To help prevent such a disaster, let's do our best to help people imagine what the world would look like if Trump wins.
For example, Trump has said that one of his priorities would be to throw off the occupying army of invading immigrants and criminals. Ask people to think about how this occupying force is currently ruining people's lives. I suspect that very few people have any experience of such a noxious invading force. Most people find their lives relatively peaceful. But if Trump begins to implement his plan to throw off this occupying force, the streets would be full of armed deportation agents chasing down the evil occupying forces. Gunfights would erupt between the deportation agents and immigrants running for their lives. Many of us would be caught in the crossfire--or holed up at home trying to avoid the bullets. Ask people to imagine such a world and to compare it to the relatively peaceful world we now occupy. Ask them if that is really what we want and if that is what we will be voting for next Tuesday. -- Russ Abbott Professor Emeritus, Computer Science California State University, Los Angeles On Wed, Oct 30, 2024 at 11:48 PM Jochen Fromm <j...@cas-group.net> wrote: > Here in Europe most people are indeed worried that the candidate who is a > convicted felon and wears orange makeup will become president again. Have > his fans all forgotten he mainly played golf, praised dictators and created > tax cuts for the superrich? But there is also a bit of hope that a woman > will stop him this time. > > A hundred years ago there was already a group in America that hated Blacks > and immigrants. As Timothy Egan writes in his book "A Fever in the > Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who > Stopped Them" one of the Ku Klux Klan leaders was a charismatic charlatan > named D.C. Stephenson. He was eventually brought down by a woman, Madge > Oberholtzer, who would reveal his cruelties, and whose testimony stopped > the Klan. When Europe fell into darkness, America was able to stop the con > man. I hope it can do it again. > > > https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558306/a-fever-in-the-heartland-by-timothy-egan/ > > -J. > > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Nicholas Thompson <thompnicks...@gmail.com> > Date: 10/30/24 10:54 PM (GMT+01:00) > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> > > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Evolutionary transitions between egalitarian and > despotic societies > > Hi, Jochen, > > Not sarcastic. It was to show the exploratory nature of such models. I > do believe that the most mysterious feature of charisma is the behavior of > the charasmees. However this election turns out, almost half the country > is about to willingly offer up it's political autonomy to a potential > dictator. Whatever my faults, I try, try, TRY not to do sarcasm. I do > wonder if we could build models that explore under what circumstances it is > better for everybody to do SOMETHING then to take the time to pool > information and do the right thing. > > In general evolutionary history has no actual power to constrain our > present behavior. Our behavior is constrainted by present events and > present behavioral repertoire. > > Nick > > On Wed, Oct 30, 2024 at 2:37 PM Jochen Fromm <j...@cas-group.net> wrote: > >> In her book "The Social Instinct" Nichola Raihani mentions in chapter 17 >> the article "An evolutionary model explaining the Neolithic transition from >> egalitarianism to leadership and despotism" from Simon T. Powers as a model >> how despotic regimes and dominance hierarchies have evolved in early >> human societies. >> >> https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2014.1349 >> >> It reminds me of our recent discussion triggered by Nick's (sarcastic?) >> proposal to explain parts of the MAGA movement in terms of evolutionary >> psychology. Simon T. Powers is an interdisciplinary researcher working at >> the University of Sterling >> >> https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/2013555 >> >> A more recent article from him about "Modelling transitions between >> egalitarian, dynamic leader and absolutist power structures" can be found >> here >> >> https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/hub/publication/2041639 >> >> >> -J. >> >> -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom >> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam >> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> archives: 5/2017 thru present >> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >> > > > -- > Nicholas S. Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology > Clark University > nthomp...@clarku.edu > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson > -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
