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Another White Piece of Filth

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pyro...@my-deja.com

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Jan 31, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/31/00
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"My white skin disgusts me. My passport disgusts me. They are the marks
of an insufferable privilege bought at the price of others' agony."
("The Demon Lover", p.224)

-- Robin Morgan (current editor of Ms Magazine)

Yes, Ms. Morgan, you are correct in that you find yourself disgusting.
We can hardly blame you for not liking the fact that you are a rotten
piece of White shit. You worthless wench! You are such a piece of
pallid filth.

This is all too typical of the liberal left. I mean, they give me so
much humor material for a.f.u! Just read the trash coming from Ms.
Morgan above.

The truth is, Ms. Morgan really is disgusting, as even she freely
admits. She is a disgusting, liberal, Caucasian piece of excrement.
She is so damn worthless. She was born out of a rectum.

This, my friends, is what you call "White trash".

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

jum...@my-deja.com

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Feb 2, 2000, 3:00:00 AM2/2/00
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http://www.wess.org/CONF/WESSconf5.html
---------------------------------------

5th WESS Conference, General Evolutionary Systems


Fifth Annual WESS Conference
WASHINGTON EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEMS SOCIETY
A NON-PROFIT EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH ORGANIZATION

The Evolution of Consciousness

The fifth annual Transdisciplinary Conference on General Evolutionary
Systems was held on February 15, 1997. The conference was held in the
Reiss Science Building on Georgetown University Campus, 37 and "O"
Street NW. Registration opened at 8:30 AM. The conference began at
9:20 AM. Twenty - four papers on physical, chemical, biological,
social and cultural evolution were scheduled for presentation.

Symposia on the Philosophy of Evolution and Models of Evolutionary
Systems were held.

We were pleased to collaborate with the Society for Chaos Theory in
Psychology and Professor Fred Abraham of University of Vermont, to
co-sponsor this Special Symposium.

Plenary Lectures

"Evolution of the Brain and the Emergence of Conscious Experience"
Karl Pribram, MD., Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
James P. and Anna King Dintinguished Professor and Eminent Scholar,
Radford University
(Abstract)

"Can there be a Scientific Explanation of Consciousness?"
Patrick Heelan, Ph. D.
William A. Gaston Professor of Philosophy
Georgetown University
(Abstract)

"The Emergence of Fear - A Neuroscience Perspective"
Jay Schulkin, MD
Neuroendocrinology Laboratory, NIMH
(Abstract)

Conference Abstracts

Abstracts submitted for presentation on February 15, 1997
Click on the author's name to examine his or her abstract in more
detail:

Fred Abraham, Dynamics of Creativity in Social and Cognitive Processes.

Jerry LR Chandler, A Categorical Approach to Composing Complex,
Emergent, Hierarchically Organized (ECHO) Systems.

Richard L. Coren, Cycles of Changing "World View" in Western Society.

Ely A. Dorsey, The Seduction of Science:

G. L. Farre, Semantic Filters.

Rae K. Grad, Community Human Service Systems: The Choice To
Collaborate Or Collapse.

Patrick Heelan, (Plenary Lecture), "Can there be a Scientific
Explanation of Consciousness?"

Paul Kainen, Mathematical Interpretations of Aristotle.

Richard Khuri, The Evolution of the Idea of incorporal Matter
and its Relevance to the Theory of Evolution.

C. Leake, Toward a General Theory Of Learning.

Sam Leven, Cooperative Consciousness.

Sam Leven, Problems of modeling complex evolutionary processes in
the real world.

Stedman B. Noble, How Narratives Relate to One Another: The Case
of Human Evolution.

Ayub K. Ommaya, M.D., F.R.C.S. Evolution of Consciousness as Emotion.

George Percivall, Modeling of Schema in Evolutionary Systems.

Karl H. Pribram, (Plenary Lecture), Evolution of the Brain and
the Emergence of Conscious Experience.

Paul Rapp, Models of Knowing and the Investigations of Dynamical
Systems.

William D. Rowe, Detection and Measurement of Extrasensory
Perception.

Jay Schulkin, (Plenary Lecture), The Emergence of Fear -
A Neuroscience Prospective.

Richard S. Scotti, Craig Corl, and Veronique LaGrange, Models of
Human Values and Human Consciousness for Improved Global Decision
Making.

Carlos Torre, Hearts and Minds: Emotions and Education.

Lev M. Vekker and John A. Allen, American Behaviorism and Biological
Evolution.

Andrew Vogt, How can physics contribute to an evolutionary synthesis?

Ben Weems, Cezanne on Motif.

DYNAMICS OF CREATIVITY IN SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES
Frederick David Abraham
R1 Box 2080 Gregg Hill
Waterbury Center VT 05677 USA
802 244-8104 Tel
abr...@sover.net
http://www.pacweb.com/blueberry/index.htm

This will be more of a review of basic dynamics as it relates to
evolutionary processes as a self-organizational bifurcational process.
It will pose issues of the origins of creativity in social and
conscious processes in order to frame the issues. It will not be a an
in-depth analsysis of the evoution of brain, consciousness, or social
thought, but hopefullly provide a bacground for the discussion of
those topics. Creativity represents an evolutionary step in which
bifrucations to new solutions to problems can occur, or new problems
and issues can be conceived. It requires a combination of convergent
and divergent thought (Guilford, Gardner, Feldman, Csiksszenthihalyi,
Gruber, Nachmanovich, F & R Abraham, others). As such, one can expect
it to possess some of the properties of chaotic systems which are a
mix of convergent and divergent tendencies of interacting forces.
Existential angst and equanimity are among the interactive forces,
along with cognitive skills in navigating the parameter space that can
optimize the self-organizational bifurcation to innovative cognitive
attractors.

"Every creative act must pass through a moment when it is neither seed
nor flower, through the abyss which the mystics call ayin, that
nothingness wihch is the hidden source-spring of everything. Such a
passage is fraught with danger, however, for the pull of the abyss, of
anarch, formlessness, and chaos, is strong as death" (Winer, 1969)

"Most important is the creative indiviudual . . , the unconscious
creativity of nature breaks into the consciousness of man. . . Their
courage was both the courage to be as one-self and the courage to be
as a part." Tillich, 1952.

"Creativity is driven by conflict/cooperation, the yin/yang of a
two-sided coin called interaction, born of dual motivations to surf
the positive emotions, especailly joy, play, curiosity, and to escape
the negative emotions, especially the angst of estistential anxiety
and fear. We can even say these can be viewed as a creativity
motivation, an intentional system that evolves to greater complexity,
and by reisdeing close to the abysss, the bifurcation point, with all
its attendant risks, and with the requirement of making the leap of
the creaive effort. Perhaps this would be better stated as a drive to
chaos curfing on creativity. It rides on intential self-organized
bifurcations, dwelling only briefly in stable chaotisc attractors,
residing more often near bifurcation points as chaotic strategies are
worked out enabling bifurcations to greater complexity." Abraham,
1997.

Return to List of Abstracts

A Categorical Approach to Composing

Complex, Emergent, Hierarchically Organized (ECHO) Systems
Jerry LR Chandler,
Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies,
George Mason University,
jlrc...@erols.com

Emergent, Complex Hierarchically -Organized (ECHO) Systems will be
composed from a historical perspective in terms of degrees of
organization within a systematic notation and symbolization (C*).
(Chandler, WESScomm, 1996).

Among the initial assumptions of ECHO systems is the concept that the
connate properties of matter include the potential to emerge
increasingly complex systems. Each degree of organization is endowed
with two attributes: the potential to generate options and the
potential to generate selective processes. The composition will be
created from the algebraic structures of category theory and the
archtypical singularities of Thom (Vanbermeersch, Chandler, and
Ehresmann, 1996).

Each increasing degree of an ECHO system will be composed from a
lesser degree of organization by a sequence of four operations:
closure, aggregation, partial ordering and unionization. Enumeration
of the compositions will be estimated. The emergence of a living cell
implies the existence of sufficient ecoment which can sustain the
energy flow of the cell. Historical evidence is organized within ECHO
and C* in terms of directional causality. Physical, chemical, and
biochemical energy flows are organized into a graphical structure
consistent with the genetic sequences of a bacterial cell. Operations
(reactions) are composed into horizontal cycles (within a degree of
organization, C*) and vertical cycles (among two, three, four or more
degrees of organization of ECHO).

The capacity of this symbolization and notation to describe complex
adaptive behavior of an archtypical ECHO system, a living cell, is
illustrated with examples of selecting among alternative energy
sources in the ecoment.

Return to List of Abstracts

CYCLES OF CHANGING "WORLD-VIEW" IN WESTERN SOCIETY
Richard L. Coren
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Voice: (215)895-2253 FAX: (215) 895-1695
cor...@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu

A wide range of evolutionary processes, ranging through the physical,
the organic, and the societal, are characterized by distinct and
distinctive stages. It has recently been shown that emergence of these
generative changes frequently conforms to interpretation as a series
of escalations of a logistic parameter. The cybernetic description is
reviewed and shown to lead to an empirically based, quantitative
relations between the timing of the critical changes, i.e., a
"trajectory" of their occurrence. This is applied here to the history
of changing religious beliefs in Western society and to the
development of physical science. An unexpected relatedness is
established between what otherwise appear to be independent historical
developments. Together they indicate a fundamental altering of the
"world-view" of Western society. The impact of science on religious
belief, and the very meaning of that belief, are illuminated.

Return to List of Abstracts

THE SEDUCTION OF SCIENCE: A NEED FOR A NEW PARADIGM
Ely A. Dorsey
School of Business,
Howard University

We posit that there is a Meta Type III Error in current Environmental
Toxicology or Epidemiology Risk Assessment constructs: the error of
ill posed problems yielding palatable results. Science is shown to be
seductive because it purports to do anything that is posed in science
languaging. We show when synergy is introduced into the simplest risk
determination experimental designs, the magnitude of attaining useful
real time information is so unwieldy that the science paradigm
collapses. These analyses invite different thinking on how to use
science and possibly on how to reinvent science. We use the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's Project XL as a test bed for this
new thinking.

Return to List of Abstracts

SEMANTIC FILTERS
G.L. FARRE
Philosophy Department
Georgetown University
FA...@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu

Progress in the scientific study of the material world in the last few
decades has shown conclusively that Nature is energetically
stratified, and that nearly all observable systems are made up of
hierarchies of such strata. A characteristic feature of these strata
is that each is mapped by its own specific language, reflecting the
fact that each stratum is governed by its own laws, and is not
therefore reducible to any other energetic domain. Among the many
types of energetic hierarchies, one is of special interest. It will be
referred to here as a "conceptual hierarchy". A conceptual hierarchy
is identified by the fact that its emergent stratum is conceptual
rather than physical, though its energetic substrate is of course
physical, and indeed quantal.

The functional relationship between its more energetic, or causal
stratum, and the less energetic or emergent one is, operationally,
that of a "semantic filter". Functionally, this last may be defined as
the filtering of intelligence from information. This paper is a
preliminary, and incomplete sketch of the functional anatomy of this
filter.

Return to List of Abstracts

COMMUNITY HUMAN SERVICE SYSTEMS: The Choice To Collaborate Or Collapse
Rae K. Grad, RN, PhD
Institute for Community Collaborative Studies
California State University Monterey Bay

This presentation will focus on the current status of human service
systems in communities and why the nature of their design must be
adapted so that they can continue to function effectively.

Human service systems -- government and non profit agencies and
organizations which offer support services to communities -- have a
long history of working in narrow, categorical programs. Due to the
nature of their funding and management structures, fragmentation and
isolation between programs which serve the same individuals or
families is a serious problem in communities all across the country.
In the health, social service, public safety, education, recreation
and other such arenas, redundancy combined with a serious lack of
integration permeates the planning and delivery of services.

