David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > Mia McDavid <mia_mcdavid at attbi.com> writes: > >> DDB said: >> >> >It's going strong *here*, and in a lot of third-world places, but >> it's >remarkably dead throughout the rest of the developed world. >> We're >kind of an outlier. >> >> Yeah, but the rest of the developed world (Europe, yes?) only >> represents a few percent of humankind. You apparently believe that >> they indicate the direction that the rest of us are going in; given >> enough time and resources. > > Yes. Developing out of savagery into civilization and then into > modernity seems to consistently involve shucking that nonsense. > >> Maybe. > > We are, after all, talking about the future. > >> You've made me curious, though. What is *their* answer to "why, >> why, why?" > > The obsessive need to know "answers" to meaningless "questions" is > (and should be recognized as) a personality disorder. We'll > eventually learn to treat it, and root out the memes that lead to it. > My need to believe in goals, order, and a direction to evolution (for > example) impose no obligation on the universe to actually work that > way. This brings up a though I had not but a week ago, we are constantly focused on finding an answer to some question, when I think it's clear we ought to be asking better questions. Question the question if it answers; answer it.