From: Ken Huck (kenhuck@jps.net)
Date: Fri Jun 07 2002 - 13:24:56 MDT
sylvia m. <max@sentex.net
>
> ...an AI that would take over and enforce Friendliness?"
>
> AN AI THAT WOULD TAKE OVER AND ENFORCE FRIENDLINESS ??
>
> \ /\ / !_!
> \/ \/ ! !... ?
>
>defining "friendliness" for other people is as insidious and pompous and
>dangerous as defining "beauty" or "art".
Refusing to define and enforce non-violence or friendliness on the
members of your society and even its enemeys is in my opinion uncivil,
unsafe and unsustainable.
I witnessed an extraordinary example of spontaneous collective low-
violence enforcement of "friendliness" at a Rainbow gathering in Alabama
during the Summer of 1993. Two men of questionable mental stability
escalated a small disagreement into a heated arguement. The noise
attracted the attention of the 15 or 20 people around them. Initially
some women tried to defuse the situation verbally but when the conflict
abruptly got physical most of the males nearby responded decisively.
Even though many of us were strangers to each other without direction we
acted in unision to supress the conflict. Most of us reached out put our
hands on the men seperated and effectively restrained them. Impromtu
leaders elicited promises from them both to cool off and not get physical
before letting them go.
This event occured in a rocky area beside a large open fire. Had we
failed to act as a group we could have easily been dealing with a life
threatening situation. Because we were able to act decisively as a team
the little dustup was over in a minute or two with limited injury and
property damage and the group had forced its norms onto the two men.
This served the needs of the group as well as those of the individuals
involved.
Were the ability of individuals to act in concert to support our
collective "friendliness" values more generalized in our society we could
achieve greater freedom and while spending less on police and a complex
legal system.
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