The current crop of social "diseases" no longer responds to the
strategies of the past. Problems such as adolescent pregnancy, gang
behavior, violence, high school dropouts and other such social
problems demand a more global, integrated system of planning and
service delivery. Yet, practitioners and managers in the human service
field are ill-prepared to apply an evolutionary systems design
strategy to frontline community services. The question that will be
addressed in this session is: how can human service systems develop a
more collaborative, integrated approach to delivering their services
to individuals and families in communities?

Return to List of Abstracts

"Can there be a Scientific Explanation of Consciousness?"
(Plenary Lecture)
Patrick A. Heelan
William A. Gaston Professor of Philosophy
Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057
Tel: 202 687 8021 Fax: 202 687 8039
hee...@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu

Terms like "consciousness," "science," and "explanation" are often--
too often-- used carelessly without careful and critical attention to
what they mean when used within the context of cognitive science. I
will show that the terms do not permit one to speak coherently of a
"scienctific explanation of consciousness," but only of scientific
explanations of some objects of consciousness or partial
characteristics of the same. Scientific explanation always has to
assume the priority of the cultural world present to human
consciousness. On this account there is no one-to-one transcription of
cultural items of the world into theoretically explained items, only
one-to-many or many-to one correlations among such items. Visual (and
other examples) examples will be used to make clear what this means.
This character of all science explanation severely limits the
possibility of predictive control over cultural, in this case,
cognitive, phenomena.

Return to List of Abstracts

Mathematical Interpretations of Aristotle
Paul Kainen
(kai...@cs.umd.edu)

There are two ways in which to use mathematics in the interpretation
of Aristotle's writings. One is more straightforward: just create a
Venn diagram of the sets of properties or attributes being discussed.
The other is to consider his writings as a sketch for a highly
specific computational theory, aiming to explain the distinction
between biology and physics.

As an example of the Venn diagram model, let X be the second sentence
on p.198:

"Imagination cannot occur without perception, nor supposition
without imagination." By the footnote 94, the sentence might
also be interpreted as saying that neither imagination nor
supposition is possible without perception. We thus have three
possible Venn diagrams: P contains I contains S; P contains I
and S, which overlap; P contains I and S which do not overlap.
However, at the beginning of the next paragraph, we have the
statement that thinking is of two kinds: imaginationand
supposition, the latter then being distinguished. This says that
T contains I and S which don't overlap so the interpretation of
sentence X written in the text cannot be correct. We are
assuming the consistency of Aristotle's reasoning which may be
irrational in view of his phrase "rational animals" but later
"no animals have reason".

I believe that Aristotle himself was so influential because his work
essentially is on the mathematics of these Venn diagrams (i.e., set
theory) as a formal means of studying zoological and botanical
properties. If Venn diagrams are made dynamic and allowed to have
catastrophe-theoretic enrichments, we are considering the models of
biology introduced by Rene Thom. There was considerable overstatement
made for the theory, but there is no doubt of its fundamental
importance.

Moving on to the application of computational theory, I shall argue
that Aristotle describes imagination and cognition in a fashion not
only consistent withlater ideas in physics but also with a more modern
category-theoretic view. Thom has also argued for such an
interpretation but his approach requires a primitive notion of
pregnance while ours does not.

References

R. Thom, Structural Stability and Morphogenesis, Benjamin, 1975;
----. Semio Physics, Addison-Wesley, 1990.
Aristotle, De Anima,Lawson-Tancred transl., Penguin, 1996.

Return to List of Abstracts

THE EVOLUTION OF
THE IDEA OF INCORPOREAL MATTER AND ITS
RELEVANCE TO THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION

by Richard Khuri

"To make an individual thing is to make a "this-something" out of
an indefinite substance or subject." (1033a:31-2)

"I mean by material whatever, though it is not actually a
this-something or an individual, can become one." (1042a:26-7)

"Matter is with regard to itself unknowable." (1036a:8-9)

"As there is perceptible matter, so there is also intelligible
matter." (1037a:4-5)

All four quotations are from Aristotle's Metaphysics. If interpreted
correctly, they contain all that is necessary for an overall
conception of matter. The only phrase that needs serious revision is
that which distinguishes between perceptible and intelligible matter,
for physicists now tell us that all matter is fundamentally
intelligibile: Matter exists in some abstract realm, parts of which
have been clarified through variously subtle mathematical analyses
(including the extensive use of symmetries and matrix algebra) and
rather less subtle experimental methods (such as smashing elementary
particles to smithereens). Ancient philosophers like Anaximander,
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus all had a clear sense of the
abstractness of matter. They knew it had to be something other than a
microscopic version of what they encountered in everyday experience.
Matter would have to transcend all the different properties displayed
by material objects precisely so that those properties could emerge
from a material base. In short, if matter were not "immaterial", there
would be no evolution. What physicists from the early nineteenth
century onwards have been telling us has not only led us firmly in the
direction of a highly abstract conception of matter, one with the
suppleness to form the entire array of phenomena in the evolutionary
repertoire, but it has also served to articulate the intelligibility
of matter, something in which several ancients also believed.
Pythagoras, Plato and Plotinus all believed in a mathematical key to
the universe, locked deep within the stuff from which all things are
made. Physicists like Faraday, Maxwell, Helmholz, Kelvin, Einstein,
Schrödinger, Bell, and Bohm have all developed accounts of some
underlying reality that has led us firmly away from traditional
materialism. Ideas such as a primordial field, geometrically or
otherwise conceived, whose highly abstract mathematical character
contains the key to emergent phenomena, including the universe as a
whole, are now taken seriously by some contemporary natural
scientists. The more the subtle material phenomena discovered with the
help of elaborate mathematical analogies sometimes many degrees
removed from the original formulation, the more convincing the
foregoing picture seems. And those more attuned to biological thinking
will not fail to notice the familiar pattern of this new (and very
old) kind of thinking about the physical universe.

Return to List of Abstracts

Toward a General Theory Of Learning
Charles Leake

After teaching for more years than I am eager top admit, I have
observed that there is a general process that I and many of my
students go through in order to learn. In attempting to abstract this
process, I came up with the following scheme:

First period: Fumbling period ;
Second period: Bits and pieces period;
Third period: Bits and pieces fitted to a single problem;
Fourth period: Generalization to many problems.

This scheme is isomorphic to Piaget's Cognitive Development scheme,
but it is not restricted to chronological age. Recent developments in
brain physiology indicate that there might be corroborative evidence
to Piaget's theory. Since a subset of the theory which is proposed
above is isomorphic to Piaget's theory, it too in at least part is
supported by this evidence. The purpose of this presentation is to
present the details of the theory and how it connects to repetition
and perhaps some form of behaviorism as well as brain physiology
research. The presentation will also include a discussion of where
this method has been used not only as a teaching tool, but also as
method of conducting a systems analysis.

Return to List of Abstracts

Cooperative Consciousness
Sam Leven
Scientific Cybernetics, Inc.
4681 W. Leitner Dr.
Coral Springs, FL 33067-2028
954-752-1515
Sam...@aol.com

Emerging research in psycholinguistics (Turner, Fauconnier),
developmental psychology (Schore, Baron Cohen), and molecular
psychiatry (Cloninger) demonstrate the constructive nature of
awareness, motivation, emotion, and cognition (Harre, Gergen). Based
on earlier work with Elsberry (1992) and Levine 1996), I have
developed a model of creative process which requires the presence of
external and internalized others (Leven, BRAINS Conf., 1996) and a
model of team interaction and productivity which depends on
interaction and mutual support (Leven, U. St. Gallen Lectures,
12/16-7/96). Based on a foundation of neuroscientific research, the
model involves multiple re-entrant hierarchical and heterarchical
neural networks. It considers underlying experience, beliefs, needs,
and interpersonal influence. Here, we present a version of this model
which approaches the problem of consciousness in the ever-learning and
-maturing individual (Pribram & Hudspeth, 1990). As Cloninger has
suggested, it requires models of temperament (underlying tendencies,
somewhat plastic in adulthood) and character (late developing
higher-order controls, founded in experience).

Return to List of Abstracts

Problems of modeling complex evolutionary processes in the real world
Sam Leven
Scientific Cybernetics, Inc.
4681 W. Leitner Dr.
Coral Springs, FL 33067-2028
954-752-1515
Sam...@aol.com

We build on the model of "optimal ignorance" (Leven, 1996a and b;
Leven & Smith, 1996) to suggest limitations in understanding,
analyzing, and explaining evolving extensive systems. As the evidence
from physics (Wolpert & MacReady, 1996, Zurek, 1994) suggests, the
efficacy of the theories we propound (and the measures we derive from
them) is bounded by the absence of a certain ("objective") prior (see
Jaynes, 1994). We suggest that understanding the limits of our ability
to explain requires a model of the observer and his belief system. We
present a model which seeks to represent that system, allowing
inquiries into the validity and quality of the observations and
analyses he/she propounds. Only by "filtering" results through some
measure of "point of view" can we grasp the value of scientific
testing (Shackle, 1972; Hayek, 1935). Our failure to control the
Automated Battlefield in the Gulf War and our inability to accurately
measure productivity, growth, and inflation during the last twenty
years (Boskin, 1996, et. al.) are presented as examples of the
fundamental Type I "Observer Error" we risk in extensive dynamic
system measurement and control. We offer a preliminary approach to
resolving this problem.

Return to List of Abstracts

How Narratives Relate to One Another: The Case of Human Evolution
Stedman B. Noble
Washington, D. C.

We are familiar with theories and the way that evidence from different
disciplines can assist in correcting them. I am extending these
methodological procedures to a succession of evidence-based
narratives. Various narratives that pertain to human evolution--bones
and stones; vocal tract; gesture; neural circuits; cognition and stone
tools; nutrition; social structure--are combined. Any narrative might
absorb another narrative, might disprove another narrative. The
general result, however, is that most narratives complement one
another, providing details for a part of an integrated narrative that
defines how our unusual competences have come to be. The dominant
narrative, by Deacon, says that the pre-frontal cortex grew
dramatically, taking over the circuits governing innate primate
vocalization, integrating them with circuits that provide the grammar
and intentionality of human language. The narratives on cognition of
stone tools, by Wynn, is complementary. It provides some timing of the
changes in neural circuitry that are proposed by Deacon.

