Chris > Status Update

'Whatever the psychological roots of this delight in destruction might be, it is true that for some people, especially the fans of detective novels, violent thrillers or violent video games, the imagination of resorting to destructive activity or violent actions such as murdering, and provoking bloody car accidents produces great joy and satisfaction'

'destruction can be considered as the very act of creation, since all production involves what might be called ‘destructive transformation’, like wheat being ground into flour..in the same manner, learning is a kind of self-destruction, namely the reshaping of our knowledge framework, the rearrangement or reconstruction of our data and mental representations through which ex-biases could be removed or replaced'

'militarism could lead to greater security and welfare for the masses, further development of communication systems, and an extension of the division of labour.. extension of the division of labour can be verified by the fact that.. long distance trade could not have been carried out without military protection..trade is one of the principal prerequisites of specialization and the extension of the division of labour'

The ordinary healthy high schooled graduate.. has to work fairly hard to produce more than 4000 $ of value per year; but he could destroy a hundred times that much if he set his mind to it.. Given an institutional arrangement in which he could generously abstain from destruction in return for a mere fraction of the value that he might have destroyed, the boy clearly has a calling as an extortionist.. Schelling 1963