I bet Thai never thought that I would invade the territory of his game, but I am doing it NOW.
In my own fashion, with my own method, and observations, but I am doing it. (And... when will Thai invade MY territory, lol... ?)
As always with me, let's start with the... clinical examination.
Yesterday I headed off on my bicycle to do my bi-weekly shopping at the farmer's market (there is a post here on the farmer's market, my first, for Street Dog, if he is interested. End of ad.). I have enormous bags fixed to my bike so that I can haul up to 30-40 kilos at any stretch, so it works well for not using that... polluting four wheeled vehicle.
Three quarters of the way down the little semi dirt track that the local town hall installed for the Dubai folk in our commune (off limits to through traffic, only the OWNERS have access, you call that democracy ???), a man was rapidly approaching on foot the barrier that blocks car traffic, and that I had to get through in order to continue.
He was.... walking in the middle of the road, just... RIGHT to block my passage.
So I cheerfully called out "beep beep" (I no longer have an official "bell", I don't like them, and think it's kind of fun to produce my own sound effects...), and he moved over, grudgingly, and telling me off, even though (I think...) I thanked him for doing so.
Comment :
Why do people walk in the middle of the road ?
They do so, because WHEN THERE IS NO-ONE ELSE THERE they move out to occupy all the space (or territory...). Why... cramp yourself in when you can spread yourself out ?
But when an incident happens like the one above, all of a sudden, territory gets.... redistributed.
If the situation had permitted it, I would have taken several deep bows, said "excuse me excuse me, I would like to get around you in order to continue moving on my bike", but... you can guess that the situation DID NOT permit that kind of social sniffing.
So he was peeved. He felt that my "beep beep" was an offensive INVASION of his (drum roll, here comes the BIG word) INDIVIDUAL RIGHT to occupy the whole road the way he wanted to.
He was incapable of seeing that my "beep beep" was intended to help BOTH OF US find a suitable compromise that would permit BOTH OF US (individuals) to continue moving without sacrifice on either part, within the PUBLIC realm of the commons.
This incident is, of course, symptomatic of what is going on at all levels in our society these days.
Tragedy of the Commons is the tragedy that Rousseau got the best grasp on (sorry Thai, don't scream...).
27 comments:
the farmer's market (there is a post here on the farmer's market, my first, for Street Dog
I'm very fond of farmer's markets. Although I appreciate many of the advantages of modern technology, I long for simpler living. Many of happiest times in life are imbued with simplicity. Helping grandfather pick out breads at la panaderia...buying groceries for an outdoor brunch with family and friends...harassing your francophile friend and their superior knowledge of red wine.
...the little semi dirt track...off limits to through traffic, only the OWNERS have access
This reminds me of the differences between men and women. (no, this is not a veiled attempt at discussing feminism). The male version of Lady Debra's story:
Tragedy of the Black Knight of the Commons (WARNING: comedic gratuitous violence, sorry to besmirch the Lady Debra's peaceful post and mostly peaceful nature)
Yes, this is a silly generalization, forgive my wandering mind. Once again, the accumulated wisdom of the past sits on a shelf collecting dust. The simplicity in life is a nice antidote to the tragedy of the commons.
Or that favorite rabbit hole author I quoted once before. - Thai
Cool! And don't let any rabbit stereotypes irk you; herbivores can be ferocious! - Dink
Yea, Carroll had a way with words. I liked the Jabberwocky poem. - SD
Tragedy of the Black Knight of the Commons - Lady Debra's post --> clip with a snicker-snackering blade
Sorry, but I couldn't resist posting yet AGAIN another violent clip (pardons again to the Lady Debra for the violence and sacrilegious language, you can strip me of my Knighthood). The SYNCHRONICITY of the above past comments MANDATES that I do so. Carroll coined the term vorpal (the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!) in the Jabberwocky poem from Through the Looking-Glass.... The rabbit in the following clip is known as the vorpal bunny. Dink was right! Thai can be dangerous!
Vorpal Bunny
Oh, don't get any ideas Thai, I have a pet bodyguard, her name is Ninjah.
Just got back from my local farmer's market, miserable drizzly day here.
And it is the commons so how can it be my territory?
And I Agree we all spread out. Indeed this post and clips reminds me how I was talking with my brother the other day (he is a research oncologist in Industry in the San Francisco bay area) and he shared a similar story with edge's of SD's Black Knight vid.