Return to List of Abstracts

Evolution of Consciousness as Emotion
Ayub K. Ommaya, M.D., F.R.C.S.
Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery,
George Washington University Medical Center
Director, Center for Integrative Neuroscience
8006 Glenbrook Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
tel: (301) 654-0801 fax: (301) 654-2563
Omm...@aol.com

Current definitions of emotion in biomedical, psychological and (to a
lesser degree) in philosophical literature tend to segregate emotion
from cognition (thinking) in spite of extensive anatomical,
physiological and psychological data which emphasize their fundamental
inseparability. Moreover, the common general consensus is that
emotions are disruptive for cognition. Evidence will be reviewed to
show that the emotional and cognitive aspects of human and animal
consciousness develops from the basic mechanisms of sensori-motor
actions from which integrated emotional/cognitive aspects of
consciousness evolve. Our research on mechanisms of the disintegration
and reintegration of consciousness in traumatic brain injuries (TBI)
and their neurobehavioral sequelae has led to a novel hypothesis for
the evolution of a mechanism of consciousness as emotion in living
organisms. Consciousness is an emergent causal and phenomenal effect
of the evolution of specific neural structures and mechanisms enabling
thinking (cognition) and language in humans as output or motor aspects
of consciousness. These actions begin in simple responses to stimuli
in unicellular organisms which lead to subjective sensory and
subsequent emotional experiences coupled with the elaboration of
communicative actions first in bodily responses and then in facial and
vocal expressions and finally in human language. Three critical stages
in this evolution of consciousness as emotion begin with reflex
responses in simple organisms followed by merging of sensory inputs in
all nervous systems and culminating in a unique emotional cognitive
system in humans which is not explicable by the primate trend. The
neural mechanism for consciousness as emotion is characterized as an
energy saving device of the brain which emerges as a set of feeling
states coupled with motor actions based on a larger set of unconscious
states which are also potentially conscious states. Cognition and
emotion are fundamentally inextricable resulting in our claim, "No
emotion, no consciousness." Consciousness as emotion in humans is
defined physiologically and phenomenologically as bodily feeling
states capable of "up states" (e.g. mania), "down states" (depression)
and "normal" levels; the first two levels constitute the whole range
of overt emotional states and the intermediate level is our ubiquitous
set of covert emotional conscious states. This hypothesis predicts a
fundamental human disability in being able to reason without bias. It
also clarifies the taxonomy of cognitive and affective conscious
states which enables elimination of current contradictory
psychological descriptions of emotions. Our theory provides a rational
explanation for the well documented paradoxical historical accounts of
unwise socio-political decisions coupled with high intelligence and
elegant post-hoc rationalizations of such actions (e.g. as summarized
in B. Tuchman's "The March of Folly"). The neuroanatomical,
physiological and psychological data supporting this hypothesis will
be reviewed and its explanatory power will be demonstrated with
examples showing how specific neurobehavioral outcomes occur in mild,
moderate and severe TBI. The behavior and neurobiology of patients
with autism who have disabilities in their capacity for adequate
attention, emotion, language and societal interactions provides a
second source of clinical data to test the concept of consciousness as
emotion. Implications of our findings for human behavior in health and
disease will be discussed.

Return to List of Abstracts

Modeling of Schema in Evolutionary Systems
George Percivall
NASA
(301) 925-0368
gper...@eos.hitc.com

A common feature of evolutionary systems is a schema or a store of
information which is modified as the system evolves. The schema
contains information about the system's environment and its
interaction with that environment, it contains a condensed set of the
regularities in that information, and it provides a basis for
interacting with environment (Gell- Mann, 1994). Gell-Mann's
observations concerning the function of a schemata in natural systems
are similar to the structure developed by controls system engineers in
model reference adaptive control systems. A similar assessment of the
design process was presented by an architect (Alexander 1964). For
architects, the design model is a schema which provides a condensed,
examinable version of the critical elements of what makes the building
effective in meeting its needs. Although there are generalizations
which can be made about the role of a schema in the evolution of a
complex adaptive system, there are significant differences in how
schema are structured in the various systems. There is also
significant differences in the time line for how a schema is updated
versus, for example, the lifetime of the system. Modeling the
differences in the distribution and temporal updates of schema in
evolutionary systems is the topic of this talk.

Variation in schema distribution are characterized as centralized vs.

distributed. In a centralized arrangement there is a single site for
the schema. The processes which act on this schema, to update or draw
from it, are multiple and separate from the schema. Examples of this
type of schema are certain types of control systems. A distributed
schema is where each process has a schema associated with it. Examples
include neural networks, where the node values are the schema; and
genetic based systems, where the genome is the schema. An approach for
modeling distributed systems is N-K models. A third type of
arrangement is also observed which is a hybrid of centralized and
decentralized systems. In a hybrid schema, there is a centralized or
public schema along with a private schema associated with each
process. An example of hybrid arrangement is an organization of
people, e.g., a business firm. Each person brings there own way of
doing a task to the job and this may or may not match the published
business rules for the firm, i.e., the central schema. In general, a
centralized schema will be consistent, i.e., singular, but the systems
robustness is wholly dependent upon the schema. Distributed and hybrid
schema may be inconsistent but also may be more resilient to
variations from the environment based on the distribution.

Variation in the process for updating a schema is also observed. One
way to characterize this update process is either as Darwinian or
Lamarkian. Darwinian update requires a generation to pass before the
schema is modified. Lamarkian evolution allows modification of the
schema as the system is acting, although the schema update is on a
longer time cycle than the direct interaction of the system with the
environment.

Return to List of Abstracts

Evolution of the Brain and the Emergence of Conscious Experience
Plenary Lecture
Karl H. Pribram
Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
James P. and Anna King Dintinguished Professor and Eminent Scholar,
Comonwealth of Virginia
Brain Center, Radfor University, Box 6977, Radford VA 24142
tel: (540) 831-6108; fax: (540) 831-6630;
email: kpri...@runet.edu

In the words of Sir John Eccles: "The key concept . . . is that in the
evolution of the mammalian brain, there had come to exist in the
neo-cortex levels of complexity in its ultramicrostructure, that we
may literally call transcendent because (Eccles, 1992) they opened the
brain to the world of conscious feeling." (Eccles, 1993)

As to the details of the relevant ultramicrostructure, there remains
an important point of disagreement between Eccles and myself which
surfaces only tangentially in these quotations. Eccles views mental
processes as unidirectional causal influences on the operation of the
synaptic mechanism. By contrast I see the interaction between the
physiological and the psychological process as reciprocal. The
evidence for such reciprocal interaction at every level (subsynaptic,
synaptic, neuronal and neural systems) makes up the substance of the
various lectures composing Brain and Perception: Holonomy and
Structure in Figural Processing (Pribram, 1991). Reciprocity leads to
bootstrapping, that is, self organization, within the brain/mind
matrix. What is missing in Eccles' account, is the emergence of
mentality (including consciousness) from the operation of the neural
process. This is an inconsistency: Eccles makes an excellent case for
the emergence of feeling and self-consciousness as rooted in the
evolutionary development of the very same synapto-dendritic cortical
architecture which he claims is receptive to psychological influence.
In his view, however, this development only "allows" mind to influence
brain. Still, Eccles felt sufficiently comfortable with the view that
mentality emerges from an interaction between biology and culture to
write a book "The Self and its Brain" with Karl Popper a strong
advocate of the emergentist view. My own stance begins by taking
computer programming as its metaphor. At some point in programming,
there is a direct correspondence between the programming language and
the operations of the hardware being addressed. In ordinary von Neuman
configurations, machine language embodies this correspondence. Higher
order languages encode the information necessary to make the hardware
run in ever more abstract and generally useful languages. When the
word processing program allows this paper to be written in English,
there is no longer any similarity between the user's language and the
binary of the computer hardware. This, therefore, expresses a dualism
between mental language and material hardware operations. Transposed
from metaphor to the actual mind-brain connection, the operations of
the neural wetware made up of dendrites and synapses and the
electrochemical operations occurring therein seem far removed in their
organization, as is the language describing their operation, from that
used by behavioral scientists to describe psychological processes. But
the distance which separates these languages is no greater than that
which distinguishes word processing from binary. What is different in
the mind-brain connection from that which characterizes the
program-computer relationship is its intimate reciprocal
self-organization at every level. In operation, high level
psychological processes such as those involved in cognition are
therefore the result of cascades of biopsychological bootstrapping
operations rather than the result of solely top-down programming
procedures, and thus akin to the development of programming languages.
Eccles proposes that the elementary neurophysiological operations of
dendrons have a counterpart in elementary psychological operations he
calls psychons. He has been severely criticized for failing to
delineate what he conceives to be a psychon, that all of his
beautifully detailed descriptions are limited to dendrons. If we take
seriously the possibility that at the dendron level something is
occurring which is akin to a computer being programmed in machine
language, it behooves us to delineate the psychon. A reciprocal rather
than a unidirectional causal relationship would be more productive,
allowing bootstrapping of mind-brain organizations. Beck and Eccles
appear to recognize this when they state that " physicists will
realize the close analogy to laser action, or more generally, to the
phenomenon of self organization." This statement comes pretty close to
my own formulation which used the optical laser produced hologram as
its initial metaphor for processing at the synapto-dendritic level
(Pribram 1966). Computers process information in terms of Boolian
BITS, the amount of processing achieved being measured by Shannon's
unit, the reduction of the amount of uncertainty. The holonomic brain
theory is based on the evidence that the unit of processing in the
cortical receptive dendritic fields, is a quantum of information, a
Gabor wavelet or similar Hermetian. But Gabor, as did Shannon, defined
his elementary unit to deal with the efficiency with which human
telecommunication could proceed. As an hypothesis, Pribram's Brain and
Perception takes the idea that a quantum of information describes not
only the neural but also the psychological elementary process. In
short, the biopsychological language that corresponds to computer
machine language is a language based on the quantum of information. In
Eccles' terms, the quantum of information measured in Gabor-like terms
is a measure of the psychon. The units, the Gabor elementary
functions, are thus measures that apply equally to the operations of
the material wetware of the brain and the operations of mental
communication among human actors. But, just as in classical
programming hierarchies, embodiments at each level are transformed
into those at the next level. Still, something remains invariant
across these transformations or the process would fail to work. There
is therefore a difference between surface embodiments or other
instantiations (such as behavioral performances) of different grains
which become trans-formed and the deeper identity which in-forms the
transformations. Transformations are necessary to the instantiations
-- Plato's particular appearances -- of the ideal in-forms: the
instantiation of Beethoven's 9th Symphony is transformed from
composition (a mental operation) to score (a material embodiment) to
performance (more mental than material) to recording on compact disc
(more material than mental) to the sensory and brain processes
(material) that make for appreciative listening (mental). But the
symphony as symphony remains recognizably "identical" to Beethoven's
creative composition over the centuries of performances, recordings
and listenings. Thus two issues concerning "identity" can be
discerned: 1) What is it that remains identical in the various levels
and grains of the hierarchy of abstractions which connect English with
binary? and 2) Is the correspondence between machine language and
machine operation an identity or a duality? I believe the answer to
both the questions hinges on whether one concentrates on the surface
transformations of multiple grain or deeper structural relationships.
(Pribram, 1986). What remains invariant across surface instantiations
is "in-formation", the form within. Surprisingly, according to this
analysis, it is a Platonic "idealism" that motivates the information
revolution ("information processing" approaches in cognitive science)
and distinguishes it from the materialism of the industrial
revolution. Further, as in-formation is neither material nor mental, a
tension between idealism and realism will displace the current tension
between mentalism and materialism. It remains to be seen whether this
tension will then be resolved with a Pythagorean-like pragmatism.

REFERENCES

Eccles, J.C. (1992) Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Self.
London, New York: Routledge.

Eccles, J.C. (1993) Evolution of Complexity of the Brain with the
Emergence of Consciousness. In K.H. Pribram (Ed.) Rethinking
NeuralNetworks: Quantum Fields and Biological Data. New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 1-18.

Pribram, K. H. (1991) Brain and Perception: Holonomy and Structure
in Figural Processing. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Pribram, K. H. (1986) The cognitive revolution and mind/brain
issues. American Psychologist, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 507-520.

Pribram, K. H. (1966) Some dimensions of remembering: Steps toward a
neuropsychological model of memory. In J. Gaito (Ed.),
Macromolecules and behavior. New York: Academic Press, pp. 165-187.

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MODELS OF KNOWING AND THE INVESTIGATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS
Paul Rapp
ra...@allegheny.edu

What is a dynamical system, and what do we mean when we say that we
understand it? In this presentation, three distinct concepts of a
scientific understanding of a dynamical system will be considered.
The Newtonian model was established in the seventeenth century. The
second model, the geometrical theory of differential equations,
emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the third
model, based on the algorithmic reconstruction of phase space, is
the result of research conducted during the past decade. Each
transition has resulted in a significant expansion in the kind of
system that can be investigated. The presentation concludes with
speculations on the future development of dynamical understanding.

