October 17, 2007
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A Conversation About Free-Riding
LAsym21: dude i just wrote my congressman
LAsym21: write yours too
gRichter88: about what
gRichter88: we have the same congressman
gRichter88: i thought it was a women
gRichter88: woman*
LAsym21: passing a bill that will aid developing nations get on their financial feet
LAsym21: well, i don’t know which one it is
LAsym21: we have 2
LAsym21: 2 in the senate
LAsym21: pryce was for house of reps
LAsym21: our senators are dudes
LAsym21: brown and voinovich
gRichter88: they don’t need me to do it
LAsym21: don’t be a free rider
LAsym21: free riders assume everyone else will do it
gRichter88: and they always do
LAsym21: tell that to the 1000 people in florida who didn’t bother to vote for gore
gRichter88: okay
gRichter88: exepct other people tell them alot i’m sure
LAsym21: well you see the point
LAsym21: individual people do matter
LAsym21: no one is the crowd
LAsym21: the crowd is just made up of people like you and me
gRichter88: right
gRichter88: but at the same time indivdual people don’t matter
LAsym21: and on the other side of the coin, they’re all that matter
LAsym21: lol
LAsym21: so pick your side
gRichter88: alright
LAsym21: i think mine’s right
gRichter88: too bad you’re wrong
LAsym21: lol
LAsym21: not true
gRichter88: for you
LAsym21: 1. Whatever can make a difference matters.
2. Large groups of people can make a difference.
3. Large groups of people are made up of individuals.
4. Without individuals, there is no large group.
5. You are an individual.
6. You are all that matters.
LAsym21: ehh?
gRichter88: no
gRichter88: if 1000 people show up to vote
gRichter88: My showing up has no outcome either way
gRichter88: as the crowed gets larger, my impact gets smaller
gRichter88: expand it 6 billion, and it is miniscule
gRichter88: compact it to me and you, and i’m almost half of the importance
LAsym21: no, in any case, you are the only thing that’s important
LAsym21: because everyone is subjective in viewing the crowd as well
LAsym21: and thus when they think they aren’t significant, they don’t show up
LAsym21: and many people think this way
LAsym21: and thus the impact occurs through many people
LAsym21: but if you change your mind and decide to go
LAsym21: you become one of the group of people that decided they were all that matters
LAsym21: and thus through collective — yet still subjective to you — thinking, things get done
LAsym21: and ultimately you are all that matters, because everyone is the exact same as you in their contemplation about going. you project the eventual thinking of the crowd you’re in
gRichter88: execpt that only my thinking matters to me, i don’t care or control about what other people think.
gRichter88: I’m going from me alone
LAsym21: but if you assume the reasoning is correct — that crowds are individuals, thus you must go — then you will assume that everyone else will think it as well
gRichter88: no why would i assume that
LAsym21: because by assuming it you make it true
gRichter88: now i’m confused, why would i make a generalization about everyone
LAsym21: because you are a part of the crowd to someone who is just like you thinking about the same exact issue somewhere else. so in assuming that if you go to it will matter because everyone else is thinking the same thing, you make it true for others who assume the same. it’s a self-validating assumption
gRichter88: i think you’re overthinking it, i need a subject change
LAsym21: i think you are underthinking it
LAsym21: lol
LAsym21: you are the crowd grant, because the crowd is just individuals
gRichter88: everyone is different
LAsym21: so in assuming you matter, and hoping you assume everyone else assumes they matter because they are hoping you assume you matter, you are acting in this mental process as a responsible citizen of the crowd, and your assumption works because others hold the same assumption — that they need to be proactive, or no one will, since they are all there is
gRichter88: execpt when they don’t think the same thing as you,
but yeah i understand what you’re saying
LAsym21: well yeah, they don’t think the same thing as well, which is what you are doing right now, which evades a mental responsibility to understand that as an individual your decision makes up the crowd, and then there’s an exponential increase in those who aren’t in the crowd, and those people should think like they are all the crowd is, because then they would show up
LAsym21: see?
gRichter88: no and i’m not in the mood to at this moment, because i’m doing too many things at once
gRichter88: but maybe someday i will
LAsym21: lol ok
gRichter88: and then i’ll go vote…
Free riding is such a problem, because there are so many things in which we could make a difference if each of us would just realize, I am the crowd.
Edit: I ended up drinking eight free cappuccinos on Monday. I was a *bit* jittery in my next class.
Comments (5)
I hope that person you were talking to never votes. I had this same conversation with several adults from my church, and they told me I was naïve and ignorant because I’m going to vote for a presidential candidate who I agree with, rather than voting for whatever candidate is among the two most popular. They told me my vote wouldn’t be important without the backing of everyone else’s votes — that a vote for the little guy is a wasted vote, because no one thinks that way.
That’s the problem. Very few people think about these issues rationally. They just do what they’re told, and pretty soon George Orwell will be a prophet.
you have a flippin sweet xanga. The picture, the calvin and hobbes, the color (or lack there of).
So who are you?
not who votes.
but who counts the votes.
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free drugs (coffee) is just
the beginning.
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welcome to the new-world-order.
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i hope these contacts
farms tribes groups
will make a door for them
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http://www.galeeb.blogspot.com
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I just had a conversation with my friends last evening. The one who wins the election is the one with the most votes….but the one with the most money!
Fascinating thought.
In the end of the matter, I find it safer to just assume that if I don’t do anything, no one will, and that whether or not I do something really does matter. The real battle is to keep believing it, day in, day out, even when it doesn’t seem like it’s true, to keep believing that the good works God prepared for me are worthwhile ones, no matter how much it doesn’t seem like it.