Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Softracize (v.)
To ostracize a person faction or thing, not out of malicious intent, but as a necessary act of exclusion against a chaotic agent, a prerequisite first step to getting something done.
In the manuscript, Chapter Two, I describe…
…the toddler jumping on the bed, while you’re sitting on it trying to fix a pocketwatch…
It is a metaphor I invoke a few more times subsequently, because it’s important. Indeed, as I recall bittersweet memories from my twenties and thirties, I see much of this record amounts to a circular dummy-go-round of me learning over and over again, the real difference between order and chaos.
Things that actually work, be they living or not, are organisms of maintained order functioning within skins. Chaos exists on the outside of those skins. Order is preserved within. The rules may go on for pages and pages, or they may consist of a line or two; they may be written or they may not be. But there has to be a perimeter, within which there is compliance, or at least a means to assess, achieve and maintain it.
The software development project has coding standards. The village has a gate. The castle has a moat.
“Democratic socialism” is trendy right now, it politically appeals to people who have compassion for the ones outside of the moat. It is not an unreasonable thing to have this compassion. The implied contract of the community is “We maintain that all within these walls adhere to the standards but we make no assessment for or against the ones outside.” From time to time, an outsider may enter, or petition to enter, and be found worthy. Or the community may venture outside, discover someone worthy, and approach with an invitation.
But the goal people have in mind when they hear about this, is to tear down the walls so that everyone on the outside can benefit from the advantages within. It’s a fool’s errand. It may be achieved in a moment for photo-op purposes, but over the longer term of time, you can no more practically separate privileges from associated responsibility than you can separate the soy sauce from a jar of teriyaki.
If an element on the inside does not conform, it has to be brought up to spec. If that cannot be done, there is going to have to be an act of separation. Until that is completed, a situation of moderate disorder will have to be acknowledged. Typically that will result in a temporary suspension of real progress; creation will have to give way to preservation.
This is not obliteration. It is simply the way human progress, and communal living, function. Can’t fix the pocketwatch when there are little kids jumping on the bed. Can’t build the house of cards while you’re in the same room practicing your kickboxing. Order has to be shielded from chaos, or else chaos will devour order. It has always been this way.
So don’t shoot the messenger.
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Oh sweetie, your “ideas” are not being ignored and thrown out, they’re merely being supplanted!
- CaptDMO | 12/05/2018 @ 15:43