You know, in the end Chris, Charlie gets right up one's nose ...

On Sunday, 18 January 2015 19:11:15 UTC, archytas wrote:
>
> We are more like amoeba or slime moulds.  Tony would admit this, if he 
> thought the sculptures would sell.  There are times in their lifehistory 
> that are not so unidimensional.  Smarter than humans in cooperative 
> matters, they also don't but art or heroic literature.  No wonder they have 
> us preparing the planet to be more suitable for themselves.
>
> On Sunday, 18 January 2015 17:34:57 UTC, Chris Jenkins wrote:
>>
>> I think perhaps with a minor adjustment of the quotes, that phrase is 
>> perfect:
>>
>> We are the larva "teaching" the larva how to fly.
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 11:33 AM, 'facilitator' via "Minds Eye" <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> I agree Chris, "We are the larva teaching the larva how to fly" (™)
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 12:12:06 AM UTC-5, Chris Jenkins wrote:
>>>>
>>>> We humans have always had a terrible problem with calculating scale. 
>>>> We're utterly irrational and hopelessly subjective. Even when we attempt 
>>>> to 
>>>> shape our world view via humanism and logic, we fall prey to insidious 
>>>> prejudices few of us are able to even detect well. We think we're much 
>>>> smarter than we are, and it's only by growing older and expanding our time 
>>>> scope that we're capable of beginning to understand how limited our view 
>>>> always was the minute before. Most of us don't live long enough to ever 
>>>> really accomplish anything remotely like an objective view point. 
>>>>
>>>> And so, we fear plane crashes, and not car crashes, despite the latter 
>>>> vastly outnumbering the former. We say "je suis charlie" for the 12, and 
>>>> pass by the thousands dead. We only care when the PR machine snaps a 
>>>> gorgeous tragedy and Buzzfeed includes it in "Top 5 Photos From World 
>>>> Conflicts: You won't believe number 4!".
>>>>
>>>> When one person dies, it's a tragedy, but when a million people die 
>>>> it's a statistic. Stalin said that. Remarkable bit of insight from someone 
>>>> who created some notable statistics. 
>>>>
>>>> We Americans are terrible with statistics. We're smart enough to know 
>>>> that they're a weapon to bludgeon the less Google savvy, and we pick and 
>>>> choose to suit our bigotry. Then once a year we pour ice water over our 
>>>> heads while hash tagging #Kony2012. Verily Babylon has fallen. 
>>>>
>>>> Hello, Minds Eye. I've missed you. Neil's been commenting on my G+ 
>>>> posts, and it put me of a mind to come see how the group's been.
>>>>
>>>> On Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 10:29:52 PM UTC-5, archytas wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Killing cartoonists clearly can't be allowed.  There is no absolute 
>>>>> authority for jihad, crusades or lacking a self-depreciating sense of 
>>>>> humour prepared to rip loved ones from the lives of relatives and 
>>>>> friends.  
>>>>> The most common 'cause' of killing and war in primitive societies is 
>>>>> revenge, generally pretty dumb.
>>>>>
>>>>> On the day Charlie Hebdo was struck, Boko Haram was doing much worse 
>>>>> in Nigeria and 2000 died.  Yemen was pasted again.  25 million or so have 
>>>>> died in wars after WW2 and any number of people have had peaceful lives 
>>>>> destroyed by various forms of imperialism.  We understand revenge films 
>>>>> where the child not slaughtered by Barbarians grows to destroy them.  
>>>>> There 
>>>>> are at least questions we should be asking on whether fundamentalist 
>>>>> Islam 
>>>>> is radicalising terrorists, or the various imperialisms and the 
>>>>> conditions 
>>>>> these create in countries kept poor and run by installed despots.
>>>>>
>>>>> Institutional religion is no use to me and I detest the hostility of 
>>>>> those believers who would have me respect belief in superstition,clearly 
>>>>> false history, varieties of justified sexism, racism, apartheid and 
>>>>> selfish 
>>>>> chosen-peopleism.  This extends far beyond religion and to false ideas 
>>>>> that 
>>>>> the Greek Enlightenment was the zenith of civilisation. This was a 
>>>>> sexist, 
>>>>> racist, slave economy.  Western democratic free trade liberalism is such 
>>>>> a 
>>>>> lie as to be merely another control fraud, not the end of history.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is little clarity.  We stand as Charlie for free speech, yet do 
>>>>> nothing against indecent Saudi floggings and beheadings. We have never 
>>>>> produced democratic foreign policy, population control or sustained 
>>>>> peace.  
>>>>> Now we are arresting people protesting publicly against Charlie, somewhat 
>>>>> contradictory to say the least.  All that seems clear is that we are all 
>>>>> Charleys, without much of a system to openly discuss what is wrong, 
>>>>> leaving 
>>>>> tyranny anywhere a threat to freedom everywhere.
>>>>>
>>>>  -- 
>>>
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>>
>>

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