[ExI] police

Wed Jun 17 21:44:41 UTC 2020

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] police

 the proles who hang out here know me.  I figure we are all among friends here.

spike

I mention 'pantyhose' and get a whimsical reply.  You mention sex slave.  Is there an emoticom for 'embarrassed giggle'?   bill w

BillW, probably there is such an emoticon, but I fear I lack the actual emotion that goes with embarrassment.  I have a theory on this.  We all are born with a certain reservoir of emotions, beyond which one cannot go.  Or perhaps just becomes inured to it, at which time it becomes one’s natural state.  All this is another way of saying: emotion is relative.

For instance, many of us know those who seem to go around annoyed all the time.  The person may not even realize she is angry, for after a number of years, that is just the normal state: she wakes irked, goes thru the day miffed at everything that happens and everything that is said and done, is still irritated at dinner, goes to bed still pissed.  For her, all that was ordinary.  She didn’t even realize there was any other emotional state.  She wore out that emotion, or became so accustomed to it, the different shades of angry are subtle to the point of near irrelevance.

I did and said so many goofy things in my misspent youth that by the time I reached adolescence, I had lost my capacity to feel embarrassment, wore it out, exhausted my reservoir of shame.  This becomes a form of freedom, which is just another word for nothing left to lose.  If one has burned away all human dignity, then one is free to do or say any goofy thing that comes to mind.

This too has its advantages, even in the business setting.  Example, suppose the engineering team is up against a really tough problem.  The boss calls everybody together to think, think outside the box.  She goes around the room having people come up with some idea.  When each engineer is out of ideas, he or she can pass, and we go around until everyone passes.  In those exercises, if one crazy goof is unafraid to suggest some silly idea which would embarrass anyone with any actual dignity, that one guy can rattle off idea after idea after idea, when every other prole in the room sits in silent awe, or is debilitated with laughter at how silly are the absurdities being spouted by their embarrassment-immune colleague, as even the eternally-pissed boss seems genuinely amused, an unaccustomed state for her.   She specializes in angry, I specialize in creative self-embarrassment.

Most of the time, a solution can be derived from one of the most absurd notions.

Had I not worn out my ability to experience embarrassment, I could not be that guy, for I would be far too abashed to even propose the course we eventually chose.

Richard Feynman writes about this phenom in his marvelous book “What Do You Care What Other People Think?”  

I really relate to that guy.  He and I are alike in so many ways.  Of course he was a brilliant physicist and I suck.  But other than that… we are alike.

spike

On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 3:48 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> > On Behalf Of Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat

>…How the term was used in your spouse’s great-great-grandfather’s time probably isn’t a guide for how it’s used now. For California law — and be prepared for some legalese — see:

 <http://www.clrc.ca.gov/pub/2001/MM01-09.pdf> http://www.clrc.ca.gov/pub/2001/MM01-09.pdf

>…Is this mistaken? Or is there some official local title in your area of constable? 

Thanks for the article Dan.  We use the term to mean the city law enforcement who go about under flashing lights, as opposed to the office guys, the detectives, the ranking officials in the local PD: constables are the line-level guys we see enough to recognize their faces.  In some cases we know their names.  

I am fortunate to live in a community which is on good terms with our law enforcement.  It is said to be the first city in California to require a 4 year college degree as a requirement to be a police officer.

>…You also keep using the term bride also to mean wife, I presume. Or is your marriage to her quite recent? I mean recent as a week ago or less… Dan

I did use that term when we had been wed a week or less.  I just never gave it up.  We recently celebrated 36 years of wedded bliss.  She is still my bride, I am still her dedicated manservant, catering to her every wish, fulfilling her every random whim.  She doesn’t mind my referring to her as my bride.  I don’t mind her referring to me as her sex slave.

Eh, the proles who hang out here know me.  I figure we are all among friends here.

spike

_______________________________________________
extropy-chat mailing list
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> 
http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20200617/f7e4bfea/attachment.htm>