Glen, You caught me in a slap-dash quip which I regretted the minute I started reading your post. I have long been cranky with some of my associates who have insisted, for instance, that using caps in an email message is SHOUTING, or that it is bad manners to send messages in HTML. Now, I certainly can imagine a kindly message warning me that, given traditions in some circles, one runs a risk of misunderstanding or censure for using these practices (which are more common in teh world from which I sprang) , but it is quite another to claim that such practices are against nature. It seems so unlike internet values of freedom and exploration to make any such claim.
But crankiness began to seem deeply trivial in the face of your fascism list. What struck me is how closely your list corresponded to our current political discourse on health care. In fact, it scared the wits out of me. Have we come so far?? Who is Eco and where is that discussion taking place? Thanks for enobling the discourse. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([email protected]) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > [Original Message] > From: glen e. p. ropella <[email protected]> > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> > Date: 9/4/2009 3:48:08 PM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Psychology Blogs > > Thus spake Nicholas Thompson circa 09-09-04 01:18 PM: > > It may be the Berkeley Relic speaking in me, but I have often found > > "ettiquette" to be the next door neighbor of fascism. > > It doesn't ring the same bells for me. I'm fond of Eco's (vague but > indicating) characteristics of fascism: > > 1. cult of tradition > 2. luddism/irrationalism > 3. action for action's sake > 4. anti-critical > 5. fear of dissension > 6. appeal to the frustrated middle > 7. pervasive belief in conspiracy > 8. the myopic underdog > 9. life is warfare > 10. contempt for underlings > 11. herophilia or glorification of martyrdom > 12. conflation of the biological with the social > 13. abstracted (ideal, not real) body politic > 14. newspeak > > And I don't really see a good place to put etiquette. I suppose various > colors of it could fall under (1), (4), (5), and (14)... and, perhaps > (2) and (8) on a stretch. But, mostly, etiquette is just an attempt to > govern based on a minimal, civilized, set of soft rules. Everything > anti-fascist can still take place within the bounds of etiquette. > > But the thing I was trying to point out was that any "standard of > behavior" over and above what is possible is easily punctured when the > underlying components are simple and easily composed. A great example > is a unix shell. An interesting example is, say, RESTful web > development. A self-referencing example is the recent discussion of > kitchen-sink ABM frameworks. A HowTo on "how to use a wiki" is a lot > like one on "how to build an ABM". > > But a HowTo on "how to build a page graph in a wiki" is much more > tenable, even though it's still multivalent. The more specific and > concrete you get, the more likely you'll be successful. (... unless > your goal is to use large catch-all buzzwords to get people excited > without giving them any real tools they can take home with them, in > which case you want to be as general and abstract as possible.) > > A more reflective point about puncturing standards of behavior (e.g. > Ikea's recent font change) is that when a subset of the participants > _expect_ an easily punctured standard, innovative participants will > inevitably be considered rude or as not being "team players". I think > this is why the internet intensifies people's feelings that others are > rude or obnoxious.... because the internet consists of simple, easily > composed things that no matter what organization one chooses for her > construct, it will violate some other person's standard. That also > leads to a much larger number of "should" statements... "One should > never use orange text on a blue background!" [grin] > > -- > glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
