Randolph Harris II International Institute

Home » news (Page 12)

Category Archives: news

Have I Been Blind, Have I Been Lost Inside Myself and My Own Mind?

It is common to equate being aggressive with being manly, and—in many circles—to assign this a beneficial connotation. Men who appear far from aggressive may be subjected to slurs, or made fun of for such apparent weakness, as exemplified by referring to them as females. One of the most interesting aspects of group sexual assault is that it is an aggressive group activity, implying that the discussion of motivation must take into the fact that there is, in some sense, an audience and that something is being shared. While studying convicted rapists’ accounts of the rewards of rape, with particular attention to the responses of gang rapists, who were mostly in their late teens or early twenties, a motive was confirmed. In the “Good Old Boys Sociability groups” (GOBS), men who maintained a group affiliation from adolescence into adulthood, provided a helpful picture of the activities of middle-class “gangs.” The most common description of the rewards of rape by the incarcerated gang rapists fell into the category of recreation and adventure. For these men, fun and trouble enjoy a symbiotic relationship as sociability themes. One activity that fits this description is fooling around with a “bad woman.” A bad woman is defined as any woman who is not the wife or girlfriend of a member. A unique reward of gang rape described by the respondents is the camaraderie among the men. It is believed that some men prefer gang rape to solitary rape because they a pack mentality. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

Also, when someone is of a different culture, seen as an enemy, or does not share a common language, the offenders are able to detach from the victim by not seeing the individual as a human being and this make them feel they are doing no harm. It also provides a motive for sharing the rape with friends. Fellowship, and cooperation are seen as unique benefits of gang rape. However, the offenders who call their victims animals may have fantasies of bestiality. In group situations, as previously mentioned, fun and trouble go hand-in-hand, so are competition and camaraderie intertwined in some male sociability groups. A primary motive in group sexual assault, especially for group leaders, is to sustain an image with the group. Participation seems to stem in part from indebtedness to or emotional dependency on the leader. In part, then, participation in a group sexual assault is motivated by the relationship among the men, for the purpose of maintaining or creating images and roles within the group. Certainly, providing a woman to the group, as in several of the documented campus cases where a college student offered his date to his friends, falls in the category of motives related to intragroup acceptance. An intriguing possibility to consider is does an outsider intensify the competition and need to create a masculine image? It appears that part of the appeal is the shared experience with one’s buddies. Earlier studies of gang rape posited that the men were latent homosexuals and sharing the woman was a way of sharing sex. The men are sharing in a homosexual experience. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

That does day something about their social and emotional relationships with their own gender, but does not in itself inform us that they would rather have sex with each other. Men do not rape women out of sexual desire for other men, but they may rape women, in part, as a way to relate to men. Much like two men robbing a store together: they are not covertly expressing a desire to rob each other. One motive that should not be overlooked in this age group, however, is simply the opportunity to have heterosexual intercourse. One offender who was interviewed had been involved in 20-30 group rapes. He stated that he had participated in gang rapes because his driver’s license had been revoked, depriving him of the opportunity to take women out alone. A college student interviewed about his participation in a “train” during Spring break in Florida seemed to be delighted by the unusual sexual availability of college women. He did not know the other men, thus apparently relations among the men played little or no role in his participation. A related enticement of group rape for young men who are unable to make relationships with women on their own is that it allows for sexual intercourse without responsibility toward the sexual partner. Solitary rapists sometimes seek reassurance from their victims that they were also sexually satisfied and believed that a reward of group rape was that on individual has to be concerned about or related to the woman. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

However, there is also a new trend amongst college age males, who are generally 18-28. They are living in houses with large groups of men, and they have group sex. Most times it is consensual because other men want to be part of the group, and they are able to backout at any time because there are so many guys participating and enjoy that no one is held hostage, but the interesting phenomena is that these young man do not fit the stereotype of a homosexual male. They have no overt homosexual tendencies other than the fact that they like to have sex with other men. If you met one of them, you would not even suspect that they were gay. It could be as homosexuality is becoming more accepted, more men are willing to have homosexual relationships, but they may not be homosexual. It could just be a way for them to get through college or life without being accused of rape. Men tend to be more free about their sexuality and if they are in a group where they already know what is considered the dominant culture, they know what to expect. So it is not like they are being tricked into having sex. It is just an unwritten rule about their house that that is what they do. They often times do not use protection because there is no risk of pregnancy, so as long as no one goes outside of the house for pleasures of the flesh, they do not have to worry about diseases or viruses. And sometimes there is also financial compensation. Many of these young men are able to afford jumbo sized homes together and luxury cars, and they have healthy bank accounts. Can afford to buy high end clothes and dine at fancy restaurants. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

This social group thee young men form may help some of them pay their way through college or give them the funding they will need later in life to start a business. And all they need to do is be skinny, or slightly muscular and have an average to attractive face. Nonetheless, you will also notice that homosexual men, especially the ones who do not fit the stereotype, are very secretive about their relations. If you are not one of them, you probably will not know what they do on their free time. They also may date women, and some may not. But you still have like these masculine athletic jocks nowadays who are openly in relationship with other men, who often times look like their twin or brother. This could be a healthy form of narcissism. (Not the I am promoting this lifestyle, I think abstinence is best, but in most cases, they are not hurting anyone and earning a living legally.) It is well-established that individuals are more aggressive in groups than they would be when acting alone. Such group processes are probably what participants in group sexual assaults and their defenders have in mind when they attempt to deflect blame by explaining, “Things got out of hand” (a several “enlightened” male students have confided to me about group sexual assaults). Three factors identified by social psychologists to explain why groups are so easily ignited to aggression can be applied to gang rape. An individual in a group is less likely to behave altruistically and more likely to harm others than if the same individual were alone. One reason for these tendencies is that responsibility for the welfare of a victim is diluted by the presence of others, who share the blame. The term diffusion of responsibility is applied to situations in which the presence of others acting in a similar fashion diminishes the feeling of responsibility any individual feels for the harmful consequences of his or her own behavior. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

A slightly different concept, deindividuation, refers to a state of loss of self-awareness, including awareness of one’s beliefs, attitudes, and self-standards. (In contrast, diffusion of responsibility does not entail forgetting oneself or what one considers proper behavior, but only feeling it is not one’s job to uphold these standards all alone. Deindividuation connotes irrationality.) This loss of self is sometimes encouraged to promote group spirit, as in a pep rally, or to facilitate behavior that is otherwise unacceptable. For examples, soldiers’ uniforms are deindividuating that they remove signs of individuality and are thought to make it easier for them to adopt the alien role of defender. Alcohol promotes deindividuation by allowing escapes from one’s conscience and self-consciousness. Group cohesion and loyalty can produce deindividuation by substituting a group identity, with a group history and mores, for individual identities with unique, personal histories and beliefs. Hierarchical or status seeking behavior can start at a very young age, supported by whatever aggression can be mustered—and by authority figure and social rewards. In a group setting, particularly when a group identity produces conformity, modeling of aggression also occurs. Not only would watching peers rape and sodomize a woman indicate the appropriateness of such behavior, it would also demonstrate how it is done. There was an incident in which up to forty fraternity brothers raped and sexually humiliated a woman who was developmentally disabled. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

Many view aggression not as innate, but as a disposition fueled and governed by personal and cultural condition. According to the social learning theory, aggression is a self-serving learned behavior: we assume we need or deserve something, and we find that we can get it—and sometimes even more—through being aggressive, whether directly or indirectly (as when we manipulate another into acting out our aggression). The students’ behavior can be attributed to group membership, illustrating how diffusion or responsibility, deindividuation, and modeling might come together to render a grotesque act not only tolerable but pleasurable: Who can doubt that these same young men would…have had considerable qualms about doing these things to a woman by themselves? They would probably have felt that what they were doing was perverse and shameful. It was the presence of other men that made the act acceptable; in fact, it was probably the presence of the other men that made it attractive…it was the sort of appeal that baiting a dog, or watching a hanging holds. The aggressive man, the alpha male, the violence-delivering hero, the mesomorphic bare-chested hulk with the big guns, the tough guy who kills with barely a blink of his narrowed eyes, the ruthless moneymaker—all of these, in various combinations, infiltrate a boy’s consciousness, however peripherally, implanting the notion that a man is primarily here to fight, however bloodless his battles may be. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

Functional mental disorders are instances of sickness similar in certain ways to the sickness exhibited by a paretic is partly based on the fact that in many cases it is extremely difficult to discover from behavior alone whether an individual patient is suffering from an organic or functional psychosis. The assumption seems to be that the misbehavior or organically diseased patients is thoroughly symptomatic, and that if functionals exhibit these behaviors, too, it can at least be said of them that they are conducting themselves symptomatically. How a psychogenically-based disorder can give rise to a whole pattern of behavior similar to that seen in organic cases is not explained. However, in terms of the sociology of situations, surely this happy coincidence between organic and functional behavioral symptoms is only to be expected. Whatever the diverse grounds—social or organic—of deviance, there is usually only one set of situational rules that apply within a given situation. And if eventful deviation is to be perceived, whether this deviation is called a symptom or not, it is just these rules that must be broken. Take, for example, the form of possession called “were” of the Shango cult in Trinidad: Finally, a form of possession known as “were” occurs with some frequency. Individuals in this state are considered “messengers of the powers.” Were possession is a half-way state between full possession and normal behavior, and a high degree of consciousness is retained. It is marked by disobeying ceremonial regulations by such acts as smoking, swearing, or mocking sacred places by spitting on the tombs of the powers. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

The behavior becomes extremely childish: the possessed may speak with a marked lisp, wet or soil oneself, and use vulgar oneself, and use vulgar language and gestures. One is treated tolerantly by onlookers, as one might treat a naughty but loved child. One person in this state maintained that he had just landed from “New York Thity” and that his plane was parked outside the gate. He cordially invited all available females to examine the side of the plane with him (evoking gales of hysterical laughter from all present). It is possible to view this kind of conduct as a form of transitory psychosis, but the more we learn about the qualifications required for engaging in this behavior, and the community position of those qualitied, the more we appreciate that the same vocabulary of improprieties must be relied upon regardless of the reasons and meaning of deviation. (This lesson, of course, has been taught by Freudian psychiatrist themselves, in their theory if not in their practice, in connection with the notion that a psychotic symptom can be a defense, and can be altered radically without changing the underlying psychopathology, while at the same time similar symptoms may be exhibited by persons of quite dissimilar psychopathology.) Here, paradoxically, the comparative approach has perhaps done us some disservice. Psychiatrists visiting foreign countries often find the culture utterly strange and the language very difficult to understand. However, often, too, the find the behavior of local mental patients perfectly familiar; once they are on a native back ward the visitors find themselves at home. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

Since they similarly find themselves in a familiar territory when looking in on a foreign operating room or observing  native case of measles, the tendency is to assume that what mental patient have is a medical kind of culture-free disorder. Here, however, the possibility might be entertained that some of the same rules of situational propriety may be to social gatherings in many different cultures. To the degree cultural uniformities, there are internationally recognized improprieties, and psychiatrist are in fact at home anywhere in the World. The culmination of the rising tide of these deceiving spirits sweeping upon the Church is described by the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians, where he speaks of the manifestation of someone who will, eventually, have so deceived Christendom as to have gained an entrance into the very sanctuary of God; so that “he sitteth in the sanctuary of God, setting himself forth as God.” The bearing of this one will be a “presence” like God, and yet “according to the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and wonders of falsehood, and with all deceit…” (2 Thess. 2.4, 9-10). Confirmation of our Lord’s words recorded by Matthew is found in the revelation given by Him to John on Patmos, that at the close of the age the main weapon used by the deceiver for obtaining power over the people of the Earth will be supernatural signs from Heaven, when a counterfeit “lamb” will do “great signs,” and even make fire come down out of Heaven” to deceive the dwellers on the Earth, thereby exercising such control over the whole World that “no man shall be able to buy or sell, save he that hath the mark of the beast” (Rev. 13.11-17). Through this supernatural deception, the full purpose of the deceiving hierarchy of Satan reaches its consummation in the foretold World-wide authority. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

Deception of the World with deepening darkness, including deception of the Church through arcane “teachings” and “manifestations,” will reach the highest floodtide climax at the close of the age. It is striking to note that John, the apostle who was chosen to transmit the Apocalypse to the Church in preparation for the last days of the Church militant, should be the one who wrote to the Christians of his say, “Believe not every spirit…” (1 John 4.1-6). He earnestly warned his “children” that the “spirit of antichrist” and the “spirit of error” (deception) was already actively at work among them. Their attitude was to be “believe not”—id est, to doubt every supernatural teaching and teacher until proved to be of God. They were to prove the “teachings,” lest they came from a “spirit of error” and where part of the deceiver’s campaign as “antichrist,” id est, against Christ. If this attitude of neutrality and doubt toward supernatural teachings was needed in the days of the Apostle John—some fifty-seven years after Pentecost—how much more is it needed in “later times” foretold by the Lord, and by the Apostle Paul. Times which were to be characterized by a clamor of voices of “prophets”: that is—in the language of the twenty-first century—“speakers” and “teachers” using the sacred name of the Lord; and when “teachings” received supernaturally from the spiritual realm would abound—“teachings” accompanied with such wonderful proofs of their “divine” origin as to perplex even the most faithful of the Lord’s people, and even, for a time, to DECEIVE some of them. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

One moment someone’s hand is warm in yours and then they are gone. The door closed between you and that individual and one was taken away. Shut off in another one, the person left behind will feel a cold vacancy. Alone, silent and still, waiting the long loneliness. The terror and dread from being away from the one you love increases and grips one’s heart. People do not know what life is like without their soulmate. They envision only vague, empty images from their mind. One thing may be clear, your being in the World brought them a unique value into their life as it has for many others. When you depart, often your other half has no idea what life will be like—alone, facing the painful intimacy of a broken heart. Always before you two were together. You faced your sufferings together. They often wonder in that final moment when you walk away, who will they be? As they listen to approaching footsteps approach in the hall, your loved one wonders “Where are you?” and “What is happening in the moment?” as they do not see you coming home. All they see is new faces, cars, dogs, and cats. All of it comes together in horror and he or she closes the door. Waiting, trying to feel some hope. Will you come soon? Will your face tell me the ordeal is over? Hardly a night passes when they have not awakened to the depth of suffering. In these days, your loved one pauses momentarily and stops and stares. In crowded streets, they feel your hurt. And in the morning sun the pain is continuous. Yet through it all you have maintained a loving place in their heart, a gentle spirit, and your strength has encouraged other to go on living. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

Your loved believes if you return to their life, there will be no more pain, only tenderness and life. As one listens for the sounds that will bring you back, this is one’s fervent hope—that fear and anguish and the break up are finished and will never again hover over them again. The practice of stopping thoughts helps self-remembering very much. Struggle with imagination and with mechanical talk with oneself or with people is necessary from the very beginning. However, one will get still stronger help for self-remembering from sacrificing one’s suffering. Only this can make the work on consciousness real and serious. Before this, all is only preparation for it. The work on emotions as the work on consciousness mut be practical from the beginning. It begins with the struggle against the expression of negative emotions. When a certain control is acquired and when you fully understand all evil sides of negative emotions in your own life and in life in general, you must make a plan for your personal work on identification, imagination and lying in those particular forms which they take in you. In this work you must not be afraid to hurt yourself. Understand that only by hurting yourself can you get what you want. You can do this by observing rules. For instance, by saying something about yourself or about other people that you do not want to say, but when you are told to do so. Also, you can produce a very emotional state in yourself by preparing yourself to speak in this way, by imagining yourself being told to speak the truth on the most difficult and intimate subjects which you think are quite hidden or disguised. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Realize also, that there are many other kinds of suffering through which you will pass before you attain your aim. Try to understand that suffering is the only active principle in us which can be converted into higher feeling—which is also higher thought and higher understanding. Do not be afraid of thinking of your emotions and finding contradictions in them, even if it hurts you. Only if your work hard enough and are not afraid of hurting yourself by comparing different emotions referring to the same subject, can you find buffers in yourself and eventually destroy them. Remember that this will lead you to the awakening of conscience, which is the simultaneous feeling of all contradictory emotions; and remember that the awakening of conscience is a necessary step for transferring yourself to the higher level of consciousness. Practice removing identification and imagination from negative emotions without destroying them. You may get quite unexpected and very interesting results. Learn to transform emotions into mental attitudes and to transfer them to the mind. Many emotions which are quite useless and even harmful in emotional center, because they cannot exist there without identification and imagination, become quite useful as mental attitudes and help self-observation, observation of other people and generally understanding. Try to go through all your emotions during all the time you have been connected with the system, emotions referring to the system itself, to me, to yourself and to other people in this work. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

