tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post8701197312433870309..comments2024-03-29T11:51:21.473+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: No resistance to anything anymore - This is not adaptive: this is pathologyBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-21590070613018893792014-09-28T17:35:40.386+01:002014-09-28T17:35:40.386+01:00Powerful article. So few people even recognize it,...Powerful article. So few people even recognize it, beyond shrugging their shoulders with a what'ya gonna do rise of the eyebrows. No one even talks politics at the water cooler anymore. Ughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17267287853892482870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-24263147773417487862014-09-25T18:48:45.670+01:002014-09-25T18:48:45.670+01:00@Dahlia - "Are you saying that sickness and p...@Dahlia - "Are you saying that sickness and physical impairment, coming from advanced age and less fit individuals surviving leads to spiritual sickness?"<br /><br />No I don't believe that. Also, I don't believe the process can be stopped - I think it is inevitable, and we need to think about coping with it rather than stopping it. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-53966010853701460472014-09-24T19:54:11.213+01:002014-09-24T19:54:11.213+01:00Regarding the high child mortality rate before the...Regarding the high child mortality rate before the modern era,it is worth pondering that for a child before the age of reason to be saved all that is necessary is a valid baptism. <br /><br />So the death of a child wasn't such a sad event;at least for Christians.Boethiusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-91307694538257371602014-09-24T18:32:47.660+01:002014-09-24T18:32:47.660+01:00@BB - That would be true for many places - Europe,...@BB - That would be true for many places - Europe, Africa for instance - not China or Japan. But parasites are always a problem!Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-22291922818503854892014-09-24T17:12:09.470+01:002014-09-24T17:12:09.470+01:00Looking at personal, family records, I have gotten...Looking at personal, family records, I have gotten the impression that most children died from infectious disease not starvation or genetic defects.Bruce B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-36938221916808986962014-09-24T15:54:16.276+01:002014-09-24T15:54:16.276+01:00@Brett - It is just so extreme! And so near-univer...@Brett - It is just so extreme! And so near-universal. I don't doubt these factors have something to do with it, but people seem to need very little persuading. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-63593385163667190792014-09-24T14:32:53.307+01:002014-09-24T14:32:53.307+01:00I wonder if this can be explained in physical term...I wonder if this can be explained in physical terms alone. I think the West ran into despair when it conquered its Gods as well as nature, and needed to find a new goal. That brought up class warfare, and from that all bad things flow, as the Gita reminds us.Brett Stevenshttp://www.amerika.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-12398191150377691102014-09-24T13:41:23.323+01:002014-09-24T13:41:23.323+01:00@NF - There are many reasons for this, but giving ...@NF - There are many reasons for this, but giving weight to the future is substantially an evolved adaptions - destroyed by genetic damage. <br /><br />On the other hand when "our unwillingness to allow Natural Selection to cull the unfit," is a rather horrible euphemism when you are talking about the death of our own children - for some people the death of six, eight, ten of their own children; for the 'lucky' ones only one or two of children their perhaps. <br /><br />This is not the kind of thing that anybody but a moral monster could contemplate with equanimity - so it deserves to be expressed with some sense of that reality. <br /><br />As I have said, near-abolition of child mortality was THE great achievement of the industrial revolution. However, it also had adverse long term consequences - the severity of which have yet to be seen fully. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-84982057148427746762014-09-24T13:15:18.686+01:002014-09-24T13:15:18.686+01:00The modern age is characterized by the present hav...The modern age is characterized by the present having a greater weight than the future. <br /><br />In other words - functionally - people behave as though the greatest personal good is to enhance the feel good state of the moment, rather than to defer immediate pleasure for a longer term good. It is the disease of the wealthy spread down and across society. <br /><br />All pleasures pass from the moment and become memory - that dulls over time. But what accrues as the result of extended life spent extending pleasure? Addiction to a cycle of pleasure seeking becomes the norm, and few do very much for which they have to make a sacrifice of their present pleasures. This, and our unwillingness to allow Natural Selection to cull the unfit, leads to conditions that favour a crash at some point. <br /><br />We have our bread and our circuses, and all the while it is like Poe's, "Mask of the Red Death". Our party will end abruptly as the unwelcome visitor makes its presence felt. <br /><br />Nicholas Fulfordnoreply@blogger.com