From: cheating@ccvm.sunysb.edu (queue cue)
Subject: Re:      All Fnordians are Pluralists
Originator: cheading@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
Keywords: Mark Hofmann lived in Utah for a while
Organization: Mollusk Infrastructure
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 15:46:49 GMT

In article <FNORD-L%92081209004737@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU> General Mills <LIBALP@EMUVM1.BITNET> writes:
>Correction: Sombunall Fnordians are Pluralists.
>
>Salamander writes:
>>:       Don't go to Europe. Go west! Check out some Wilson and Leary books
>>:for more info, or Bucky Fuller. Wealth/intelligence/migration has always
>>:moved west....
>
>Salamander goes after the True Believer, and for that, I salute him.
>But . . .
>
>
>>        First off, people more or less _started_ in a random place on
>>the (flat) face of the planet, and once one bit of 'breakthrough' tech
>>was invented, it spread _outwards_ from that point, like a virus...
>
>I hereby request substantiation.  Normally, I think we can assume "random
>place", but when demonstrating the silliness of the Go-West argument, it seems
>insufficient to say, "It was random.  Everybody knows that," even if everybody
>does.  Silly, I agree, but if we cannot disprove it, we ought to allow
>for the possibility.
>
>
>>California/Silicon Valley was more or less randomstance (there's a bit
>
>Again, how do you argue random vs. Some Grand Design?  Our Boys try to study
>the advance of civilization and discern a pattern therein.  Make a case for
>a counter pattern, or show why their assessment is arbitrary, that's a way to
>do it.
>
Well now, if we're going to play nice...

Actually, just to quibble, there are some very valid reasons for the
rise of the California/Silicon Valley "node": at the time it rilly
(oops, slipped) got under way, Calif.'s economy (mid-70s) was, if not
thriving, at least growing (though so were the property taxes, which
resulted in the abominable Prop. 13 (not discordian, just plain ol'
bad luck) which is where Calif. now stands) -- and so were some tax
lures for new companies, which also happened in the pacific NW where
Billy Gates set up shop.  Furthermore, besides (in some people's eyes)
an attractive living environment, which contributed to a population
growth even as the industrial East was and still is losing money,
there was at the time a surplus of power, a plethora of Recreational
Activities from boating to skiing to hiking and on, and a very real
sense (which California exploited and still tries to do to the
fullest degree) of an "uncontaminated" feel: remember that, even
before the Ozone Layer, there was an awareness of Eastern Acid
Rain, the Love Canal, 3 Mile Island, and other reasons to move.
(Now whence those concerns originated is best left to alt.conspiracy,
or DFOSS, whichever comes first.)  There was the attraction of San
Francisco, one of the most well-developed cities in the country (and
I know of no masonic influence, and doubt there is one, though I'd
be pleased to hear from anyone more in the know) which made a 
concentrated effort early on to pay attention to the demands of
rapid growth (including one of the most highly used and effective
(though far too slow) rapid transit systems in the country, BART)
by carefully allocating development projects in a systemized and
somewhat hierarchized way (though, by pre-planning to take full
advantage of the peninsula, it avoided some obvious segregation
concerns -- cf. Los Angeles for an example of a city which, by
the way it expanded, quickly became unable to support itself as
a city).  There stands probably (at least at the time) the finest
public university system in the country, with UCBerkeley and UCSanta
Cruz in that very region (as well as the underrated San Jose State),
and, of course, the Ivy League of the west coast, Stanford University,
for easy recruitment of educated fodder.  Add to that an already
substantial wealth-base from the Stanton valley region, and, well,
it was fairly logical.  Oh, yes, a feeling already present in 
California that "anything goes", marching to your own drummer, etc.
Computers were viewed skeptically by some, but to most it was
something different, esoteric, exotic, and odd, all positives still
in the early 80s, even.  (Don't even think about it now, though, not
unless you can demonstrate beforehand that it's a for-profit 
enterprise.)  Even as late as 1989, San Francisco was rated #2
among places to live in the rather trivial Places Rated Almanac,
behind Seattle, which has been undergoing the same thing lately.

But, more to the point, there just _aren't_ any places "more" west
to live, as the mythology has filled those gaps well.  I thought
that an intrinsic part of the "Go West" theory was that, once the
horizon had been reached, a period of desolation followed while new
frontiers were searched for, which ties in nicely with any theories
of milleniumism (and, no, I've not read the Leary, but he's not
alone in stating this ideal/influence).  The only two "American"
places west of CA are HI and AK, both of which already have their
own governing myths which aren't completely compatable ("native"
culture purety/piety, libertarianism).  I agree with Salamander's
statement that in the future it won't matter where you are due to
the immediacy with which information, large chunks of it, will be
processed; but people still like gathering places.  For what it's
worth, the only place I've seen that's gotten a jump on being the
next nexus is the Research Triangle in North Carolina, with off-
spills into Knoxville (to take advantage of the Univ. of Tennessee
and the economic base of the TVA) and (*shudder*) Atlanta, which
probably has done itself in by getting the Olympics, although we'll
see.
 
>gm

I realize, in retrospect, that I should probably change the attr.
part of the heading, else majcher in his beauty and noise won't
read this as I occupy a special place in his kill file.  Do feel
free to crosspost more items of interest, you and Pat, that is
if you really give a flying buttress for FNORD-L, which I,
frankly, doubt, except as further evidence of how genius is so
tragically misunderstood and persecuted by stony hordes.  Perhaps
at least General (you don't mind if I call you that, do you?)
will respond; you might enclose in your message the following
quoted material if you do, LIBALP: why in Erin's name, Salamander,
would you want to move to Ireland?  I hope it's genealogical in
nature and not some idle idolatry, cause RAW's wrong, as he so
seldom is, on this one.  Unless you like piles of stone chips.

Yrs in a rare instance of forced clarity, which really hurts as
I've not gotten any sleep since Monday night, as, as I said I would,
I've been waiting...

M.


or so she still hasn't said.
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