Try to be sincere with yourself. See how you have always tried to profit by your being in the work; for instance, by using the particular intimacy that establishes itself between people in the work, owing to common psychological study and the disappearance of many buffers, for making friends in the ordinary mechanical and sentimental way, having love affairs, et cetera. See what use you have made of your connection with the work. See how you were often selfish and calculating, how little you have to the work and how much you took from it. See how much considering was in your attitudes, how many demands and how much resentment, particularly when people tried to help you. Try to see how poor was your valuation of the work and how much you missed by it. Try to see how foolish you were to express negative opinion of people who could have helped you, many of whom have disappeared already. Try to see yourself as you really are. And do not let yourself rest, do not comfort yourself with false hopes and expectations of miracles, or with decisions to act differently tomorrow. Think about life in general, think about masses of blind and sleeping people without any chance in the World to become anything else. Think about yourself, realize how many opportunities you had and how many you have already lost. Think about death. You do not know how much time remains to you. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

And remember that if you do not become different, everything will be repeated again, all foolish blunders, all silly mistakes, all loss of time and opportunity—everything will be repeated with the exception of chance you had this time, because chance never comes in the same form. You will have to look for your chance next time. And in order to do this, you will have to remember many things, and how will you remember then if you do not remember anything now? Try to understand the work on will. You begin this work by work on mind and consciousness; work on emotions strengthens will still more, and prepares you for further efforts. However, real work on will begins with trying to understand self-will and finding examples of its manifestations in your actions. At this point come the necessity for great sincerity with yourself and the necessity for being ready to speak to me about your manifestations of self-will. Try to understand that every decision made by yourself and for yourself which can at the same time affect your work is the manifestation of self-will. In order to understand better the difference between will and self-will, learn to distinguish between mechanical and conscious. Self-will is always mechanical, will is always conscious. You must understand that even on an ordinary level there is a great difference between mechanical and conscious. In life the difference is connected with the difference between important and unimportant, but in life the difference between important and unimportant varies for different people and changes according to the change of circumstances. For people in school, “important” is always connected with the work. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Bargaining—a newly elected trade union leader went to his first tough bargaining session in the company boardroom. Nervous and intimidated by the setting, he blurted out his demand: “We want ten dollars an hour or else.” “Or else what?” challenged the boss. The union leader replied, “Nine dollar fifty.” Few union leaders are so quick to back down, and bosses need the threat of Japanese competition, not their own power to secure wage concessions. However, the situation poses several important questions about the bargaining process. Will there be an agreement? Will it occur amicably, or only after a strike? Who will concede and when? Who will get how much of the pie that is in the object of the haggling? To look ahead and reason back, it helps to start at a fixed point in the future, so let us think of an enterprise with a natural conclusion, such as a hotel in a summer resort. The season lasts 101 days. Each day the hotel operates, it makes a profit of $1,000. At the beginning of the season, the employees, union confront the management over wages. The union presents its demand. The management either accepts this, or rejects it and returns the next day with a counteroffer. The hotel can open only after an agreement is reached. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

First suppose bargaining has gone on for so long that even if the next round leads to an agreement, the hotel can open for only the last day of the season. In fact bargaining will not go on that long, but because of the logic of looking ahead and reasoning back, what actually happens is governed by a thought process that starts at this logical extreme. Suppose it is the union’s turn to present its demand. At this point the management should accept anything as better than nothing. So the union can get away with the whole $1000. Now look at the day before the last, when it is the management’s turn to make an offer. It knows that the union can always reject this, let the process go on to the last day, and get $1,000. Therefore the management cannot offer any less. And the union cannot do any better than get $1,000 on the last day, so the management need not offer any more on the day before. Therefore the management’s offer at this stage is clear: of the $2,000 profit over the last two day, it asks half. Each side gets $500 per day. Next let the reasoning move back one more day. By the same logic, the union will offer the management $1,000, and ask for $2,000; this gives the union $667 per day and the management $333. We show the full process following table. #RandolphHarris 18 of 210

Each time the union makes an offer, it has an advantage, which stems from its ability to make the last all-or-nothing offer. However, the advantage gets smaller as the number of rounds increases. At the start of a season 101 days long, the two sides’ positions are almost identical: $505 versus $495. If the management were to make the last offer, or indeed if there were no rigid rules like one offer a day, alternating offers, et cetera, almost the same division would emerge. Our restrictions to alternating offers and a known finite horizon are simply devices to help us look ahead. They become innocuous when the time between offers is short and the bargaining horizon is long—in these cases, looking ahead and reasoning backward leads to a very simple and appealing rule: split the total down the middle. What is more, the agreement occurs on the very first day of the negotiation process. Because the two sides look ahead to predict the same outcome, there is no reason why they should fail to agree and jointly lose $1,000 a day. Not all instances of union-management bargaining have such a happy beginning. Breakdowns in negotiations do occur, strikes or lockouts happen, and settlements favor one side or the other. When it comes to the media, the best way to understand its power is to place today’s media revolution in historical perspective, and to distinguish clearly among three different modes of communication. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

In highly oversimplified terms, we can say that in First Wave or agrarian societies, most communication passed mouth-to-ear and face-to-face within very small groups. In a World without newspapers, radio, or television, the only way for a message to reach a mass audience was by assembling a crowd. The crowd was, in fact, the first mass medium. A crowd may “send a message” upward to its ruler. In fact, the very size of the crowd is itself a message. However, whatever else the crowd may communicate, it also sends an identical message to all its participants. This message—which can be profoundly subversive—is simple: “You are not alone.” The crowd, therefore, has played a crucial role in history. The problem with the crowd or mob as a communications medium, however, is that it is usually ephemeral. The crowd was not the only pretechnolgical mass medium. In the West during the medieval era, the Catholic Church, because of its extensive organization, was the closet thing to a durable mass medium—and the only one able to transmit the same message to large populations across political boundaries. This unique capacity gave the Vatican immense power vis-à-vis Europe’s feuding kings and princelings. It accounts in part for the seesaw power struggles between church and state that bloodied Europe for centuries. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

The Second Wave system of wealth creation, based on factory mass production, needed more communication at a distance and gave rise to the post office, telegraph, and telephone. However, the new factories also needed a homogeneous work force, and technologically based mass media were invented. Newspapers, magazines, movies, radio, and television, each capable of carrying the same message to millions simultaneously, became the prime instruments of massification in the industrial societies. The new Third Wave system, by contrast, reflects the needs of the emerging post-mass-production economy. Like the latest “flexible manufacturing” plants, it customizes its image products and sends different images, ideas, and symbols to closely targeted population segments, markets, age categories, professions, ethnic or life-tyle groupings. This new high diversity of message and media is necessary because the new system of wealth creation required a far more heterogeneous work force and population. The de-massification has become a key characteristic of the new media system. But this is only one aspect. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

Cresleigh Homes

We know you’ve been thinking about it…

Picture your life at #Havenwood. Go on. We’ll wait. 😍 Psst…Residence 4 is one of our favorites…and Homesite #67 is ready for new owners!

Right now, #CresleighHomes is offering $60,000 in flex cash + $15,000 in included options for a limited time! Plus, our community also offers a low tax rate and Mello Roos, too! 💰

Interested? Email Havenwood@cresleigh.com today!

There is No One Who Could Help Now?

I turned away astonished to see that in the few moments we had been talking, dusk had stolen the remnants of the day. Time always did seem to pass differently in my home. As we clattered down the corridor, I glanced into the rooms where the doors stood open. All were empty. There were no sounds of conversation, of caretakers going about their duties. Mr. Hansen stopped in front of a high wooden desk at the foot of the stairs. I caught the smell of beeswax polish, a sharp reminder of the back stairs leading up to the attic of the witches cap. We walked on the staircase, until I stopped in front of a paneled door and unlocked it. “I will have the fire made up,” Mr. Hansen said. The room was bone chillingly cold, though it was clean. I lit the oil lamps from the candle, and looked around. A small writing table and chip and dale arm chair sat adjacent to the door. Straight ahead, two tall windows, floor to ceiling, filled one side of the room. On the opposite side of the room was a heavy chest of gold, covered by a lace runner. When Mr. Hansen returned, I said, “Dearest Jim, will you please open that chest, there is something inside of it for you and your family.” Mr. Hansen eagerly walk over to the chest, and his eyes lit up like a new born baby having his first birthday cake. “Go ahead, Mr. Hansen, it is for you.” “No, Mrs. Winchester; I can well believe it. But this is a treasure I can live on for years. Only you must tell me how I can repay you…In a hundred years I could never do enough for you,” he said. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Well, that word went to my heart; but for a minute I did not know how to answer. For it was true I had risked my soul, and that was something he could not pay me for; but then maybe I had saved his, in getting him away from those foul people, so the whole business was more of a puzzle to me than ever. However, then I had thought that made me easier. Mr. Hansen went on to explain to me, “Well, Mrs. Winchester, the day before yesterday, I was with my young son; the poor young man, without health or hope, lying sick in a mean rooming house. Until now, I had no way to know how I would care for him.” Mrs. Winchester sat up in bed in a flutter of pity. “Oh, Mrs. Hansen, how dreadful! Why did you never tell me? You must hire a better room for him at once. Has he a doctor? Has he a nurse? Quick—give me my checkbook!” “Thank you, Mrs. Winchester. But you have already given me a king’s ransom.” When I got back to my room after a long, hot soak in the bath, a fire was burning in the grate, releasing an aroma of pine resin into the room. The smell snapped at my heartstrings, taking me back to New Haven winters when William was home from work. I gazed into the fire awhile longer, happy in my own company. I sometimes wondered if some of those grizzled old souls were able to make the journey from New Haven to Santa Clara. My home seemed to add so much to the ambience of the area. However, unlike the Earth, this huge estate seemed to need people within it to survive. That is one of many reasons my construction project went on so long. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Have you ever noticed how houses, as long as they have someone occupying them, no matter how little maintenance is done, always hold up better than houses that are abandoned? Houses, like a body which the soul has abandoned, deteriorate more rapidly when on one resides within. One evening in the cooling fall of the year, Mr. Hansen and his wife left the caretaker’s house on the estate for a social function. The son of Mr. Hansen was home alone. He was in the basement which was used as a recreation room. It was getting late and her was expecting his parents any minute. Sure enough, he heard footsteps on the floor above his head. They traveled across the living room and into the dining room and back again. He thought it unusual that his father and mother would be in the house walking around for nearly a minute and not call him. He walked to the stairs that led from the basement to the first floor and called out, “Daddy?” The only answer was the sound of footsteps crossing the room and beginning to ascend the stairs to the second floor. “Daddy?” he called again. With still no answer, he began to slowly climb the stairs from the basement to the first floor. He could hear what he was convinced was an intruder walking through the bedrooms just above his head, apparently looking for something valuable. The footsteps crossed the second floor just above his head and began approaching the stairs and descend to the first floor. He rushed into the basement again. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

Wanting to run but not wanting to run into whoever it was who prowled above his head, he could only wait in icy apprehension for his parents. As he waited, the intruder stalked the floor above him, apparently not interested in valuables, seeking something known only to him. His wanderings became more aimless. First to the kitchen, then back to the living room, then the dining room—pacing…pacing—to perhaps peer out a window at the fruit orchard. The ancient floorboards that once soaked up blood of those killed by the Winchester rifle, groaned with the wandering footfall of an apparently lost intruder. Slowly the footsteps approached the cellar steps…he swore he heard him put a foot on the top step. Ghosts supposedly went out of fashion when electric light came in. What nonsense! The supernatural were always around on my estate. My very mansion was patrolled by headless victims with clanking chains, and even though it was a comfortable house with an ice box and 47 fireplaces where you feel, as soon as you are in it, that there is something wrong, it sends chills down your spine! It is certainly a lovely, airy, high-ceilinged house with electricity, but I knew we were dealing with something that was invisible and could not be seen—something that was very malevolent. I often saw a boy with glowing eyes near the 7-11 staircase. But here I belonged and here I would stay. There morning had been bitter, with a driving sleet—though it was only the last day of October—but after lunch a watery sun showed for a while through banked-up wooly cloud and tempted me out. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

I was an energetic walker, and given, at that season, to walking about the beautiful grounds. I made my usual round, and was following the path back to the mansion when I overtook a plainly-dressed woman walking in the same direction. When I caught up with the intruder, I was surprised to find she was a stranger. It was almost dark, and the woman’s face was hardly visible, but this woman was middle-aged, plain and rather pale. I greeted her, and then added: “You are going to my house?” “Yes, ma’am,” the woman answered, in a voice that the Connecticut Valley in the old days would have called “foreign.” I could not say where she came from. What struck me as queer was that I did not know her. I asked the woman, politely, what she wanted, and the woman answered: “Only to see Annie.” The answer was natural enough, but there was no one by that name on my estate. I turned off from the drive to the lower part of the gardens, so that I saw no more of the visitor then or afterward. And, in fact, half hour later something happened which put the stranger entirely out of my mind. I approached my house, slipped on a froze puddle, turned my ankle and lay suddenly helpless. Elroy, the butler, and Ersula the housemaid, knew exactly what to do. In no had me stretched out on a lounge, and Dr. Parker had been notified. When he arrived, he ordered me to bed, and did the necessary examining and bandaging, and shook his head over my ankle, which he feared was fractured. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

Concerned about how I would get around my estate, as I was laying in bed, the spirit gave me an idea of building mini stairs that rose only two inches, so I could make it around, until I healed without being bound in plaster. From that night on, there was an appearance of  ghost, who would manifest in front yard, walk up to the house and enter it, and interact with me. My home brought me deeper and deeper into a mysterious territory whose boundaries I had never before dream of transgressing. Ghosts often took shape right before my eyes. They would start off as tendrils and grow into glowing, mistlike things. Turning into orbs, the figures would grow larger and denser and began to assume a humanlike form. One evening, I extended my hand into the mist, and could feel its cold interior. Such a bold act may have been considered very rude by the entity, as the glowing image suddenly vanished. There were plenty of vibrations in my mansion to tune into. The place was drenched with psychic vibrations. In my Blue Séance Room is where the glowing lights and ethereal broadcast were received well enough that caretakers were aware of their presence. They would morph into columns of light about the height of a man and make their trek out of the room. One night Ersula reported seeing ghostly face looking through the window at her one night. The ghost then chased her hands away from the cows during an evening milking. The following morning, it was about nine o’clock before I admitted to myself that something uncommonly strange must have happened in the house. Mysterious things—dreadful things—were associated with darkness; and the wholesome prosaic daylight had not come to banish there. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

I conjure thee, O Spirit Pheynix, and your 20 Legions of Spirits, by all the most glorious and efficacious Names of the Great and Incomparable Lord the God of Hosts, come quickly and without delay, from whatsoever part of the World thou art in; make rational answers to our demands; please come visibly, speak affably, speak intelligibly to our understanding. We conjure and constrain thee, O Spirit Pheynix and your 20 Legions of Spirits, as also by these seven other Names wherewith Solomon bound thee and thy fellows in the brazen vessel, to wit, ADONAI, PRERAI, TETRAGRAMMATON, ANEX-HEXETON, INESSENSATOAL, PATHUMATON, and ITEMON; do thou manifest in the Winchester Mansion, fully our will in all things that they may seem good to us. Come, therefore, in the Holy Names ADONAI, ZEBAOTH, AMIORAM, come, ADONAI commands thee. Please grants us your powers and virtues by the powers and virtues, and by the name PRIMEMATUM, which commands the whose host of Heaven. Do thou force and compel the Spirit of Sarah L. Winchester here before to return to her mansion, in a fair and comely shape, without injury to herself or any creature, that she many continue to expand and make her estate thrive, so that she accomplished her desired end, whatsoever it be, provided that it is proper to her office, by the power of God, EL, who hath created and doth dispose of all things, celestial, aerial, terrestrial, and infernal. Please appear and make the sweet perfumes, give good entertainment. May all the Company of Heaven, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Light of Hosts of Heaven guide you back to your estate by the power of TETRAGRAMMATON, ANEXHEXETON, PRIMEMATUM. So bless it be. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

The Winchester Mystery House

If such peculiar manifestations as orbs and ghosts should be as intelligent as their actions often indicate, just what are they and what is their purpose? We have folklore that is at least 2,000 years old that equates these mysterious globes of light with spirits of the dead and with those beings we label nature spirits—the Devas, the elves, and the fairies. The manipulation of glowing balls of light as a means of transportation may even be employed by angelic beings and spirit guides. Indeed, these benevolent beings may take form as ghosts of light before fully materializing in our dimension. These orbs seen in the Winchester Mansion are intelligent and may be able to manifest a physical appearance that is most compatible with the level of understanding of each individual witness.

