Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA21611 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 13 Sep 2001 02:58:14 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [209.240.220.151] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Why? Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 21:53:15 -0400 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F270cdn1YcEBdyFj9ZY0000151c@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Sep 2001 01:53:15.0389 (UTC) FILETIME=[DA5212D0:01C13BF6] Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: <AaronLynch@aol.com>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: Why?
>Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 20:06:04 EDT
>
>In June, I gave a talk in the Wall Street financial district on the subject
>of stock market thought contagions. I had been invited to give the talk
>mainly to address what caused the bubble and crash in the technology stocks
>and in the broader market, as well as boom and bust in an entire economy.
>Before addressing those topics, however, I discussed something that no one
>wanted to hear: how contagions of ideas that cause war and mass violence
>can
>send shock waves through the world financial markets. An earlier draft of
>my
>talk put things in such stark terms that it would have cast a pall over the
>conference, and may have just made people shut out the message.
>
>Right after my talk, a group of about 50 of us walked west on Wall Street,
>past the New York Stock Exchange, then North on Broadway, and West on
>Liberty
>Street. We then entered the World Trade Center, walked through the complex,
>and out to the World Trade Center marina on the Hudson River. There, we
>boarded a yacht and went sailing around Manhattan for several hours. The
>view
>of lower Manhattan was fantastic, but I continued to discuss with several
>people my sad sense of how vulnerable the whole place was in the face of
>the
>extremely hostile ideologies and warfare ideas spreading throughout the
>world, as well as the gravely dangerous clashes between ethnic, religious,
>and political movements. At present, I do not know whether all of the
>people
>I met that day are safe.
>
>I have long been surprised that a mass-violence attack had not happened
>earlier, particularly given the past attempts, though I am still as shocked
>as anyone now that it has actually happened. Unfortunately, far worse
>attacks
>remain possible and increasingly likely. A dangerously complacent attitude
>toward the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons
>technologies will need to be reversed, even if such weapons have already
>been
>smuggled into target cities.
>
>Regarding what I can contribute toward answering the hard questions of
>"why,"
>I have discussed ideological causes of mass violence in my book Thought
>Contagion and in a variety of works since then. (Some of the papers and
>excerpts are available at thoughtcontagion.com.) I am continuing to work on
>these urgent subjects. Besides the natural questions of "who did it," we
>need
>to pay far more attention to questions of "what did it."
>
>
>
I'd settle for who did it and where they are *right now*!
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