Marcus - I tried to sort your point... I appreciated the (simplistic
but potent?) NYT American Myths bit, but not clear if we are talking
about the same Kazcynski? While he did (obviously) take the position
colinear with "might makes right" ("right justifies might?") I don't
think he was ever a proponent of taking from the planet or any *other*
excepting the lives (and will to continue) of those who would through
willful ignorance or ignorant willfulness do thus themselves?
A few years ago Mary's movie buff son in Austin took us to see Errol
Flynn's "American Dharma" which reflects her son's affection for Errol
Flynn's work as much as his disgust with Bannon. It's title, drawn from
Bannon's own use of the term dharma as "one's moral duty or destiny".
That *does* seem to be what these three creatures (characters,
caricatures?) might have in common? Their individual ideosyncratic
views of what their "righteous paths" might be? I'm no fan of any of
the three, but they *do* seem to be pretty authentic to their inner
twisted sense of "self" and "destiny"?
On 10/5/24 12:32 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
The myths of America seems to be at the root of so much of this. The
idea that we can take from the planet (or the solar system) from the
“other”, and each other with no consequence somehow gets rationalized
by the likes of Kaczynski, Musk, or Bannon as the essential property
of freedom. Exploitation and the exercise of power is all there is,
in this view.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/opinion/trump-harris-american-myths.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P04.XPoB.77hNAmC3lb8K&smid=url-share
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/opinion/trump-harris-american-myths.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P04.XPoB.77hNAmC3lb8K&smid=url-share>
*From:*Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *steve smith
*Sent:* Saturday, October 5, 2024 9:53 AM
*To:* friam@redfish.com
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] nice quote
A belief later espoused by the Unabomber.
My "Gaia Shrugs more Bigly" may well be me channeling ole Kaczynski
hisself. I think Wilson's quote was in his 2000ish "Conscilience"? I
don't know if K made a similar observation? I did read his manifesto
back in the day but it is long integrated into my (weakly) associative
memory (tinyLLM?).
<For whomever might care or remember>
At LAN(S)L the mailroom/system ramped up their worries that the
Unabomber might (obviously?) target one of us... I think it was
triggered by the first death (1985) he caused? This lasted about a
year, and then the Cold war had thawed, the Iron Curtain fallen, and
USSR disbanded (sortof) and all their Nukes were called home.
It did lead to a lot of discussion (both in 85 and 95) about the
various orders or hierarchies of presumed moral
responsibility/implications around the work we did (ranging from
presumably fundamentally ?purely? humanitarian through variations on
mundane to the variations on acutely inhumane (EWPs, EMPs, Davy
Crockett, etc).
This was not a new conversation (e.g. Oppenheimer, et al vs Teller et
al, etc) and it spread from "might we ignite the atmosphere?" to "gray
goo" and bioterror speculations. I was proud that (at least) a few
Weapon's Designers/Cold Warriors starting with Oppy, continuing with
Agnew and Hecker unto Pedecini. I'm far from current (well over a
decade... dunno if anyone is chatting this up inside LANL anymore?)
Re: Kaczynski: I often forget how close we live to Florence ADX
Supermax until I drive that route to/from Denver which reminds me of
the myriad ?terrorists/criminals/psychopaths? (homegrown and imported)
we've experienced in my adulthood.
*ADX Florence* (also known as the *United States Penitentiary,
Administrative Maximum Facility* or "Supermax") in *Florence,
Colorado*, is a high-security federal prison that houses some of
the most notorious and dangerous criminals in the U.S. The
facility is known for its extreme security measures and solitary
confinement practices.
Here are some of the more notable inmates who are housed at ADX
Florence who have variously used mail, shoes, underwear, rental
trucks, and airliners to bomb their targets somewhat unconcerned
about collateral:
*1. Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber)*:
* *Crime*: A former mathematician and domestic terrorist
responsible for a nationwide bombing campaign between 1978
and 1995, which killed three people and injured 23.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 1998).
*2. Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán*:
* *Crime*: The infamous Mexican drug lord and former leader
of the *Sinaloa Cartel*, one of the most powerful drug
trafficking organizations in the world.
* *Notoriety*: Known for his daring prison escapes in Mexico
and his role in drug-related violence. He was extradited
to the U.S. in 2017, convicted in 2019, and sentenced to
life in prison.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment plus 30 years (since 2019).
*3. Ramzi Yousef*:
* *Crime*: The mastermind behind the *1993 World Trade
Center bombing*, which killed six people and injured over
1,000.
* *Other Notable Acts*: He was also involved in the *Bojinka
Plot*, a plan to bomb multiple airliners.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment plus 240 years (since 1998).
*4. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev*:
* *Crime*: One of the perpetrators of the *2013 Boston
Marathon bombing*, which killed three people and injured
over 260 others.
* *Status*: Initially sentenced to death in 2015, though
there have been legal challenges and appeals regarding the
sentence.
* *Sentence*: Currently sentenced to death, pending appeals.
*5. Richard Reid (The "Shoe Bomber")*:
* *Crime*: Reid attempted to detonate explosives hidden in
his shoes during a *2001 American Airlines flight* from
Paris to Miami.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole (since 2003).
