a matter of time before the boom ends and prices tumble down again -- just as it happened in Japan." Schmidt said that by psychopaths he was referring to "the young 30-year-old dealers and 40-year-old fund managers who with their daily and hourly fund allocations have no other aim than to get the best possible performance." "These people lack an overview of the world and world economy and also of the responsibility that entails." Schmidt said the euro's depreciation by as much as 15 percent this year did not signify that the new currency was weak. He said he had witnessed the dollar trading at 3.47 marks and at 1.36 marks in the space of 1-1/2 years. "No one ever got the idea that that meant the mark was weak." ((David Crossland, Frankfurt Newsroom +49 69 756525, [EMAIL PROTECTED])) --- ONElist Sponsor ONElist users: YOU can win a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Check out the FRIENDS FAMILY program to find out how. For details, go to http://www.onelist.com/info/onereachsplash3.html To subscribe to bearslist, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Indigenous Canadian Website (fwd)
-- Forwarded message -- Date: Mon, 02 Aug 1999 18:09:50 +1200 From: Jim Gladwin [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Indigenous Canadian Website _ "At present the Pan Am Games are currently being held in Winnipeg. There are 42 countries being represented - from North, Central and South America as well as all the Caribbean countries. Over 6000 athletes. Further information can be found at www.panamgames.org. A rival site has been set up at www.panamgames.net which is being used by indigeneous groups to show the world the injustices they feel they suffer." -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
Re: y2k bug urgent request
REH wrote: Most of the people that I talk to about this says much the same about Gates and Micro-soft. However, for the record I was not speaking of Gates only but the Libertarian Party cell that inhabits almost all of silicone valley. They fund anti community initiatives all over the country and one of their crew just did in fair minority hiring practices in California as "socialist." Generally they are followers of Ayn Rand ... Their scholar's think tank is funded by that nutty Koch family from Kansas and calls itself the Cato Institute which shows how the media will kiss any body part that smells of money. Yup. See http://cato.org/gatesvisit.html for a weird example of Gates whining about the bad bad Justice Dept. going after this poor innocent victim of a socialist conspiracy. On the other hand it could be just money and built in obsolescence. Something that has been done often in the past by big business selling individual products toconsumers. You've guessed it. So everyone will **have to** buy Windows2000. The concept is total dependence. M$ also isn't interested in "hyper individuality" on the user's part -- quite on the contrary, total "assimilation" to the "industry standard" (yeah, incompatible with itself) is the goal, with nobody but Gates calling the shots. You mean mass production which is the only productive way to go. No, I meant diversity and the degree of "customizability" of the software, which is very low in M$ products. M$ doesn't want creative users, but assimilated conformists. "Where do you want to go today?" is a rhetorical question: You can't go anywhere else, only where M$ will let you go. But you are confusing the dynamics of the net with the PC itself. My point is still that they have to inhabit the role of the "Trickster" with such a massive commune like entity as the Internet. It is literally vulnerable to anyone. That's why it's so important that users have bug-free and useful software so they know what they're doing/sending and don't mess up mailing lists with wrong-dated (by their insidious OS!) postings. The only way I can see the net working is if there is standardization of structure with individuation of the process. The "standardization of structure" already exists (W3C etc.), but unfortunately, M$ changes such standards (in the infamous "embrace and extend" style) and inserts bugs, messing up the whole structure (and process). Dennis Paull wrote: First, much of the Y2k difficulties will come from embedded microchips buried in products most of us don't think of as computers. Examples are traffic lights, medical and other scientific equipment and industrial control systems such as safety systems on refineries and power generators. ... But there is another, difficult problem, that of legacy systems running COBOL programs on main frames. Can't blame Big Bill for that either. I didn't blame Big Bill for either; "only" for the PC software problems that some listmembers are now experiencing. (Embedded microchips and COBOL mainframes aren't programmed by M$, so it couldn't mess these up too.) Chris "I think anybody who is savvy about this market knows that Microsoft is getting away with stuff it probably shouldn't get away with." -- GEOFFREY MOORE, Marketing Guru
