A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

[raja]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

The concepts of luck, responsibility, free-will and determinism are all based on the common illusion of duality. These issues can never be "settled" because they stem from the faulty premise that words effectively represent reality. :eek:

(For further explanation, read Alan W. Watts, D.T. Suzuki and/or Ludwig Wittgenstein.)

[Guest]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

Metalman -

You wrote:

the biggest luck in life is to be born to parents who don't abuse you and who instead take good care of you and teach you self-respect. that's luck. throw in solid common sense about $ on top, that's even more luck. throw in a good school system and time with you to help with studies, that's even more luck. etc. that's one lottery. then there's the brains lottery. if you lost the other lottery and had abusive parents, neglectful, no edu, AND you lost the brains lottery you are most certainly totally fucked. what's so hard to understand about that?

Surprising comments indeed from a Libertarian. FWIW, you are spot on. Many people are borne totally fucked by all those factors, just as many brainless sops cruise through life unscathed because they had enough of those factors to be "rescued".

I see eye to eye with you on a lot of stuff. 'Course you are ornery and crusty as all hell, but that's another story.

[Uncle Jack]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

the biggest luck in life is to be born to parents who don't abuse you and who instead take good care of you and teach you self-respect. that's luck. throw in solid common sense about $ on top, that's even more luck. throw in a good school system and time with you to help with studies, that's even more luck. etc. that's one lottery. then there's the brains lottery. if you lost the other lottery and had abusive parents, neglectful, no edu, AND you lost the brains lottery you are most certainly totally fucked. what's so hard to understand about that?

Right. I understand. Now tell me how the person you just described isn't a slobbering idiot who hasn't already done themselves in by holding up the local 7-11 at gunpoint.

[Guest]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

Help!! Rajiv and Raja are swamping us with heavy duty reading assignments! Wittgenstein!! :eek: :eek: :eek: HELP!

[jimmygu3]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

We are a nation of lemmings after all!
from Lemmings on the Ledge

The Lemming Manifesto:
Lemmings be we,
Trained to be free
Like schools of fishies
Flying up from the sea.....

In true contrarian fashion, I must point out to those who don't already know that the urban legend of lemmings commiting mass suicide is completely false. It is based on a Disney movie from the '50s in which the filmmakers used camera tricks and herded lemmings off a cliff into a river. Read all about it: http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

Rajiv, I know the literal truth about the lemmings was not your point, but I thought it bore mentioning, especially in a thread dealing with mass psychology and deceptive marketing. As they say, a lie unchallenged becomes truth. This widely-believed tale is just a tiny example of the many "truths" we unquestioningly swallow.

[Rajiv]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

In true contrarian fashion, I must point out to those who don't already know that the urban legend of lemmings commiting mass suicide is completely false. It is based on a Disney movie from the '50s in which the filmmakers used camera tricks and herded lemmings off a cliff into a river. Read all about it: http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

Rajiv, I know the literal truth about the lemmings was not your point, but I thought it bore mentioning, especially in a thread dealing with mass psychology and deceptive marketing. As they say, a lie unchallenged becomes truth. This widely-believed tale is just a tiny example of the many "truths" we unquestioningly swallow.

JG3, your point is well taken, and serves to highlight how half truths and outright lies can become unquestioned truths.

More about real lemmings

Behavior

The behavior of lemmings is much the same as that of many other rodents which have periodic population booms and then disperse in all directions, seeking the food and shelter that their natural habitat cannot provide.

Lemmings of northern Norway are one of the few vertebrates who reproduce so quickly that their population fluctuations are chaotic,^[1] rather than following linear growth to a carrying capacity or regular oscillations. It is unknown why lemming populations fluctuate with such variance roughly every four years, before plummeting to near extinction.^[2]

While for many years it was believed that the population of lemming predators changed with the population cycle, there is now some evidence to suggest that the predator's population may be more closely involved in changing the lemming population.^[3]

Myths and misconceptions

Misconceptions about lemmings go back many centuries. In the 1530s, the geographer Zeigler of Strasbourg proposed the theory that the creatures fell out of the sky during stormy weather (also featured in the folklore of the Inupiat/Yupik at Norton Sound), and then died suddenly when the grass grew in spring.^[4] This was refuted by the natural historian Ole Worm, who first published dissections of a lemming, and showed that lemmings are anatomically similar to most other rodents.

