I had a troubled childhood that thrust me into philosophical study early in life. I've done great deals of research in public policy, politics, sociology, and religion with an emphasis on cross-cultural comparison as well as my general philosophical studies. My best skills are critical thinking-related, most specifically aptitude. I also have a reputation for fair-mindedness, perseverance, and general strength of character.
Recognizing the subconscious tides that people en masse tend to get carried away by without realizing it.
Being justified is up on a pedestal. We don't need to knock it down, just lower it an inch or two.
things that need to be done; I'd always prefer to work for someone that asked me to help than seeking out someone to help. I generally dislike the larger population, and that is my way of screening.
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A comment on Conversation: Why evolution could never solve aging?
What I remember was that for evolution, growing old is actually an external pressure, where things like bacteria and UV rays and such cause increasing damage to the bodies of living organisms. This gets confused with the natural growth from child into adult which is encoded into our DNA. So in that sense, evolution can't select out the aging process, the aging process is an external pressure evolution uses to do the selecting.
A reply on Conversation: What alternatives are there to the current economic system? Should global capitalism fail, what would be the best model to replace it?
Additionally, the "tent cities" are, at least in the U.S., an entirely contrived media spectacle. Many people may have lost homes, but they are not the people showing up in the tent cities. Since OWS is predominantly anarchist, I'll use their term: those tent cities are a "simulacrum" of truth. They do not deserve the name given to the tent cities of the great depression, which were predominantly homeless people gathering together so they could be seen by society, because we are talking about ideological warriors masquerading as "the 99%". No matter how 'right' they might be, acting is still just acting.
A comment on Conversation: What alternatives are there to the current economic system? Should global capitalism fail, what would be the best model to replace it?
I think the hard truth is that economic problems are the result of limited resources & a need to distribute them + the intent to game the system + value differences that become ideological causes (such as criticizing stock trading for being too easy for the amount of money it generates). So I don't know what the point of changing an economic model is, because it seems that no model change has the nuances to solve any problems.
A comment on Conversation: Since oxytocin can influence trust, is it possible to use it for manipulation? Can "the moral molecule" be used for immoral purposes?
A reply on Conversation: How do you feel about the responsibility of the government towards the young people (18-25) regarding the economic and financial crisis?
I get it, some people have unique advantages. Guess what, I don't care. Just because of that is not a reason to throw away the idea of meritocracy; and it certainly doesn't mean POTUS don't think of the U.S. as one. To achieve a meritocracy doesn't mean you have to strike down the unfair advantages that other people have, you just have to create a starting point for everyone that is capable of making them competitive. In America, that traditionally meant being able to go out on the frontier and then later became the idea of quality public education. So long as people aren't REQUIRED to have this kind of birth-right competitive edge to attain class mobility, then the fundamental idea of meritocracy works.
Talking about how some made-up purist form of meritocracy "destroys itself" because parents help their children is a bordering-on-pathetic strawman. Just throwing your hands up in the air also only further entrenches the kind of caste system you are talking about.
A comment on Conversation: How do you feel about the responsibility of the government towards the young people (18-25) regarding the economic and financial crisis?
This is a problem with schooling in-media-res, the damage is done once you have had to go through the system. The idea that "we need to be saved" is selfish, its dwelling on the suffering we've already endured instead of fixing the problem for others. In short, this has to be about fixing that system for the future, not rectifying the present. Debt forgiveness is about all you can hope for, but that won't help people who were deferred from college due to cost or the possible unfairness of wealthy families *paying* for better credentials for their kids. Let go of the problem of now, work on tomorrow.