Apparently he was surfing at a new break point (for him) in Santa Cruz when a group of local surfers surrounded him in the water and made it very clear they would physically harm him if he did not leave immediately- surfers are a VERY territorial species.
Anyway, what are you going to do when it is 8 to 1 in the middle of the ocean with no one else around and it is 8 in the morning?
Happily he found a better point 1/2 mile down the beach with an even longer break so in the end they did him a favor.
Anyway, another example of your same point, we do spread out.
And you will have to hum a few more bars about how Rousseau got this right before I can either agree or disagree with you.
And SD: he he he he he! ;-)
Street Rats,
Enjoying a sunny but cool Saturday here with family and my dog Maximilian ("Max"). The Lady Debra's post induced the fractal population of neurons in my skull to remember this passage from a science fiction novel:
I have isolated the city-experience within me and have examined it closely. The idea of a city fascinates me. The formation of a biological community without a functioning, supportive social community leads to havoc. Whole worlds have become single biological communities without an interrelated social structure and this has always led to ruin. It becomes dramatically instructive under overcrowded conditions. The ghetto is lethal. Psychic stresses of overcrowding create pressures which will erupt. The city is an attempt to manage these forces. The social forms by which cities make the attempt are worth study. Remember that there exists a certain malevolence about the formation of any social order. It is the struggle for existence by an artificial entity. Despotism and slavery hover at the edges. Many injuries occur and, thus, the need for laws. The law develops its own power structure, creating more wounds and new injustices. Such trauma can be healed by cooperation, not by confrontation. The summons to cooperate identifies the healer.
-Frank Herbert
Herbert was an interesting guy. Back in the early 70's he and his family turned six acres into an Ecological Demonstration Project (EDP), exploring the application of alternative energy sources, such as wind, solar, and methane gas. He showed that a high quality of life can be maintained with a minimal drain on the total energy system. His life was an example of how simplicity and complexity can together achieve some harmony.
Have a good weekend Street rats.
SD, neither the vorpal bunny or Ninjah link took me anywhere. But I know what the vorpal bunny link will be and it pisses me off supremely that you got to it first ;)
"Remember that there exists a certain malevolence about the formation of any social order. It is the struggle for existence by an artificial entity."
Strange, intriguing. I'm sure I agree, but I'll keep an open mind. Frank Herbert was a Washingtonian; I wonder if Dune was conceived in a desire for someplace warm and dry....
"Have a good weekend"
You too. I might go see The Men Who Stare At Goats.
"I'm sure I agree"
Correction: I'm not sure I agree
I never knew that about Herbert.
Dune was one of my favorite stories of adolescence but that was a long time ago and I do not remember tidbits like that so clearly now.
Why do you disagree Dink?
I think I could either agree or disagree depending on what aspect I was coming at particular parts of that passage.
The statement "It is the struggle for existence by an artificial entity" kind of reminds me of the statement "this statement is false".
It is the boundary conditions they both highlight
Well certainly some social orders are dysfunctional, but not all. And then there is the whole criteria issue (higher longevity versus having to wear pants).
And then how are we going to define artificial? It can't be dynamic versus permanent because pretty much everything is in flux (even down to the cellular level where we officially designate a unit as alive).
I just watched a movie called Red Cliff that was supposed to take place in 208 AD. It inferred it was based on real people/events in Chinese history. Pretty cool in a 2.5 hour Lord of the Rings way :)
Ouuuuuu dinky, love all that info on Herbert.
Herbert is one of my... idols (he he).
I must be one of the few people I know to have read all the way through the Dune series. If Thai does NOT know the Dune series, he is in for hours of pleasure seeing the way Herbert saw what Thai will call... fractals. At the end, I must admit that Herbert kind of... lost me. All those mirrors within mirrors within mirrors leading... WHERE ?
Thai will agree that we still have no adequate answer to this question...
On the San Francisco bay area, I have very very fond memories of watching elephant seals on Moss Beach. Big drag in San Francisco bay area : the air and water temperature in summer remind Debra of... winter.
Street Dog, I would love to laugh at Monty Python but... I just can't. Monty Python and me just don't... mix well. I am a too earnest type, probably.
Although I can laugh hysterically at some stuff, and Thai's Greeting Card Emergency site is an example, well, Monty Python... sorry.