While many people believe that lemmings commit mass suicide when they migrate, this is not the case. Driven by strong biological urges, they will migrate in large groups when population density becomes too great. Lemmings can and do swim and may choose to cross a body of water in search of a new habitat^[5]. On occasion, and particularly in the case of the Norway lemmings in Scandinavia, large migrating groups will reach a cliff overlooking the ocean. They will stop until the urge to press on causes them to jump off the cliff and start swimming, sometimes to exhaustion and death. Lemmings are also often pushed into the sea as more and more lemmings arrive at the shore. ^[6]

The myth of lemming mass suicide is long-standing and has been popularized by a number of factors. In 1955, Carl Barks drew a Uncle Scrooge adventure comic with the title: The Lemming with the Locket. This comic, which was inspired by a 1954 National Geographic article, showed massive numbers of lemmings jumping over Norwegian cliffs.^[7]. The suicide myth was further propagated by Walt Disney documentary White Wilderness in 1958 which includes footage of lemmings migrating and running head-long over a ledge. An investigation in 1983 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Brian Vallee, showed that the Disney film makers faked the entire sequence using imported lemmings (bought from Inuit children), a snow covered turntable on which a few dozen lemmings were forced to run, and literally throwing lemmings into the sea to show the alleged suicides.^[8] This myth is also witnessed in a German film - The Little Polar Bear (lars, the polar bear)--in which a group of despondent lemmings are frequently jumping off various ledges.^[9]

Due to their association with this odd behaviour, lemming suicide is a frequently-used metaphor in reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences. This is the theme of the video game Lemmings, where the player attempts to save the mindlessly marching rodents from walking to their deaths.

[Spartacus]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

No, getting born into the 'Gates' family is lucky.

No reason not to aim to the top of the curve while you're at it

I'd love to be one of Buffet's 'lucky sperm' winners. Probably turn out to be even more terrible a person than I am now, but it'd be fun!

look for inheritance
http://www.elsop.com/wrc/humor/ms_riki.htm


And for Buffett,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett

" His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. These actions are consistent with st "

[bart]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

You are right of course -- but along with Advertising, Marketing and PR, is the ultimate irresistible force! Peer Pressure!

I liked this one too, especially for it conciseness.

"A relatively small percentage of the population can twist and corrupt the financial system, destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens, because its profitable, and because they simply do not care about the damage they do to others. The dirty little secret is that capitalism, like any other form of social structure, requires policing, regulation, laws, and enforcement to prevent the predations of sociopaths and con men, no matter what weapons they may choose to employ."

[Rajiv]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

" His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. These actions are consistent with st "

The actual entry

Buffett also announced plans to contribute additional Berkshire stock valued at approximately $6.7 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and to other foundations headed by his three children.
.
.
.
Buffett once commented, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing"

His children have already won a big lottery prize - even though most of his wealth will go to charitable foundations.

See also

BORN ON THIRD BASE:
The Sources of Wealth of the 1996 Forbes 400

but even that study is faulty - because the bar for starting in the batters box is set very high - in other words 90 % of the US population would be considered as being in the starting box -- In other words -- all the people on the list were at least minor leaguers!

[Spartacus]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

Not arguing, just putting out the info that this lottery is not near the amount that most (all, actually) that I've spoken with about this assume.

His children have already won a big lottery prize -

[Rajiv]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

If they got a good education, a chance to run a philanthropic foundation - and a stake to start their business -- then I say they have already won a lottery!

[metalman]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

Right. I understand. Now tell me how the person you just described isn't a slobbering idiot who hasn't already done themselves in by holding up the local 7-11 at gunpoint.

i'm saying he's a slobbering idiot... statistically... because he lost the sperm lottery. how many kids of yale grads grow up to be 7-11 robbers? how many stand in line to spend their puny wages on lotto tickets? how many are buying crap mortgages? no, instead they grow up to be president and wreck the country.

i rest my case.

[Guest]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

Uncle Jack -

What do you think? Metalman seems in fine fettle here! You gotta love the guy's unique blunt style, even if you disagree with him!

i'm saying he's a slobbering idiot... statistically... because he lost the sperm lottery. how many kids of yale grads grow up to be 7-11 robbers? how many stand in line to spend their puny wages on lotto tickets? how many are buying crap mortgages? no, instead they grow up to be president and wreck the country.

i rest my case.

[Uncle Jack]

Re: A Diary Of The Onset Of The Greater Depression

i'm saying he's a slobbering idiot... statistically... because he lost the sperm lottery. how many kids of yale grads grow up to be 7-11 robbers? how many stand in line to spend their puny wages on lotto tickets? how many are buying crap mortgages? no, instead they grow up to be president and wreck the country.

i rest my case.

I lost the sperm lottery also then, because I didn't go to Yale and I have no interest in wrecking the country, nor will I ever get the chance.
I have played the state lottery in my past, before I understood the math, and yes, in my adult life.
I signed my name to a bad car loan once. Once.

I learned. I overcame. I adapted. You can, too.