
Mankind's Inner Ant - commons-tragedy
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2019/06/mankind-s-inner-ant-why-humans-swarm-together
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cairo_x
"Like it or not, we need the continued existence of others, who may be seen as
revolting, barbaric or just alien, to know who we are."

What a crock. People become barbaric when their own personal situation and
environment has become barbaric. Drought and poverty are the leading causes
for people to become barbaric--not the lack of anything to compare oneself to.
And if it's not as extreme as that--that he's implying we need people to
compare ourselves to to maintain self worth, there are levels. You can't just
say shit like that. It's one thing to watch failed America Idol auditions to
makes oneself feel better about oneself, it's another to regard said people as
alien or disgusting barbarians. Irony is, the people who judge cultures or
personalities in such an extreme way are the worst of us themselves (and if
all xenophobes were all to change their ways tomorrow, I wouldn't suddenly
lose my ability to identify anti-social behavior, just as other people
wouldn't lose the ability to re-embrace it).

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erobbins
His point is that the external threat of barbarians or whatever is what held
together civilizations like Rome. They had an external threat to rally
together against. Here in the US the period after 9/11 was very similar, or
after Pearl Harbor, etc etc.

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devoply
America invents a boogie man to rally behind. There is no real boogie man.
Hell go see Regan's speech where he's talking about ralling against alien
threat rather than fighting the Soviet Union.

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Jun8
"The second implication is that there is no hope for a universal human
society. “The notion of cosmopolitanism, the idea that the people of the world
will come to feel a primary connection to the human race, is a pipe dream,”
Moffett says."

One of the questions I ask to new-found friends to get to know them better is:
"How do you feel about the Borg? If there was such a central system would you
agree to be hooked up?"

I don't think primary connection to the human race is a pipe dream, nor is it
a bad thing. But we have to invent technologies for people to
experience/understand other people's thoughts.

~~~
ALittleLight
It's an interesting question. Personally I feel it depends if there's a trial
period and easy separation. If your sales pitch is "Try it and it's so awesome
you'll want to keep doing it" that's a lot more compelling (assuming non-
addictive) than "resistance is futile".

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spookybones
What a dupe. Once you try the hive mind trial, you will automatically believe
what the collective believes, that YES, IT IS AWESOME.

~~~
memeplex
This made me laugh

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vipref
I don't agree. The ant looks much distant to us.

There are colonization tendencies in every living being, I think. Ants are not
the only one. A wolf pack hangs together, so do a bunch of chimpanzees and
zebras. The difference is in the way this tendency is expressed and the author
fails to draw comparisons appropriately.

Just my opinion!

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PavlikPaja
So... do autistic people smell different?

