Tom Walker(responding to Ed Weick):
> The short answer to the last question is that there has been tremendous
> catastrophe bundled with the benign "finding something better to do" as you
> put it. The adjustment from "1900 to now" has included depression,
> holocaust, world wars, revolutions, counter-revolutions and famine. Nazis
> and Stalinists alike found what they thought was something better to do
> after being booted out of what they thought were secure jobs.
>
> Keynes said in the long run we're all dead. But that doesn't make murder --
> even mass murder -- something to shrug off as simply part of the pain of
> adjustment.
"The adjustment from '1900 to now'" has had to deal with the NET addition
of *over 4 BILLION* additional humans. To ignore the increased competition
for habitat, resources. jobs, etc. that this growth corellates with is
muddled at best. No "ism", no "ethic",
no absolute belief alters physical (& temporal) limits.
"Finding something better to do"(Ed) is a probablistic and subjectively
valued endeavor.
Chances of success depend somewhat on externalities (to individuals); and
should there be more desires than realistic opportunities for that
"something better", the less clever or lucky get shut out. Not all
limitations can be thought away.
Steve Kurtz