I will make the supreme sacrifice, Thai, of doing some translation of Emile in a future post so you can see just how appropriate Rousseau is to our concerns.
And... overpopulation.... The... rats have enormous social problems with overpopulation which breeds : delinquency, truancy, aggression, in their individuals.
"Thai will agree that we still have no adequate answer to this question..."
Agreed (I think we all agree on this one)
And unless I missed something, I think it was Street Dog that brought up Herbert this time
I definitely missed the overpopulation reference. Is that what you were getting at with this post on tragedy of the commons?
Frank Herbert was a Washingtonian; I wonder if Dune was conceived in a desire for someplace warm and dry...
Ahh, the wet winters and clouds of the Pacific Northwest. I think Herbert was inspired by dryland ecology and perhaps the sand dunes of western Oregon.
Well certainly some social orders are dysfunctional, but not all.
Maybe all social orders are dysfunctional when viewed with a micro aspect but not a macro aspect. I think that is what Herbert was trying to say. The city construct brings together heterogeneous components. Malevolence may be describing political conflict, wealth disparaties (Pareto distributions), religious conflict, territoriality.
And then how are we going to define artificial?
I think Herbert was using the strict definition. The city is an artificial (humanmade) construct. Are viruses alive? Hehe, definitions.
I must be one of the few people I know to have read all the way through the Dune series.
I read all six original Dune novels before Herbert died. His son co-wrote several prequels/sequels that I didn't read. His son supposedly found his father's lost notes to help write them.
Street Dog, I would love to laugh at Monty Python but... I just can't. Monty Python and me just don't... mix well.
I know. That is why I apologized in advance. I was looking at territoriality from a different aspect, one with an erector set flavor. I couldn't resist the killer rabbit metaphor for Thai (the antithesis of the healer Thai). I wonder if tomboy Debra liked the Three Stooges (I have a guess).
enormous social problems with overpopulation which breeds : delinquency, truancy
Truancy in moderation might not be all bad, hehe. I'm not talking about Tom Sawyer levels of truancy.*
♫Humming a few bars of Rousseau-related ideas for the Rabbitian Game Theorist♫ Go ahead and scream Thai.
*Lady Debra, admit it, you skipped classes at least once (feigning illness in Buellerian fashion counts). Deny it if you wish.
re: "Maybe all social orders are dysfunctional when viewed with a micro aspect but not a macro aspect."
Amen
Indeed this is the essence of my conflict with so many of the bloggers on Sudden Debt who's comment seem to suggest they completely fail to see this issue... Indeed I feel my eyelid twitching as I feel a building need to scream at those who fail to see this.
Re: Rousseau
From Wikipedia re: Rousseau's Social Contract.
"Each of us places his person and authority under the supreme direction of the general will, and the group receives each individual as an indivisible part of the whole..."
Or
And the Wiki on Jean-Jacques Rousseau himself
OK, nothing more than a bunch of emergence theory mumbo jumbo- nothing controversial to scream about here... only we all know this vorpal bunny's rabbit's hole lurks right around the corner ;-)
SD, I liked your link. I am not sure which part of this I should scream at since it pretty much mirrors my own thoughts. Indeed, I prefer the vision of Stag hunters to hare hunters as we are some much better off- but this may just be my traitorous complexitron tendencies showing through.
As I am sure you have guessed, the view of Rousseau I tend to scream at is the same view Hobbes screamed at, namely the noble savage. At least so far as it is used to justifying releasing SOME of the restraints on men.
And the more I read this stuff, the more fractal it all becomes as it just become different iterations of the same thing from different perspectives.
Street Dog, when I was a college freshman I skipped my 17th century French literature class.
It was... a bad thing... to do.
Considering that... there were only four of us in the class.
The professor called me up on the phone to ask where I was. I had a friend on the floor rolling with laughter telling me "you should tell him that your period started on the way and you were bleeding all over the place and you had to go home..."
But I have always been a lousy liar. I am too... EARNEST to lie well.
I don't remember the Three Stooges very well. I remember I love Lucy better (yes... ). And the Adams Family too, while we're at it.
Did you know that Herbert did a stint as a psychoanalyst ? I would have loved to have been a groupy.
And Deb, in case you miss the meaning of "Buellerian".
Street Dog, I could not wade all the way through your Rousseauian link.
I think that I am going to have to go into the philosophical implications behind the emergence of our constructions around probability.
