MSimon wrote:We do have some advantages in the US. The entropics on the right are dying off and the old religions are losing their hold.
A new birth of freedom is a distinct possibility. I have been fanning that flame since 1988.
Collapse of religion is an artifact of our current r-selected environment. The rational-secular creeds that seek to displace the legacy faiths in all civilizations are born amid the growing optimism of the late K-selected phase, and always achieve their victories in the high density world-cities during periods of demographic stability and then collapse. And as pacifism and enervation are artifacts of r-selection, I don't see the initiative to drive "new births." Certainly, sadly, not new births of freedom. A new birth of authority, maybe.
Libertarianism is merely the flip side of communism. Both are creeds of material plenty and thus r-selection.
The ruthlessness and effectiveness of K-selected regimes walk hand in hand with the great faiths. So too standards of honor and workable societies of limited complexity. Regimes of limited or slowly growing resources don't have the surplus or patience to waste on the pointless organizational curlicues that come from insane amounts of complexity and organization. SOME organization is wonderful - the 80 side of the 80/20 in the Pareto Principle's diminishing returns curve, but only some. The out-of-control complexity emerges hand in hand with massive resources, population density and r-selection.
MSimon wrote:
Restricting the number of allowed states is the very definition of entropy and government. That is why I would do as much as possible to limit government. Not a very popular idea these days.
The cry is maximum restrictions (mine, not yours) are the best way to organize. We thus have two Progressive parties. Because progressives believe in the value of multiplied restriction.
Simon, though I very much would like to see something interesting coming from you, all I see is you repeating over and over the same non-sequiturs. I try to read what you write, but I get in a couple of sentences and here it comes again. The same nonsense pseudo equivalence that you always bring to argue in favor of your pet obsession.
You are not going to persuade anyone of anything if you can't get them to listen to you. Repeating the same old tired accusations does not make for interesting reading.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
MSimon wrote:
We may get a new lease on life with the end of Prohibition. About 60 years more. But that gives us 60 years to teach entropy. I should do a blog post. Probably 20 of them.
You think it is a negative feedback device. I think it is a positive feedback device. (driving the collapse faster.)
There is a *REASON* why dope usage is gaining in popularity. It's because WE ARE IN THE INITIAL STAGES OF COLLAPSE. It's one of the symptoms, not one of the solutions.
Dope smoking is primarily a consequence of r society selection. (most) People working to get ahead don't have time for crap like that.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
MSimon wrote:
We may get a new lease on life with the end of Prohibition. About 60 years more. But that gives us 60 years to teach entropy. I should do a blog post. Probably 20 of them.
You think it is a negative feedback device. I think it is a positive feedback device. (driving the collapse faster.)
There is a *REASON* why dope usage is gaining in popularity. It's because WE ARE IN THE INITIAL STAGES OF COLLAPSE. It's one of the symptoms, not one of the solutions.
Dope smoking is primarily a consequence of r society selection. (most) People working to get ahead don't have time for crap like that.
Well Newt Gingrich - a noted Prohibitionist - disagrees with you. As do about 1/2 of all Americans and about 53% of the State of Alaska.
But all things considered I think having 1/3rd of Black American males in the criminal justice system is probably a really good idea. Too bad they ended "stop and frisk" in NYC or we could be getting more of them off the street.
But you will note in a recent post by me that the CDC is starting to target alcohol drinkers. A very good idea. That stuff is poison and should never have been legalized.
BTW if dope smoking is r-selection how come the Progressives didn't get around to outlawing it until 1937? How come opiate use (as noted in my post about Nantucket 1792) was not outlawed until 1914? Well I can tell you the Harrison Narcotics act was passed because of Chinese using opiates as a date rape drug and cocainized Negroes outright raping white women. Blacks especially are known to be criminogenic so that makes very good sense. The police need to keep a sharp eye on those folks. Evidently the police are keeping a close eye on them
You might be amused at a post on how Obamacare and the CSA are enacted under the same rubric: http://classicalvalues.com/2014/12/livi ... servatism/
"The lawsuit, filed in the Federal Court’s Northern District of Florida, argues the legislation is an “illegal expansion of Congress’ regulation of interstate commerce..."
But all things considered I'd like a reset. So the fact that you are in league with the Progressives means it will come sooner. Unless those pesky legalizers get their way.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Just as I have been predicting. But we do know that reported use by adults has gone up 20% in Colorado. There is no way to tell so far if that is because of an actual increase or that people are not as worried about being arrested.
I will go out on the same limb I have been on for a while - if Portugal is an example - drug use will decline as more states legalize.
Still, I'd like to know how r/K theory factors in to cannabis Prohibition not starting until 1937 and that it was an r-faction - the Progressives - who promoted it. When did avowedly K types start promoting r initiatives? Next thing you know you will be telling me that the ACA is a very good idea, because if the Interstate Commerce Clause is flexible enough for Prohibition, certainly it is flexible enough for the ACA. After all they both regulate Interstate Commerce. In fact in Raich the Supremes declared that there didn't even have to be any actual Commerce. That is quite flexible isn't it? Congress could outlaw home gardens on that basis. The Living Constitution is a wonderful thing.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
MSimon wrote:
We may get a new lease on life with the end of Prohibition. About 60 years more. But that gives us 60 years to teach entropy. I should do a blog post. Probably 20 of them.
I would suppose you've already done 20,000 of them. I very much doubt 20 more will do any good.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
MSimon wrote:We do have some advantages in the US. The entropics on the right are dying off and the old religions are losing their hold.
