[extropy-chat] Protest and Prayer

[Brett Paatsch]

I think these two, protest and prayer are alike.

Both and carried out by people whose aims, superficially, to get direct
personal intervention are almost certainly statistically destined to fail. 
But both carried out by people in the presence of other people can serve
a purpose. 

To the extent that human feelings and frustrations and aspirations are
verbalised and creditable although perhaps unrealisable they tell others
that they are not alone in having the same feelings.

People rarely publicly pray for stuff that isn't worthy of more generally
being an aspiration goal, perhaps because if they fear they did, their
prayer for the suffering of their enemy would diminsh them in the eyes
of their friends. 

Protesters rarely put policy on their placards. Full blown policy doesn't
fit. 

Peace is not the natural, inheritance of man, man is naturally a fighter
and competitor against other men, peace must be hard won against
prejudice and pettiness and conservatism of thought. 

When protests ask publicly for peace it is easy to see them as naive
and to characterise them as naive but the aspiration for peace has to
be there and has to be articulated for peace to even be known to be
a shared object.

Humans need no encouragement for war or pettiness. Its natural for
us as animals that have no other significant predators apart from others
of our species.  We do war and innovate around violence as though we
have evolved to do it because we have. 
 
But we can aspire for peace and sometimes achieve it. And it is through
our protests and our public prayers that many of us express our aspiration
that tomorrow be better than today. That amongst the afflictions that 
hit us, the afflictions from each other, from other humans might be reduced
so that we might better, more rationally, more effectively, address the 
afflictions that don't come from each other, but are the vagaries of a
careless evolutionary process. 

Brett Paatsch

(one who is not G/god but hears the prayers and protests)
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