Trading Is Heavy in the Humans Market (fwd)
-- Forwarded message -- Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 10:47:55 -0400 From: Doug Hunt [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Trading Is Heavy in the Humans Market Trading Is Heavy in the Humans Market Dennis Hans Tuesday, August 3, 1999 ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle URL: http://www.commondreams.org/ (Transcript of the June 1, 1999, broadcast) GOOD EVENING and welcome to the PBS ``Nightly Peoples Report.'' Trading was fast and furious today on the Ethnicities and Nationalities Market. The value of the American continued to soar as the world held its collective breath over the fate of U.S. bomber pilots flying 10 miles above Yugoslavia. News of their safe return to base sent Yankee bulls on a spending spree. The upshot? At the close of trading, the life of an American held nine times the value of its closest competitor, the Brit. Elsewhere on the European Big Board, the German closed at 11 to the American, the Swede and Dane held steady at 12.5, while the French fell to 22 as investors recoiled at the heavy volume of hairy legs along the Riviera. The big news remains the volatile Albanian Kosovar. For most of the decade, it sold at 10,000 to the American, but the Kosovar has fluctuated wildly since deregulation March 24. In the weeks that followed, both in Belgrade and the capitals of NATO, the Kosovar lost nearly all its value, plunging to 300,000. So it declared a split and relocated half its human capital to foreign markets. The new offering, known as the Exiled Kosovar, became the darling of western investors and skyrocketed to 25. But that's not the end of this remarkable story. Wily traders caught with the crumbling Kosovo-based Kosovar discovered that a Dead Kosovar was worth its weight in gold in western propaganda markets. It closed today at 15 to the American, and analysts see a bright future for the Dead Kosovar -- if it retains political utility. Elsewhere in the Balkans, more bad news for the battered Serb. It plummeted for a 70th straight day and now sits at 400,000. Investors left holding the worthless ethnicity blame London and Washington, but New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman blames the market itself, saying that Serbs are subhuman and thus shouldn't even be traded in a humans market. We'll be right back after this message. Remember, this is pledge week at PBS. Donate $100 and we'll send you a copy of Gary Null's ``How to Live Forever If You're an American --or Till 45 If You're a Kurd.'' Welcome back. In the Peoples of Color Market, the Angolan fell to 44,000 to the American while the Cuban closed up 500 points at 13,000, reflecting a strong rookie pitching crop that has scouts salivating. The Haitian climbed 800 to 22,000 after Disney's announcement of a summer blockbuster with textile tie-ins. Today saw another big sell-off of Timorese as investors remain frightened by western support for intensified Indonesian repression. Analysts say the Timorese, which closed at 52,000, could go the way of the Iraqi. Speaking of which, indifference to the Iraqi market is so great that in a recent poll of people value managers, 95 percent were unaware that eight years of economic sanc tions had taken a million or more Iraqis off the market. Some analysts credit President Clinton for degrading the Iraqi to its true value (500,000 to the American), while others feel a hands-off approach might trigger a recovery. In any event, the Iraqi has been demoted from the Peoples Market to the Commodities Market, where it is pegged at 200 to the cow and 25 to the soybean. Word on the street is commodities queen Hillary Clinton will cash in her cows for 100,000 Iraqis and use them as shoe leather in her senatorial bid. If she does, a big win in the Big Apple could spark an Iraqi rally. And now, tonight's commentary: Once again, government intervention in the Peoples Market has reared its ugly head. While the Exiled Kosovar is a great story, the NATO-organized relief effort has artificially inflated its value. In a free system of freely traded humans, the Exiled Kosovar would be worth no more than the Rwandan or the Guatemalan. Let's allow the market to work its magic. In the long run, we'll all be better off. Thank you for watching the ``Nightly Peoples Report.'' Happy investing, and may you never sell people short. Dennis Hans is a free-lance writer and an occasional adjunct professor of American foreign policy and mass communications at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice and Christianity Crisis. ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle ** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
