I'm not sure this is relaxant Dave but...When I was a senior at Berkeley I took an upper division course for non-majors in political science (unusual). Among the many required readings was a short book by Eric Hoffer called The True Believer. It presents ideas which may explain schismogenesis. They are certainly relevant to Trumpism.
At that time Hoffer was a research professor even though he had no formal higher education. He had spent a career as a longshoreman. The professor invited him to give a series of lectures. This was in the context of the Free Speech Movement, which was occurring in Sproul Plaza a few yards from the lecture hall. He told "us students" that we were acting like Latin American students which he did not intend as a compliment. Not long after that he decided that he had been on the wrong side which he blamed on his aging and fossilization. Shortly after that he resolved to stop being a social commentator. If you haven't already done so, which I doubt, read True Believer. --- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 4:40 PM Prof David West <[email protected]> wrote: > I have been thinking a lot about the *"public movement to disintegrate > society."* It feels like we are in the throes of a country-wide > schismogenesis - the process of defining ourselves as what our neighbors > are not. We expect differences in culture in different > environments/contexts, but dramatic differences within the same environment > surprise us. An example would be pacific coast native american groups, > neighbors, where one culture has autocratic kings and slavery while the > neighbors abhor and 'outlaw' both. > > Schismogenesis is the concept used by anthropologists (probably no the > only users) to explain how adjacent cultures, or similarly characterized > (e.g. nomadic herders, hunter gatherers, urban agriculturalists) can > exhibit such diversity of political and social organization. > > From this perspective, it is not "society" that is being dis-integrated, > it is a particular form of hierarchical Federalist society. The roots of > this dis-integration are deep and mythical. > > davew > > > On Wed, Sep 28, 2022, at 6:43 AM, glen wrote: > > There's an ambiguity in "institutional". Our elections (and suits and > > rulings) are handled like a tree of locales, allowing both challenges > > and rulings many articulation points up and down the heterarchy at > > which to act. Immigration is more unified, more homogenous. As I > > understand it, federal law preempts state law in all but employment > > licensing. So "institutional" for elections is distributed and > > heterogeneous, whereas it's more centralized and homogenous for > > immigration. > > > > One institutional change would be to distribute it. But we'd risk human > > rights abuses in the same way we currently risk things like states > > banning abortions or a frivolous election challenging blitzkrieg like > > we saw in 2020. Another institutional change would be to retool federal > > immigration law, which probably won't happen with first past the post > > elections that guarantee 50/50 legislators. I suppose if we could > > appoint a good faith Machiavellian secretary of homeland security, we > > could retool the execution in such a way as to obviate many of the > > judicial challenges. But I have no idea how that might happen. > > > > On 9/28/22 06:08, David Eric Smith wrote: > >> > https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/us/politics/election-activists-voter-challenges.html > < > https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/us/politics/election-activists-voter-challenges.html > > > >> > >> To moan about this may have some small role early, to try to raise > awareness (to compensate for the absence of a News industry that functions > as such). But after that, it ceases to be a response, and decays into an > abnegation and a waste of time. > >> > >> Responses are institutional. What is the institutional response to > what, by now, sort of qualifies as a public movement to disintegrate the > society? “When in the Course of human events [a certain group of people > decide] to dissolve the political bands which have connected them [with > others]….” For things that have been around for a long time, like > frivolous use of lawsuits, we have arrived at some norms for throwing out > mistakes and actively penalizing abuses, a kind of detente within which we > can function at some level from day to day. For more acute recent changes, > like handling immigration claims, we are not doing so, and we approach > jamming transitions. For this electoral contesting, I don’t know if there > even is an institutional plan. > >> > >> I would like to have something in my head about this that qualifies as > a thought or an idea. > >> > >> Eric > > > > > > -- > > ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ > > > > -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > > archives: 5/2017 thru present > > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ > -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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