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( cont'd )

jum...@my-deja.com

unread,
Feb 2, 2000, 3:00:00 AM2/2/00
to

Detection and Measurement of Extrasensory Perception

Dr. William D. Rowe

As a conscious organism, human awareness of the external, physical
world is through information supplied by the senses. There are five
conscious senses. Each of these senses have unique characteristics,
limitations, and in some cases mechanical means of amplification.
The information transfer capability of these senses are evaluated
from a measurement theory perspective. Do other senses exist? If so,
how do we detect, evaluate, and verify their nature? This paper
first presents a structure of sensory perception in order to form a
more rigorous reference for comparison with other potential sensory
channels.

Verifiable, repeatable measurements are the only way of establishing
the existence and capacity of sensory and communication channels.
When the underlying processes are changing, or are intermittent, or
the signal is weak in a field of high noise, or our detection
capability is deficient, and all combinations of these, such
measurements require finely - honed detectors. One such extra sense
has been identified and investigated more fully under a special set
of circumstances. Groups of people meeting or working together and
focusing on some agenda, activities, or tasks at times experience
and sense a feeling of group attunement. This sense is described in
many ways by different people such as "we are all on the same wave
length", "the group resonated", "the group became attuned to each
other and the work became easier", " we focused our combined energy
and attention on the activity," etc. This condition or phenomenon is
recognized by many if not all participants in the group when it is
present. Different people are conscious and aware of the phenomenon
to different degrees when it occurs, and some are able to record its
presence immediately after the experience. They presumably have a
more developed sensing capability for being aware of the existence
of this state. At this stage of observation, one cannot define what
is happening in any detail, only an awareness of this "focused group
energy" when it occurs. The use of name such as "focused group
energy" (FGE) may be misleading since it implies several properties
to the experiential conditions that are speculative at best.
However, given the need to describe the phenomenon, this name will
be used. Is this phenomenon real or imagined? Does FGE represent a
state of group consciousness separate from the individual
consciousness of participants? Can people sense the presence of FGE
when it occurs? How do they describe it? Can repeatable, verifiable
measurements of FGE be made under controlled conditions? Is the FGE
"source", a group or individual phenomenon? A study based upon
scientific principles, using empirical data, is being carried out as
a means of addressing these questions. A series of experiments,
using the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Random Event
Generator (PEAR REG) as a device to detect the presence of FGE, are
underway. The initial findings have produced statistically
significant results that are reproducible and verifiable. These
findings will be reported. While FGE may not be one of the more
popular extra senses, it does represent a case where the mental
processes of humans acting together can be directly measured by
mechanical means in a reproducible manner. It provides means other
than anecdotal evidence to confirm the existence of at least one
extra sense. One such senses can be established in a process
amenable to empirical science, then more attention and resources may
be made available to provide better detection and measurement.

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The Emergence of Fear - A Neuroscience Perspective
(Plenary Lecture)
Jay Schulkin
Neuroendocrinology Branch
National Institute of Mental Health
and
Georgetown University
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
jsch...@acog.com

The neuroanatony, neuronal circuitry and neurochemistry of the fear
response has emerged from studies in several species, including man.
The functional implications of this data for both normal and
abnormal behaviors will be compared among species of various degrees
of evolutionary complexity. Questions will be opened in regard to
both the biological and cultural role of fear for human beings.

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Models of Human Values and Human Consciousness


for
Improved Global Decision Making

Richard S. Scotti, Craig Corl, and Veronique LaGrange

The George Washington University
Engineering Management Department
Rm 635 Gelman Library
Washington, DC 20052
sco...@seas.gwu.edu

Issues such as global environmental pollution and resource
depletion, international trade deficits and standard of living
imbalances, and human rights and women*s rights injustices are
confronting humanity with decisions of unprecedented complexity.
Much of the debate preceding political, economic and social decision
making surrounding these issues concerns identification of
appropriate sets of values. A number of researchers have attempted
to shed light on this situation by seeking a set of common values on
which broadly acceptable global decisions can be based. This paper
presents some new perspectives resulting from our research on common
values. It brings a new view of the interplay between decision
making processes, the values being applied, and the state of self
awareness of the decision makers themselves.

Normally, values are seen as the criteria for the decision making
process. High-stakes decision situations, however, can lead to
incongruities between espoused stakeholder values on one hand, and
activities or behavior on the other, especially when a stakeholder*s
equities are perceived as under threat. Better, more sustainable
decisions will necessarily be characterized by stakeholder
commitment to *walk the talk*. This research focuses on fundamental
difficulties resulting from current decision making processes, and
the concepts of values being applied. Our studies of value systems
from both ancient and modern institutions around the world--from
economic values defined by the market, to less tangible values based
on social morals and religious beliefs--have lead us surprisingly to
only a dozen common themes. These may be represented by an expanded
Maslovian hierarchical model of human motivation, if higher
dimensions of human interactions beyond those previously represented
by Maslow are included. Another model based on a cosmology from the
East, which is similarly hierarchical, proposes that the fundamental
dimension of all human values is consciousness or sense of self.
Taken together, these models provide us with an explanation for
apparent differences among values systems, as well as for
inconsistencies between values and behavior.. Further, these
concepts also prescribe conditions under which a common set of
values may be identified and practically applied for global decision
making . This research suggests, contrary to current trends, that
more information will not facilitate better decisions unless those
responsible for decision making become more self aware, and
cognizant of their own state of mind and values as well as those of
the other stakeholders when entering into a decision making
activity.

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Hearts & Minds: Emotions and Education
Carlos A. Torre
University
New York, New York
A...@aol.com

The Hearts & Minds Project is an educational research study designed
to explore the emotions children experience as they learn. Its
research techniques come out of the quantitative and qualitative
methods of the dynamical sciences.

Feelings and other affective phenomena are difficult to observe or
examine directly. Yet, much scientific evidence demonstrates that
the beating of the heart is influenced, strongly, by such mental
activities as thoughts and emotions. Almost everyone has encountered
some of this evidence with their own experience when stress, fear,
anger, or other strong emotions cause changes in the rate or pattern
of their heart-beat. It follows that proper studies of heart
activity may reveal some of the emotional processes involved in
education and that such studies may, thus, suggest ways to improve
teaching and learning. In the Hearts & Minds study Primary data is
collected through the use of specialized heart monitors known as
Holter monitors, video recordings of research activities, and
personal observations of the cooperating subjects. Electrocardiogram
(EKG) information is obtained by using Holter monitors
(sophisticated tape recorders about the size of a "Walkman" that
"read" the length of the interval between heart beats). This
information is then reprocess using "recurrence plot" methods to
generate visual images of the complex and beautiful patterns
produced by the rhythmicity of the heart (see sample enclosed under
separate cover). It appears that these visual patterns ("complexes")
are associated with particular emotions and other mental processes.
The purpose of the Hearts & Minds Project is to: 1) identify these
"complexes"; 2) connect them to corresponding emotions or mental
states; and 3) search for significant differences in these complex
patterns that may exist among distinct student populations (e.g.,
special and typical education, bilingual, culturally diverse, male,
female).

On 19 November, I conducted an initial pilot study of 5 general
education Kindergarten students and 5 of their bilingual education
counterparts as they participated in diverse learning activities.
The resultant data are presently being reprocess (as mentioned
above) and analyzed. The hypothesize of this particular study is
that cultural and linguistic differences between these two groups
will result in different patterns of mental behavior (problem
solving, emotions, acquisition of insight) that, thus, contribute to
variations in the heart-beat intervals that generate the visual
data. I will present the available results of the study if this
proposal is accepted. The methods applied in this project can be
used clinically with freely behaving students of, virtually, any
age. The results may help clarify the role of emotions in education.
Further, these data may demonstrate the potential usefulness of this
kind of research in the continuous assessment of teaching and
learning practices and, thus, help us to better address some of our
students' academic, emotional, and social needs that are, often,
left unattended.

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American Behaviorism and Biological Evolution


Lev M. Vekker and John A. Allen

George Mason University
jal...@gmu.edu

A case is made that American behaviorism began and conceptually
remained a continuation of Darwinian biological evolution. It is
suggested that Watson, who represented extreme behaviorism did not
deny or ignore consciousness and mental phenomena despite his
radical behaviorist stance. Instead it is suggested that he wanted
to elaborate an objective methodology in order to study psychology
as a natural science. From the beginning it was clear to Watson and
later behaviorists that to bridge the gap between mind, brain, and
body directly from brain processes was not possible. They argued
that the brain is just part of the overall mechanism and that
behavior and mental phenomena are effects of the whole organism.
Lashley and Tolman elaborated cognitive behaviorism and the theory
of cognitive maps which were cognitive and not (just) brain maps.
Indeed, even Skinner emphasized the role of peripheral reinforcement
and reward in his behavioral psychology. We would suggest that from
this general framework a necessary component of behavioral acts
follows, i.e., involving the tactile-kinesthetic sensory system.
However, this conclusion was not drawn by the behaviorists and to
this day remains underestimated. In our book (The Mental
Representation of Physical Reality ), we attempt to overcome this
conceptual shortcoming. Our arguement is strongly supported by the
work of Sheets-Johnston (The Roots of Thinking, 1990) which
represents an attempt to solve this conceptual gap from an
anthropological point of view.

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How can physics contribute to an evolutionary synthesis?
Andrew Vogt
Department of Mathematics
Georgetown University
an...@gumath1.math.georgetown.edu

Interdisciplinary study of evolutionary systems is partly concerned
with unity. Not only is there a natural striving for a simple and
unified view of Nature, but there is a natural tendency to imitate
the methodology and lines of inquiry of those disciplines that have
had success. Thereby one achieves a unity that is perhaps illusory.

Physics, as everyone knows, is the archetype of a successful
discipline. The technological consequences of Newtonian mechanics,
electromagnetic theory, relativity, and quantum mechanics are well
known. Physical ideas of the utmost intellectual daring have
received the strongest possible experimental verification. The
discipline is the envy of all. And its methods - conceptual,
mathematical, and where possible experimental - have been tried by
all. The success of these methods with respect to the general study
of evolving systems has been limited. Two examples are
thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics. Both are quite respectable
within appropriate subdomains of physics, chemistry, and mechanics.
But they have received disproportionate attention and cachet in
fields far from physics. The former has interpretational
difficulties that will not be addressed here, while the latter has
turned people away from the concepts of their own disciplines
towards prematurely quantitative simulations. Their value has been
little more than that of weak metaphor. Admittedly, metaphors are of
value, and when all else fails, weak borrowed ones are better than
nothing. But much of the physical content of thermodynamics and
nonlinear dynamics is drained out of them when they are put to such
service.

Here another way to exploit physics is suggested, one that assumes
an underlying unity among the different disciplines with
consequences for all. We should give attention to the shortcomings
of physics, not its strengths - shortcomings within its own fields
of inquiry. In particular, attention should be given to the
conundrums of modern physics. These include: the equivalence of
matter and energy, the relativity of time, the indistinguish-
ability of elementary particles, and the notion of matter as a
quantized wave that condenses during measurements. The speaker will
review these conundrums superficially, recollect why they are
conundrums, and speculate about directions where resolutions might
be found.

The problems examined are large. Resolution of some or all of them
is likely to have immense impact on the concerns of evolutionary
theory - the laws of progression of matter, life, and thought. A few
further speculations will be offered on what the impact might be.

