A good friend makes the distinction:
"Power does not corrupt, Power IS Corruption!"
Money is a highly liquid (or even volatile?) form of power. The issues
many/most raise around cryptocurrency (untraceable transfer of wealth)
seems to revolve around the extreme case that "you can buy anything" and
another extreme case of human nature (if any thing is possible, that
thing will almost surely be pursued by someone).
This all might sound trite or even "dead wrong" on first blush, but I've
been living with that statement for nearly 20 years and it fits yet
better as it (or I?) age(s).
Any system (game) can be gamed, so whether it is formal "social purpose"
or "non-profit" or even "best intentions", there will be gamers of that
game.
Epstein is just one of many (but highly public at this point)
individuals who managed not only to "game" a number of systems
effectively but seemed even to be adept at building "scaffolding" among
the different systems... playing on his own distorted sense of women,
youth, sexuality, he was able to draw others into situations where he
could siphon of some of their power via money (possibly) or political
power (highly likely) or social influence (clearly) while indulging in
his own ego-trip of having some significant play in "the game of
Science".
I think we should all be at least cautioned if not embarrassed by
whatever seduces (or intimidates) us... those who Epstein got to via
financial/scientific flattery are perhaps the least of the ones who
became "pawns" in his game.
When I left LANL, I was set on "making it" at least as well (financially
and professionally and personally) as I did whilst "institutionalized"
there. I discovered VERY quickly (why is hindsight so good sometimes?)
that if I wanted to make (a lot of) money I had to work for people with
(a lot of) money. Odd thing was that the places there was (a lot of)
money were the places I was either fleeing by leaving LANL (e.g. nuclear
weapons, intelligence work) or things I had been (mostly) shielded from
whilst institutionalized (e.g. big Entertainment, big Pharma/Med, big
Fossil Fuels). More than anything I recognized how much my institution
had buffered me from those facts... and the fact of most of the work
being funneled through the Gub'mint adds an extra level of
indirection/leverage/abstraction. I've done "OK", but mostly by
trading improvements in my professional and personal life for financial
advantage and the aforementioned "buffering" (innocence?).
The main thing I can echo from Marcus' rant here is that I think it is a
"good thing" for you Merle, that you don't have any UberCapitalists in
your circle...
Emergence involves collective action without central control... money
(power) facilitates centralization and control... that kind of success
can lead to it's own failure.
My $bc.02
- Steve
On 1/12/20 10:14 AM, thompnicks...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Wow! Gives new meaning to the notion of “money laundering”.
>
>
>
> Hard to have an opinion, here. Hard to think of any institution not
> funded by ill-gotten gains. Still, one hates to grant nasty people
> the offramp of philanthropy. “He was a rapist but I gave to MIT”? “He
> Hated Women But He Loved Man”?
>
>
>
> There is a lot of evidence that people are nasty just to the extent
> they are wealthy. The wealthier one is the more one is likely to see
> wealth disparities as deserved, rather than accidental. Add to that
> the fact that it often takes a certain amount of nastiness to become
> wealthy, and it’s hard not to imagine that billionaires are not a
> pretty nasty lot. I am not referring, of course, to all the many
> billionaires on this list.
>
>
>
> But it also follows that anybody who is wealthier than anybody else is
> nastier than they are.
>
>
>
> We all have a lot to explain.
>
>
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nicholas Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
>
> Clark University
>
> thompnicks...@gmail.com <mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff
> *Sent:* Sunday, January 12, 2020 5:43 AM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> <friam@redfish.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] more Epstein fallout
>
>
>
> The queen of strategies for how non-profits can squeeze money out of
> those who have too much and have earned it in nefarious ways (almost
> always) is a woman named Lynne Twist. Lynne teaches a brutal workshop
> called "The Soul of Money." The big takeaway from her workshop is:
> "those of us advocating positive social change have a sacred duty to
> move that money from where it was ill-got and put it to use in
> rightful ways." Unfortunately for us at the Center, we don't know any
> uber-Capitalists.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 11, 2020 at 4:45 PM glen <geprope...@gmail.com
> <mailto:geprope...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> At the risk of offense, I'm not sure how I feel about Lloyd being
> put on admin leave. The old trope about 'dirty money' has always
> rang hollow for me. All money is always dirty. It reminds me of
> this guy:
>
>
> https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/04/portland_man_accused_of_druggi.html
>
> I can't find it now. But he supposedly open sourced his patents
> and was a member of the dorkbot community. At what point do we
> forget the origins of some funding? I mean, Bill Gates' money was
> aggregated via some filthy monopolistic methods. Does that imply
> nonprofits should turn down their help?
>
> On January 11, 2020 12:35:59 PM PST, Marcus Daniels
> <mar...@snoutfarm.com <mailto:mar...@snoutfarm.com>> wrote:
> >Waiting for the other shoe to drop..
> >
>
> >https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mit-review-cites-big-mistakes-taking-epstein-donations-n1113911
>
> --
> glen
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
> President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
> emergentdiplomacy.org <http://emergentdiplomacy.org>
>
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>
> merlelefk...@gmail.com <mailto:merlelef...@gmail.com>
> mobile: (303) 859-5609
> skype: merle.lelfkoff2
>
> twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
>
>
> ============================================================
> 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
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