These were Mrs. Winchester’s carpenters on the estate. One of these gentleman has been spotted inside the house by both guests and tour guides for decades! He is usually seen fixing the fireplaces and rolling around his wheelbarrow in the basement. Can you guess which one he is? https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/ 👻

And be sure to check out the Online Gift Store: https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Well, I’ve Walked these Streets, a Virtual Stage, it Seemed to Me

The soul is threatened by modern life. And if an emotional problem presents itself, the real issue may not be some single trauma or troubled relationship. Maybe the issue is a life set up in such a way that soul is neglected habitually. Culture is a factor in rape, but the precise nature of the relationship between culture and sexual violence remains a topic of discussion. Ethnographic data from pre-industrial societies show the existence of rape-free cultures, though explanations for the phenomena differ. We can relate sexual violence to contempt for the female qualities and suggest that rape is a part of a culture of violence and an expression of male dominance. However, it has also be argued that in pre-industrial societies women are more likely to lack important life options and to be physically and politically oppressed where they lack economic power relative to men. Furthermore, in pre-industrial societies relative economic power enables women to win some immunity from men’s use of force against them. Among modern societies, the frequency of rape varies dramatically, and the United States of America is among the most rape-prone of all. The rate of reported rape and attempted rape for the United States of America is eighteen times higher than the corresponding rate for England and Wales. Spurred by the Woman’s Movement, feminists have generated an impressive body of theory regarding the cultural etiology of rape in the United States of America. Representative of the feminist view called rape “The All American Crime.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 15

The feminist perspective views rape as an act of violence and social control which functions to “keep women in their place.” Feminists see rape as an extension of normative male behavior, the result of conformity or overconformitty to the values and prerogatives which define the traditional male gender role. That is, traditional socialization encourages males to associate power, dominance, strength, virility, and superiority with masculinity, and submissiveness, passivity, weakness, and inferiority with masculinity, and submissiveness, passivity, weakness, and inferiority with femininity. Furthermore, males are taught to have expectations about their level of sexual needs and expectations for corresponding female accessibility which function to justify forcing sexual access. The justification for forced sexual access is buttressed by legal, social, and religious definitions of women as male property and sex as an exchange of goods. Socialization prepares women to be “legitimate” victims and men to be potential offenders. The United States of America has some form of a rape culture because both genders are socialized to regard male aggression as a natural and normal part of sexual intercourse. However, society is also set up where women suffer greatly if the husband is arrested. Married women will lose more than half, if not all the financial support they have, and unmarried women will no longer receive their alimony checks because a man in jail or prison cannot work. The way to overcome that is to teach women the importance of education and make sure they have careers where they can afford to fully support themselves. A husband should just be a supplement, not your main source of income. #RandolphHarris 2 of 15

Feminists view pornography as an important element in a larger system of sexual violence; they see pornography as an expression of a rape-probe culture where women are seen as objects available for use by men. However, I argue that with the frequency of disease and viruses, pornography may help some people abstain from pleasures of the flesh, as they do not want to catch an illness, nor be exposed to germs or bacteria, nor deal with fracture emotions. And by using pornography as a form of gratification, it could make them hold off on pleasures of the flesh. After awhile pleasures of the flesh will become so boring that one will want true love so they have something special to hold on to and not just a fleeting, meaningless encounter. However, experts disagree with me. They argue that rape is presented as part of normal male/female sexual relations, but the women, despite her terror, is always depicted as sexually aroused to the point of cooperation. In the end, she is ashamed but physically gratified. The message—women desire and enjoy rape—has more potential for damage than the image of the violence per se. Still, I believe that you have to keep in mind that most pornography does not depict rape, and more and more of adult focused films are now produced by the individuals in them and they tend to be solo videos or collaborations where people act out soft core pornographic acts, such as dancing, with friends, suggestively in their underclothes or with skin showing. So, there is a move away from the hardcore stuff that many are used to. Also, the actors are often times on social media, so the viewer can get to know them and interact with them and so there is more of a connection to the actors. #RandolphHarris 3 of 15

I communicate with some of the actors on social media because I like to see them as humans, but I do not really like their adult content. They just seem more willing to talk than others who are marketing something. And I think they like to know that someone actually cares about their brains. It can make a person want to be your friend when you are genuinely interested in their minds and character and not just their body. Nonetheless, the fusion of these themes—sex as an impersonal act, the victim’s uncontrollable orgasm, and the violent infliction of pain—is commonplace in the actual accounts of rapist. Many convicted rapists deny their crime and attempt to justify their rapes by arguing that their victim had enjoyed herself despite the use of a weapon and the inflicting of serious injuries, or even death. In fact, many argued, they had been instrumental in making her fantasy come true. The images projected in pornography contribute to a vocabulary of motive which trivializes and neutralizes rape and which might lessen the internal controls that otherwise would prevent sexually aggressive behavior. Men who rape use this culturally acquired vocabulary to justify their sexual violence. One must examine the goals that some men have learned to achieve through sexually violent means. Thus, one approach to understanding why some men rape is to shift attention from individual psychopathology to the important question of what rapists gain from sexual aggression and violence in a culture seemingly prone to rape. #RandolphHarris 4 of 15

Also, I think it is important to remember that just because a person may accept money for pleasures of the flesh does not mean that you own their body for the time you paid for. It does not mean that you can do whatever you want. And if an individual is intoxicated, even if they seem interested, it is best to stay away from them because they may not remember consenting to pleasures of the flesh and accuse you of rape in the morning. With that being said, I do not know what the law says about two adults who are both drunk and have pleasures of the flesh, but wake up in the morning feeling violated. However, I supposed it is best to learn not to drink to the point of being inebriated so you can know what it going on. Perhaps a class on “knowing your limits” is a course a lot of people would benefit from. And if a person says, “No,” or “Stop,” it is best not to go any further until they are ready or agree to the act. Often times the culturally derived excuses and justifications allow people to view their behavior as either idiosyncratic or situationally appropriate and thus it reduced their sense of moral responsibility for the actions. Having disavowed deviance, these men revealed how they had used rape to achieve a number of objectives. We find that one men used rape for revenge or punishment while, for others, it was an “added bonus”—a last minute decision made while committing another crimes. In still other cases, rape was used to gain sexual access to women who were unwilling or unavailable, and for some it was a source of power and sex without any personal feelings. Rape was also a form of recreation, a diversion or an adventure and, finally, it was something that made these men “feel good.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 15

A rapist might see his act as a legitimized form of revenge or punishment. Additionally, he asserts that the idea of “collective liability” accounts for much seemingly random violence. “Collective liability” suggests that all people in a particular category are held accountable for the conduct of each of their counterparts. Thus, the victim of a violent act may merely represent the category of individual being punished. These factors—revenge, punishment, and the collective liability of women—can be used to explain a number of rapes in our research. Several cases will illustrate the ways in which these factors combined in various types of rape. Revenge-rapes were among the most brutal and often included beatings, serious injuries and, even murder. Typically, revenge-rapes included the element of collective liability. This is, from the rapist’s perspective, the victim was a substitute for the woman they wanted to avenge. As explained elsewhere, an upsetting event, involving a woman, preceded a significant number of rapes. When they raped, these men were angry because of a perceived indiscretion, typically related to a rigid, moralistic standard of sexual conduct, which they required from “their woman” but, in most cases, did not abide by themselves. Over and over these rapists talked about using rape “to get even” with their wives or other significant women. Typically is a young man who, prior to the rape, had a violent argument with his wife over what eventually proved to be her misdiagnosed case of venereal disease (VD). She assumed the disease had been contracted through him, an accusation that infuriated him. #RandolphHarris 6 of 15

After fighting with his wife, he explained that he drove around “thinking about hurting someone.” He encountered his victim, a stranger, on the road where her car had broken down. It appears she accepted his offered ride because her car was out of commission. When she realized that her rape was pending, she called him “a son of a b”tch,” and attempted to resist. He reported flying into a rage and beating her, and he confided. “I have never felt that much anger before. If she had resisted, I would have killed her…The rape was for revenge. I didn’t have an orgasm. She was there to get my hostile feelings off on.” Although not the most common form of revenge, sexual assault continues to be used in retaliation against the victim’s male partner. In one such case, the offender, angry because the victim’s husband owned him money, went to the victim’s home to collect. He confided, “I was going to get it one way or another.” Finding the victim alone, he explained, they stated to argue about the money and, “I grabbed her and started beating the hell out of her. Then I committed the act. I knew what I was doing. I was mad. I could have stopped but I didn’t. I did it to get even with her and her husband.” When women are viewed as commodities, “In raping another man’s woman, a man may aggrandize his own manhood and concurrently reduce that of another man.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 15

Revenge-rapes often contained an element of punishment. In some cases, while the victim was not the initial object of the revenge, the intent was to punish her because of something that transpired after the decision to rape had been made or during the course of the rape itself. This was the case with a young man whose wife had recently left him. Although they were in the process of reconciliation, he remained angry and upset over the separation. The night of the rape, he met the victim and her friend in a bar where he had gone to watch a fight on TV. The two women apparently accepted a ride from him but, after taking her friends home, he drove the victim to his apartment. At his apartment, he found a note from his wife indicating she had stopped by to watch the fight with him. This increased his anger because he preferred his wife’s company. Inside his apartment, the victim allegedly remarked that she was sexually interested in his dog, which he reported, put him in a rage. In the ensuing attack, he raped and pistol-whipped the victim. Then he forced a vacuum cleaner hose, switched on suction, into her female private part, and bit her breast, severing the nipple. He stated: “I hated at the time, but I don’t know if it was her (the victim). (Who could it have been?) My wife? Even though we were getting back together, I still didn’t trust her.” During his interview, it became clear tht this offender, like many of the men, believed men have the right to discipline and punish women. In fact, he argued that most of the men he knew would also have beaten the victim because “that kind of thing (referring to the dog) is not acceptable among my friends.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 15

In some rapes, both revenge and punishment were directed at victims because they represented women who these offenders perceived as collectively responsible and liable for their problems. Rape was used “to put women in their place” and as a method of proving their “manhood” by displaying dominance over a female. For example, one multiple rapist believed his actions were related to the feelings that women though they were better off than he was. “Rape was a feeling of total dominance. Before the raped, I would always get a feeling of power and anger. I would degrade women so I could feel there was a person of less worth than me.” There is a difference between “false” teachers and deceived ones. There are many deceived ones among the most able teachers today because they do not recognize that an army of teaching spirits have come forth to deceive the people of God and that the special peril of the earnest sections of the professing Church lies in the supernatural realm, from whence the deceiving spirits with “teachings” are whispering their lies to all who are “spiritual,” id est, open to spiritual things. These “teaching spirits” with “doctrines” will make a special effort to deceive those who have to transmit doctrine and seek to mingle their teachings with truth so as to get them accepted. Every believer must test all teachers today for him or herself, by the Word of God and by their attitude to the atoning cross of Christ and other fundamental truths of the gospel, and not be misled into testing “teaching” by the character of the teacher. Good men can be deceived, and Satan needs good men to float his lies under the guise of truth. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15

I was the son of an army officer, and I went to West Point and spent seven years in a very numb and lonely existence as an army officer. It was during a time of intense loneliness that I split with my wife after ten years of marriage and I was very deeply into experiencing that tragic loss for the first time. Loneliness had been an emotion which I had always managed to outrun. I had discovered that if I did something important or impressive that people would make a fuss over me and I would not have to experience my own loneliness. Additionally, at age five, I became “man of the house” when my father left for World War II, leaving me in charge of my mother and telling me to take care of her and to “be good,” yet he did not come home for four years. I did not burden my mother and kept my loneliness literally caught up with me after having outrun it for so long, I cried deeply; I went beneath the veneer of my tough shell and found a whole new part of the essence of me—a creativity. I wrote poems and a book and painted. And more important, I discovered a little boy part of me that had grown up early—a tenderness which West Point did not exactly nourish. I find that this tender part of me, rather than the tough part, was a part my friends and I both cherish. I then discovered that rather than my toughness being my strength, as I had misconstrued it in the military, it was really my tenderness that was my strength. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15

The question of using a right attitude as a weapon against negative emotions requires understanding; it refers to our attitude to the emotions themselves, because we may have a right or a wrong attitude to our negativeness. It is different in different cases and there can be no generalization. Now we must consider the attitudes in themselves and realize that a positive attitude is right in some cases, and that a negative attitude is right in other cases. A positive attitude belongs to the part of our intellect which says “Yes” and a negative attitude to the part which says “No.” There can also be different attitudes but these are the two most important. Lack of understanding about some subject or problem may be caused simply by having a wrong attitude towards it. There are people who have a negative attitude towards everything and anything, and there are others who try to cultivate a positive attitude about things towards which they should have a negative attitude. Using the words “positive” and “negative” in the ordinary sense of approval or disapproval, we can say that in order to understand certain things we must have negative attitudes whereas other things can be understood positively. Too much of an indiscriminately positive attitude can spoil things in the same ways as a persistently negative attitude is useful because there are many things in life which can only be understood through having a sufficiently good negative attitude towards them. Certainly, identification with a negative attitude would cause negative emotion, but his can be avoided, and very often identifying is the result of a wrong attitude. #RandolphHarris 11 of 15

Paradoxical as it may seem, we have many negative emotions because we do not have a sufficiently negative attitude towards negative emotions. On the other hand, the moment you have a negative attitude towards any of the things connected with this work of development, you will cease to understand it. We must understand that we have no control, that we are machines, that everything happens to us. Simply to speak about it does not change these facts. To cease to be mechanical something else is needed. A change of attitude is necessary. Attitude can be independent of emotion, and to a certain extent it can be under our control. For instance, we have some control over our attitudes towards knowledge, towards friends, towards this work and towards self-study. Attitude is really a point of view, and if a point of view is right, there is one effect; if it is wrong, another effect. It is necessary to understand that we cannot do things, but we can change our attitudes. A right attitude may be developed gradually through the study of oneself and the study of life, in accordance with the special ways in which we study it. This study does not depend only on knowledge but upon a different way of thinking. Different thinking can only come from different attitudes and from an understanding of the relative values of things. Change of attitude does not bring about change of a man’s being by itself. Valuation is necessary. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15

It need only be noted that improprieties can, of course, occur because the individual is alienated, or wants to appear alienated, from an on-going engagement. Examples can be found during group psychotherapy sessions in mental hospitals, where patients, coerced to participate, may pointedly read magazines or play solitaire. A situational impropriety can convey to its witnesses, justifiably or not, that the actor is alienated not so much from the gathering as from one’s community, or one’s establishment, or one’s intimates, or one’s conversation. However, we must be quite clear that, no matter how distant or broad the target of an offense, the idiom in this case is first of all a means of expressing alienation from or attachment to the gathering that is present. Anything else the individual thus conveys, however much it constitutes the crucial implication of one’s act, must be superimposed upon these original situational meanings. Whatever the social unit to which the individual is concerned to indicate one’s relationship, many of the signs one must rely on will be written entirely in a situational language. Because of this tendency for the situational idiom to be made a convenience of and pressed into service as the language of relationship, it is at once more and less important than we might at first perceive. We can now come to the conclusions and to the point where the sociologist might find cause to nibble at the psychiatric hand that feeds one data. For while psychiatry forcible directs our attention to situational improprieties, there appear to be ways in which psychiatry embodies and rationalizes lay attitudes toward this aspect of conduct, instead of carrying us beyond these conceptions. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15

The problems with majority rule go beyond manipulating the outcome through control of the agenda. Even sophisticated voters who exercise foresight can collectively outsmart themselves. We tell a story that illustrates the point, freely adapting the saga of President Reagan’s nominees for the Supreme Court. Judge Bork was the first nominee. Judges Ginsberg and Kennedy were known to be high on the list, and likely to be nominated should Bork not be confirmed by the Senate. If the Senate turned down all three, the likelihood was that the seat would stay vacant for the next president to fill. Imagine that the decision rests in the hands of three powerful senators. To avoid impugning the reputation of any actual persons, we will call the three A, B, and C. Their rankings of the four possible outcomes are as follows: A’s Ranking: 1st Kennedy, 2nd Vacant, 3rd Bork, 4th Ginsberg. B’s Ranking: 1st Ginsberg, 2nd Kennedy, 3rd Vacant, 4th Bork. C’s Ranking: 1st Vacant, 2nd Bork, 3rd Ginsberg, 4th Kennedy. The first thing to observe is that leaving the seat vacant is unanimously preferred to nominating Judge Bork. Yet if these are the preferences and the senators correctly predict the order of nominations as Bork, Ginsberg, and Kennedy, the result will be that Bork is confirmed. We figure out the voting patterns by working backward up the tree. Vacant, Kennedy, Ginsberg, Bork. If the vote comes down to appointing Kennedy versus leaving the seat vacant, Kennedy will win. By looking ahead and reasoning backward the senators can predict a victory for Kennedy if Ginsberg is defeated. There, if Bork is turned down the contest becomes Ginsberg or Kennedy. In the Ginsberg versus Kennedy contest, Ginsberg wins two to one. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15

Reasoning backward again, right at the start the senators should realize that their choice is Bork or Ginsberg. Here, Bork wins two to one. Everyone is looking ahead and correctly figures out the consequences of their action. Yet they collectively end up with a candidate whose nomination, everyone agrees, is worse than leaving the seat vacant. Now in fact it did not turn out that way, and there are several reasons. No one was quite certain who the next nominee would be. Preferences changes as more information was learned about the nominees. The senators’ preferences may not have been as we represented them. Equally important, we have ignored any possibility for logrolling. This was a perfect opportunity for logrolling to arise. There were three 2.1 votes. Each of the senators was on the winning side twice and on the losing side once. The gain from each win was worth one position in their ranking, but the loss pushed them down three. It does not help to win two small battles and lose the big war. The possibility for mutual gain opens the door for logrolling, and with thee preferences we expect Bork would be defeated. The globalization of the media, necessary for the new economy, is in fact moving rapidly. When Japan’s Sony bought up Columbia Pictures Entertainment for $5 billion, acquiring Hollywood’s largest library of films, including such quality products as On the Waterfront, Lawrence of Arabia, and Kramer vs. Kramer, along with 220 movie houses and 23,000 TV episodes, it shook the entertainment industry. Sometimes shacking things up can generate more publicity and interest in a product and make it more desirable. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15

Cresleigh Homes

We see that glint in your eye…you’re already planning your decor scheme, aren’t you?! 😉 When you’ve got all the spacious layout of Residence 4 at #MillsStation to work with, you’ll have a chance to explore all your wildest dreams! Contact us ASAP – we’ve got homesite #105 ready for new owners! (4 Bedrooms – 3.5 Bathrooms – 2,692 sq. ft. – $715,000)

Plus we’re showing off another move-in ready home this weekend! Stop by our Open House from 10am-6pm this Saturday 4/1 and Sunday 4/2 to experience Homesite 111 – a gorgeous Residence 3 plan that boasts 2,394 square feet and an ideal location across from the community park! It also comes complete with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and a two car garage plus workshop, for starters… 😉( 3 Bedrooms – 2.5 Bathrooms – 2,364 sq. ft. – $683,000)

With accents of elegance, spacious living areas, and convenient workspaces, Cresleigh Ranch offers beautiful features that will surely capture your interest and imagination.

