RE: Words and memes

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 12 2002 - 22:52:04 GMT

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Subject: RE: Words and memes
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:52:04 -0500
From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
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Hi Lawrence DeBivort -

>Was
>the Foundation structure the closest we might come to finding an answer to
>these issues? I don't know, and would very much welcome your thoughts on
>this.

I am torn, as you are, in equal pieces by this. Yes, it would be nice (so
nice) if there were somehow to discern with such certainty, and to set up
with such declaration, such a Foundation or set of Foundations, but, at
the same time, there's the old question of guarding the guards, and,
hmmm, just who is making these decisions in the first place?- because,
well, there's just no way to presume 'their' agenda really wants to think
about 'us'.

Part of Asimov's charm was the utter beneficence of Seldon and his crew.
And I'm afraid that I too have grown wary of seeing such largesse of
spirit and foresight. For every firefighter at the WTC, there are
hucksters selling souvenirs.

Kenneth Lay takes the fifth. He was a Seldon to many, seeing the way.

Here in Boston, handfuls of priests a day are revealed as pederasts with
long histories of abuse, protected and coddled by the cardinal himself,
who refuses to resign, hubris intact and glowing. And yet, that was the
way, to so many, for so long.

As for the unicorns in our gardens, well, I'm definitely a 'no secrets'
sort. But, I can sympathize. (And at the same time, mistrust.) There it
is.

>I don't know how this paucity
>of wisdom gets overcome.

I don't either. Freedom helps. So does freely distributed information.
And, yeah, so does erasing the concept of property. As long as there
_are_ borders, and borders to protect, there will be reasons to cross
them. And double-cross them.

May we live in interesting times.

- Wade

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