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<DIV>This cropped up in an email conversation with a friend from India tonight. It relates to things Michael Lockhart (anonymous_animus) and I have been discussing.</DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Abhinav Goyal: </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT size=3><FONT face=Arial>To be frank, I am a little confused about which side of the spectrum - right or left - do I really belong to? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><FONT size=3><FONT face=Arial>hb: it's disturbing that in India you feel compelled to fit into the two available stereotypes of political thought in the West.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><FONT size=3><FONT face=Arial>A choice between only two political approaches in a world of great complexity indicates that our political concepts are primitive and stifling.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT size=3><FONT face=Arial>What's worse, it indicates that our politics are a<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>badge of identity, a decision about which of<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>two social groups we want to join.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The notion that they are useful or penetrating ideas is merely a blind, a disguise for a social choice.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">I suspect that the more you maintain a position above, below, and outside the acceptable spectrum of left and right, the more likely you are to produce thoughts of value to your fellow human beings. Howard</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">----------<BR>Howard Bloom<BR>Author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History and Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st Century<BR>Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York University; Core Faculty Member, The Graduate Institute<BR>www.howardbloom.net<BR>www.bigbangtango.net<BR>Founder: International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic of Evolution Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The Big Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International Society for Human Ethology; advisory board member: Youthactivism.org; executive editor -- New Paradigm book series.<BR>For information on The International Paleopsychology Project, see: www.paleopsych.org<BR>for two chapters from <BR>The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, see www.howardbloom.net/lucifer<BR>For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, see www.howardbloom.net<BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>