Big Think

shawn disney commented on The Calculus of Carnage on November 18, 2009, 7:05 PM

Why is this just coming up? (I'm not blaming Mr. Hartley) The Vietnam war was merely one of the more devastating examples of this standard calculus: the more "enemies" we kill, the more we create, with a compound interest effect. this is especially true in situations where "we" don't speak the language or understand the culture, and rely for "intelligence" on paid informers, sellouts, etc. How can we continue to be surprised at all this? The solution for the "Imperial" party is the same in all cases: declare "victory" and leave. disigny

shawn disney commented on Women and Gays in Combat: A Soldier Sounds Off on November 18, 2009, 6:54 PM

Ms. Z: It is not a logical disconnect to suppose that gay men are different from straights. Neither of us can know from presonal experience. But as a war vet, I can tell you that the idea of pissing off those, perhaps Redneck, GIs who get upset about soldiering with gays, those are exactly the guys you want around in a firefight; it was a big mistake to force them out of the Army , from the first. As the man says, there are a lot of reasons why women aren't suitable for combat soldiers, as previous experience has demonstrated; I've always thought it was rather revealing that the original decision was purely politcal,without any input from war vets. It was done purely because the Services could be relied on to follow orders from the (political) top; no other reason. disigny

shawn disney commented on Big Think Interview With Elizabeth Debold on November 18, 2009, 12:53 AM

Very perceptive discussion. Yes, "purpose" has a lot of resonance, with both sexes. But now we are going to have to get serious about "Human Nature". Only recently have the sciences caught up to Buddhism: consider the "superorganism". In other words, our culture is not going to get anywhere (other than further disintegration) until we seriously dispose of the idea that the "Individual" is the basic , indeed only, unit of Humanity . The creation of the Greed is Good paradigm, and the onslaught of Money and Power, doesn't have survival value for us, I believe. In the natural world, women really are different, not "Equal", and though historically , they seem never to have been carried away with abstract thinking the way men so easily are, she's right, women need to stop obsessing about joining the "Type A Boy's club," and get serious about their Role in society. disigny

shawn disney commented on The Case Against Microfinance Loans on September 20, 2009, 12:04 AM

Very interesting, but he never did get to why MF doesn't work in Rwanda. Corrruption, perhaps?

shawn disney commented on You Can't Always Start From Scratch on September 12, 2009, 1:53 PM

Ms. Klein's idea is not very helpful; it suggests immediately the strictest possible "conservatism": even damaging behaviors should not be changed.  It would presumably prevent all "revolutions" of any kind. Most of these, it should be noted , didn't involve "starting from scratch" at all, merely repealing , or redirecting, tendencies already there.  The Pilgrims brought their philosophy with them; they certainly didn't plan to start from scratch. Nor did our Revolution, or the French.  Doing something about an intolerable situation should not be looked on as a deep, troubling social problem in itself.  disigny