Kevin : First, I owe you an apology for assuming you had a copy of the Amendments. Looks like it was my mistake. I certainly intended to send to the group but somewhere along the line this did not happen. The mistake will be corrected soon. Second, As much as I oppose Ron Paul, his emergence looks like it will shake up the GOP establishment --to the extent that it does, hurrah. The Gingrich material that I am sending around --into Iowa and NH among other places-- ought to interest the Congressman. After all, none of it reflects badly on himself and a Gingrich imbroglio could work to Paul's advantage. Third, about predictions, etc, most of the time what is meant really is forecasting, or projections, or the like. But the issue of "the future" is important. There is, as you may know, a World Future Society, and a large number of politicos belong. And there is an entire literature of futures research. I think I get what you mean about the "present moment" and existential centeredness. At one time I was part of a Humanistic Psychology project in which academics were trained to be more-or-less counselors for students, not only lecturers and graders of papers. Still, while our leaders in training ( actually all had degrees and were affiliated with universities ) emphasized "here-ness, " after a while I could see the limitations to that approach It also turns out that there is a whole, if nascent, psychology of futures thinking since, after all, to try and edit-out the future is not only impossible but not such a hot idea. We always, even if subconsciously, think about the future simply because that is where we always are going. To use the life-as-adventure metaphor, yes, the path is good in and of itself, but always there are goals, and goals matter very much. Billy ======================================= 11/16/2011 3:50:26 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Hi Kevin, On Nov 16, 2011, at 2:29 PM, Kevin Kervick wrote: Hi Ernie: I'm not a prude about it. I used to bet football games and dogs, etc. My college roommate was the campus middle man bookie (I found out later he got into a lot of trouble after college). I try not to predict anything. I believe we Americans are endlessly addicted to trying to control the future instead of seeing and enjoying the present. I'm interested in descriptive rather than predictive statistics. So do you consider "Paul is poised to win Iowa" a descriptive rather than a predictive statement? If so, I withdraw my complaint. -- Ernie P. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: _http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism_ (http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism) Radical Centrism website and blog: _http://RadicalCentrism.org_ (http://radicalcentrism.org/) -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
