@@> From a Frank Masingill to ALL
 @@> on "Reflections on modernity"
 
 FM> The other morning, in need of a few groceries, I went alone very early
 FM> while the wife slept to a nearby Supermarket to make a few purchases.
 FM> While making my way around the aisles selecting an article here and
 FM> there a strong impulse came over me of awe in the midst of such a
 FM> representative structure of the delicate balance of commerce and
 FM> technology that placed me there at the end of the human food chain for
 FM> those of us "fortunate" (?) enough to have the means of restocking the
 FM> pantry (refrigerator and freezer in many instances). I thought:
 
 FM> How quickly it could all end as though in a flash of lightening.
 FM> A sudden diminution in the availability of fuel, a breakdown (now
 FM> capable of having >earth-wide proportions) in labor relations, even
 FM> an unexpected shift in the distance of the earth from the sun or
 FM> other phenomena could have throngs of people suddenly undergoing
 FM> suffering and death.  How quickly and efficiently could such agencies
 FM>as the Red Cross and governmental bodies mobilize for such
 FM> an event and how effective could they be if the force for breakdown
 FM> proved to be long enough and destructive enough?  Suppose the forces
 FM> favoring organization of the apparatus became so crippled that a
 FM> civilized society could only degenerate into mass death of the kind
 FM> that we've seen occuring in some of the "third world" countries due
 FM> to political antagonisms.
 
 FM> In a world so dependent upon fuel and technology it is not difficult
 FM> to imagine, I think, a breakdown of enormous proportions that would
 FM> strain the collective intelligence of that technology to maintain
 FM> equilibrium.  Artifacts might not be so local and so rapidly buried
 FM> under accumulative debris and life might more quickly approach the
 FM> "primative" than has been imagined.
 
 FM> More later.
 
      ........Yes, a good basis for "quantified everyday hedonism"
 
                          @@>--- Dave
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