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Cezanne on the Motif
Ben F. Weems
bfw...@skipjack.bluecrab.org

The central tension in Cezannes's work, and chief source of its
vitality has been variously characterised; imitation and invention,
representation and construction, realism and abstraction, are some
examples. It can also be seen as an expression of a basic paradox;
in his case expressed as that between his religious dedication to
the motif, the object in view, and the fact that on Picasso's
explicit admission, he is the father of cubism, and ultimately of
abstract non- representational art. To be sure, he is the father of
virtually every other style from his day to ours, on the authority
of the painters themselves, but their debt to him is closely related
to the debt admitted by Picasso. We can phrase the paradox more
generally; how does the absolute didication to the object in view
end by dissolving it ? To phrase it thus is to relate it to other
analogous transformations at the same time, the most obvious being
Husserl's first book on Phenomenology, 1900, Planck's first paper on
Quantum Mechanics, 1900, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Lord Jim,
1899, and 1900, and the special theory of Relativity, 1905. Husserl
declares that we must give up the idea we can ever apprehend or know
the world, put it aside, and devote ourselves to a precise analysis
of our experience of the world, of how it impinges on the subject.
This we can know and can organize precisely, he claims--in 1900.
Conrad recognizes that the dream of realising in fact, in the flesh,
any ideal of the self, is not only idle, but becomes destructive of
the individual and of society in the very act of trying to realise
it. "There was something inherent in the neccessities of practical
action that entailed the moral degradation of the idea." Einstein
demonstrates, following the Michelson-Morley experiment which was to
lay hold on the ether once and for all, that Newtons' Absolute Space
and time are themselves attributes of the subject, the way each
subject orders his experience of the world, not the world in itself.
In all such cases, the old emergent absolute basis of knowledge
becomes the terms in which we then apprehend some now implicit one,
to be realised in its turn. In relativity theory, the Newtonian time
and space give way to the speed of light as the basis on which we
can know and order all the rest of our experience. But the price of
each such new advance is that the new term is at once an aspect of
the world and of the subject, in that it cannot be differentiated
into its two components, as in the case today of the speed of light.
In Cezanne, the visual image cease to be the subject and becomes the
raw material , the terms in which a different subject begins to take
form-- the way the eye and brain order visual experience. This will
become the explicit subject only with Cubism and later.

The context within which this subject must be discussed, and the
justification for this paper at this conference, is two fold, but
must be summarized here without argument. They must stand as the
orienting framework within which I wish to examine just one example
of the process of cultural change. First, there is an implicit
current of thought in a society, below the level of conscious ideas,
that manifests itself in analogous ways in different disciplines ,
each in its own terms, and this curenty is the essential history of
the society. it is hierarchical, recursive, exponential, each level
evolving within the constraints of all those more general than
itself, all eveloving at once at different rates . Second, the
paradox of the drive to realize something as a fact of the world
that ends by localising it as a fact of the subject, is the univeral
form that current or motive force takes,but it has as many different
appearances as it doew historical manifestations. Thus
transformation has two basic forms as its limits. In onw the final
invariant reality within all man's experience turns out to be--man
himself, and the measure of all things, as in the 5th century B.C.
Greece , the Renaissance, 4-5th dynasty Egypt, among others. The
second is the consequence of the first: that the final objectivie
reality within all man's experience, considered noe as just that,
his experience, the objective truth of things, the final invariant
truth of things from all points of view, from all coordinate
systems, the ding an sich, is--- the way man orders his experience,
as when the Logos of Plotinus become flesh, as in the DE Trinitate
of ST. Augustine, or as happens in Cezanne.,or as in the shift from
gods with only animal forms to gods with both human and animal
forms, or from gods with various forms to a god who is
ttranscendent, but who acts on man through history.

Now I want to deal with thre or four of the means by which jCezanne
distances the subject of his paointing from the object in the world,
to move it towward what it will become later, the objectification of
how we orlder our visual esperience from representational to non-
representational.

The first of these is the abandonment of vanishing point
perspective. This is codified at the last watershed, in the
Renaissance, as the new enabling or mediating convention. The visual
image may be only an image in the eye of an observer, but by means
of vanishing point perspective, we are enabled to read through that
visual image to the object "in itself". Perspective joins our
subjective visual image to the real world as it really is- a world
note, that has become invisible in itself, Had I time, I should then
show the parallel between this movement in painting and the
codification of Newton's mechanics, permitting us to join our
apprehansions in relative times and spaces to the real world, by
means of Absolute time and space.

The convention of vanishing point perspective is the enabling common
ground of visual art until the turn of our century. We begin to see
the disenchantment with it in Courbet, but Cezanne is the first
person to fully and explicitlly reject it. What has happened to this
convention once live and expressive, indeed the very condition of
expressive art ? It is felt increasingly to be not just irrelevant,
but as positively a hindrance in the attempt to get at one's
subject. The topics I deal with in the paintings are: vanishing
point perspective the theory that one sees the world in patches of
color, and in its modulations across the face of the object or
expanse . the so called constructivist brush stroke, the hachures
parallel and short across a whole area or linking different objects
his theories about the line between two different objects,and how
one gets at that , including his ideas about reflective and
complementary colors his talk about geometry, and the movement of
abstraction from specifics of the object to surface and outline, and
how the object becomes replace by the way it is to be represented as
the subject of the work

Finally, the quote from Bernard, on how he didn't really represent
so much as pass his visual image through the theory of how one
organises visual imagery, and then put the results of that process
on the canvas. The implications of this for the shift of subject
from visual image to the way in which we order our visual images.
His painting is iconic all over again, in terms of the new subject.
and what this means. To deal adequately with the subject of the
parallel of this process in art and analogous movements in science
or in philosphy would entail a discussion of the relation between
logic and ana-logic,that is to say, the language of metaphor, again,
a topic that lies beyond the range of what can be done here.

Editorial Notes:
The abstracts are posted almost the same as received from the
authors.
Some authors do not have email addresses.

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http://blueberry-brain.org/chaosophy/berezin.htm
------------------------------------------------


Reply to Berezin with Protagoras' Letter
Responsa Clamata in Deserto:
Reply to Berezin on the Struggle for Creativity in AcademiaLand, and a
Reply to Robertson on the Struggle for Creativity in ChaoLand, and a
Reply from Protagoras Concerning Creativity in LogosLand
By & © Frederick David Abraham


July, 1996, for Dialogue (This is the original unabridged version; an
editorially abridged version appears as Commentary: On Alexander A.
Berezin's "Interdisciplinarity Challenges the Myth of 'experts,'" in:
Dialogue, 1966, vol. 1, (3&4), 14. Thanks to LS for a nice job.)


The issue Berezin poses (1996) is the extent to which
communal-cultural conservatism (his focus is on the academic
community) stiffles creativity (his focus is on scientific
creativity). In chaos theory, we are engaged in our own struggle as a
linguistic community (Abraham, 1995; Gilgen, 1995; Goldstein, 1995;
Leibniz-Abraham, 1666-1695/1995; Robertson, 1996; Tryon, 1995). Chaos
theory was borne into contemporary science as a free spirit, a sea on
which to surf in creativity and freedom. But as our enterprise
matures, it is beginning to rigidify as it tries to justify itself to
its academic critics. Part of our struggle revolves around a false
schism between the more metaphoric and imaginative uses of chaos
concepts as applied to art, culture, literature, and therapy
(occassionally without much familiarity with the fundamental concepts
of dynamics), and the more technical scientific enterprise
(occassionally without much imagination with regards to the cultural
embodiments of that knowledge). (My parenthetical caveats are not
meant to detract from the positive contributions of these approaches.)
Thus there is a similar struggle for creativity within our own
community. The issue Berezin raises is not trivial, not just a matter
of our survival in an academic/funding community (for those of us
still wandering its hollowed halls), but is a matter of the discovery
and creation of knowledge and reality. These are things precious to
many of us. Foucault (1970) called them "The will to knowledge" and
"The will to truth".

My own definition of creativity (1996), "Creativity is
self-organizational bifurcation to novel attractors of being", by
context, emphasizes chaos also, which brings it close to the intention
of the Gardnerian-Csikzentmihalyan-Gruberian-Feldmanian systems
approach to creativity, a requirement for which is what Gardner (1993)
calls "fruitful asynchrony", a condition quashed by the academic
conditions indicted by Berezin (see Abraham, 1995; Zausner, 1996). A
chaotic mixing of existential angst (convergent forces) and joy
(divergent forces), so requisite to creativity, might appreciate some
of the hardships of the academic marketplace, but who could deny that
the excesses Berezin highlights exceed and negate those useful to
creativity. When Nachmanovich (1990) talks of "unblocking the
obstacles to its [creativity's] natural flow", he is talking about the
inner landscape, but this inner landscape is inextricably interactive
with the external landscape.

I consider hermeneutics and post-modernism a sort of yin-yang
dual-perspective dyad. Hermeneutics seeks the creation of truth
through interpretation and understanding, emphasized in the famous
hermeneutic circle. The hermeneutic circle of understanding the
relationships between whole and parts rests on Humboldt's "vorgängige
Grundlage des Begreifens" a "prexisting basis of understanding", a
rapport or wholeness between the interpreter and subject of
investigation. Humboldt thus anticipated Droysen, Dilthey, Husserl,
Heidegger, and Gadamer (Mueller-Vollmer, 1992, p. 15).

Post-modernism has often been criticized as nihilistic, on the dark
side, especially in the French deconstructionism of the
post-structuralists such as Derrida (1967), and the reductio's of the
Frankfurt school, such as in Horkheimer and Adorno's critique of the
Enlightenment (1947/1973). But I interpret nihilistic extremes by
Nietzsche's observation (1883), "I love those that that know not how
to live except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers. I love the
despisers, because they are the great adorers, and arrows of longing
for the other shore." I see the Judaic "peeling of the onion" as a
deconstruction aimed at unpeeling and hermeneutically reconstructing
and creating the truth. Greeley (1995) has found this also in her
search for meaning in the pauses and silent moments in dialogue.
Greeley is similar to Zausner in seeing the dynamics of creativity in
the "void" of the "bifurcation transformation" (also emphasized by
Abraham, 1996, and Paar, 1992).

The struggle between enlightment and social forces of repression are
far from new. As an example of an early stuggle of this nature, I
recently received a letter from Protagoras, in response to my inquiry
concerning his difficulties. It was delivered to me during an address
at the recent Conference of our Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology
and Life Sciences, and read to those assembled for Robertson's address
on the struggles for meaning within our society.


Protagoras
Athens, June CDXV, BCE
Dear Fred,

You ask for advice about the search for wisdom. I am not sure that I
am the best person to answer that. We certainly tried out best to
pursue sophia, which means wisdom and skill, to learn and understand.
But there are those who have taken advantage of some ambiguity there,
and have given our efforts a pejorative connotation of deception by
skillfull false reasoning. So our efforts to provided a path to the
pursuit of truth may not have been entirely successful. We applied
reasoning and humanitarian concerns as an alternative path to
enlightement to that offered by the mythic-poetic-theistic traditions
which were beginning to give way in our culture. Our efforts were
honorably received in our day, but have been tainted in time, largely
due to the efforts of that rascal, Plato, who felt that our
professionalization of these skills in the pursuit of truth in
everyday social life, emphasized the skill as a path to success over
the search for truth. In teaching rhetoric and law using the adversary
technique of having students argue both sides of an issue, we sought
to place the search for truth above all else, not the pretense to
truth by a better argument at the expense of truth.