A new birth of freedom is a distinct possibility. I have been fanning that flame since 1988.
Collapse of religion is an artifact of our current r-selected environment. The rational-secular creeds that seek to displace the legacy faiths in all civilizations are born amid the growing optimism of the late K-selected phase, and always achieve their victories in the high density world-cities during periods of demographic stability and then collapse. And as pacifism and enervation are artifacts of r-selection, I don't see the initiative to drive "new births." Certainly, sadly, not new births of freedom. A new birth of authority, maybe.
Libertarianism is merely the flip side of communism. Both are creeds of material plenty and thus r-selection.
The ruthlessness and effectiveness of K-selected regimes walk hand in hand with the great faiths. So too standards of honor and workable societies of limited complexity. Regimes of limited or slowly growing resources don't have the surplus or patience to waste on the pointless organizational curlicues that come from insane amounts of complexity and organization. SOME organization is wonderful - the 80 side of the 80/20 in the Pareto Principle's diminishing returns curve, but only some. The out-of-control complexity emerges hand in hand with massive resources, population density and r-selection.
And thankfully a breath of sanity emerges from this fetid swamp of Libertarian indulgence fantasy.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
MSimon wrote:
We may get a new lease on life with the end of Prohibition. About 60 years more. But that gives us 60 years to teach entropy. I should do a blog post. Probably 20 of them.
You think it is a negative feedback device. I think it is a positive feedback device. (driving the collapse faster.)
There is a *REASON* why dope usage is gaining in popularity. It's because WE ARE IN THE INITIAL STAGES OF COLLAPSE. It's one of the symptoms, not one of the solutions.
Dope smoking is primarily a consequence of r society selection. (most) People working to get ahead don't have time for crap like that.
Well Newt Gingrich - a noted Prohibitionist - disagrees with you. As do about 1/2 of all Americans and about 53% of the State of Alaska.
Argumentum Ad Verecundiam followed by Argumentum Ad Populum. Simon, this is why sensible people don't want to even bother with you. The first two arguments you present in response are just silly fallacies.
And once again, I am just not going to bother to read any further of what you had to say.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
This is another one of those studies where they *ASK* High School students if they've been smoking dope and leave it to them to decide how honest they want to be? I can't imagine us getting any useless or bad data from such a methodology.
One quick method to determine if something is an utter crock is to see if it comes from the Washington Post , the New York times or the Huffington post. (et a) Your story appears to pass the "utter crock" test.
Meanwhile, people who have no reason to lie about usage seem to indicate that usage is massively up in Colorado, just as any sane and rational person could have predicted. It takes a special sort of delusion to believe that making drugs MORE AVAILABLE will result in less usage.
‘What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’
— Lord Melbourne —
This is another one of those studies where they *ASK* High School students if they've been smoking dope and leave it to them to decide how honest they want to be? I can't imagine us getting any useless or bad data from such a methodology.
If a national drug abuse survey is being quoted...even if you think teens lie (they do) about sex/drug use it doesn't explain a consistent downward trend year after year if that is happening. Doubt if teens lie more in surveys about drugs/sex than they did 5 or 10 years ago.
Diogenes wrote:Meanwhile, people who have no reason to lie about usage seem to indicate that usage is massively up in Colorado, just as any sane and rational person could have predicted. It takes a special sort of delusion to believe that making drugs MORE AVAILABLE will result in less usage.
Sorry, but what could be more available than the system of prohibition? Don't confuse what prohibition is supposed to do with what it actually does. Unregulated uncontrolled available to whomever wants it. Your Wahh..I just want my weed occasional criticism of MSimon makes no sense. Weed is already available to MSimon and anyone else who wants it, in ever increasing concentration sold to whomever is willing to pay for it. Legal and regulated makes it less available not more available to those (under age etc) who shouldn't have it. Under prohibition grade school kids had/have no trouble scoring pot if they want as long as they can pay for it. They can't even keep dope/drugs out of prisons; if that doesn't demonstrate what a joke the WOD is than what does it take? When I was in grade or HS (admittedly decades ago) kids seemed to have no trouble getting pot at will as long as they had the dough to pay for it.
djolds1 wrote:Libertarianism is merely the flip side of communism. Both are creeds of material plenty and thus r-selection.
Libertarianism at least of the economic/political freedom kind helped produce the wealth we have now; the difference of the Pilgrims who abandoned their communal property after they nearly starved and instead allowed people to own their on land and keep whatever they grew on said land.
djolds1 wrote:The rational-secular creeds that seek to displace the legacy faiths in all civilizations are born amid the growing optimism of the late K-selected phase, and always achieve their victories in the high density world-cities during periods of demographic stability and then collapse. And as pacifism and enervation are artifacts of r-selection, I don't see the initiative to drive "new births." Certainly, sadly, not new births of freedom. A new birth of authority, maybe.
Would have to agree with you on that one. Especially since we will likely not get the "rational-secular creeds that seek to displace the legacy faiths", but more likely one of the "isms" (Communism, Fascism, Nazism, etc.) or default to some virulent religion like fundamentalist Islam imposed on Europe by their ISIS like eventual displacers/conquerors. If something like that case happened here my guess is that people would turn to a then rapidly resurgent kind of fundamentalist Christian faith; which haven't nowhere near died out yet here; that's what people would likely rapidly turn to when/if things start going south far enough for long enough.