> As for alcohol, it's a documented factor in more crimes than all other
> drugs combined. It provides an inflated sense of self-confidence and
> exacerbates aggression while lowering inhibitions and decreasing
> motor-function. I'm not going out on a limb by saying that there would
> be fewer trafic fatalities this Friday night if nobody consumed alcohol.
> It's addictive and has long-term health consequences. It contributes
> to domestic violence, costs jobs, and keeps people (including most
> everyone I know) from pursuing the creative activities they talk about
> but never actually get around to doing.
>
But legislation won't solve the problem. Rarely have I come across an
emotionally balanced, educated person who had an alcohol problem. The
money the US Govt. spends on censoring activities and applying bandages
to social problems would be much better spent on education and
retraining. It's like trying to use your fingers-- aka tax payers'
money)-- to plug a damn. Sooner or later, you will run out of fingers.
I'm young and all too often arrogant as well. That's why I'd like some
help with my next statement. I know it's very general and lacks
supportive information, but that's because it's a feeling toward society
that I've carried for over nine years. I've felt this way ever since I
started watching the evening news in fifth grade (after the Sapce
Shuttle "Challenger" disaster).
I've always felt that knowledge is power, and that he who controls
knowledge also controls people. Our government and social infrastructure
was designed (perhaps refined is a better word) to produce the different
class levels required to make a society work. It's a sad portrait of the
state of mankind. Hopefully our current state is comparable to infancy.
For as our knowledge and technology grow, there is a dangerous and
destructive level of power gathering in far too few hands.
Anyway, on to something else. In a way, I've been contemplating memetics
for years. So when I first read of Richard Dawkins work in Wired, it
immediately clicked. I find it amazing that the memetics of society has
changed so much but still stayed the same. Has anyone ever applied chaos
theory to memetics? Maybe someone is working on a unified theory of the
interactions of dynamic information that will explain the universe in
general terms? Afterall, everything is just information. A unified
theory of information would be like the compass for the 21st century. It
would point theorists in the right direction.
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Finger erich@igc.net for my PGP Public Encryption Key