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Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - 5:22amSanction this postReply
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Declare Your Independence from Political Correctness
http://youtu.be/QLu0gtB6-MA

"There can be no room for a cult of Thomas Jefferson in the civil religion of an effectively multiracial America -- that is, an America in which nonwhite Americans have a significant and increasing say.... Jefferson will nonetheless continue to be a power in America...among the radical, violent, anti-federal libertarian fanatics."

Thomas Jefferson: Radical and Racist
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96oct/obrien/obrien.htm

"Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free." - Thomas Jefferson

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.” - Thomas Jefferson


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Post 1

Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - 9:22amSanction this postReply
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Happy Independence Day, you disgusting pig.

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - 9:36amSanction this postReply
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I'm in Boston this Independence day, not only celebrating the 4th, but attending a conference(Williams syndrome). This morning I listened to a speaker, Dr. Thomas Armstrong, give a talk on 'Neurodiversity.'

It kind of snuck up on me, he was a keynote speaker in a general session. It is the kind of topic that usually makes my eyes roll, but I swallowed my usual gut reaction and listened to his talk.

It wasn't the usual PC kumbaya. He made very strong points, and I realized that, in a certain light, the topic of 'diversity' can be(not that it always is), and is exactly in his arguments, the same system design point I have been beating to death on the topic of strong economies and strong societies and strong systems.

One of his illustrative examples; the Irish potato famine. At its root was the fact that there was largely only one variety of potato grown in Ireland at the time; the arrival of a disease to which that variety had no resistance led to widespread systemic failure. The potato universe got it all wrong at once. Single point of failure.

The establishment of neurological norms depends on what the local tribe is largely doing. In a south sea tribal nation of island dwellers spread across 500 islands, spatial/navigational skills are critical to the tribe, and so, those individuals with high spatial/navigational skills establish the local tribal 'norm' and disability is centered around that. These individuals tend to rise in the tribal power structure. In our society, folks who can't find their cars in a parking lot are not necessarily scored as defective, and might even be highly placed figures in our local tribe. It is entirely likely that each in each other's normative 'IQ' testing regime could easily score at the top of one and the bottom of the other.

Which really begs the question in the modern political era; what local normalizing tribal skill sets the local standard for 'normal?' If they are largely political, then that would include 'the ability to lie convincingly to others.'

In the 1800s, then contemporary America medical science had identified a disease, exhibited by large groups of people, and that was, the irrational desire to flee. They came up with a name for this syndrome, "drapetomania" and also had a theory that with proper treatment, this psychological disease could be cured, and the sufferers of this mental disease could, with treatment, live productive lives.

Their studies also found that this disease was clustered primarily in black slaves, a defect of the race.

Seriously.

If we were to magically find ourselves in tribal Africa, would we be characterized as suffering from lack-of-pigment-itis coupled with a syndromatic inability to acquire the skills necessary to prevail on the African plains? Would tribal leaders in some future be pondering the sad plight of all the sunburned defectives failing to thrive in the heat and sun, after having been forcefully displaced against their will to artificially relocate?

It is appropriate to remember "drapetomania" on Independence day as we celebrate freedom.

http://www.broward.org/library/bienes/lii13000.htm

At one end of resilient tribal design is diversity; at the other end is an inbred cul de sac waiting to fail.

It's true of biologies. It's true of economies. It's true of societies. Single point of failure is never a reasonable systemic design goal for anything that we want to be resilient.

Happy 4th.

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - 9:52amSanction this postReply
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Another concrete example he mentioned is the broadening concept of 'autism.' There are some indications that some degree of 'autism' is necessary in order to be skilled at building complex technological systems. An attribute of those diagnosed with autism is that they are often highly skilled at paying attention to minute details.

Instead of diagnosing those with autism as 'not like us' (who are we again, anyway?) another way to go is to say 'we've found someone who might be very good at these things.'


Another approach is to try to make outliers 'more like us.'

And again, who is us in the great middle? Great middle of what? That depends on where we are and what we are doing. (Being fans and customers can't be the only choices available to mankind...)

He pointed out that the DSM is growing unbounded. There is an epidemic in 'autism' but it might well be an epidemic in diagnosing even more wider definitions of autism. Another example is Dyslexia; an 'affliction' totally unknown before reading and writing became such widespread absolute musts of modern life. Was this a sudden epidemic of 'Dyslexia?' No.

With the complete political 'socialization' of the populace, including by way of instruction at public schools, have we introduced entirely new categories of 'political diseases?' No doubt, which is or should be disconcerting for those who cherish freedom and see it as mankinds greatest hope.

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - 3:44pmSanction this postReply
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It is entirely likely that each in each other's normative 'IQ' testing regime could easily score at the top of one and the bottom of the other.

There are some tests of pattern recall speed in which chimpanzees score higher than humans.  This is due to neurological differences, not cultural differences.  IQ tests measure general mental ability, which is largely inherited (no "culture-fair" alternatives ever seem to produce different result orderings).  But IQ tests are not comprhensive.  The innuits seem to have average IQs but very strong visual-spatial memory.  This is probably more a result of a brain adaptation to the arctic environment (innuits have larger heads on average) than a normative cultural priority placed on visual-spatial memory, though one explanation does not exclude the other as contributing.


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