Come see it for yourself this weekend! Have questions? Get in touch with our sales center at 916-333-1919.

#CresleighRanch
#CresleighHomes

Angels and Demons, Gargoyles and Ghostly Apparitions

Except for William, the idea of love to me always seemed a question of submission. Of giving in to some powerful emotion, of losing control. Poor souls. However, with my beloved William, love seemed a natural thing, something one did not even need to remark upon, like breathing or raising one’s face to the sun on a summer’s day. It is no matter now, for he passed away years ago, and all I ask is to be left alone in my chair. Money has been an armor, you see; and there are few cracks in it. But William had a loving nature, if only others had show him love. He was a delicate boy when he was little, so his mother could curl him up, and put him into black velvet pants, like that boy in the book—little Lord Something. However, when his legs grew out of the pants, and they sent him to school, she said he was not her own little cuddly baby any more; and it riles a growing boy to hear himself talked about like that. It was like being pushed out of an illuminated ballroom, all flowers and chandeliers, into the winter night and snow. Yet, Mr. Winchester grew up into a fine man and that is why I married him. He used to go over and see his mother now and again; or she would come home for the holidays. And he used to take her out for lunch, or to dance at those cabaret places; and when the headwaiters adore his mother’s beauty and charm, he would talk about it for a week. For a time she used to get some comfort out of telling me about her early triumphs; and I used to listen to her patiently, taking notes on how to be a good wife and mother. You must not think of her as an unkind woman. She was friendly to her husband, and friendly to her children, but she knew she had to raise William to be tough and strong. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

There were always people prowling about in the background that she did not like the look of; people, you understand, who live on weak people. There is nothing more I can say. Reflecting of these memories was nice. It allowed me to sleep all day and into the evening. Or, rather, I drifted in and out of twilight state. I was aware of the housemaids and the parlor maids coming and going, shapes, blurred faces, the sound of kindlin and a striking match, the maid laying a fire. I work fully only twice. First, when Ersula placed a bowl of soup and bread beside the bed and waited until I had eaten it all. The second time, when she returned to administer a second draft of the bitter white medicine, a sleeping draft or some kind of traditional remedy, I never knew and hardly cared. My skin was alternatively burning and clammy with sweat. I tossed and turned in bed, like a ship on a storm-wracked sea, plagued by dreams and delusions. Angels and demons, gargoyles and ghostly apparitions, long-since deserted friends waltzed in and out of my head. For hours, so Ersula later told me, things hung in the balance as my temperature climbed as high as the nine-story observational tower. Certainly, I oscillated between beauty and horror. A skeletal hand pushing up from beneath freshly turned Earth, blossoms dying on the bough. The back of Annie’s heads, impassive and deaf to my consoling up her upset tummy. William smiling at me, in the orchard and by the stream, but then stepping just out of reach and turning away when I called out to him. Barbed wire and mud and blood, chlorine gas, a World of unimaginable pain. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Nearly 175,000 men—jamming the streets and roads and field of my estate, attempting to tear each other apart, and in doing so, leaving anywhere from 44,000 to 51,000 casualties behind, to be cared for immediately after the battle by a handful of doctors, orderlies, and the servants of my estate, and my mansion metamorphosing into one vast charnel-house. To day the least, my tidy rooms, barns, and farmhouses, and Victorian gardens were overflowing with men who were seriously hurt and badly needed shelter from the elements. These horrors seemed to last for weeks. The fever broke at about three o’clock in the morning. My temperature dropped. I stopped shaking and my skin, sticky with fever, returned to normal. For the first time in hours, I was able to get out of bed. In the still and sleeping house, I could hear the whirring and chiming of the grandfather clock in the hall downstairs. A ribbon of moonlight made its way between the shutters and painted a line across the floor. I watched the moonbeams dance, slowly shifting, as the hours passed and the World continued to turn. I walked through the hallway, looking through a couple of doorways and back into the original section of the house when I noticed a fresh-countenanced young man standing and watching the goings-on with a peculiar look on his face. The more I watched him, the more I saw it was a look of wanting to come out of the Grand Ball Room. Catching his eye, I motioned for the young man to come join me for a cup of tea. He just stood there and stared, the expression on his face becoming even more painted. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

Then it dawned on me that he was a ghost, and he was stuck in the old part of the house and could not leave the Grand Ball Room. With an understanding shrug, he turned away from the door and walked further into the room to join the other apparitions. I stood back with my eyes closed, and a quiet smile on my face. By this time, the sky was a mass of teal and fuchsia. At first it looked like a kite-flying contest, the could over my mansion obstructed by swooping streaks of color that danced on the air currents, trailing multi-hued streamers behind them. Then I heard the chirping cacophonous twittering like an orchestra of xylophones. As I looked further through the skylights, I realized that the kites’ long tails were really feathers, and they were not tethered to the ground by strings. A flock of birds, what seemed like hundreds of them, painted the air with wings the color of the rainbow, dipping and soaring on air currents visible only to them. I could barely take my eyes off the flock. I wished the birds would stay forever: They were like an elaborately painted scene on a China teacup, and their chirping filled me with the kind of inexplicable joy that I had felt as a child, climbing onto my mother’s lap and smelling the faint scent of her jasmine perfume after a long day of play. The birds, as if acting on an invisible signal from above, formed two loose lines and soared higher, heading towards Heaven. I wished I could fly with them, borne along on whatever invisible breeze they had ridden in on. The birds had stirred something powerful in me, mysterious symphony of joy and emotion. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

It must have been some kind of European sorcery and magic. And, there seemed to be something else in the atmosphere. Around 5.45 a.m., I heard what sounded like for all the World, a small child. It came from further down the hallway, and I walked curiously down towards where the sound seemed to be coming from, the sound moved into the living room. I followed, and it kept moving and cooing at a distance of what I estimated was about six feet in front of me. As I got to the living room, the cooing baby moved on into the next room, the kitchen. I stood in the living room and rationalized for a moment. The lights from outside the mansion were spilling into the room, and it slowly occurred to me that if the baby had been playing, I would surely have seen her cross the room between the hall and the kitchen. I listened to the cute baby sounds in the next room, and a chill went down my spine. I now had no idea what I was dealing with. The cooing faded within the next moment, and I backed down the hall, ducking into the Alice in Wonderland room and, of course, there was no one in the room, but the tiny rocking chair was swaying back and forth. A few nights later, I was up in the middle of the night. I was in complete darkness. No windows in the room, no light, just darkness. Suddenly, from the area to my left, which would have been the bathtub, I heard very clearly—sharp and loud enough to make me jump—a voice shout, “Belly Ache!” The voice was that of a little girl, but there was something sweet and warm about the voice, like the voice of an angel. I pushed the button to turn on the light. Nothing. Not that I found the matter unfathomable. Quite frequently, I saw the figure of a little girl moving up and down the hall past my bedroom door during the night. She has a soft, blue glow. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

For week, I lie awake at night, thinking this could be my beloved Annie. I waited and waited, night after night to see her again and perhaps talk with her, but she did not return. However, the bathtub faucet leaked and dripped fairly on occasion. I lay in bed, listening to the drip. It had developed a steady rhythm, as drips will. Suddenly, the rhythm changed. The drip sound changed in pitch, and it literally played a tune. It was the Highland Fairy Lullaby. The temperature in the room dropped, and I could clearly hear the sound of a little girl playing with her doll. She was singing a tuneless little song, the kind of melodic chat that was common among young children, especially little girls at play. From time to time, she would interrupt the humming of her sing-song to speak lovingly to her doll, and then she would call rather loudly to her mother that she had a tummy ache. However, there was no response from the mother, and she would return to playing with her doll and singing. I could almost see the little girl dressing her doll, combing its beautiful hair. From that night on, I would awake in the middle of the night or in the morning and hear the little girl calling for her mother. Once I had thoroughly searched the house and determined that it must be the sound of some lost and confused spirit-child, eternally singing and occasionally calling for her mother, or perhaps it was some kind of ethereal phonograph, eternally reproducing the sounds of a little girl. For some, this haunting might be considered a nightmare, but for me, it reminded me of the death of my six-week-old daughter, and it gave me hope that she was still near me, in my house growing and aging, even if she were only a spirit. I took these as signs from the spirit World and had a bird aviary constructed with exotic birds from all over the World, and invited my niece Daisy to live with me. Someone I could be a mother to. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

I invoke, conjure, and command thee, Spirit Botis, and your 60 Legions of Spirits to bring with you power armed from the Supreme Majesty, I do strongly command thee, by BERALANENSIS, BALDACHINENSIS, PAUMACHIA, and APOLOGIAE SEDES; by the most Powerful Princes, Genii, Liachide, and Ministers of the Tartarean Abode; and by the Chief Prince of the Seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion, I do invoke thee, and by invocating conjure thee. Magic forces, black and white, reaching out through space and light, be he far or be he near, brings us the demon Balthazar here. Ancient powers, we summon thee, we the power of three and seek your help in finding the demons who are in the Winchester Mansion. Come thou peaceably, visibly, and affably, now, and without delay, manifesting that magic running through this estate, help us see with clarity, power that we have summoned here, protect us and we will have no fear. Throne having eyes before and behind, by the fire which is about the Throne, by Holy Angels of Heaven, by the Mighty Wisdom of God; by the Seal of Basdathea, by this name PRIMEMATUM, which Moses named, and the Earth opened and swallowed Corah, Dathan, and Abiram; do thou make faithful answers unto all our demands and perform all our desires, so far as thine office shall permit. Come therefore peaceably and affably; come visibly and without delay; manifest that which we desire; speak with a clear and intelligible voice, that we may understand. TETRAGRAMMATON IEHOVAH, do I command three, at which being heard the elements are overthrown, the air is shaken, the sea runneth back, the fire is quenched, the Earth trembleth, and all the hosts of the celestials, terrestrials, and infernals do tremble together, and are troubled and confounded. Wherefore come thou, O Spirits Sarah, William, and Annie Winchester, forthwith, and without delay, from any or all parts of the World wherever thou mayest be, and make rational answers unto all things that we shall demand. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

The Winchester Mystery House

A thin door indeed it is between life and death: one moment young and full of future, the next lying wounded in some stranger’s house in a small farm-town, the following instant forever lost and wandering in eternity. Could it be the vital spark, the spirit of not only souls killed by the Winchester rifle, but also members of the Winchester family that still search for the youth they lost, roaming the miles of hallways in the Winchester Mansion for all of eternity? https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

And be sure to check out the Online Gift Store: https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Did You Know, When Go, it’s the Perfect Ending to the Bad Day I Was Just Beginning?

Aside from murder, the crimes of rape and sexual assault occur with less regularity than any other for of violent crime. In 2021, there were approximately 144,240 reported cases of rape in the United States of America. There are more than 106,010 reported cases of sexual assault. Only about half the victims of rape or attempted rape surveyed stated that the crime had been reported to the police. Two-thirds of all rapes and rape attempts occurred at night, with the largest proportion occurring between 6 p.m. and midnight. Most victims of rape or attempted rape where white and young; the ages with the highest victimization rates for rape and attempted rape were 16 to 24. More than half of all victims had never been married and most were members of low-income families. The most frightening form of rape, an assault by a total stranger, was the most common. More than 75 percent of all rapes involved one victim and one offender, and most offenders were unarmed. Most victims offered some form of resistance. The most common responses to the situation were trying to get help; resisting physically; to threatening, arguing, or reasoning with the offender; or resisting without force. The total cost of the medical expenses reported was almost $72 million. The FBI estimated that a new rape occurred every 5.8 minutes. Over a ten-year period, there were 1.5 million victims of rape. There were more than 120 million crimes committed in the United States of America in 2017 (including 24 million violent crimes), amounting to a financial impact of $2.6 trillion. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21  

Given the high levels of trauma and betrayal that often accompany rape, it should come to no surprise that a considerable number of rapes go unreported to police. With only 139,815 rapes (excluding sexual assaults) being reported to law enforcement agencies in 2019, it is safe to say that this form of crime goes without official detection more often than any other type of violent offense. We know from victim reports that a little over one third (39 percent) of the persons who were raped and/or sexually assaulted in 2021 chose to inform the police about the incident. Roughly 40 percent stated that they sustained physical injuries in the attack. A study of violence-related injuries treated at hospital emergency rooms found that 63,800 rape or sexual assault received medical care that year. Nationwide, 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. The highest rates of rape and sexual assault victimization are experienced in the western and southern regions of the United States of America. Slightly lower rape/sexual assault rates have traditionally existed in the Midwest and Northeast. Uniform Crime Reports data indicate that the offending rate (per 100,000 residents) for the crime of forcible rape was highest in Alaska (68.6), Delaware (67.1), New Mexico (55.1), Nevada (52.1), and Michigan (50.4). That same year, residents from Montana (17.8), Maine (18.1), West Virginia (18.7), Wisconsin (19.9), and New Jersey (20.0) exhibited the lowest offending rates. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

Rape and sexual assault rates are clearly related to population density. There is a composite rape/sexual assault rate of 1.9 in urban environments. This figure is more than twice the victimization rates experienced in suburban and rural areas (0.9 and 0.5, respectively). Among the sixty-six cities with a population exceeding 250,000 residents, the highest rates of forcible rape (known offenses per 100,000 residents) were observed in Minneapolis (126.7), Memphis (112.8), Cleveland (101.6), Columbus (94.7), and Nashville (88). Conversely data rank New York City (22.9), Louisville (24.1), Virginia Beach (24.4), and San Francisco (25.5) as the most rape-free cities. America appears to be the violent sex crime capitol of the World. The U.S. rape rate of 36 (per 100,000 inhabitants) was more than double tht of its nearest rivals: Israel (14.3), England and Wales (14.7), and France (13.4). Moreover, U.S.A. rape rates were exponentially higher than those observed in Germany (9.6), Spain (3.2), and Japan (1.5). This raises the obvious question of why rape rates are so much higher in this country. There are four relevant theoretical perspectives of rape that is believed to provide some much needed insight in this area. First of all, gender inequality theory, a favorite of many feminists. Scholars who take this position believe that rape and the fear of rape enable men to assert their power over women and maintain the existing system of gender stratification.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

These rape motivations need not be an overt and malicious feature of societal gender norms. Instead, subtle forms of gender oppression, such as the objectification of women are inferior to men and are misinterpreted by some violent individuals to indicate that sexualized violence is one way of protecting their manhood. The gender equality theory of rape predicts that rape rates will be highest in patriarchal societies where women are considered to be the sexual servants of men. The advertising imagery and gender biases that limit women’s status attainment in contemporary America are held as evidence that the tenets of this theory are readily applicable to U.S.A. culture. Other feminist scholars prefer to gravitate toward the pornography theory. These scholars content that pornographic imagery depicting the domination and degradation of women sends the wrong cultural message—the images convey an implicit message that all women want sex and lead men to expect it from women. Repeated exposure to this imagery serves to reinforce and condone violet sexual behavior in men. Although the evidence of the pornography theory is inconclusive, rape rates are highest in those states that experienced the most sizeable circulation rate for adult monthly periodicals such as Playboy, Hustler, and Penthouse. Many mainstream sociologist endorse the social disorganization theory of rape. These scholars theorize that crime rates will increase as social disorganization increases and the institutional infrastructure of society breaks down. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

