> >In my first post I was trying
> >to decide if it would be better to study some kind of behavior that
> >*matters* as opposed to studying something so inconsequential.
> >
> >I HATE JUNK SCIENCE. I see too many people try to study complex things
> >without controls or elimination of variables. It just seemed to me that
> >how this fad developed and persists in our culture might be
> >interesting.
>
> Ouch.
>
> 1. Streaking _matters_? Or are you saying that studying the
> inconsequential is OK?
Well, so much for thinking. This thread lasted all of what? 24 hours?
Before one of you (Wade) decided to attack it's very reason for being
instead of seeing where it might lead. You are useless.
I've had three friends now, which are all thoughtful thinkers, who I
recommended to this list because of their interest in memes. And three
who have lurked for a month (usually less) and unsubscribed siting "mental
masturbation" and a lack of talk *ABOUT MEMES* as their reasons. And, you
know, I don't blame them a bit. I can't even come up with a good reason
why they should give us a second chance!
I was talking last night to one of these people who just unsubscribed this
week (Say bye-bye to Neil, "Bye-bye Neil!") and he noted that we can never
get anywhere because we spend all our time picking things apart and
reverting to the BIG QUESTIONS instead of thinking things through. His
analogy was a group of people at a restaurant that can't decide what to
order for dinner because their too busy deciding if "dinner" exists
independent of our eating of it or what the moral implications of
"ordering" anything are.
And he's right. And I'm just as much to blame as anyone else! Now a new
set of fresh blood, that had come here with real interest and gave life to
the discussions, is dropping like flies.
Yes, we ARE useless! I don't give us a hope in hell.
-Prof. Tim