From: Forrest Bishop (forrestb@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 19:13:24 MDT
----- Original Message -----
From: spike66 <spike66@attbi.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: Greed (was Charging for obesity)
> >
> >
> > Forrest Bishop [ mailto:forrestb@ix.netcom.com ] wrote:
> >
> > Closely related to coveting, the desire to possess that which belongs
> > to someone else. There is a word in German that translates as
> >
> > "joy in the distress of others", e.g. the fascination found in
> > watching a car wreck, a war, or a boxing match.
> >
> A boxing match? That third example doesnt fit with the other two.
> Boxing is a sport, granted a rough one. Think of it as a chess game,
> except with actual pain. spike
Yes, it's the vicarious pain and pleasure I was pointing at. What fits and what doesn't is a function of one's current model of
reality, or framework,
which is different for each person. Boxing is a sport, to be sure; most boxers do exhibit sportsmanlike attitudes and behavior, as
they are simply satisfying a market demand for blood sport. The example was chosen as it illustrates the smallest social unit- the
dyad- that engages in the economic transaction called warfare. A fairly accurate interpretation of the nature and history of
government can be built up from this reductionist view of compulsion and coersion. I'm writing an economics paper on "The Dyadic
Decomposition", so will save the rest for later.
"War is the health of the State"
--Lord Acton
Forrest
-- Forrest Bishop Chairman, Institute of Atomic-Scale Engineering www.iase.cc
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