It is a pity that only fragments of my writing remain. When Dogenes
Laertes (9.51) quoted me fairly accurately in the two logoi fragment
as saying: kai prwtos efh duo logouz einai peri pantos pragmatos
antikeimenouz allhloiz I was following the lead of Heraclitus who made
much of oppositions as you well know. And in fact, the interpretations
of this fragment have been either Heraclitan or subjective. Subjective
ones consider this fragment to mean such things as "On every issue
there are two arguments opposed to each other" (O'Brien, 1969) reduce
my statement to the absurd 'proposition that a debate is possible on
any topic' (paraphrase of Schiappa, 1991). This subjective
interpretation is founded on a misunderstanding to the term logoi as
an artifice created by the adversarial agents, as only rhetoric
(Plato's term, not mine), not by the aspects of truth inherent in the
phenomena being debated.

Heraclitean interpretations are more like Untersteiner's (1949/1954)
"In every experience there are two logoi in opposition to each other"
or Kerford's (1981) "There are two logoi oncerning everything, these
being opposed to each other". Both, in leaving logoi untranslated,
emphasized the closeness of my logos to the realities sought by
Heraclitus, and to a true nderstanding of the term pragmata, things,
the real nature of things and experience. I was concerned with all
things, from `reality and divinity, to political, social, and ethical
life and their theoretical and practical' aspects (paraphrase
Schiappa, 1991, as is most of my letter, for I speak not your
language).

As Robinson (1979) notes, I considered pragma to mean `reality' in a
general sense. That would include what you would now recognize as
subjectively or Hermeneutically created (as Greeley, 1991, points out
in her chaoanalysis of the early Socratic Dialogs after my time) as
well as the objectively created. Thus you can see that `pragma,
reality, is such that there are two opposing ways, logoi, to describe,
account for, or explain any given experience.

Thus my two-logoi fragment was meant be an extension of Heraclitus'
theory of flux and Unity of Opposites doctrines. Many of you have
taken these theories to heart, literally in the case of Sabelli who
has written a rather large book on the Union of Opposites, and has
applied it to study of the heart and psychology (Sabelli, 1989, 1995).
It could also be observed that from the time of the early preSocratics
like Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras (a
favorite of Rssler's), Empedocles, Alcmaeon, and Melissus, all of whom
used concepts of opposition and all of whom were rationalizing mythic
and theistic interpretations, and that the history of the development
of these ideas followed bifurcation sequences into greater and more
explicit theorizing that you modern chaoticians would find
fascinating.

So were sophists pursuing the truth. One might say the same of the
chaoists. and, as you can see, Chaos Theory is not the first arena of
discourse to have difficulty in finding its philosophical foundations,
or to suffer discredit for for attempts to promote and professionalize
its program. We sophists who built on the foundations established by
the earlier Presocratics and who revolutionized the teaching and
practice of reasoning and understanding had similar difficulties. I
particularly was motivated by a preference for a humanistic logos over
traditional mythoi, or mytho-poetic traditions, in trying to
understand logos. My teaching was transitional between written prose
and oratorical aphorism, and the fragments left in your day need
careful study to know our way, and to use it in your work. It may be
that the attempt to institutionalize any house of wonder and awe will
suffer the same self-organized demise without vigorous attempts to
keep it vital. You should thank Robin, Michael, Bill, Hector, Sally,
Allan, Rick, Tobi, Lillian, the late Tom Gentry, Marianne, Louise, and
the rest of the Society for keeping it so. And thanks to Alexander for
pointing to the dangers in academia. Thank you all for keeping our
traditions alive.

Your sophistic instructor,
Protagoras
References

Abraham, F. D. (1995). A postscript on language, modeling, and
Metaphor. In Abraham, F. D. & Gilgen, A. R. (Eds.), Chaos Theory in
Psychology. Westport: Greenwood/Praeger.

Abraham, F. D. (1996). The dynamics of creativity & the courage to be.
In W. Sulis & A. Combs, Proceedings, Chaos Theory in Psychology and
Life Sciences. Singapore: World Scientific.

Berezin, A. A. (1996, June). Intersisciplinary challenges the Myth of
"Experts". Dialogue, 1(2), 8-10.

Gilgen, A. R. (1995). Prefatory comments. In Abraham, F. D. & Gilgen,
A. R. (Eds.), Chaos Theory in Psychology. Westport: Greenwood/Praeger.

Derrida, J. (1967, 1978). Writing and Difference. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul.

Foucault, M. (1972). The discourse on language. Appendix in Archeology
of Knowledge. London: Tavistock.

Gardner, H. (1993). Creating Minds. New York: Basic Books.

Goldstein, J. (1995). The Tower of Babel and the relationship bedtween
psychology and science. In Robertson, R., & Combs, A. (Eds.), Chaos
Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences. Mawah: Erlbaum.

Greeley, L. (1995). Complexity in the attention system of the
cognitive generative learning process. In A. Albert (Ed.), Chaos and
Society. Amsterdam: IOS Press & Hull: Presses de l'Universit du
Quebec.

Humboldt, W. von. (1903-1916). Gesammelte Schriften, 17 vols. A.
Leitzmann et al. (Eds.), Berlin: Behr.

Horkheimer, M. & Adorno, T. (1947/1973). Dialectic of Enlightenment.
London: Allen Lane.

Kerford, G. B. (1981). The Sophists and their Legacy. Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press.

Liebniz, G. W. F., & Abraham, F. D. (1666-1695; 1995). The
Leibniz-Abraham correspondence. In Abraham, F. D. & Gilgen, A. R.
(Eds.), Chaos Theory in Psychology. Westport: Greenwood/Praeger.

Mueller-Vollmer, K. (1992). The Hermeneutics Reader. New York:
Continuum.

Nachmanovich, S. J. (1990). Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art.
Los Angeles: Tarcher.

Nietzsche, F. (1883/1928). Thus Spake Zarathustra. New York: Modern
Library. O'Brien, D. (1969). Empedocles' Cosmic Cycle: A
Reconstruction form the Fragments and Secondary Sources. Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press.

Paar, D. (1992). Introducing confusion to create change. In E. M.
Stern (Ed.), Psychotherapy and the Promiscuous Patient. New York:
Haworth.

Robertson, R. (1996). A sense of wonder: Philosophical issues of
chaos. Address to 6th Annual Conference, Society for Chaot Theory in
Psychology & Life Sciences, Berkeley CA USA, June 26, 1996.

http://www.pacweb.com/blueberry/chaosophy/robertson.html

Robinson, T. M. (1979). Contrasting Arguments: An Edition of the
Dissoi Logoi. Salem: Ayer.

Sabelli, H. (1989). Union of Opposites. Lawrenceville: Brunswick.

Schiappa, E. (1991). Protagoras and Logos. Columbia: So. Carolina
Press.

Tryon, W. W. (1995). Snthesizing psycholgical schisms through
connectionism. In Abraham, F. D. & Gilgen, A. R. (Eds.), Chaos Theory
in Psychology. Westport: Greenwood/Praeger.

Untersteiner, M. (1949-1962). Sofisti: Testimonianze e frammenti. (4
vol.). Firenze: La Nuova Italia.

Untersteiner, M. (1954). The Sophists. Kathleen Freeman, trans.
Oxford: Basil Balckwell.

Zausner, T. (1996). The redemption of tuatology: Reviewing the
Philosphical Psycology in Louise Sundararajan's recent article.
Dialogue, 1(2), 5-7.


Created: 11/2/96 Updated: 1/1/96

============================================================


http://www.users.uswest.net/~tb67/FLwebsitebooksetc.htm
--------------------------------------------------------


Flatland- these are our booksbooks, artists
chunks of concentrated inspiration

William S. Burroughs; the Adding Machine and Exterminator! are the
ones that matter to us. OK, everybody has read Burroughs, but check
out these books specifically if you haven't already.

Charles Bukowski; the stuff he hammered out drunk in the 60's with
no editing- Tales of Ordinary Madness, The Most Beautiful Woman in
Town, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, his letters from that period. This
is the most raw stuff, very free. Helps reorder your priorities if
you read a lot of it at once.

Carl Sagan; Pale Blue Dot (space!), Demon-Haunted Earth
(skepticism), Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (the origins of life,
man!)

Aldous Huxley; essays on art

Francis Bacon; The Brutality of Fact (interviews). Explains his
method. Reread and memorize it.

History of Private Life, Pagan Rome to Byzantium

Tom Hess's writings on De Kooning; there's a monograph he did in the
60's that is great. Insight into De Kooning's methods, and his
cryptic statements.

The Bride and the Bachelors by Calvin Tomkins; biographies of
Duchamp, Rauschenberg, Cage, Tinguely, and Cunningham. Alternatives
to craftsmanship!

Book of Surrealist Games published by Shambhala, the New Age people.
I wanted a book like this really bad 10 years ago.

The Book of the SubGenius if you haven't actually read this, do.
'GenX' bible.

R. Crumb's Charlie Patton piece, and his Phillip K. Dick piece, from
Weirdo (the comic book).

Kenneth Clark's The Nude. It's important to read books by serious
English geeks. Their thought is sculptural.

Faber Birren's little books on color.

Steven Calt's books on Charlie Patton and Skip James.

Deep Blues, by Robert Palmer

Effortless Mastery, by Kenny Werner. Available through Jamey
Abersold. Essential for uptight jazz students.

Free Play, by Stephen Nachmanovich. A little new age-y for our
taste.

Eyewitness To History, I forget who edited this. Living history.

Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, or Justine, or Philosophy in
the Bedroom, or at the very least (it's short and to the point)
Dialogue Between the Priest and the Dying Man.

Formulas for Painters, by R. Massey. Grounds, mediums, glazes,
varnishes. More!

Every American should read at least one book on the collapse of the
Roman empire.

Image of the Body, by Michael Gill. Counterpoint to The Nude.

The monograph for the Ross Bleckner retrospective.

Jim Dine's Roman drawings. Expensive art books!

The great artists of allover pattern: Jackson Pollock, Marc Tobey,
Brice Marden.

home

jum...@my-deja.com

unread,
Feb 3, 2000, 3:00:00 AM2/3/00
to


Follow the yellow brick road .....


http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/heartwoodlbr/CAS_BOOKMARKS.htm

http://www.mantra.com/newsplus

===============================================================


Coburn endorsement of Keyes
Author: Havilah <susa...@earthlink.net>
Date: 2000/01/29
Forum: alt.fan.alan-keyes

MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Rep. Tom A. Coburn
(R-OK) today endorsed Ambassador Alan Keyes for the Republican
nomination for President, calling him "the one candidate for President
who actually understands what is wrong with our country and who has
the vision, the courage, and the clarity of principle to put it
right." Coburn is a practicing physician who has earned a reputation
as a leading budget hawk during his three terms in Congress.

Coburn declared that "Keyes has shown repeatedly that he has a better
grasp on the issues...than any other candidate." But Coburn decided to
announce his support for Keyes not on the basis of any specific issue,
but because of Keyes's "recognition that national leadership in our
day is not about policies and not about political solutions to
political problems. It is a matter of moral leadership to address a
moral crisis."

Comparing Keyes to Abraham Lincoln, the Oklahoma Congressman declared
that "Alan Keyes has the capacity to ignite among us another rebirth
of freedom."

"Some people tell me Alan Keyes has little chance to be elected
President," acknowledged Coburn. "But my heart and my conscience tell
me that Alan Keyes is the man who should be President. And to my way
of thinking, doing right means doing what your heart and your
conscience tell you."

Coburn is the first Member of Congress to endorse Keyes for President.
Dr. Coburn's prepared statement is reprinted below.

"It is clear to me that Alan Keyes is the one candidate for president
who actually understands what is wrong with our country and who has
the vision, the courage, and the clarity of principle to put it right.

