& BRIEFLY NOTED: For 2022-01-17 Mo: Martin Luther King, Jr. (December 18, 1963): Address at Western Michigan State University: ‘Now the other myth that gets around is the idea that legislation cannot really solve the problem and that it has no great role to play in this period of social change because you’ve got to change the heart and you can’t change the heart through legislation. You can’t legislate morals. The job must be done through education and religion. Well, there’s half-truth involved here. Certainly, if the problem is to be solved then in the final sense, hearts must be changed. Religion and education must play a great role in changing the heart. But we must go on to say that while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important, also. So there is a need for executive orders. There is a need for judicial decrees. There is a need for civil rights legislation on the local scale within states and on the national scale from the federal government… LINK: <https://web.archive.org/web/20111101083523/https://wmich.edu/library/archives/mlk/transcription.html>
" if the discussion leads to agreement rather than if the discussion leads to the most people holding the correct view as to what would be the optimal decision. "
Pretty much also sums up how we run court cases, doesn't it?
There's a saga titled "Rafnkel the Priest of Frey" (spoiler- he loses out in the end). Anyhow, apparently at that time it was quite all right to decide which god of the pantheon treats you best (Frey, in this case), sacrifice to them, and no-one thought ill of you. Sort of a cosmic roulette wheel, with the freedom to change numbers or colors if you thought you got a raw deal.
Probably so; I just don't know. Parenthetically, have you ever been to Old Uppsala (not the university town, but the old site a few miles away)? It's spooky to look at those mounds and know that quite possibly, people were hanged from trees on those hills as sacrifices to Frey. Or maybe not.
Similar to the function of going to Church? To keep the juices of religious fervor brewing and to be part of that group experience. (For the church, it is the transfer of wealth to pay for this "valuable service".)
Not necessarily. It could be a "Hate Minute" for Goldstein, or a sharing of the same deep emotional state over an idea e.g. rapture over some shared belief. Think of the emotional state of crowds at rallies, sports, bullfights, gladiatorial fights, etc.
" if the discussion leads to agreement rather than if the discussion leads to the most people holding the correct view as to what would be the optimal decision. "
Pretty much also sums up how we run court cases, doesn't it?
There's a saga titled "Rafnkel the Priest of Frey" (spoiler- he loses out in the end). Anyhow, apparently at that time it was quite all right to decide which god of the pantheon treats you best (Frey, in this case), sacrifice to them, and no-one thought ill of you. Sort of a cosmic roulette wheel, with the freedom to change numbers or colors if you thought you got a raw deal.
I thought it was more than quite all right. I thought it was positively encouraged to choose a patron?
Probably so; I just don't know. Parenthetically, have you ever been to Old Uppsala (not the university town, but the old site a few miles away)? It's spooky to look at those mounds and know that quite possibly, people were hanged from trees on those hills as sacrifices to Frey. Or maybe not.
No. I never have...
So what is the function that watching Fox News performs for anyone?
Similar to the function of going to Church? To keep the juices of religious fervor brewing and to be part of that group experience. (For the church, it is the transfer of wealth to pay for this "valuable service".)
That we are because of who we rile ourselves up to hate?
Not necessarily. It could be a "Hate Minute" for Goldstein, or a sharing of the same deep emotional state over an idea e.g. rapture over some shared belief. Think of the emotional state of crowds at rallies, sports, bullfights, gladiatorial fights, etc.
Indeed he did. I have had trouble getting my students to read and absorb Djilas, however. I am not sure why...
But why aren't people smart enough to understand that those who have no skin in the game are not reliable?
:-)