Re: virus: Altruism, Empathy, the Superorganism, and the Priso ner'sDillema

Martz (martz@martz.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 30 Apr 1997 01:03:49 +0100


On Tue, 29 Apr 1997, "Wright, James 7929" <Jwright@phelpsd.com> wrote:

>Growth that would allow me to appreciate the Simpsons would involve, I
>suppose, something like the following: "There exists a subset of society
>which is composed of individual families like the Simpsons. The children
>are smarter and more cunning than the adults, and should actually be
>running things. In some ways, they are. This leads to greater fulfillment
>for those families as a whole, and the process of watching them cope with
>external and internal realities is amusing."
>At this point, my internal memes rebel against the TV authority
>presenting this scenario as follows: "My children are both fairly bright,
>and about the ages of the Simpson children as shown (mine are 6 and 9).
>They cannot provide usefully for themselves for an entire day without
>frequent and direct intervention by my wife and myself. They are
>incapable of making sound rational judgements without their emotions
>getting involved and usually winning, eating tomorrow's lunch money in
>the form of today's doughnuts if given the chance. The analogy between
>Simpson children and the real world in my household breaks down
>immediately, and the existence of a real Simpsons family would be a
>nightmare of juvenile delinquency, irresponsible thrill-seeking and
>impending peril for all those who live near them."

Ehhhhm. You do realise that the Simpsons is parody, don't you? They're
not intended as a model for life except to point out the ridiculous in
human behaviour.

-- 
Martz
martz@martz.demon.co.uk

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