Reply #73: I think that maybe this

[H2O Man]

has played out. Maybe we've served the purpose that we started with. Maybe people are not able to work together as a whole, and we'll just fragment. Maybe that's best.

Listen: I wrote a paper on bin Laden and 9-11, and RP finds it "incredibly disingenious" that I do not include Sibel Edmonds in the paper .... although she is not a significant factor in any examination of Usama bin Laden. RP, who I like and respect, is perhaps responding to my saying that a study of 9-11 that does not include bin Laden would be marked "incomplete" in any introductory college course in political science. Likewise, a paper on bin Laden that focuses on Sibel Edmonds would be returned.

There are a few books ... by Ouspensky and other writings based on Gurdjieff .... that have to do with the evolution of individuals, and as parts of groups. Everything organic, from atoms to solar systems, either evolves or decays .... I'm paraphrasing, so this isn't exact, but it's close to what I remember: Most people do not realize that humanity neither evolves or progresses mechanically. Because if human progress (or human evolution) were ever to come, they can only come as a result of conscious efforts.... and never, as the good Hurricane used to explain to me when I was young, as the result of unconscious or mechanical actions. He said that no mechanical evolution is possible for human beings..... for the evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness, and one's consciousness can never evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is the evolution of his will, and man's will cannot evolve unwillingly .... and hence the resistance to change, and the rejection of a new way of thinking. And that fits the group that once worked as a unit here. There was a mechanical process: google-google-google .... accumulate, accumulate, accumulate ..... but not to contemplate in a different manner. And perhaps the error indeed does lie with me, because I had believed that with some guidance and prodding .... it would be capable of growing beyond what it initially did ..... but that can never take away from having accomplished the initial goal ...... Yet, getting back to Mr. O ..... that which cannot evolve consciously, degenerates by a natural process, and is destroyed .... which, of course, we can often see much easier "out there" in America, rather than in a loose-knit group of friends here ..... but like a machine, we've broken down, and perhaps it will be best to salvage parts .... on a more positive note, if we're not able to handle shifting from one level to another with grace, it seems likely that those on the other side of the political debate -- at least at our level -- are likely to be more effective. (grin)