Factors such as widespread poverty, the collapse of the traditional nuclear family unit, racial tension, and decreased religiosity are thought to breed a sense of alienation and desperation among the effected parties. This, in turn, produces a frustration rection. Criminal behavior in general, and rape in particular, are thus said to represent prime examples of the reaction formation concept. Clearly there is no shortage of these types of structural instabilities in contemporary American society. Rape rates are highest in those states that experience elevated levels of social disorganization as one such measure of support for the theory. The legitimation of violence theory offers a more social, psychologically oriented take on rape causation. Scholars who endorse this perspective view rape as a little more than a specialized form of violent behavior. Forms of sexual violence are said to represent a “spillover effect” in cultures that glorify or condone the use of physical problem solving. The legitimation of violence seems to work hand in hand with gender inequality to produce higher rates of sexual violence. Namely, states with a volatile mix of high gender inequality and an established culture of violence consistently experience the highest rape rates. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

In general, violent sex crimes take shape as unskilled, technically simple acts. Victimization data indicate that nearly 70 percent of all rapes and sexual assaults are committed by someone who is known to the offender (acquaintance, intimate partner, family member). These forms of violent betrayals are referred to under the heading of acquaintance or date rape. It was found the coercion, intimidation, and brute strength—more so than weaponry or props (rope, handcuffs, tape, et cetera)—serve as the tools of the trade for the average date rapist. The term stranger rape is used to describe those acts where the offender and victim have no previous relationship. The cold and calculating nature of this rape dynamic oftentimes translates into a heightened reliance on weapons and props on the part of the offender. Victims report that weapons were present in 7.6 percent of all rapes and sexual assaults. This peril concerns every professing Christian. The prophecy of the Holy Spirit declares that (1) “some” shall fall away from the faith. (2) The reason for the fall will be a “giving heed to seducing spirits.” The nature of this working is not the promotion of obvious evil, but deception, which is a covert working. The essence of deception is that the operation is looked upon as sincere and pure. (3) The nature of the deception will be in doctrines of demons id est, the deception will be in a doctrinal sphere. (4) The way of deception will be that the “doctrines” are delivered with “hypocrisy,” id est, spoken as if true. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

(5) Two instances of the effect of these evil spirit doctrines are given: (a) the forbidding of marriage, and (b) abstaining from meat. However, both of these common activities—marrying and the eating of meat—are, said Paul, divinely ordained—“created by God.” Therefore their prohibition is a mark of opposition to God, even in His work as Creator. Silence and reserve and isolation are often indirectly related to the way in which some communicate when they are engaged in a kind of self-consciousness and awareness that one has not known before. It is a process of inner searching that grows out of questions and issues that are confronting one at the moment. It may seem that one is interested only in finding one’s own private way, that one is looking for a life of freedom and independence but this may not be the basis of one’s loneliness. What one is searching for is a life fully rooted in truth and in authenticity, yet one is living with contradictions and dishonesty that leave one feeling helpless and alone. Sometimes people feel confused, misinformed, unreal. They may feel totally alone and keenly conscious of one’s isolation, not belonging on this Earth of normal people. For the first time, some are becoming aware of how ridiculous their values are, aware of the solitary nature of their actions. There sometimes is no other way but to become numb to the lie that was there before one, in the presence of people who do not have the guts to speak openly, whose fear of consequences is more powerful than their commitment to the truth. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

This may cause some to suddenly walk out of their friends, after only reuniting with them for a short time. One may consider every relationship in terms of moral principles. What may begin to surface can be opposing wishes and wills glossed over and actions that challenge their dedication to honesty. If an individual feels lonely, must one pretend social interests? If one feels placid or unalive, must one feign excitement? Many everyday activities came into view. And one could develop  self-consciousness, checking to determine if what one is saying and doing are consistent with what one is feeling and who one is. Everyone knows this is a painful process, not only in one’s own suffering but in the grief it brings to others. Some may trust this solitary struggle and believe that ultimately a more fully honest life with others will emerge. Is the individual searching for something that does not exist? Will one finally admit that an absolutely moral life is impossible? No one can be certain. Furthermore  many on this path do not even know where one is going—only that one must retain with this struggle and let it take one where it will. These individuals are aware that something extreme is happening to one and that one is suffering because their withdrawal strikes at the heart of their relationships and their friends are unable to reach them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

Many deeply regret the pain their loneliness brings their loved ones and they bear something of that suffering within themselves. These individuals feel a tenderness and love for their relationships but in this search for a truthful way to live in all one’s moments must, it must take its own course before the individual will again feel the joy of life and beauty of being with others. When it comes to this search for meaning, it is necessary to repeat that first of all you must understand how wrong negative emotions are, how useless they are, and then you must understand that they cannot exist without identification. It will take you a long time to realize this, but when you have done so, you must try to divide your negative emotions into three categories. First, the more or less ordinary everyday negative emotions which happen often, and are always connected with identification. Certainly, you must observe them and you must already have a certain control over the expression of them. Then you must start dealing with them by trying not to identify, by avoiding identification as often as you can, not only in relation to these emotions but in relation to everything. If you create in yourself the capacity of not identifying, that will affect these emotions and you will notice how they begin to disappear. The second category do not appear every day. They are the more difficult, more complicated emotions depending on some mental process—suspicion, hurt feelings and many things like that. They are more difficult to conquer. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

You candela with them by creating a right mental attitude, by thinking—not at the time when you are in the negative emotion, but in between, when you are quiet. Try to find the right attitude, the right point of view, and make it permanent. If you create right thinking, that will take all power from these negative emotions. Then there is a third category, much more intense, much more difficult, and very rare. Against them you can do nothing. These two methods—struggle with identification and creating right attitudes—do not help. When such emotions come you can do only one thing: you must try to remember yourself; to remember yourself with the help of the emotion. That will change them after some time. However, for this you have to be prepared; it is quite a special thing. It is a fact that the individual’s relationship to gatherings and social occasion sometimes tell us something about one’s relationships to broader units of social life. Thus, in Utah, the few men who did not bother to shave regularly were also the ones who refused to keep a tidy front yard, even in cases where their holdings were where visitors to the community would see the untidiness. The same individuals also declined to support the local socials in any regular way, and one of them sometimes worked on Sundays, thus showing civic as well as situational insensitivity. Similarly, in a study of urban lower-class ceremonial life, it is reported that members of the community defined “respectability” in terms of not borrowing money, not applying for unemployment assistance, and not making free with the neighbor’s front door, and that this civic decorum was reflected in situational proprieties also. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

One of the outstanding characteristics of the respectable people is that they are “particular,” which implies that they try hard to maintain their standards in spite of all adversities and difficulties. While unemployment or other adversity enforces a limitation of expenditure, this does not, among the respectable, result in the complete abandonment of standards, for as they say, “it’s  not how much you get, but what you do with it that matter.” The notion of “being particular” applies especially to children and to cleanliness. In hard times before the pandemic, the children might have had to forego school clothes shopping, but at least, the women insisted, it was clean. “Every child is rough and ready some part of the day, but you can be particular.” In another context, one informant who was commenting on the poor condition of her house, pointed out that she had at least tried to “cover up,” by putting newspaper over the fireplace and a curtain over the gap where the cupboard door should have been. “But the rough ones,” she said, “don’t even care about covering things up. You can’t help having a poor or a broken-down house, but you can help keeping it looking nice.” And certainly this tie-in between situational and other deviations is found among mental “prepatients”; an individual who ruminates all day on the sofa often turns out to be one who also offends by, for example, not keeping appointments or not bothering to put air in his car tires. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

Further, as has already been discussed, an institutional role having its primary locus in one place may require the performer to carry marks of one’s membership wherever one goes, thereby setting one apart from the public at large, though often through no fault of one’s own. A more serious question was debated; though, according to the newspaper accounts, obliquely, when a high-level conference in Utah discussed at considerable length, whether clergymen of Church should wear laymen’s clothing publicly at any time except when playing lawn-tennis or other approved games. Here is an example of the belief, held tacitly by many people, and recently state in the case of an officer, that holds offices ought to be regarded as never off duty: that a publicly assigned role overshadows all others. There are echoes of this in the assumption in some schools, implied rather than states, that a schoolboy outside the school premises, not wearing his school cap, is—or is about to be—up to no good. In the Army, “other ranks,” but not officers, have “walking-out” dress; the implication that a pretty nurse-maid awaits the soldier is delightfully Victorian and West-end. The “civvies” of some National Service “other ranks” are carefully censored by the authorities, who justify it with understandable rationalizations about “Teddy-boys.” Where the individual employs such insignia not because of institutional regulation but because of personal election, the link between civic and situational alienation would seem to be especially evident. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

The insignia then become a kind of proclamation of distance from the ordinary course of social life, and of some sort of skewing of relationship to the public at large. Note, for instance, the self-imposed uniform worn by members of erupting social movements, such as the early European fascist groups. Something similar is seen among sailors who express their life-experience solidarity and their alienation from land society by placing a tattoo between themselves and the appearance-proprieties of the host culture. Something of the same effect is obtained by college students and beatniks (and their fellow-travelers) who express distance from the employed adult population by a full beard, or a two-day growth, and by bedraggled clothes. And although the dress pattern of young, male urban drug users may not be collegiate, this attire, too, seems to be linked to the maintenance of expressed distance. The tabooed creature releases that usually provide evidence of insufficient situational presence seem to provide a favorite idiom for expressing some kind of disregard for broad elements of conventional society, pointing to the voluntary elaborations that can be made of acts that are supposedly involuntary. College students, for example, sometimes compete with each other in belching prowess, conveying something about their relation to the adult World in doing so. Preadolescent boys have a special game built around flatulence, which manages both to penalize the offender and to bypass civilian standards at the same time. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

When it comes to voting, our emphasis has been on pairwise elections. In such cases there is little strategy other than whether or not to vote. If you vote, you should always vote for the candidate whom you most prefer. Because your vote matters most when it breaks a tie, you want your vote to reflect your preferences honestly. For elections with more than two alternative, the decision is both whether or not to vote and what to vote for. It is no loner true that one should always vote for one’s favorite candidate. In the 1984 Democratic party primary, supporters of Jesse Jackson had the problem of trying to send a signal with their vote. They could predict that Mr. Jackson was unlikely to win. The polls told them that Gary Hart and Walter Mondale were the clear front-runners. There was a great incentive to vote for those at the head of the pack in order not to waste one’s vote. This became an even bigger problem when there were seven candidates competing for the 1988 Democratic party presidential nomination. Supporters did not want to waste their vote or campaign contributions on a nonviable candidate. Thus polls and media characterizations that pronounced front-runners had the real potential to become self-fulfilling prophecies. There is another reason why votes may not reflect preferences. One way to help keep your vote from getting lost in the crowd is to make it stand out: take an extreme position away from the crowd. Someone who thinks that the country is too liberal could vote for a moderately conservative candidate. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

Or one could go all the way to the extreme right and support Donald Trump. To the extent that candidates compromise by taking central positions, it may be in some voters’ interests by taking central positions, it may be in some voters’ interests to appear more extreme than they are. This tactic is effective only up to a point. If you go overboard, you are thought of as a crackpot, and the result is that your opinion is ignored. The trick is to take the most extreme stand consistent with appearing rational. To make this a little more precise, imagine that we can align all the candidates on a 0 to 100 scale of liberal to conservative. The Young Spartacus League is way on the left, around), while Donald Trump takes the most conservative stance, somewhere near 100. Voters express their preference by picking some point along the spectrum. Suppose the winner of the election is the candidate whose position is the average of all voters’ positions. The way you might think of this happenings is that through negotiations and compromises, the leading candidate’s position is chosen to reflect the average position of the electorate. The parallel in bargaining is to settle disputes by offering to “split the different.” Consider yourself a middle-of-the-roader: if it were in your hands, you would prefer a candidate who stands at the position 50 on our scale. However, it may turn out that the country is a bit more conservative than that. Without you, the average is 60. For concreteness, you are one of a hundred voters polled to determine the average position. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

If you state your actual preference, the candidate will move to [99 x 60 + 50]/100 = 59.9. If, instead, you exaggerate and claim to want 0, then final outcome will be at 59.4. By exaggerating your claim, you are six times as effective as effective in influencing the candidate’s position. Here, extremism in the defense of liberalism is no vice. Of course, you will not be the only one doing this. All those more liberal than 60 will be claiming to be at 0, while those more conservative will be arguing for 100. In the end, everyone will appear to be polarized, although the candidate will still take some central position. The extent of the compromise will depend on the relative numbers pushing in each direction. The problem with this averaging approach is that it tries to take into account both intensity and direction of preferences. People have an incentive to tell the truth about direction but exaggerate when it comes to intensity. The same problem arises with “split the difference”: if that is the rile for settling disputes, everyone will begin with an extreme position. One solution to this problem dates back to the twenties and Columbia University economist Harold Hotelling. Instead of taking the mean or average position, the candidate chooses the median position, the platform where there are exactly as many voters who want the candidate to move left as to move right. Unlike the mean, the median position does not depend on the intensity of the voters’ preference, only their preferred direction. To find the median point, a candidate could start at 0 and keep moving to the right as long as a majority supports this change. At the median, the support for any further rightward move is exactly balanced by the equal number of voters who prefer a shift left. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

When a candidate adopts the media position, no voter has an incentive to distort her preferences. Why? There are only three cases to consider: (i) a voter to the left of the median, (ii) a voter exactly at the median, and (iii) a voter to the right of the median. In the first case, exaggerating preferences leftward does not alter the median, and therefore the position adopted, at all. The only way that this voter can change the outcome is to support a move rightward. However, this is exactly counter to one’s interest. In the second case, the voter’s ideal position is being adopted anyway, and there is nothing to gain by a distortion of preferences. The third case parallels the first. Moving more to the right has no effect on the median, whole voting for a move left is counter to the voter’s interests. The way the argument was phrased suggested that the voter knows the median point for the voting population, and whether one is to the right or the left of it. Yet the incentive to tell the truth had nothing to do with which of those outcomes occurred. You can think about all three of the above cases as possibilities and then realize that whichever outcome materializes, the voter will want to reveal one’s position honestly. The advantage of the rule that adopts the median position is that no voter has an incentive to distort one’s preferences; truthful voting is the dominant strategy for everyone. The only problem with adopting the median voter’s position is its limited applicability. This option is available only when everything can be reduced to a one-dimensional choice, as in liberal versus conservative. However, not all issues are so easily classified. One’s voters’ preferences are more than one-dimensional, there will not be a median. At that point, the possibility of manipulating the system becomes real. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

The main producers of imagery until recently were the major broadcast networks. Today, in the United States of America, where de-massification is most advanced, their power is plummeting. Where ABC, NBC, and CBS once stood virtually alone, there are now seventy-two national services of various kinds, with more coming online and streaming services, which offer cool programs not shown on TV and with more leeway in their scripts and content. A new crop of networks serving “niche” markets and digital stream are big news. And on cable there is comedy network, consumer business news network, and a science-fiction network. In addition, Channel One pipes programs into school classrooms, and National College Television uses satellite to target special programs to university students. Cable of some type is available in nearly 90 percent of American homes. The average cable user has more than fifty channels to choose from and that will soon be up to seventy five. In a small town like Rochester, Minnesota, viewers can choose from more then sixty different channels offering a wide range of material, from the Black Entertainment Network and programs in Spanish, to specialized medical training programs aimed at the larger medical community around the famed Mayo Clinic. Cable was the first to begin fractionalzing the mass audience. Videocassette and direct broadcast satellite (delivering signals not only to cable stations but into the home itself) fractionalize the fractions. Thus videocassette offers viewers a choice of thousands of movies and programs. And recently four major companies banded together to deliver 108 channels of standard and high-definition TV to American viewers by shooting signals from the World’s most powerful commercial satellite to “napkin-size” receiver dishes in the home.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Furthermore, the number of stations operating independently of the three big networks has quadrupled since the late 1970s. Many have formed themselves into syndicates or temporary groupings that compete with the majors for top-rated programming. The impact of all these de-massifying forces on the once-mighty networks has been a little short of catastrophic. The key words in all this are choice and alternative. It is what people did not have back in 1980. It is what they do have today. However, these are precisely what the main stream networks were designed to prevent. For CBS, ABC, and NBC were Second Wave smokestack companies, accustomed to dealing with masses, not heterogenous micro-markets, and are having as much difficulty adapting to the post-smokestack Third Wave economy as are interest rates and wages. A measure of the networks’ concern was the decision of NBC to join in the direct broadcasting satellite venture. Wonder what will happen to the Big Three? Well, once upon a time there were three big radio networks too. Today hardly anyone even remembered they existed. Adjusting to nanotechnology is also something we are going to have to deal with, so the World is rapidly changing. People within existing organizations can nudge them toward evaluating nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing. A good start is to introduce others in the organization to the concepts, and talk through some of their implications. Follow-up activities will depend on the group, its resources, and its purposes. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

For the time being, drafting of new regulations, lobbying of Congress, and the like all seem premature. Getting nanotechnology into the planning process, though, seems overdue. We invite existing organizations with concerns regarding medicine, the economy, the environment, and other issues of public policy to put nanotechnology on their agendas, and to join in debating and ultimately implementing sensible policies. Some groups are doing relevant research work. Many could bias their choice of projects to favor goals in the direction of molecular systems engineering. For nanotechnology to be taken really seriously, some research group will have to build a reasonably capable molecular manipulator or a primitive assembler. This will require an interdisciplinary team, years of work, and a total cost unlikely to exceed one tenth that of a single U.S.A. Space Shuttle. Other researchers can help by providing further theoretical studies of what advanced molecular manufacturing and nanotechnology will make possible. These studies can help groups know what to anticipate in their planning. Some scientists and engineers will want to steer their careers into the field of nanotechnology. More students will want to study a combination of physics, chemistry, and engineering that will prepare them to contribute. We encourage people of common sense and goodwill to become involved in developing nanotechnology. For those who have—or can gain—the necessary technical backgrounds, becoming involved with its development is an excellent way to influence how it is used. For better or for worse, technical experts in a field have a disproportionate influence over related policies. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

During these years, there will be a growing need for grass-roots organizations aimed at public education and building a base for political action. Having  a few thousand people ready to write five letters to Congress in some crucial year could make the difference between a World that works and a World destroyed by the long-term effects of a shortsighted bill. What happens will depend on what people do, and what people do will depend on what they believe. The World is overwhelmingly shaped by the state of opinion: people’s opinion about what will and will not happen, what will and will not work, what will and will not prove profitable or beneficial for themselves, for their families, for their businesses, for their communities, for the World. This state of opinion—as expressed in what people say to each other, and whether their actions conform to their words—shapes decisions day to day. During these years, it will matter greatly what people are saying to one another about the future, and how to make it work. With help from new technologies, we can renew the World—not make it perfect, not eliminate conflict, not achieve every imaginable dream, yet clear away many afflictions, both ancient and modern. With good preparation, we can perhaps even avoid creating too many new afflictions to take their place. Who is responsible for trying to bring this about? Those who want to fight poverty, to earn their share of the benefits to come, to join in a great adventure, to meet people who care about the future, to save species, to heal the Earth, to heal the sick, to be at the cutting edge, to build international cooperation, to learn about technology, to fight dangers, to change the World—not necessarily all together, or all at once. To help deal with the main problem today, lack of knowledge, you can encourage friends to read up on the subject. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

Cresleigh Homes

Love to entertain? 💃🕺 You’ll love Residence Two at #MagnoliaStation – now selling!