"Ambassador Keyes has shown repeatedly that he has a better grasp on
the issues -- the foreign policy, the fiscal policy, the social policy
and all the rest of it -- than any other candidate. But choosing a
president is not a scholarship contest. The mere fact that he knows
more about the issues than any other candidate is not what qualifies
Mr. Keyes to be our President.

"The real difference Alan Keyes brings to this campaign is his
recognition that national leadership in our day is not about policies
and not about political solutions to political problems. It is a
matter of moral leadership to address a moral crisis.

"Alan Keyes is the one man who has come forward to pose the proper
question: what are we doing with the liberty that has been bequeathed
to us by God through the sacrifices of our forebears, and what should
we be doing with it?

"Like Abraham Lincoln, Alan Keyes has the capacity to ignite among us
another rebirth of freedom. He will bring us together as a nation by
reminding us of what it is that makes us one nation. Alan Keyes will
be a great President because the Presidency is not merely a matter of
issues and policies but of moral leadership.

"Some people tell me Alan Keyes has little chance to be elected. My
heart and my conscience tell me Alan Keyes is the man who should be
President. And to my way of thinking, doing right means doing what
your heart and your conscience tell you, not what someone else tells
you.

"That is why I am proud to announce my endorsement of Alan Keyes for
President of the United States."


===============================================================


David Schippers Endorses Alan Keyes!
Author: Steven Gliwa <gl...@worldnet.att.net>
Date: 2000/01/30
Forum: alt.politics.usa.republican

David Schippers Endorses Alan Keyes

Statement of David P. Schippers

"I believe with all my soul that our Fathers, who were not timid men,
in founding this Republic assumed two principles as fundamental: 1)
There is a norm by which are judged the acts and omissions of public
officials; 2) No one is fit to lead a free people who does not possess
unquestioned honor, integrity and courage.

"Unfortunately, while in Washington I observed these principles
ignored or turned upside down. Duty has been corrupted into 'what can
you do for me,' truth into 'what can I make them believe,' and honesty
into 'what can I get away with.' Win at any cost is the battle cry,
and the standard is the end justifies the means, honorable or
dishonorable.

"If the presidency mirrors the morality of the people, then we are
losing our soul as a nation. I do not believe this administration is a
paradigm of America. I believe that the people are just as honest,
just as decent and just as God-fearing as they were two hundred years
ago.

"We will not regain our national dignity, however, merely by having a
strong economy or by adding more and more material luxuries and then
flaunting them.

"There are many fine members in the Congress. I encountered
selflessness and patriotism in Henry Hyde and the other Republican
members of the House Judiciary Committee. And the raw courage of the
thirteen House Managers should serve as an outstanding example for
everyone in politics. The seed has been planted and needs only to be
cultivated.

"A leader is needed. One who can inspire both Congress and the people.
One who possesses the honesty to say exactly what he thinks, the
integrity to stick by his code regardless of the consequences, and the
courage to face down the enemies of the Republic, foreign and
domestic.

"I have followed the campaign in Iowa and here in New Hampshire. I
have watched and listened to all the candidates. There are many good
and decent men seeking the office of President of the United States.
There is, however, only one who will be able to lead this country back
to the status of Moral Leader of the World that it once enjoyed. And
once that goal is achieved all else will follow. That man is Alan
Keyes.

"I therefore, enthusiastically and unqualifiedly endorse Ambassador
Alan Keyes for the office of President of the United States. In the
words of John Peter Altgeld, another man of honor, integrity and
courage: 'I have no choice; it is the right thing to do.'"


============================================================


Alan Keyes Not A Nigger
Author: ElmerHinson <elmer...@cs.com>
Date: 1999/10/20
Forum: talk.politics.guns

>> You know Hinson, you should listen to
>> Alan Keyes sometime. That guy is sharp...

I agree completely. Alan Keyes is not a nigger. He is a man...
not an ounce of nigger in him.
-ElmerHinson


============================================================

Alan Keyes... "the great mosh pit debate"
Author: THeCRuMPLeZoNe <pebe...@my-deja.com>
Date: 2000/01/27
Forum: alt.politics.usa.republican

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/NH_debate126.html

Clearly, Alan Keyes is a man of passion for the people of this
country. He has demonstrated that with the mosh pit... trust for the
people in this country as a whole. Alan Keyes carries with him the
heart and soul of a true warrior.... the heart and soul for this
country. He does not hide the convictions of his heart... he acts on
them.

Clearly, the depth of a man's heart should be the measure by which we
all should judge a candidate. Not only does Alan Keyes possess this
depth, he also conveys it quite effectively, more than any other
candidate. While others talk with their "politically correct"
gibberish and non-sense, Mr. Keyes is out there demonstrating what it
means to connect with the people of this country... being there with
the people, joining with the people... trusting the people. Most
importantly, being vulnerable and accessible for the people.

Yep, Alan Keyes. I voted for him in the last election... and I will
gladly vote for him again!!

THe ZoNe

===========================================================

* * * * Keyes 2000 Update * * * * - January 27, 2000
Author: citizen <rha19...@home.com>
Date: 2000/01/27
Forum: alt.thebird


Please distribute this message!

Visit us at http://www.Keyes2000.org to subscribe to this update.

We need your help NOW to keep building momentum.

YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT TODAY WILL ENABLE ALAN TO BREAK THROUGH AND WIN
THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION!!!!!!
* * * * * * * *

"I think that what counts in New Hampshire is the same thing that
counts in Iowa - Truth."
(Alan Keyes)

* * * * * * * *
"There are a lot of folks going around saying "I believe everything
that Alan believes. He stands for everything that is in my heart. He
articulates it more effectively than anybody who is out there.
But . . . . But he can't win. But this. But that."

Our goal in the months ahead is to do what we have already started to
do here in Iowa. We're gonna turn all those 'buts' into 'Keyesters.'"

(Alan Keyes, Iowa Victory Rally, January 24, 2000)

* * * * * * * * * * *

In this edition:

1. Keyes stuns political world with strong 3rd place in Iowa!
- Press Digest on Iowa triumph
2. Latest poll shows Keyes nearly triples New Hampshire support!
3. Keyes takes second in CPAC's straw poll
4. Keyes To Forbes On WTO - "In or Out?"
5. Amb. Alan Keyes Wins Endorsement Of Key Congressional Leader

* * * * * * * * * * * *

1. Keyes stuns establishment with strong 3rd place in Iowa!
- Press Digest on Iowa triumph

Iowa vote totals: George W. Bush: 41%
Steve Forbes 30%
Alan Keyes 14%

* * * *
The Des Moines Register reports that Alan Keyes, who
"captivated" many IA GOP'ers 'with a dynamic message of
conservatism" said his third place finish in the caucuses "would
energize his campaign." Keyes' "popularity surged during the
series of Republican debates across the country, as his dynamic
speaking style and conservative voice lured voters" (1/25).

Baltimore Sun's Gamerman writes that Keyes "blistered" IA with
"fervid oratory, rallied against an electorate that he accused
of losing its moral compass, even chastised the crowds that
applauded him. A devoted following of Iowans came back for more"
and "rewarded him with their vote" on 1/24 (1/25).

Alan Keyes, on his 3rd place finish: "I think it will
indicate that there are a lot of folks in Iowa and around the
country who believe in the message of moral priority that I
carry. ... I also think that there are a lot of folks who are
looking to make sure that the Republican standard-bearer is the
most effective spokesman we can find ... because when we get
down to the general election, we're not just going to have
somebody out there taking a stand, it's going to have to be
someone who can defend that stand and who can persuade the
American people to support him" (CNN, 1/24).

Keyes, on the "phony polls": "Nobody's mentioning tonight
that some of those polls showed G.W. Bush with 70% and 65% here
in Iowa. On the strength of that he duped some voters into
voting for him because 'he was the winner' in all of this. The
people who went to the caucuses tonight and voted on the
strength of those phony polls, and gave up their principles and
their heart and conscience to vote that way ought to be deeply
disappointed, because their principles could have won this if
they had voted their consciences" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC,
1/24).

More Keyes: "I think the debates were very critical to my
success, because they gave the people the chance to see the
candidate side by side. When folks see us side by side ... I
have won overwhelmingly, according to many of the measures that
are out there. If we're able to do that the next week in New
Hampshire, given the new attention that the media seems willing
to pay to the Keyes campaign, it's going to make significant
inroads into the supposed leads of Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain"
("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 1/24).

CNN's Greenfield: "What Alan Keyes did, I think, with some
of those last minute [ad] buys and those performances in the
debates, was to convince a fair number of the Robertson-Buchanan
voters; 'Stay with me, I'm speaking to you.' ... [Bush] got a
good victory, but it wasn't a blowout, and this may be one of
the reasons why" (CNN, 1/24).

Keyes on Bush: "GW Bush ... can not get elected. He can
take a stand on abortion ... but he can not present that stand
effectively and defend it against the opposition in November.
And he will loose if he goes up against Gore ... GW Bush ...
does not have the conviction and he does not have the capacity"
("Decision 2000," MSNBC, 1/24).

* * * * * * * *

2. Latest poll shows Keyes nearly triples New Hampshire support!

Latest NH Poll Shows Keyes NEARLY TRIPLES NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPPORT!!!!
WASHINGTON (AP) 1/26/00

(A) New Hampshire poll taken by RKM Research and Communications for
the Boston Herald and WCVB-TV has suggested that . . . Alan Keyes
(news - web sites) (has) gained ground among conservatives since
December. That's apparently at Bush's expense, pollster R. Kelly
Myers said. Keyes was at 4 percent in December and is now at 11
percent.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

3. Keyes takes second in CPAC's straw poll

Alan Keyes took a strong second place in the presidential preference
poll at the 27th annual Conservative Political Action Conference
(CPAC), in Alexandria, Virginia last week. Keyes scored 23% of the
vote, second only to George W. Bush, and far ahead of Steve Forbes'
14%. Keyes was also a strong second for vice president with 12% of
the vote, second to Elizabeth Dole with 20%. American Conservative
Union Chairman David Keene said that Keyes did "far better than anyone
expected" in the polls.

* * * * * * * *

4. Keyes To Forbes On WTO - "In or Out?"
Forbes Gets It Wrong

Keyes 2000 Press Release - January 26, 2000
Manchester, NH ---- Steve Forbes, millionaire businessman and
Republican presidential candidate, finally responded to a direct, 'yes
or no' question from Ambassador Alan Keyes and gave the wrong answer
at the GOP presidential debate Wednesday night. When asked by Amb.
Keyes if, as President, he would use his authority to withdraw the
United States from the collectivist World Trade Organization, Forbes
said "no."

"Steve Forbes had two choices and he picked the wrong one," Keyes
campaign spokesman Connie Hair said.

"The WTO is designed to cripple the economic power of the United
States in favor of the trade interests of authoritarian and
totalitarian regimes around the world. The US economy is built on the
idea of freedom. There are other economies that are built on the twin
pillars of slavery and tyranny. It is not only unfair but immoral to
force our workers to compete on an unequal playing field, through the
WTO, with those who would enslave their brothers around the globe,"
Hair said.

Amb. Keyes has repeatedly stated his preference for returning to a
system of bi-lateral trade agreements between the United States and
other nations, negotiated on a one-to-one basis.

"The price to other nations to enter our marketplace to sell goods
should be fair and equal treatment for our goods in the marketplaces
of others. Under the WTO system, the price is gaining the approval of
international bureaucrats who - as evidenced by their behavior at the
United Nations and the International Olympic Committee among other
places - can be bribed, bullied, and bamboozled into making decisions
that are not in the best interests of the United States," Hair added.

