[extropy-chat] re: embedded in open hearts (Meta/EP)

Olga Bourlin fauxever at sprynet.com
Sun Apr 10 20:45:44 UTC 2005


From: "Amara Graps" <Amara.Graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it>

> Yes, I thought it was intensely interesting and funny
> sometimes too. That article from the Times reporter
> tickled my funny bone because I saw the same thing. And
> touching: The fresh-faced kids yelling out their soccer
> chant (Giovaaaaaaaa-ni Paoooo-lo! clap-clap-clap!) was so
> sweet. Overall, the symbolism was fantastic. I wish
> Joseph Campbell was alive to have seen it.

I live in downtown Seattle, a few blocks from two large sports stadiums - 
Seahawks and Safeco.  At times during the year sportsfans stream down my 
street.  I was out walking around on one occasion when I observed a little 
girl - 2 or 3 years of age - looking up at the people surrounding her and 
taking her clue from them.  They were all shouting:  "Ichiro!  Ichiro" and, 
of course, she joined in:  "Ichiro! Ichiro!"

While the children themselves are often almost-too-impossibly-sweet (another 
survival tactic, heh heh heh), I was somewhat horrified to be reminded of 
how impressionable they really are.  It made me think of photographs I've 
seen of little Nazi children, photographs of children at U.S. lynchings, and 
little KKK children in their cute child-sized pointy hoods being carried 
around by their proud white-supremacist parents (the latter I saw on TV 
numerous times), and all the other children in the world who take on the 
coloration of their elders - how easy (and expected) it is for children to 
do this.  Small children don't tend to think about things like "emotional 
contagion" - whether that's a good thing or not (and that's not surprising, 
for they're taking in an unprecedented amount of important things during 
their first years - they've only just arrived on this planet, after all). 
Children - in those important formative years - tend simply to follow.  It's 
in their (survival) nature.

>>Why do humans react this way?
>
> OK, survival. Is that why Hubert can't laugh about it?

I don't know about Hubert, but to me it's friggin' scary.  It seems humans 
may do well to examine and try to overcome this tendency - I don't mean the 
tendency to survive, but the tendency to become "one with the mob."

> Why do I have no trouble laughing about the events of last week?

Do cynical, sardonic smiles count?

> A related topic is: how can extropians/transhumans
> complain about the intolerance of the religious, if they
> are equally or more intolerant in their own attitudes?
> So for EP: I would think that there is a survival value
> for tolerance (or at least humor :-) ).

Would be an interesting topic.  Again, I think it is important to 
distinguish between:

1) being tolerant of others (i.e., letting "others" have a place at the 
table); vs.
2) necessarily respecting the others' beliefs.

In other words, keeping in mind what Voltaire said:  "I disapprove of what 
you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."

Olga





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