Sorry for this little top post but I have yet to learn how to handle lists with the aplomb that you do Michaelangelica so please bear with me. In the interest of time I will fumble around as best I can, even if it is crude.
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Originally Posted by Michaelangelica
Interesting and thoughtful essay thanks.
Is this a fair summary?
Your assumptions- "violence of any kind simply works."
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- Maybe I didn't qualify that well in that, yes it does work, but possibly like my dealing with lists, is crude since it can also backfire a la endless feuds, often that go on so long the original affront has been lost. Major bullies see that as merely failing to eliminate ALL enemies/threats, part of why such a "solution" is often primitive and blunt, subject to unintended side-effects and collateral damage. An example might be how the Red Brigade came to an end over the assassination of exactly the wrong government official, not from mere reprisal, but the turnabout of public sympathies.
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Originally Posted by Michaelangelica
- violence is built in -"not learned behaviour. It to at least some extent is built in, almost certainly in us as well."
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This is oversimplification on my part not qualified within that post but hopefully in the context of my other one here on this subject, is qualified by my assertion that learning is still involved, behaviour modification still works to a degree since our base urges can be reinforced and amplified or thwarted and diminished and such is part and parcel of the nature of civilization.
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Originally Posted by Michaelangelica
- "bullying is at all levels of organizations right down to the individual."
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Originally Posted by Michaelangelica
Your answers- Overreaction works "Just as in the wild animal world physical contests within a species are primarily bluff and bravado, where death is rare,"
- Be prepared anyway "Fortunately my Dad had taught me defensive fighting"
- Non violence works too "Mahatma Gandhi and his non-violent successes both individually and in thwarting the entire British Empire and that gives me great hope"
- Look to yourself first "Be the change we want to see in the World", (Currently my email signature quote!)
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- Since I'd rather be embarassed for something I actually did rather than some misunderstanding let me assure you that was an awful oversight on my part and not some attempt to curry favor. Obviously though I am glad to see such a concept proliferate. Imagine the world in which everyone wished to have that as their sig. Wow! I'm not imagining Utopia here since it seems to me that conflict is an essential ingredient to Energy. It is how that conflict is balanced and/or resolved that matters most, IMHO.
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Originally Posted by Michaelangelica
Let me have a think. 
( I have raised thousands of kittens and managed to teach them all to share and be loving to all. I had a three - four year waiting list for them.) |
I have not raised thousands but I have lived with many and in a wide variety of environments, with as many as eight at one time under one roof. I am neither a cat person nor a dog person. I just like animals and they like me, even some vicious to others. FWIW that fierce kitty was effectively behaviour modded in a short time and turned out very well. Cats aren't necessarily aloof, they just have a sense of dignity
Thanks for the stimulating thread