This spacious single story home offers a large kitchen and working island, dining room connected through the butler’s pantry, and a large great room overlooking the ample rear yard. Plus three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a three car garage! 😍

Sound like the perfect fit for your family? Visit our website to learn more, view interactive floor plans, and get in touch today!

#CresleighHomes

Good-by; You’ll Never Know What This Has Cost Me

Mr. Hansen had never been able to understand why there was any harm in giving people a little encouragement when they needed it. Sitting back in my comfortable armchair by the fire, I thought to myself, “You would be surprised to find how discouraged the grand people get, in these big houses with all the help, and silver dinner plates, and a bell always handy if the fire wants poking, or the pet dog asks for a drink.” It was then that I first became aware of a disturbance in the air. A kind of restlessness. I looked sharply around the front parlor, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. The room was deserted. No one had come along for some time. Yet there was a suggestion of movement nonetheless, a shifting of the light from the chandelier. The drapes loomed more menacingly and the fire appeared even closer, as I glanced out of window, my yard looked like an ancient forest of evergreen. What secrets did they contain within their shadows?  My heart skipped a beat. I opened the window. The silence surged around me. Again, nothing. And inside—no telltale footsteps or voices. Only later, did it occur to me that the silence was peculiar. I should have been able to hear something. The roar of the furnaces, or the belching chimneys. The sound of the carpenters hammering. The servants washing dishes in one of the kitchens. However, I was only aware of the silence. Silence, as if I were the only one left alive on my estate. Then I heard it. No, not heard. I sensed it. A whispering, almost like a singing. The others have slipped away into darkness. I caught my breath. “Who’s there?” #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

I heard the ghost of Mr. Winchester’s voice inside my head, though it was growing fainter with the passing years. However, this was different, a lighter sound, gentle and exquisite, carried on the cold air. A reverberation, and echo of words once spoken in this place? And what of the crimson mist on arising from the floor? On these cold winter nights, it was not unusual to hear the clanking like a bucket, and the shuffling of feet. When I looked over toward the kitchen, there was a man—or something—dressed in a long white coat, all bent over like he was tired or something, slowly walking toward the door-to-nowhere. He was filling up the buckets using the exterior water faucets on the second floor that were used to water my flower boxes. He seemed to walk right out the door and to the front of the house, but there was nothing supporting him. Then he watered the flowers and walked slowly back into the house, real tired- like. And almost suddenly vanished. There were spirits caught forever in the never-ending labor to keep this estate operating. Perhaps these were visions out of time making their journey into the eternal flame as well as into Eternity itself. However, every July 2, officers could be frequently seen in the dim moonlight, in the Victorian garden, dressed in their gray tunics and gold stars and wreath, gathering around the fountains, mixing fine bourbon with the clear water, and toasting to the next day’s victory or death. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

Summer nights always tended to be a little eerie. In the dark, the estate at best, is an uncomfortable place to be. The tragic memories and sorrows of a nation’s struggle defending the hour of the country with their Winchester Rifle’s hanged heavily and seemed magnified in the night. There is always something moving in the fruit orchards or the grass just off the unlighted portions of the estate. It all makes the Other World all that much closer. Sometimes one could even hear the strange military noises emanating from the 740 acres of land I own, and the fallen faces of the slaughtered. Desperate orders shouted…steel rammers ringing in muskets…the clicking of hammers cocked…the hoarse trill of a bugle…the clacking of artillery chains…a roar…shrieks…men gagging, crying, screaming, moaning, moaning, moaning….and there is often heard the funeral call, mounrful apologies of a heartsick, dying warrior to a lost friend bemoaning a fateful decision to be regretted down the ages. Although we had transitioned into summer, there was just an endless expanse of cold on these nights. Memories would seep into my mind. My Daisy Bedroom. Candles burned out. Me crying in the dark, jolted awake by bad dreams and calling out for my infant daughter who passed away long too soon. Then Mr. Winchester, sitting at the end of my bed, opening the curtains to let the silver moon in, saying there was nothing to be afraid of. How nothing could hard me. Not even a curse. How I was a Winchester, invincible and courageous. Nothing could get me as long as I kept building. And with William by my side, I believed it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

So I talked to myself to keep my spirit up. I was in no actual physical danger, I said. It was just a matter holding on to my nerved. Still, fragments of life flashed into my mind and out. Broken images of my husband and daughter, photographs of our happy days. Memories of Mr. Winchester. And I wondered if he had seen death, like a shadow coming to meet him. Had he recognized the moment for what it was? Whispering, I could hear whispering, voices slipping between the walls. “She is the last, the last, the heiress.” Heard howling from the walls. Sometimes far away, sometimes closer, so close I imagined I could feel breath upon my cheek. “The others have slipped away into darkness.” Then the sound of sobbing, a desperate scratching on the floors, and a terrible weeping. I worked hard to turn this mansion into something beautiful. Having evergreen trees planted and a variety of flowers. I even remodeled a room with attractive redwood walls, and another with floor to ceiling glass panels that provided a 180-degree view of the estate. I smiled when I saw the perennials that I had planted. However, a number of other peculiar incidents began to convince me that I was being visited by discarnate entities. I always knew I was being haunted. But now I was catching fleeting glimpses of fast-moving shadows from time to time when I would least expect to see such a thing. There would often be smells of delicate perfume. Mr. Hansen thought it was closer to a man’s cologne. Sometimes we encountered the scent together, but in every instance it came and drifted away after only a few minutes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Once, when I was outside tending the flowers growing under the front windows, and I was suddenly enveloped in an invisible puff of strong cigar smoke. Then I was choking, coughing. I could feel the pump and hiss of my heart beneath my ribs, rattling  like a snare drum. I swallowed hard. When I put my hand up to brush the smoke away from my cheek, I saw that the tips of my gloves were red. And when I looked down, I saw the daisies with drops of blood on them, glittering and yet dull at the same time. I propelled myself into a standing position, and walked towards the front doors. The wind boxed my ears so hard that I struggled to keep my balance, but I managed finally to get those doors shut. When I looked in the mirror, I was not injured at all. That night while I was falling asleep, I sensed a large, dark presence in the bedroom. It glided over me and seemed to hover just over my head, and I was the recipient of a telepathic command: “I want to know your thoughts!” After I fell asleep, I experienced horrific nightmares. I was awakened by the sounds of terrific crashes, as though something huge had fallen over somewhere in the house, causing terrible damage. Thanks to the stocks I owned and the ones I bought in Con Edison, I was able to keep building rooms to evade the ghosts. Do you know how it is, sometimes when you are doing a bit of fine darning, sitting by the window in the afternoon; and one minute it is full daylight, and your needle seems to find the way of itself; and the next minute you say: “Is it my eyes? because the work seems blurred; and presently you see it is the daylight going, stealing away, softlike, from your corner, though there is plenty left overheard. Well—it is the way it is with these ghosts around.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

Most nights, screaks could be heard emanating from within the walls. Then everything would be stripped of color, an absence and shade. Fog hovered motionless from the ceiling. And it would come again, over the whistling of the wind, the same indistinct whispering. “The others have slipped away into darkness.” “Who are you?” I cried. “What do you want from me?” But the fog, the apparition, had vanished. After the Spanish-America War, all the fine ladies took to running to the mediums and the clairvoyants, or whatever the stylish folk call them. The women had to have news of their men; and they were maid to pay high enough for it…Oh, the stories I used to hear—and the price paid was not only money, either! There was a fair lot of swindlers and blackmailers in the business, there was. I always had a way of seeing things; from the cradle, even. I do not mean reading the tea leaves, or dealing the cards. No, no; I mean, feeling there are things about you, behind you, whispering over your shoulder. I felt more and more sorry for those women that the soothsaying swindlers were dragging the money out of for a pack of lies; and one day I could not stand it any longer, and though I knew the Church was against it, when I saw one lady nearly crazy, because for months she had no news of her boy at the front, I said to her: “If you will come over to my place tomorrow, I might have a word for you.” And the wonder of it was that I had! For that night I dreamt a message came saying there was good news for her, and the next day, sure enough, she had a telegram telling her her son was coming home. And that August, the war ended. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

Winchester Mystery House

One is confronted finally with the metaphysics of time: is it merely linear; are we moving along it like riding a train on a track and all that happens, once it occurs, is forever gone? Or can that time be bent, as some prominent theoretical physicists of the late 19th and 20th centuries have said, so that we may run into it again? Or, can an event go out in more directions than just backward, carried on time like ripples from a stone throw in a pond, occasionally under very special circumstances in very special places, returning like a faint echo? Is it possible that the bigger the event the larger the ripples and the more likely they are to return? Or perhaps is it possible, if time can be bent, or the ripples move slowly enough, to catch up with events again, and again, and again? Come tour the Winchester Mystery House and perhaps you will find some hidden clues. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

And be sure to check out the Online Gift Store: https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

I Made Up the Bed We Sleep in, I Looked at the Clock When You Creep in

In many ways similar to ecstatic destructiveness is the chronic dedication of a person’s whole life to hate and destructiveness. Not a momentary state as in ecstasis, it has nevertheless the function of taking hold of the whole person, of unifying him in the worship of one goal: to destroy. This state is a permanent idolatry of the god of destruction; his devotee has, as it were, given over his life to him. As rationalizations give way to perceptions of victimization, of woman’s feelings about herself, her spouse, and her situation change. These feelings are imbedded in a cultural, political, and interactional structure. Initially, abuse is contrary to a woman’s cultural expectations of behavior between intimates, and therefore engenders feelings of betrayal, however, is balanced by the husband’s efforts to explain his behavior, and by the woman’s reluctance to abandon faith. Additionally, the political dominance of men within and outside the family mediate women’s ability to question the validity of their husband’s actions. At the interpersonal level, psychological abuse accompanying violence often invokes feelings of guilt and shame in the battered victim. Men define violence as a response to their wive’s inadequacies or provocations, which leads battered women to feel that they have failed. Such character assaults are devastating, and create long-lasting feelings of inferiority. The emotional career of battered women consists of movement from guilt, shame, and depression to fear and despair, to anger, exhilaration, and confusion. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

Women who escape violent relationships must deal with strong, sometimes conflicting, feelings in attempting to build new lives for themselves free of violence. The kind of response women receive when they seek help largely determines the effects these feelings have on subsequent decisions. The process of victimization is not synonymous with experiencing violent attacks from a spouse. Rationalizing the violence inhibits a sense of outrage and efforts to escape abuse. Only after rationalizations are rejected, through the impact of one or more catalysts, does the victimization process begin. When previously rationalized violence is reinterpreted as dangerous, unjustified assault, battered women actively seek alternatives. The success of their efforts to seek help depends on available resources, external supports, reactions of husbands and children, and their own adaptation to the situation. Victimization includes not only cognitive interpretations, but feelings and physiological responses. Creating a satisfying, peaceful environment after being battered involves emotional confusion and ambiguity, as well as enormous practical and economic obstacles. It may take years of struggle and aborted attempts before a battered woman is able to establish a safe and stable lifestyle; for some, this goal is never achieved. The victimization process which we have described refers to the interpretations of a specific violent events within a particular relationship. It is important t emphasize that this victimization is limited to those violent events and does not encompass a more global perspective on the woman’s life. #RadolphHarris 2 of 20

Individuals working with battered women have pointed out the importance of helping battered women to distinguish between being a victim of an assault and assuming the identity of the victim. The first involves rejecting the responsibility for being beaten; the second involves giving up the responsibility for one’s life. The role of victim is contradictory to the assertive and creative action necessary to establish a life free of violence To accomplish the latter goal, women must quickly overcome the feelings of helplessness and self-pity that accompany victimization. They must confidently assume responsibility for making decisions and working towards the goals they set, and reject identification with the role of victim. It is well established that sexual assault has a significant effect on the daily thoughts and behaviours of American women. Let us begin with a sampling of the statistical evidence. Eight one percent of women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. In 2020, 298,626 women were sexually assaulted or raped. It is estimated that some sort of sexually assaultive action is present in every ten violent crimes involving a female victim. As disconcerting as these numbers are, they do not tell the whole story. Women clearly live in fear of being raped and this preoccupation has a profound effect on their overall sense of personal security. Anxiety about being raped serves as the most direct and formidable predictor of a women’s overall fear of criminal victimization. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

The first- and secondhand accounts of real-life sexual assaults go a long way to shape this perceived vulnerability. These are the stories of women who suffer long-lasting physical and psychological traumas, and they produce a broad-reaching impact. For this reason, the personal and societal impact of rape may exceed even that of murder. We as a society have slowly come to respect this orientation and have thus assigned a special status to violence sex crimes. The criminal law has evolved from a limited treatment of sexual misconduct to a much more broad legal orientation. Early common law included only rape (forced heterosexual penetrations) and sodomy (consensual homosexual conduct) under the heading of sex crimes. This conservative treatment prevailed well into the 1960s. For example, the Model Penal Code (American Law Institute, 1962) restricted the definition of rape to those acts of violent sexual penetration between male offender and female victim who were not presently married. Contemporary criminal codes take on a more gender and relationship neutral tone and this include an expansive list of offense, ranging from forced sexual intercourse to forms of sexual touching that are devoid of violence. The present discussion turns to a contemporary source for an up-to-date legal definition of violent sex crimes. Most jurisdictions delineate three generic offenses categories: rape, statutory rape, and sexual assault. An individual is guilty of rape if he or she specifically intends to achieve nonconsensual sexual penetration against another by force of the threatened use of force. This definition subsumes all form of sexual penetration regardless of its duration or degree. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

Statutory rape encompasses all forms of sexual penetration committed against an individual under the specific age of consent (id est minors). The specific age of consent varies across jurisdiction, but the vast majority of states invoke a standard between 16 and 18 years of age. This age-graded offense is considered a strict liability offense and thus does not require that the mens reus (guilt mind) element of “intentional force” be present. Sexual assault is a broader offense category that covers all forms of forceful or coercive unwanted sexual contact. Indeed, if the Earth had been created as a paradise where man would not be bound by the stubbornness of material reality, his reasons might have been a sufficient condition to create the proper environment for his unimpeded growth, with enough for all to ear, and, simultaneously, the possibility of freedom. However, to speak in terms of the biblical myth, mans was expelled from Paradise and cannot return. He was saddled with the curse of the conflict between himself and nature. The World was not made for man; he is thrown into it, and only by his own activity and reason can he create a World which is conductive to his full development, which is his human home. His rulers themselves were executors of historical necessity, even though they were often evil men who followed their whims and failed to execute their historical task. Irrationality and personal evil became decisive factors only in those periods when the external conditions were such that they would have permitted human progress and when this progress was impeded by the character deformation of the rulers—and the ruled. Nevertheless, there have always been visionaries who clearly recognized the goals for man’s social and individual evolution. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

