PERCEPTION OF MAN

(from elsewhere)

The general rule is this:

  1. we are super-predators that have evolved a VAST web of proxies for violence in order to retain the REPEATED benefits of cooperation over the LIMITED returns on predation.

  2. if you participate in the cooperative market you will observe the effects of these proxies as the REFLECTION of regular demonstration of human behavior.

  3. if you participate in the CONFLICT market you will observe the effect of these proxies as OBSCURING the regular demonstration of human behavior.

  4. Manners, lack of access to competitors, because of the affinities of people in social groups, and the threat of local ostracization and violence prevent us from and OBSCURE human behavior.

  5. Internet (the series travel > written word > media > internet) access to ALLIES and COMPETITORS because of the affinity for combatants (political activists) to seek combat (argument).

  6. Therefore, real world social interactions are necessary for safety and for value creation and obscure the vast differences in behavior we can experience directly. Knowledge of competitors (media) exacerbates it. the influence of activists on media exacerbates it. Access to competitors for direct conflict exacerbates it.

  7. we solve the problem of cooperation by the blind men eating the elephant. we can only work with what we can touch, and we can only cooperate with those next to us but if we ever come to understand that those who we don’t out of necessity cooperate with will seize the benefits of not doing so whenever the distance from our physical violence permits, they will.

I don’t watch television News because it is the worst possible means of obtaining knowledge. I don’t read magazines because they were (are no longer) useful. I don’t really read the news (or pop culture). I do however monitor the social science data and economic data. What changed my mind about following current events, was the proximity of revolution and interest in watching it unfold.