Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA15131 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 29 Apr 2002 19:38:14 +0100 From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Saving the ethnosphere Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 14:33:38 -0400 Message-ID: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAAEENCPAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) In-Reply-To: <B8F2F129.1149C%bbenzon@mindspring.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6700 Importance: Normal Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
"Mindless fool"?
I think Philip is referring to the preservation of obsolescing languages,
William, not the destruction of human beings and their habitats. Agree or
disagree with it, he offers an interesting POV, not a mindless or a foolish
one.
I know a language that has now become extinct. I like it aesthetically, but
don't think that it has diminished human capacities to have lost it. The
descendants of the people who spoke it are alive and flourishing, and view
the lost language as an historical curiosity -- not a catastrophe.
Lawrence
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of William Benzon
> Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 2:12 PM
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Saving the ethnosphere
>
>
> on 4/28/02 11:44 PM, Philip Jonkers at philipjonkers@prodigy.net wrote:
>
> > The less languages around the less potential confusion will be
> brought about
> > by people trying to communicate
> > as the probability increases that they speak the same language.
> Extinction
> > of redundant languages is a natural
> > process in an environment with progressive global communication.
> > Trying to intervene in this natural process, in the sense of trying to
> > preserve superfluous languages, to me seems to
> > be as artificial as genetic engineering is to biological evolution. A
> > difference between the two being that, unlike the latter, the
> former lacks
> > possible benefit other than one of sentimental and/or historic value.
> >
> > Phil.
>
> I gather then, that you approve of these "natural" events:
>
>
> > It is not change that threatens the ethnosphere; it is power. Dynamic
> > living cultures are being destroyed because of political and economic
> > decisions made by outside entities. In the upper reaches of the Orinoco,
> > a gold rush brings disease to the Yanomami, killing a quarter of the
> > population in a decade. In Nigeria, pollutants from the oil industry so
> > saturate the floodplain of the Niger River, homeland of the Ogoni, that
> > the once fertile soils can no longer be farmed. That such conflicts
> > result from deliberate choices made by men is both discouraging and
> > empowering. If people are the agents of cultural loss, we can also be
> > the facilitators of cultural survival.
>
> The general problem is a deep and difficult one and I certainly don't know
> how to deal with it. But your comment indicates that you are a mindless
> fool.
>
> --
>
> William L. Benzon
> 708 Jersey Avenue, Apt. 2A
> Jersey City, NJ 07302
> 201 217-1010
>
> "you won't get a wild heroic ride to heaven on pretty little
> sounds"--george
> ives
>
>
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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