The Lord  Jesus spoke in general terms about the dangers which would encompass His people at the time of end, and Paul wrote to the Thessalonians more fully about the apostasy and the wicked deceptions of the lawless one in the last days, but the passage in Timothy is the only one which explicitly shows the special cause of the peril of the Church in it closing days on Earth, and how the wicked spirit of Satan would break in upon her members and by deception beguile some away from their purity of faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit, in this brief message given to Paul, describes the character and work of the evil spirits so that we might recognize (1) their existence, and (2) their efforts directed towards believer to deceive them and draw them away from the path of simple faith in Christ—all that is included in “the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). That the character of the spirits is described in 1 Timothy 1-3 and not the men they sometimes use in the work of deception, may be understood from the Greek original. (Pember says that verse 2 refers to the character of the deceiving spirits and should be read thus: “…direct teaching of unclean spirits, who, though bearing a brand on their own conscience—as a criminal is disfigured—would pretend to sanctity [id est, holiness] to gain credence for their lies…”) The peril of the Church at the close of the age is therefore from supernatural beings who are “hypocrites”—who pretend to be what they are not—who give “teaching” which appear to make for greater holiness by producing ascetic severity to the “flesh,” but who themselves are wicked and unclean and bring those they deceive into contact with the foulness of their own presence. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Through loneliness, many people find out that they do not need drugs anymore to keep themselves going. However, anyone who takes drugs may need guidance and really to find one’s self before it is too late; everybody is better than they think they are. They could do it if they really want to. All it takes is a little understanding in one’s self and willpower and also guidance to lead such a person to take a good look at one’s self, and ask one’s self does one really need these drugs to get where one wants to be? I do not think so. People face childbirth, child illness, at the moment of decision concerning one’s belief, or lack of it, in the divine. And then more frequently, with similar impact strangely enough, yet with less intensity, during the “little” moments of our existence—knowing, for a feeling moment, that differences exist without the need for making comparisons, knowing our own touchings of the other. All this we can only know alone. Some of us can express them, as you have, some of us keep them locked in our hearts. And this is even more painful, because it is only with the occasional comings out of our loneliness that we can be with it at all—even if this means just our knowing it ourselves. It is like the to-and-fro of living. There must be this movement, for one moment alone would be incompatible with life, physical or otherwise. It is necessary to repeat that first of all you must understandhow wrong negative emotions are, how unless they are, and then you must understand that they cannot exist without identification. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

It will take you a long time to realize this, but when you have done so, you must try to divide your negative emotions into three categories. First, the more or less ordinary everyday negative emotions which happen often, and are always connected with identification. Certainly, you must observe them and you must already have a certain control over the expression of them. Then you must start dealing with them by trying not to identify, by avoiding identification as often as you can, not only in relation to these emotions but in relation to everything. If you create in yourself the capacity of not identifying, that will affect these emotions and you will notice how they begin to disappear. The second category do not appear every day. They are the more difficult, more complicated emotions depending on some mental process—suspicion, hurt feelings and many things like that. They are more difficult to conquer. You can deal with them by creating a right mental attitude, by thinking—not at the time when you are in the negative emotion, but in between, when you are quite. Try to find the right attitude, the right point of view, and make it permanent. If you create right thinking, that will take all power from these negative emotions. Then there is a third category, much more intense, much more difficult, and very rare. Against them you can do nothing. These two methods—struggle with identification and creating right attitudes—do not help. When such emotions come you can do only one thing: you must try to remember yourself; to remember yourself with the help of the emotions. That will change them after some time. However, for this you have to be prepared; it is quite a special thing. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

There is a class of offenses sometimes called acts of malice or spite. These often imply arrogance, disdain, and deep hostility, as when a middle-class person yawns directly before others in a slow and elaborate manner. Maliciously offensive acts give the following impression: they are easily controllable; their significance can be and is appreciated by the offender; the offender would not modify one’s conduct at the time even if given a second chance, and seems to have no reason for the act other than what one can convey by it to those one offends. Quite similar to malicious offenses are “contingent” ones, which have the same qualities as spiteful acts except that the offender has reasons for his act outside of the occasion and its participants. Here we have the individual who inconsiderably laughs out loud over something one is reading, not out of malice, but because one is genuinely amused. The more “legitimate” the offender’s reasons, of course, the more these contingent offenses are viewed as fully excusable, and the less intentionality is imputed to them. Malicious acts represent some kind of extreme of intentionality. At the other extreme, that of complete unintentionality, is the delict of the individua perceived as having an organic brain injury: one’s offense is not controllable by one, sometimes one cannot and hence does not appreciate its significance, and one may not be amenable to correction. Somewhere in between these extremes is the individual who offends because one is accustomed to a different idiom and structure of involvement from the ones sanctioned by those in the situation. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

 One’s offensive act is one that one controls; one might be willing to alter one’s conduct if one appreciated its current significance, and of such appreciation one is fully capable. There is also the case of the withdrawn individual who could, if one wished, withdraw from one’s withdrawal, and who, in that sense, controls one’s act. One may not appreciate the significance of one’s act for others, since one has no interest in discovering it, although presumably one could discover it if one wanted to; and one is not currently amenable to changing one’s conduct. Then, of course, there is the individual who is too preoccupied, too nervous, or too self-conscious to fit in, the basis of one’s uneasiness being one that others consider temporary, natural, and understandable. Such an individual can appreciated the difficulty one is causing and may well do so; indeed, one mat actively desire to correct one’s conduct but be unable to do so at the moment. The creature release known as a “tic” is an example, this misconduct sometimes evoking pity and contempt for the tiqueur’s incapacity to sustain the image that one’s other means self-control claim for one. A similar instance is the individual whose repertoire of clothing  provides dress that is either too formal or too informal for the occasion one must attend, thus forcing one to be out of place. Finally, there is the individual who accidentally and uncharacteristically intrudes upon a situation in which one cannot fit, thereby committing an offense one wishes one had not committed and would have been fully capable of avoiding had one know in advance what was to happen. Note that in all these examples with witness would be just in conceiving of the offender as someone who was alienated from the gathering and its rulings, although there is some realization that in no two cases are the bases for alienation the same. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

Because the significance of an offense is dependent on whether or not the act was intentional, and because so many different kinds of intentionality and unintentionally exist, we can see that an offense as such tells us very little about the offender. All those who exhibit alienation from a gathering may share nothing but their alienation. With this understanding, then, one can proceed carefully to try to list some of the things that a situational impropriety can tell us about the person who commits it, aside from the fact that one is in some sense alienated from the gathering. What this amounts to is an isolation of the types of social unit, other than social occasions, that can be the object of alienation. We study ourselves not from the point of view od what we are but of what we may become, so that when we have studied certain things sufficiently, we work to change them. Sufficiently serious study, in itself, produces some change, but all the results of this change may be spoiled by certain negative emotions. If you start this work to change yourself without conquering negative emotions, one side of you will work and another side will spoil your work, so that after a time, you may find yourself in a worse state than before. It has already happened several times to people who wished to keep their negative emotions that continuation of this work become impossible for them. There were moments when they realized the danger of their negative emotions but they failed to make sufficient efforts during those moments and the negative emotions became stronger. It has been explained already that a right attitude towards negative emotions destroys most of them. If we are to avoid spoiling the result of our work, it is important that we learn to cultivate this attitude from the beginning. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

When the World is in the process of assimilating molecular manufacturing, years from now, it would be best if people were ready and if the World situation favored peaceful, cooperative applications. Balanced international progress would be better than dominance by any nation. Cooperative development would be better than technological rivalry. A focus on civilian goals would be better than a focus on military goals. A well-informed public supporting sound policies would be better than a startled public supporting half-baked schemes. All these goals will be best served if politicians are not forced to act like idiots—that is, if the state of public opinion permits them to make the right decisions, and perhaps even make bad decision politically costly. The basic objective is straightforward: a World in which as many people as possible have a basic understanding of what is happening, a picture of how it can lead to a better future, and a broad understanding of what to do (and not to do) to reach that future. The outlines of a beneficial scenario would then look something like this: Environmental groups and agencies have thought through the issues raised by nanotechnology, and know what applications they want to promote and what abuses they want to prevent. Likewise, medical associations, associations of retired persons, and the Social Security Administration have thought through the issues raised by dramatically improved medical care and economic productivity, and are ready with policy recommendations. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Business groups have done likewise with economic issues, and business watchdog groups are ready to expose policies that merely serve special interests. Labor groups have considered the impact of a deep, global economic restructuring on the jobs and income of their members, and have proposals for cushioning the shock without holding down productivity. Religious leaders have considered the moral dimensions of many applications, and are ready with advice. Military analysts and arms-control analysts have done the painstaking work of thinking through strategic scenarios, and have developed an agreed-on core of policies for maintaining stability. International committees and agencies have made the new technologies a focus of discussion and planning, and backed by a healthy climate of opinion, they make international cooperation work. Overall, supported by a framework of sensible public opinion and sensible politics, the complex process of adapting to change is working rather well. In field after field, group after group has put in the hard work needed to come up with polices that would advance their real interests without wrecking someone else’s interest. This is possibly more often that most would have expected, because molecular manufacturing makes possible so many beneficial-sum choices. There are still big battles, but there is also a large core of agreement. In this time of transition, some people are actively involved in developing and guiding the technologies, but most people act as citizens, consumers, workers, friends, and family members. They shape what happens in the broader World by their votes, contributions, and purchases. They shape what happens in their families and communities by what they say, what they do, and specially be the educational investments they have made or supported. By their choices, they determine what nanotechnology means for daily life. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

The basic direction of change in the media since at least 1970, when the de-massification of the airwaves was foreshadowed, has been toward the breakup of mass audiences into segments and subgroup, each receiving a different configuration of programs and messages. Along with this has come a vast expansion of the sheer amount of imagery transmitted by television in the form of both new and entertainment. There is a reason for this image-explosion. Humans, of course, have always exchanged symbolic images of reality. That is what language is all about. It is what knowledge is based on. However, different societies require either more or less symbolic exchange. The transition to a knowledge-based economy sharply increases the demand for communication and swamps the old image-delivery systems. Advanced economies require a labor force with high levels of symbolic sophistication. This work forces needs instant and largely free access to all sorts of information hitherto considered irrelevant to its productivity. It needs workers who can quickly adapt to, and even anticipate, repeated changes in work methods, organizations, and daily life. The very best workers are Worldly, alert to new ideas and fashions, customer preferences, economic and political changes, aware of competitive pressures, cultural shifts, and many other things previously regarded as pertinent only to managerial elites. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

This wide-scan knowledge does not come out of classrooms or from technical manuals alone, but from exposure to a constant barrage of news delivered by TV, newspapers, magazine, and radio. It also comes indirectly from “entertainment”—much of which unintentionally delivers information about new life styles, interpersonal relationships, social problems, and even foreign customs and markets. Some shows, like All American, which stars the actress Monet Mazur, deliberately build drama or comedy around current news and current events. However, even when this is not the case, television shows, sometimes despite themselves, convey images of reality. It is true that the intentional content of a television show—the plot and the behavior of the principal characters—often paints a false picture of social reality. However, there is in all television programs and commercials, as well as in movies, an additional layer of what we might call “inadvertent content.” This consists of background detail—landscape, cars, street scenes, architecture, telephones, answering machines, as well as barely noticed behavior, like the banter between a waitress and a customer as the hero seats himself at a lunch counter. In contrast with the intended content, the inadvertent detail frequently provides a quite accurate picture of quotidian reality. Moreover, even the tritest “police shows” picture current fads and fashions, and express popular attitudes toward pleasures of the flesh, religion, money, and politics. None of this is ignored or forgotten by the viewer. It is filed away in the mind, forming part of a person’s general bank of knowledge about the World. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Thus, good and bad alike, it influences the bag of assumptions brought to the Workplace. (Ironically, much of the worker’s image of the World, which increasingly affects economic productivity, is thus absorbed during “leisure” hours.) For this reason, “mere entertainment” is no longer “mere.” The new economy is tightly tied not only to formal knowledge and technical skills but even to popular culture and the expanding market for imagery. This seething market is not only growing, but is simultaneously being restructured. Its very categories are re-forming. For better or worse, the old lines between show business and politics, leisure and work, news and entertainment, are all crashing, and we are exposed to a hurricane of often fragmented, kaleidoscopic images. The foundation of a democratic government is that it respects the will of the people as expressed through the ballot box. Unfortunately, these lofty ideals are not so easily implemented. Strategic issues arise in voting, jut as in any other multiperson game. Voters will often has an incentive to misrepresent their true preferences. Neither majority rule nor any other voting scheme can solve this problem, for there does not exist any one perfect system for aggregating up individuals’ preferences into a will of the people. What this means is that the structure of the game matters. For example, when Congress has to choose between many competing bills, the order in which votes are taken can have a great influence on the final outcome. We begin by looking at the voting process more carefully, figuring out just when an individual’s vote matters. Recent presidential elections have emphasized the importance of the selection of the vice resident. This person will be just a heartbeat away from the residency. However, most candidates for president spurn the suggestion of the second sport on the ticket, and most vice presidents do not seem to enjoy the experience. The prospect of twiddling one’s thumbs for four or eight years, waiting for the boss to die, is hardly a fit occupation for anyone. (No doubt they console themselves by thinking of the even worse plight of Britain’s Prince Charles.) John Nance Garner, FDR’s first VP, expressed this succinctly: “The vice-presidency ain’t worth a pitcher of warm spirt.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Only one clause of the Constitution of the United States of America specifies any actual activity for the vice president. Article I, Section 3.4 says: “The Vice-President of the United States of America shall be President of the Senate, but shall have n vote, unless they be equally divided.” The presiding is “ceremony, idle ceremony,” and most of the time the vice present delegates this responsibility to a rotation of junior senators chosen by the senate majority leader. Is the tiebreaking vote important, or is it just more ceremony? At first glance, both logic and evidence seem to support the ceremonial viewpoint. The vice president’s vote just does not seem important. The change of a tie vote is small. The most favourable circumstances for  tie arise when each senator is just as likely to vote one way as the other, and an even number of senators vote. The result will be roughly one tie vote in twelve. Of course senators’ votes are far from random. Only when the two parties are roughly equal or when there is an especially divisive issues that splits some of the party lines does the vice president’s vote get counted. The most active tiebreaking vice president was our first, John Adams. He cast 29 tiebreaking votes during his eight years. This is not surprising, since his Senate consisted of only 20 members, and a tie was almost three times more likely than it is today, with our 100-member Senate. In fact, over the first 200 years, there have been only 222 occasions for the vice president to vote. More recently, Richard Nixon, under Eisenhower, was the most active vice president, casting a total of 8 tiebreaking votes—out of 1,229 decisions reached by the Senate during the period 1953-61. This fall in tiebreaking votes also reflects the fact that the two-party system is much more entrenched, so that fewer issues are likely to cross party lines. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

However, this ceremonial picture of the vice president’s vote is misleading. More important than how often the vice president votes is the impact of the vote. Measured correctly, the vice president’s vote I roughly equal in important to tht of any senator. One reason that the vice president’s vote matters is that it tends to decide only the most important and divisive issues. For example, George Bush, as vice president, voted to save both the administration’s chemical weapons program (twice) and the MX missile program. This suggest that we should look more closely at just when it is that a vote matters. A vote can have one of two effects. It can be instrumental in determining the outcome, or it can be a “voice” that influences the margin of victory or defeat without altering the outcome. In a decision-making body like the Senate, the first aspect is the more important one. To demonstrate the importance of the vice president’s current position, imagine tht the vice president is given a regular vote as President of the Senate. When does this have any additional impact? For important issues, all 100 senators will try to be present. (Or senators on opposite sides of the issue will try to pair off their absences.) If the 100 senators are split 51-49 or more lopsidedly, then the outcome is the same no matter which way the vice president votes. The only time the outcome hinges on the vice president’s 101st vote is when the Senate is split 50-50, just the same as now, when the vice president has only a tiebreaking vote. We recognize that our account of a vice president’s voting power leaves out aspects of reality. Some of these imply less power for the vice president; others, more. Much of a senator’s power comes from the work in committees, in which the vice president does not partake. On the other hand, the vice president has the veto power of the president on his side. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Our illustration of the vice president’s vote leads to an important moral of wider applicability: anyone’s vote affects the outcome only when it creates or breaks a tie. Think how important your own vote is in different contexts. How influential can you be in a presidential election? Your town’s mayoral election? You club’s secretarial selection? As with the Senate, the change that the rest f the electorate reaches a tie, leaving you decisive, is at a maximum when each voter is just as likely to vote on one way as the other. Mathematical calculation shows that the chances of a tie are proportional to the square root of the number of voters: increasing the electorate a millionfold reduces the chances of a tie by a factor of a thousand. In the Senate, with 100 voters, we saw that the chance of  tie in the most favorable circumstances was 1 in 12. In a presidential election with 100 million voters, it drops to 1 in 12,000. Because of the electoral college system, there is a greater chance that you will be decisive in affecting the electoral votes in your state. However, the fact that the population is rarely split so evenly works the other way, and even a slight advantage for one candidate or the other reduces the chances of a tie drastically. So you might take 1 in 12,000 as an optimistic estimate of your influence in presidential election. Considering these odds, is it worth your while to vote? To explore this question, let us take a concrete example. Suppose one candidate, Mr. Soft Heart, has promised to raise the minimum wage from $13.50 to $15.00, and the other, Mr. Hard Head, is opposed to any increase. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

If you hold a minimum-wage job when the wage rises, Mr. Heart will mean $3,000 more a year in your pocket than Mr. Head. Over the four years, this will amount to $12,000. However, the chance that your vote will bring this is only 1 in 12,000. The expected advantage to you from your vote is only a dollar. It is not worth your while to vote if to do so is your must sacrifice even 20 minutes of paid working time. Surveys find that most people value their leisure time at about half their wage rate. Therefore voting is not worth 40 minutes of your leisure time. Even if you are unlikely to change the outcome, you can still add your voice to the crowd. However, will it be heard? While it is clear that 100 million to 0 is a landslide, there is no apparent line where the change in one vote causes a landslide to become a simple victory. And yet if enough people change their vote, the landslide in the other direction. This absence of a “bright line” dates back to the Greek philosopher Zeno, who tells the paradox in terms of creating a mound from grains can turn a non-mound into a mound. And yet, enough grains will turn a molehill into a mountain. A vote is much like a grain of sand. It is hard to imagine how one additional vote will change anyone’s perception of the outcomes. (Even though any single individual’s opinion of the outcome is ever so slightly changes, a small impact on a large number of people may still add up to something.” What this tells us is that calculations of personal gains and costs cannot be decisive in motivating people to vote. For the proper functioning of democracy, however, it is very important that people do so. That is why we need social conditioning. From civics classes in elementary school to election-eve appeals to one’s patriotic duty, societies work to get out the vote—even if individual voters do not have any major impact on the election. The theory of statistics tells us that if the vote from a random sample of 10,000 give one candidate a 5 percent edge (5,250 or more voters), then there is a less than one-in-a-million chance the outcomes will be reversed, even if 100 million people vote. If the vote is closer we have to continue expanding the survey size. While this process could greatly reduce the cost of voting, the potential for abuse is also great. The selection of a random voter is subject to a nightmare of problems. Where patriotic duty is found insufficient, people are sometimes legally required to vote, as is the case in several countries, including Australia. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

MAGNOLIA STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH

Rancho Cordova, CA | low $600,000.00s

Now Selling!

