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Subject: 
Re: Libertarian stuff (Was: Re: Art Debate Was: [Re: Swearing?])
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 2 Sep 2005 16:02:21 GMT
Viewed: 
2548 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Koudys wrote:

What were those tests done with rats in a cage--

a few rats in a large cage with lots of food and water, no problem

many rats in a small cage with hardly any food and water--mass pandemonium

We've seriously not evolved that far from the other species on this planet.

That’s discussed at some length in “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” by Ann
Druyan and the late Carl Sagan.  They stress that one can’t always predict human
crisis-response based on the behavior of rats, but real-world examples make one
wonder nonetheless.

In the old thread to which I replied above, I asserted something like “humans
aren’t evil per se, but they will tend to expand to fill the space available, so
to speak.”  That is, with a relaxing of enforced rules, people’s behavior will
tend to expand to the limits of enforcement.  And when all rules are abandoned
or negated, it doesn’t take long for desperation to yield violence.

For the record, I have no problem, moral or otherwise, with a person who “loots”
a loaf of bread to feed his family following an astonishing disaster.  However,
the idiot who “loots” a plasma tv or a vacuum cleaner had better explain his
immediate and justifable “need” for that appliance.

To that end, it’s obscene that the media are focusing so heavily on the
“problem” of “looting,” when in fact the real problem is the Bush
adminstration’s inexcusably feeble response to the hurricane.  Is it really a
big deal that some guy stole a can of tuna, when Michael Chertoff is on tv
publicly (and falsely) declaring that food and water are being distributed to
everyone?

He should be fired, and so should the idiot who hired him.

Dave!



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Libertarian stuff (Was: Re: Art Debate Was: [Re: Swearing?])
 
(...) I wouldn't directly correlate humans and rats, either. Rats turning on each other in bad situations is an 'instinctive defense mechanism' that they can't consiously do anything about. Humans, on the other hand, even though we have 'instinctive (...) (19 years ago, 2-Sep-05, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Libertarian stuff (Was: Re: Art Debate Was: [Re: Swearing?])
 
(...) What were those tests done with rats in a cage-- a few rats in a large cage with lots of food and water, no problem many rats in a small cage with hardly any food and water--mass pandemonium We've seriously not evolved that far from the other (...) (19 years ago, 2-Sep-05, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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