Pascal opened the drafty door of probability, in all... probability.
He should have left it shut.
I am very tired of the prisoner's dilemma.
I think that Rousseau would have been very surprised at our collective rantings over the prisoner's dilemma.
We are a very cynical species...
Thai... I don't really think that Rousseau was all that into the "noble savage" gambit.
That is the... propaganda spread to discredit Rousseau, and which is meant to.. KEEP YOU FROM READING ROUSSEAU and realizing how amazingly pertinent he STILL is.
Thanks for the Buehller link. It was obviously over my head, as you so helpfully noticed and remedied.
Indeed I feel my eyelid twitching as I feel a building need to scream at those who fail to see this.
Poor Inspector Dreyfus. Poor, poor Clouseau.
Street Dog, when I was a college freshman I skipped my 17th century French literature class.
It was... a bad thing... to do.
Ohhhh, not a good choice for your First Truancy. The Lady Debra could have used some pointers from young Street Dog. Alas, you will never know the sublime joy of undiscovered truancy, oh well.
Did you know that Herbert did a stint as a psychoanalyst ? I would have loved to have been a groupy.
I read about his Jungian connection (ch.6) in the Herbert family biography written by his son.
Pascal opened the drafty door of probability, in all... probability.
He should have left it shut.
Someone else would have opened the door eventually. (sorry, couldn't resist)
We are a very cynical species...
Spoken like a true misanthrope (Tiger sniffs the air).
That is the... propaganda spread to discredit Rousseau, and which is meant to.. KEEP YOU FROM READING ROUSSEAU and realizing how amazingly pertinent he STILL is.
Ahh, the shadowy Illuminati.
Ahh, the shadowy Illuminati.
Hmm. Vague statement. Maybe it will serve as a R.I.B.
LOL!!!!
... But then again my lessons of the conservation of behavior are such that I would never get in the mud if I didn't pet the furry dog. And what fun would there be in that?
Let's just say some of us are more tactile learners than others.
And who is the misanthrope here? ;-)
Yes, those illuminati (I think Deb has been away for a while but not that long).
And R.I.B??? Is this "Rest in bed"?
And Deb, whether or not he is misunderstood on the noble savage point is irrelevant. His name is clearly forever on that door plate.
And you still have not helped me see what insight Rousseau had on the tragedy of the commons that the rest of us keep missing- unless it is the stag hunt in which case he is simply sharing a version of the tale we all know.
This rabbit suffers from presbyopia and needs reading glasses to get 1080p resolution from 480p metaphor.
Ten million thanks for the clips from Peter Sellars.
Every Christmas I keep telling myself "gotta buy the PInk Panther series, gotta buy the Pink Panther series, and I never do.. Maybe this year I WILL DO.
By the way, Peter Sellars actually says.. I would like a... rhume (like, a cold, in French).
And in the comments somebody stuck that the guy playing the desk clerk had his pipe stuffed with.. marijuana, but didn't know it and ended up incredibly stoned at the end of the day.
Takes me way back...
I didn't get the illuminati reference, by the way...
Rousseau the Lesser
Lento con gran espressione,quasi
Zen and the Art of Fractal Contemplation
Ukrainian Tears in the Sand
"The city construct brings together heterogeneous components"
Usually, but if you can get agreement on certain philosophical beliefs it should work (translation: I stubbornly refuse to believe its impossible even though it hasn't happened in human history up to this point...)
"my traitorous complexitron tendencies"
They are appreciated by all the right sorts of people :) Boy, that Rousseau was a prick! Gave up all his infants to an almost certain death at an orphanage. Hume said he was insane. The stag hunter link had an interesting line: the shadow of the future. EXACTLY!! DAMN STRAIGHT!! People can't view their actions in isolation; there are consequences/repercussions/iterations!!!! Anyhoo, I really, really liked that line.
"Twitch"
Good stuff! Okay "minkeys", prepare to spit take on your monitors !
"you should tell him that your period started on the way and you were bleeding all over the place and you had to go home..."
Which ironically was what the dinner party next to Mr. Creosote claimed as their excuse to the waiter for their early departure (its Python, Deb, and I'll spare you the link. Rabbit and Dog will remember the classic line "Bring me a bucket!!").
Dink, when you find the place of heterogeneous agreement, please let me know as I definitely want to visit the place.
I suspect one would hear lots of "For King and Country".
Post a Comment