Thanks, Glen. Oh, I see that it has come to mean many things. Meaning is like that. But I was curious about its origin. Was the person who first used the term thinking about the Billie Goats Gruff (WHO'S THAT TRAMPING OVER MY BRIDGE!) [Yes, Owen, I am shouting.} or was he putting along, at 2 miles an hour, half a sleep in the back of a boat on a quiet Vermont lake?
Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ -----Original Message----- From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steven A Smith Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2018 9:15 AM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Pondering the slang Adulting I've always taken "the Troll" to be a species of Trickster... not always comfortable, but often valuable. On 11/14/18 7:39 AM, ∄ uǝʃƃ wrote: > It's come to mean many things, but all along the lines of provocation. > Boghossian et al, for example, did a *great* job at provoking Wilson and Shaw > and a host of other actual scholars into responding to their science fraud. > But it's important, to me anyway, to remember that trolling also encompasses > behaviors like Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and Socrates' treatment > of Euthyphro. > > So, the options you've offered, fishing or monster, is impoverished. The > village shaman is a better example. Even if shamen/witches mostly use > provocation to hypnotize and control the villagers [†], we can assume that > some (perhaps small) percentage of shamen/witches are doing it for the good > of the tribe, not just to grab a quick bite. > > As I've posted before, here is my favorite defense of trolling: > > How to make a nuisance of yourself in [usenet] news > > http://web.archive.org/web/20070609085706/http://www.sm.luth.se/~torke > l/eget/net.html > > Torkel's dead, but definitely not forgotten! > > [†] Perhaps mostly in self-defense, since the physically or mentally abnormal > people who didn't become holy people might be executed or exiled. > > On 11/13/18 7:40 PM, Nick Thompson wrote: >> I have always wondered about "trolling". Is it the monster under the bridge >> or the fisherman. Or both? ============================================================ 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 archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.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 archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
