Collapsing many opinions into one post.
Re: Greens
I don't see any immediate connection between "capitalism" and pollution. If
there was one, planned economies should be more environmentally friendly,
which in general is not the case at all. In fact, some of the major
environmental disasters of the century have taken place in communist
countries. This is not very surprising, since much pollution is caused by
inefficient allocation of resources ("waste"), rather than high consumption,
and we all know that planned economies are not the most efficient.
Conversely, one wonders how long it will take before insurance companies
will start sueing polluters for the collateral damage ("externalities") they
cause in "capitalist" countries. This happens every now and then, and may
happen more in the future (especially if international treaties, court
decisions etc. become more directly enforceable than they are now).
Financial institutions also have imperfect means to think "long run" - in
the long run, as JM Keynes would say, we are all holders of a life policy.
So it seems to me that the Greens are neither left nor right, or, more
precisely, neither communist nor capitalist. The human instinct to pollute
is universal, and what has changed is the extent, not the nature of the
problem.
The solution, if there will ever be one, is likely to be that of reducing
the extent of the problem rather than altering the nature of human
relationships. One step will *necessarily* have to be the harmonisation and
coming together of legal systems around the world. As long as international
treaties are not enforceable, the political situation is globally unstable,
etc. *neither* of the solutions, the "directed" one and the "liberal" one,
will be applicable, IMHO. Pollution, above all, increases certain risks,
which we are only beginning to understand and measure. To put a price on
those risks (the capitalist method) or to arbitrage them at the political
level (the socialist/ communist method), one first needs a stable global
community and some form of rule of law. Especially because, as others have
noted, acid rain doesn't stop at border checks.
By the way, American conservatives call the Greens "communist", the Chinese
call the Greens "counter-revolutionaries" and "enemies of the people".
Funny, uh?
Which brings me to....
Re: Gravity
I have learned a bit of Chinese medicine, and what Trevor said about gravity
brought me back to these lectures on Chinese philosophy and the "Huangdi
Neijing" (The Yellow Emperor's Classic, the classical book on Chinese
"zhongyi", traditional med.). The analogy is not immediate; let's see if I
can explain it decently.
For many decades Western clinicians tried to understand how acupuncture
works. The Chinese medic operates according to a model of the human
mind-body system that is totally different from ours, one that looks to us,
at first sight, rather un-scientific. For example, they claim that blood
runs in our veins following the "qi", some immaterial substance that flows
in some equally immaterial channel (jingmai) and that is somehow "attached"
to each goblet of blood; and not simply because it is pumped by the heart.
In other words, to the observable human anatomy they add a seemingly
arbitrary system of immaterial "organs", which cannot be directly observed
but whose presence can be "inferred" from their manifestation in the
behaviour of the material organs.
How odd. And yet, it works, and in ways that our models cannot explain very
well.
It has been said that any model, which is founded on empirical observations,
conventions and sistematization, can be said to be scientific. But beware of
mixing different models up.
Yours, Trevor, isn't scientific (yet), but the attitude is there. Your
gravity- antigravity opposition is a bit like yin-yang.... Even though the
greatest objection I think has already been raised: why gravity and not E-M
forces, or both, or another substance that you call "X"? The effects of your
"gravity" would be impossible to measure on the scale required anyway. So it
can literally be anything, and you might as well call it "qi".
Have I missed something? For honesty I should also add that, as a volleyball
"outside" player, I don't like the notion that Defying Gravity is Evil - are
you sure you're not an agent provocateur on my opponents' team?
Best wishes to all
Carlo