*6. Zacarias Moussaoui*:
* *Crime*: Convicted for his role in the *9/11 attacks*,
though he was not one of the hijackers. He was found
guilty of conspiring with al-Qaeda to commit terrorism.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2006).
*7. Robert Hanssen*:
* *Crime*: A former FBI agent convicted of *spying for the
Soviet Union and Russia* for more than two decades. His
actions are considered one of the worst intelligence
breaches in U.S. history.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2002).
*8. Terry Nichols*:
* *Crime*: An accomplice in the *1995 Oklahoma City
bombing*, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds.
The attack was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in
U.S. history at the time.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 1997).
*9. Eric Rudolph*:
* *Crime*: The perpetrator of the *1996 Centennial Olympic
Park bombing* in Atlanta, which killed two people and
injured more than 100. Rudolph was also responsible for
bombing abortion clinics and a gay nightclub.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2005).
*10. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (The "Underwear Bomber")*:
* *Crime*: Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate an explosive
device hidden in his underwear during a *2009 flight to
Detroit*.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2012).
*11. Mutulu Shakur*:
* *Crime*: A former member of the *Black Liberation Army*
and stepfather of rapper *Tupac Shakur*, he was convicted
for his role in a series of armed robberies in the 1980s,
including the *Brinks armored truck robbery*, which left
two police officers and a guard dead.
* *Sentence*: 60 years, released on parole in 2022.
*12. Michael Swango*:
* *Crime*: A former doctor and serial killer who was
convicted of poisoning patients and colleagues.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2000).
And let's not forget Woody Harrelson's Father, the gangland hitman
extra-ordinaire ?
I believe we have our own (near) Weatherman in house?
*From:*Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com>
<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *steve smith
*Sent:* Friday, October 4, 2024 11:53 AM
*To:* friam@redfish.com
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] nice quote
/"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have
Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike
technology. And it is terrifically dangerous."/Edward O. Wilson.
davew
This is a favorite quote for me of late... the challenge,
methinks is "what am I going to do about it?"
I try to resolve these questions for myself before I get too
carried away trying to prescribe anything for anyone else
(especially large scale/global solutions), yet it is useful to
keep this in mind whilst considering what I think is 'best for the
collective'.
Maturing and Aging have offered me some perspective and relief
from the emotional component (especially the fight/flight
reproduce-at-all cost hormone driven ones). Similarly I've now
seen (and studied) a variety of socio-economic-political systems
enough to have at least vaguely informed opinions about them
(unlike the totally mis-informed ones I had leading me to vote
Reagan in over Carter as my first vote). The technological
question is more near and dear to my heart having been
simultaneously (or alternately?) a technophile and a luddite.
I have dabbled in 19th century (and earlier) technology to help
ground my grounding in the mid-late 20th century I grew up as part
of the background. I've been lucky enough to engage some with
21st century tech early by virtue of working at an over-funded
scientific laboratory which often either had access to or was
developing for it's own ideosyncratic reasons, things which the
public wouldn't see or maybe even hear about for decades. It was
heady. But also disturbing.
Yuval Harari's latest book /Nexus/, touches on the implications of
our "information technology" development over millenia but
especially the last few decades with a very *liberal* view of what
means information technology (and networks in particular).
Continuing his other cautionary tales about the power of our
"storytelling", I feel like he lays the groundwork for the most
likely way we might recalibrate emotions to institutions to
technology. Our technology has been pulling hard against the drag
of our institutions which are faithfully trying to drag our
emotions (e.g. religious/political/cultural moral frameworks) and
the impedance mismatch seems to be the source of most of our worst
behaviours/outcomes?
The stories our modern MAGA/FauxRepublican/FauxConservative
political party in the US is telling is rooted deeply in the
emotional with only the barest nod to the institutional (support
LawNorder!!!!) and a jealous greedy eye for the godlike tech (e.g.
Trump cozying up to Musk/TechBros and NFTs and Crypto as if he
understands ANY of it?).
The Progressive/Liberal "institutions" of the DNC seem to be a
little less regressive/reactionary but do in fact suffer some of
the same problems albeit not as acutely superficially obvious.
Without bashing the specifics of what "the Dems" might be getting
wrong, if we don't notice the impedance mismach EO Wilson called
out for us there, we are destined to have raucous "ringing" in our
systems? I think the promise of a "Green New Deal" juxtaposed
with some of the biggest obvious fallacies and inadequacies are a
good example... by the time we actually settle on what a GND
might really look like the challenges and opportunities may have
moved on by a decade or more (is GND a whole decade old as a term
yet?) while MAGA keeps trying to claim "we believe in clean air
and water but sea level rise will be fractions of an inch in
centuries at worst and will yield more beachfront property in any
case"?
How do we move our collective storytelling to be both coherent and
aligned with the physics/chemistry/bio/ecology of Gaia quickly
enough to quit driving the various components past their limits
(drill baby drill!)?
Maybe we cannot. Maybe we will have to crash and burn and hope
something can rise from the ashes (cockroaches and the Rolling
Stones? NeoLibertarian TechBros in their high-tech Bitcoin
Bunkers raising their own clones?)
Atlas Shrugs, Gaia Shrugs more Bigly.... (Rand, Margulis,
Dilbert, Trump references convolved?)
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