Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id GAA21748 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 2 May 2002 06:24:41 +0100 Message-ID: <20020502051923.89366.qmail@web10107.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 22:19:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Trupeljak Ozren <ozren_trupeljak@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Saving the ethnosphere To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk In-Reply-To: <B8F57707.115CC%bbenzon@mindspring.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
--- William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> Yes. Now, the ugliest part of the story of the destruction of
> American
> Indian societies is well in the past. It happened, there's nothing
> we can
> do about it. And I'm certainly not interested in rehashing those
> events.
Up to a certain point, neither am I. But U.S. and the resto of the
world have not learned anything from the N.American example - this *is*
a problem I am interested in. Why, how, and how to change it...
>
> But, the article that started this conversation is about what is
> happening
> now to hundreds or thousands of societies and cultures. And some
> significant number of those cases -- I really don't know how many --
> involve
> coercion (economic, political) and violence. What I find disturbing
> about
> this conversation is people's willingness to think of this as an
> impersonal
> and natural process that has little impact on people's lives.
>
I completely agree with you. It was so disturbing that this and the
other thread brought me back to life from and extended lurking period..
My best guess at why so many people don't consider it to be a problem
is this: first, people are number-blind. Anything bigger than 10,or a
100, doesn't mean much to the minds of most of the people. Therefore
the lack of distinction between the case where an occasional culture
disappears, and the one where thousands are disappearing.
Second, majority of the people today living on Earth are part of a
global meta-culture that rewards exculsive short-term thinking.
Whatever happens in more than a few years in future, is completely
outside the scope, and thus irrelevant.
=====
There are very few men - and they are exceptions - who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment.
Carl von Clausewitz
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