During the debate, Forbes referred to the WTO as an organization that
should be manipulated to achieve what is best for the United States
but, if that manipulation fails, could be bypassed. "It is not the
'conservative' position to seek to preserve these collectivist
international agreements that challenge our sovereignty. It is the
internationalist position and it won't wash with New Hampshire
voters," Hair said.

* * * * * * * * *

5. Alan Keyes Wins Endorsement Of Key Congressional Leader

Manchester, NH --Ambassador Alan Keyes will receive the endorsement of
a leading member of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday,
January 27, 2000.

The Congressman will announce his endorsement of Ambassador Keyes at
8:00AM at the Holiday Inn Center in Manchester, NH in Salon D of the
Ballroom.

The endorsement, from a well-respected conservative leader in the
House, comes three days after Keyes' strong third place finish in the
Iowa Caucus.

"This campaign is moving forward. Alan is the conservative, pro-family
candidate in this race. What the citizens of Iowa started, New
Hampshire voters will continue. This endorsement underscores the
support that is building as we gather steam and demonstrate ways we
are the only candidate for conservative, pro-life, anti-tax,
pro-responsibility, pro-Second Amendment voters," Dan Godzich,
campaign manager to Keyes, said.

At 10:45AM on Thursday the 27th, Ambassador Keyes will address the New
Hampshire legislature and share with them his vision for a better
America.


============================================================


From: St. John the Sublime Reformer <2B1_L...@my-deja.com>
Subject: An Introduction to Skull and Bones
Date: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 5:00 AM


A JOURNALIST'S INTRODUCTION
TO SKULL AND BONES

By Eric Samuelson, J.D.


jan...@concentric.net

This brief introduction to Skull and Bones is dedicated to those
journalists in America who have both the courage and the ability
to inform the public regarding what others may consider to be a
taboo subject -- a foreign-born secret society that has exported
itself to this nation and may succeed in securing the highest
office in the land for still another of its sworn initiates. The
two main characters in this story so far are Antony C. Sutton
and David Armstrong. The first is a scholar of the first order
to began the definitive work on this subject and then vanished.
The second came to Texas from California, became the editor of
the most liberal Texas magazine, wrote a series of very
insightful articles on the Bush family and then, like Sutton,
was apparently muzzled.

INTRODUCTION

In May of 1994 a Texas Monthly story (p. 146) by Skip
Hollandsworth, on George W. Bush, briefly stated: "Although he
did not graduate Phi Beta Kappa as his father had, he did follow
his father into the university's Skull and Bones Club, a secret
society for the males of prominent families."

The majority of Bonesmen are from old-line Puritan families.
They include the following families: Whitney, Lord, Phelps.
Wadsworth, Allen, Bundy, Adams, Stimson, Taft, Gilman and
Perkins. A second group of families in the Skull & Bones are:
Harriman, Rockefeller, Payne, Davison, Pillsbury and
Weyerhauser. The Order of Skull and Bones was once called the
"Brotherhood of Death."(1)

At any given time, only about 600 or so members of the Order are
alive. Of that number only 150 (about one-quarter) take an
active role in the society. It is estimated that a core of
perhaps 20-30 families run the Order. Recent Bones inductees
include a few blacks, gays, and even some foreign students. In
1991 Skull and Bones began to admit women members. Each initiate
gets $15,000 and a grandfather clock. A neophyte's name is
changed to Knight so and so. The old Knights are known as
Patriarchs. Outsiders are known as Gentiles and vandals. It
meets annually - patriarchs only - on Deer Island in the St.
Lawrence River.(2)

THE SECRECY OF BONES

"Initiates are sworn to secrecy. They are required to leave the
room if The Order comes into discussion. They cannot-under
oath-answer questions on The Order and its organization."

-- Antony C. Sutton(3)


The Senior secret societies at Yale, wrote Lymann Bogg, "never
mention their names."(4) Not even the inquisitive Pamela
Churchill Harriman could get her third husband to talk about
Bones: "(Averell) Harriman regularly went back to the tomb (the
Bone's Temple) on High Street, once even lamenting that his
duties as chief negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks prevented
him from attending a reunion. So complete was his trust in
Bone's code of secrecy that in conversations at annual dinners
he spoke openly about national security affairs. He refused,
however, to tell his family anything about Bones. Soon after she
became Harriman's third wife in 1971, Pamela Churchill Harriman
received an odd letter addressing her by a name spelled in
hieroglyphics. 'Oh, that's Bones,' Harriman said. 'I must tell
you about that sometime. Uh, I mean I can't tell you about
that.'"(5)

UNIVERSITIES AS SPAWNING GROUNDS OF THREE DIFFERENT SECRET
SOCIETIES

Between 1983-1986, the British-born conspiracy scholar Antony C.
Sutton wrote a series of pamphlets about the Order of Skull &
Bones. Sutton said that his series was "based on several
sources, including contemporary 'moles.'"(6) The short pamphlets
were compiled into one volume and published as a book in 1986.
Sutton noted that secret societies had been organized at three
universities: "The Illuminati was founded at (the) University of
Ingolstadt. The (Cecil Rhodes) Group was founded at All Souls
College, Oxford University in England, and the Order was founded
at Yale University in the United States."(7) He noted: "The
paradox is that institutions supposedly devoted to the search
for truth and freedom have given birth to institutions devoted
to world enslavement."

BUT, WHAT'S WRONG WITH SECRET SOCIETIES?

Sutton's "magnum opus" laid out his views regarding secret
societies: "Secret political organizations can be-and have
been-extremely dangerous to the social health and constitutional
validity of a society. In a truly free society the exercise of
political power must always be open and known."(8) He then
stated: "Moreover, organizations devoted to violent overthrow of
political structures have always, by necessity, been secret
organizations. Communist revolutionary cells are an obvious
example. In fact, such revolutionary organizations can only
function if their existence was secret."(9) Further, said
Sutton: "In brief, secrecy in matters political is historically
associated with coercion. Furthermore, the existence of secrecy
in organizations with political ambitions or with a history of
political actions is always suspect. Freedom is always
associated with open political action and discussion while
coercion is always associated with secrecy."(10)

A pamphlet on Bones described the walls of the tomb as "adorned
with pictures of the founders of Bones at Yale and of the
members of the Society in Germany when the Chapter was
established here in 1832."(11) Sutton asked: "Think about this:
Skull and Bones is not American at all. It is a branch of a
FOREIGN secret society."(12) Sutton concluded that Skull and
Bones "is a clear and obvious threat to constitutional freedom
in the United States. Its secrecy, power and use of influence is
greater by far than the masons, or any other semi-secret mutual
or fraternal organization."(13)

SUTTON COMPARED BONES TO THE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI

While critics concede that the Illuminati "was an actual group
that existed from 1776 until 1785..." it is also explained that:
"Given the fact that Weishaupt's ideas ran counter to the
authoritarian, church-intertwined-with-state power structure, he
was forced to keep his Illuminati secret and work through
Masonic lodges. He was not successful."(14)

Sutton made numerous tentative comparisons between the
Illuminati and Bones. Each member, according to a 1876 anonymous
satire, has an "inside name" and "these names bear a remarkable
resemblance to those used by the Illuminati, e.g., Chilo,
Eumenes, Glaucus, Pristicus and Arbaces."(15) He added: "During
its time, the Illuminati had widespread and influential
membership. After suppression by the Bavarian Government in 1788
it was quiet for some years and then reportedly revived."(16)
Sutton promised that "in a subsequent book, we will trace the
order to the Illuminati..."(17) Also, Sutton stated: "The
significance of this study is that the methods and objectives
(of the Illuminati) parallel those of the Order. In fact,
infiltration of the Illuminati into New England is known and
will be the topic of a forthcoming volume."(18) He later wrote:
"At this point we want to draw a comparison between the Order
known as Skull and Bones and The Order known as Illuminati in
18th century B avaria. This is not the time and place to draw
final conclusions."(19) Sutton noted that "It (Bones) was
introduced into the United States by William Russell, later
General William Russell, who brought a charter back from his
student days in Germany."(20) [So far a check of Russell's
biographies has revealed no hint of a German education]. When
the Skull and Bones "Temple" was raided in 1876 a card was found
that read: "From the German Chapter. Presented by Patriarch D.C.
Gilman of D. 50."(21) The Yale Bones catalogs indicate that
Skull and Bones began in the U.S. in the 3rd decade of the
second period of the organization. The first decade of the
second period would be 1800 with the first period being
1790-1800: "That places us in the time frame of the elimination
of Illuminati by the Bavarian Elector."(22)

Two years later Sutton, in 1988, wrote The Two Faces of George
Bush. In this work he identified George W. Bush as a Bonesman
like his soon-to-be President father. Sutton has not written
further on the Order. At least one close associate claimed that
Sutton became and remains "a fugitive in his own adopted
country."

EDITOR OF TEXAS OBSERVER, DAVID ARMSTRONG, LASTS EIGHT MONTHS

On March 22, 1991, a crusading journalist named David Armstrong
became the editor of the Texas Observer. His career at the most
liberal and outspoken Texas magazine lasted just over eight
months. On April 5, 1991, he wrote an article entitled "The
Great S&L Robbery: Spookbuster Pete Brewton Tells All." On July
26, 1991 another article by Armstrong was entitled: "Oil in the
Family." On September 20, 1991, Armstrong wrot another piece
entitled: "Global Entanglements." The cover featured a cartoon
of George "W" Bush with "Harken" on his head and CIA agents
(spies) all around him.

On November 29, 1991 David Armstrong's name appeared on the
masthead of the Texas Observer for the last time. Armstrong
deplored and described what he termed a trend of preemptive
journalism: "Mainstream media have never demonstrated a keen
interest in challenging the status quo. Contrary to the popular
image of an independent and adversarial press, U.S. corporate
media are, in fact, little more than lackeys for elite
interests."

Armstrong also blasted criticism of Stone's JFK movie prior to
the scenes even being shot. He criticized Times Harken coverage
as "half-measures." His last Texas Observer words were: "Time's
handling of the Harken story is just one more example of the
disturbing trend toward preemptive journalism. The consequences
of this practice are serious indeed, for it has the potential to
not only diffuse and obscure information, but to prevent it from
ever being debated in the public arena at all. Unlike the
alternative press, mainstream sources are widely available and
well indexed. For that reason, they are widely cited and help
shape official history. Twenty years from now when George W.
Bush is running for president, researchers and journalists
interested in his business activities in Texas will likely turn
to Time magazine and other mainstream sources of their
information. But if they're interested in reading the whole
story, they'll have to look elsewhere."(23)

Thus ended David Armstrong's editorship at the Texas Observer.
It is believed that there was a last conversation between
Armstrong and his publisher but no explanation was ever written
that explained his departure to the Observer's readership.
Armstrong's prophecy of a run for the presidency by George "W"
Bush has now come true. But his pen is no longer telling more of
the real Bush story.

##

1. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 5 (1986).
2. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 5 (1986).
3. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 213 (1986).
4. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 186 (1986).
5. Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men 82 (1986).
6. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 186 (1986).
7. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 80 (1986).
8. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 185 (1986).
9. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 185 (1986).
10. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 185 (1986).
11. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 188 (1986).
12. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 188 (1986).
13. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 186 (1986).
14. John George and Laird Wilcox, American Extremists 81 (1996).
15. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 189 (1986).
16. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 80 (1986).
17. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 77 (1986)
(emphasis added).
18. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 80 (1986)
(emphasis added).
19. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 212 (1986)
(emphasis added).
20. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 212 (1986).
21. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 212 (1986).
22. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment 214 (1986).
23. David Armstrong, "Preemptive Journalism," 12 Texas Observer
(November 29, 1991). intro1.htm

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