[ExI] Artificial Battles was Natasha's brand new doctorate

[BillK]

On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 5:03 PM, Mike Dougherty wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 11:13 AM, spike wrote:
>> My proposal for our race: get rid of those artificial battles which are
>> physically dangerous: the kinds that involve military anything or any kind
>> of physical injury or serious death to anyone.  Keep and nurture the rest of
>> them, while inventing new and interesting challenges in which humans and
>> corporations may compete, the result of which is excellence for all and
>> superiority for some.
>
> Have you never seen an infomercial?  These mind-penetrating jingles
> and artificial gotta-have-it responses are masterful exploitation of
> psychology and culture.  Sure you may be immune to the want/need for a
> hand-puppet attached to a blanket*, but you are caught in the
> crossfire when your child becomes infected with this meme.  Even if
> you say "No" there are grandparents whose immunity [so strong when you
> were a child] failed the moment your own kids arrived.
>
> The marketing environment is producing arguably toxic levels of
> competing memes.  I'm horrified and fascinated by where evolution will
> take this trend.
>
>

I find Spike's idea of fair and sportsmanlike competition rather
quaint and idealistic.

We are now living through the terrifying results of decades of fraud
and corruption.

That is the biggest challenge we face - getting fair competition
rather than ruthless greed and criminal scheming.


BillK