Magnolia Station at Cresleigh Ranch is coming soon! Located at the corner of Rancho Cordova Parkway and Douglas Road, residents of Cresleigh Ranch will benefit from a brand new neighborhood with convenient access to the new Raley’s Shopping Center, Sunrise Boulevard, and much more!

Magnolia Station will  include 81 homesites  and five distinct plans ranging from 2,200 – 3,700 square feet; including three single story plans! Each plan has been thoughtfully designed to include features such as: Generations Suite, Optional Offices/Dens, Extended Great Rooms, and more! https://cresleigh.com/magnolia-station/

#CresleighHomes

I Woke Up and Called this Morning, the Tone of Your Voice Was a Warning

Half our mistakes in life arise from feeling when we ought to think, and thinking when we ought to feel. Many people are content to allow authority figures to call the shots. If someone with an impressive array of credentials or degrees or a well-known name speaks out on a matter, of if a social institution or a book makes a statement on a matter, or if a social institution or a book makes a statement, the matter is “settled.” However, authority figures are subject to error, just as any of us are. If I do not keep my mind open to this possibility, then I may ignore my own feelings on a subject. Rationalization is a way of coping with a situation in which, for either practical or emotional reasons, or both, a battered woman is stuck. For some women, the situation and the beliefs that rationalize it, may continue for a lifetime. For others, changes may occur within the relationship, within individuals, or in available resources which serve as catalysts for redefining the violence. When battered women reject prior rationalizations and begin to view themselves as true victims of abuse, the victimization process begins. There are a variety of catalysts for redefining abuse; we discuss six: (1) a change in the level of violence; (2) a change in the resources; (3) a change in the relationship; (4) despair; (5) a change in the visibility of violence; and (6) external definitions of the relationship. The traditional ideal of many societies is to hold back strong or unpleasant emotions for the sake of others. However, feelings held in are likely to come out in some way—often an inappropriate one. So we are really not doing the other person much of a favor by trying to cover up feelings. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

A change in the level of violence: the severity of abuse is an important factor in women’s decisions to leave violent situations. There is no significant correlation between the number of years spent cohabiting with an abuser and the severity of abuse. On the contrary: the longer women lived with an abuser, the more severe the violence they endured, since violence increased in severity over time. What doe seem to serve as a catalyst is a sudden change in the relative level of violence. Women who suddenly realize that battering may be fatal may reject rationalizations in order to save their lives. One woman who had been severely beaten by an alcoholic husband for many years explained her decision to leave on the basis of a direct threat to her life: “It was like a pendulum. He’s swing to the extremes both ways. He’d get drunk and beat me up, then he’d get sober and treat me like a queen. One day he put a gun to my head and pulled the trigger. It wasn’t loaded. But that’s when I decided I’d had it. I sued for separation of property. I knew what was coming again, so I got out. I didn’t want to. I still loved the guy, but I knew I had to for my own sanity.” A change in resources: Although some women rationalize cohabiting with an abuser by claiming they have no options, others begin reinterpreting violence when the resources necessary for escape become available. The emergence of safe homes or shelters since 1970 has produced a new resource for battered women, but they are not always safe places. While not completely adequate or satisfactory, the mere existence of a place to go alters the situation in which battering is experienced. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Public support of shelters is a statement to battered women that abuse need not be tolerated. Conversely, political trends which limit resources available to women, such as cutbacks in government funding to social programs, increase fears that life outside a violent marriage is economically impossible. One 25-year-old woman discussed this catalyst: “I stayed with him because I didn’t want my kids to have the same life I did. My parents were divorced, and I was always so ashamed of that. Yes, they’re all on their own now, so there’s no reason left to stay.” A change in the relationship: In the stages of a battering relationship, violent incidents are usually followed by periods of remorse and solicitude. Such phases deepen the emotional bonds, and make rejection of an abuser more difficult. However, as battering progresses, periods of remorse may shorten, or disappear, eliminating the basis for maintaining a positive outlook on the marriage. After a number of episodes of violence, a man may realize that this victim will not retaliate or escape, and thus feel no need to express remorse. Extended periods devoid of kindness or love may alter a woman’s feelings toward her partner so much so that she eventually begins to define herself as a victim of abuse. One woman recalled: “At first, you know, we used to have so much fun together. He was kind’ve, you know, a magnetic personality; he can be really charming. But it isn’t fun anymore. Since the baby came, it’s changed completely. He just wants me to stay home, while he goes out with his friends. He doesn’t even talk to me, most of the time….No, I don’t really love him anymore, not like I did. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

Despair: Changes in the relationship may result in a loss of hope that “things will get better.” When hope is destroyed and replaced by despair, rationalizations of violence may give way to the recognition of victimization. Feelings of hopelessness or despair are the basis for some efforts to assist battered women, such as Al-Anon. The director of an Al-Anon organized shelter explained the concept of “hitting bottom”: Before the Al-Anon program can really be of benefit, a woman has to hit bottom. When you hit bottom, you realize that all of your own efforts to control the situation have failed; you feel helpless and lost and worthless and completely disenchanted with the World. Women cannot really be helped unless they are ready for it and want it. Some women come here when things get bad, but they are not really ready to be committed to Al-Anon. Things have not gotten bad enough for them, and they go right back. We see this all the time. A change in the visibility of violence: Creating a web of rationalizations to overlook violence is accomplished more easily if no intruders are present to question their validity. Since most violence between couples occurs in private, there are seldom conflicting interpretations of the event from outsiders. Only 7 percent of the respondents in our study who discussed spatial location of violence indicted events which took place outside the home, but all reported incidents within the home. Other report similar findings. If violence does occur in the presence of others, it may trigger a reinterpretation process. Battering in private is degrading, but battering in public is humiliating, for it is a statement of subordination and powerlessness. Having others witness abuse may create intolerable feeling of shame which undermine prior rationalizations. (And the thing about self-defense, the person who throws the first blow is usually the offender, but how do you prove it?) #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

“He never hit me in public before—it was always at home. But the Saturday I got back [returned to husband from shelter], we went Christmas shopping and he slapped me in the store because of some stupid joke I made. People saw it, I know, I felt so stupid, like, they must all think what a jerk I am, what a sick couple, and I thought, ‘God, I must be crazy to let him do this.’ Then one time at a party on a yacht, he jumped on me and my dad just watched and let him beat me. Then another time, he beat me and dragged me down the hallway by my hair, saying he was going to pull my wig off, but it was my real hair in a ponytail. I was screaming for help, but no one came. I thought he was going to pull all of my hair out.” External definitions of the relationship: A change in visibility is usually accomplished by the interjection of external definitions of abuse. External definitions vary depending on their source and the situation; they either reinforce or undermine rationalizations. Battered women who request help frequently find others—and especially officials—do not believe their story or are unsympathetic. Experimental research supports these reports. Observers usually fail to respond when a woman is attacked by a man, and justify nonintervention on the grounds that they assume the victim and offender were married. One young woman discussed how lack of support from her family left her without hope: “It wouldn’t be so bad if my own family gave a damn about me…Yeah, they know I’m here, and they don’t care. They didn’t care about me when I was a kid, so why should they care now? I got raped and beat as a kid, and now I get beat as an adult. Life is a big joke.” Clearly, such responses from family members contribute to the belief among battered women that there are no alternatives and that they just tolerate the abuse. However, when outsiders respond with unqualified support of the victim and condemnation of violent men, their definitions can be potent catalyst toward victimization. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

Friends and relatives who show genuine concern for a woman’s well-being may initiate an awareness of danger which contradicts previous rationalizations. “My mother-in-law knew what was going on, but she wouldn’t it…I said, ‘Mom, what do you think these bruises are?’ and she said ‘Well, some people just bruise easy. I do it al the time, bumping into things.’ …And he just denied it, pretended like nothing happened, and if I’d said I wanted to talk about it, he’d say, ‘life goes on, you can’t just dwell on things.’…But this time, my neighbor knew what happened, she saw it, and when he denied it, she said, ‘I can’t believe it! You know that’s not true!’ …and I was so happy that finally, somebody else saw what was goin’ on, and I just told him then tht this time I wasn’t gonna’ come home! You can call the police, file police reports and go to the doctor with obvious signs of abuse, and sometimes the abuser never leaves. Even when the police say that they have handled the situation, he would just be quietly waiting in another room to beat me again for reporting him. One time him and one of the girls he was cheating with jumped me and he slammed my head into the wall and busted my lip. They bragged about. One night, he was hanging out with my dad and I would not come pick him up because he was drunk and I did not want him to beat me, and he my dad let him drive his car to my mother’s house, and when I opened the door, he started beating me and ripped my new silk blouse. My baby brother and his friend had to pull him off of me and he left. Victim’s f domestic violence should qualify as disabled because we truly are. ” The song Never No More by Aaliyah was meant to be a theme song for women not to put up with domestic violence anymore. Unfortunately, she was killed in a plane crash before they got a chance to launch the campaign. Shelters for battered women serve not only as material resources, but as source of external definitions which contribute to the victimization process. They offer refuge from a violent situation in which a woman may contemplate her circumstances and what she wants to do bout them. Within a shelter, women meet counselors and other battered women who are familiar with rationalizations of violence and the reluctance to give up commitment to a spouse. In counseling sessions, and informal conversations with other residents, women hear horror stories from others who have already defined themselves as victims. They are supported for expressing anger and rejecting responsibility for the abuse. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

The goal of many shelters is to overcome feelings of guilt and inadequacy so that women can make choices in their best interest. In this atmosphere, violent incidents are reexamined and redefined as assaults in which the woman was victimized. The relevance of these catalysts to a woman’ interpretation of violence vary with her own situation and personality. The process of rejecting rationalizations and becoming a victim is ambiguous, confusing, and emotional. Prison is not a mere physical horror. It is using a pickaxe to no purpose that makes a prison; the horror resides in the failure to enlist all those who swing the pick in the community of mankind. True love is not blind. A person who loves you wants to see you doing well, not be blind to the abuse he or she is inflicting. This special form of deception is pointedly said to be in connection with spiritual rather than Worldly things. This surely shows that people of God, at the time of the end, will be expecting the coming of the Lord, and we can infer that they will be keenly awake to all movements from the supernatural World, in such a measure that deceiving spirits will be able to take advantage of it and anticipate the Lord’s appearing by “false Christs” and false signs and wonders. They mix their counterfeits with the true manifestations of the Spirit of God. The Lord says that men will be deceived (1) concerning Christ and His Parousia (appearing); (2) concerning prophecy—teachings regarding the future, from the spiritual World through inspired messengers: and (3) concerning the giving of proofs that the “teachings” are truly of God, by “signs” and “wonders” so Godlike as to be indistinguishable from the true even by those described as “the elect”—who will need to possess some other test than the judging by appearances of a “sign” being from God if they are to be able to discern the false from the true. The Apostles Paul’ words to Timothy, containing the special prophecy given to him by the Holy Spirit for the Church of Christ in the last days of the dispensation, exactly coincide with the words of the Lord recorded by Matthew. These two letters of Paul to Timothy are the last epistles that he wrote before his departure to be with Christ. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

Both were written in prison, and Paul’s prison was to him what Patmos was to John—a time when he was “in the Spirit” (Rev. 1.10) and shown things to come. Paul was giving his last directions to Timothy for the ordering of the Church of God right on to the end of her time on Earth—giving rules to guide not only Timothy but all God’s servants “in dealing with God’s household.” In the midst of all these detailed instructions, his keen seer’s vision looks on to the “later times”; and by express command of the Spirit of God he depict in a few brief sentences the peril of the Church in those times, in the same way that the Spirit of God gave the prophets of the Old Testament some pregnant prophecy only to be fully understood after the events had come to pass. The apostle said: “The Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, seared in their own conscience as with a hot iron…” (1 Tim. 4;1-2).  I have wondered whether anyone has considered or indeed is already involved in making the experience of loneliness, especially for prisoners in solitary confinement for long periods, a meaningful experience of personal inner growth, enlargement of mental and spiritual horizons, and the discovery that limitations such as cement wall, iron bars, hostile “keepers,” and isolation can indeed be the challenge to discover the richness of the World within? If no one in your knowledge has as yet considered this kind of contribution may I suggest it as a most terribly needed one? It is necessary for you to understand that the stopping of the expression of negative emotions and the struggle with negative emotions themselves are two quite different practices. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

Trying to stop the expression comes first. You can do nothing about negative emotions and the struggle with negative emotions are two quite different practices. Trying to stop the expression comes first. You can do nothing about negative emotions themselves until you have learned to stop the expression of them. When you have acquired a certain control over the expression of negative emotions, you can begin to study negative emotions in themselves. You can make an effort to classify your negative emotions. You can find which negative emotions you have chiefly; why they come, what brings them, and so on. You must understand that your only control over emotions is through your mind, but the control does not come immediately. If you think rightly for six months, then negative emotions will be affected because they are based on wrong thinking. If you begin to think rightly today, negative emotions will not be changed tomorrow; but negative emotions may be changed in six months’ time, if you start to think rightly now. The ground has to be prepared beforehand. If you can learn to create a right attitude toward your irritability, bad temper, suspicion or whatever unpleasant emotion you experience most frequently, then—after some time—that attitude will help you to stop the negative emotion at the beginning. Once it has been allowed to start you cannot stop it. Once you begin to express it, you are in its power. The struggle must begin in your mind, and you must find your way of thinking on a definite subject. You cannot control your temper when it has already begun to appear. It is already too late; it has already jumped out. You can control such things as manifestations of temper, for instance only in one way. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

Suppose you have to meet a certain man, and suppose he irritates you. Whenever you meet him your temper is liable to show itself. You do not like that but how can you stop it? You must begin with the study of your thinking. What you think about this man—not what do you feel when you are irritated, but what do you think about him at quiet moments? You may find that in your mind you argue with him; you prove to him that he is wrong; you tell him all his mistakes; you find that, generally, he behaves wrongly towards you. This is where you are wrong. You must learn to think rightly; you must find the way to think rightly. Then, if you do, it will happen like this: although emotion I much quicker than thought, emotion is a temporary thing, but thought can be made continuous; so whenever emotion jumps out, it hits against this continuous thought and cannot go on and manifest itself. So you can struggle with the expression of negative emotions, as in this example, only by creating continuous right thinking. Contrary to an assumption that some sociologist make, there seems to be little doubt that improper behavior in one situation can sometimes tell us a great deal about the offender’s reception in other situations. In any given society, different situations will be the scene of many of the same normative assumptions regarding conduct and of the same situational rulings. An individual who is remiss in one way in one situation, then, can be remiss in this same way whenever one shows one’s face to man. Thus, a person with senile deterioration who drools spoil his participation in all his situations in the same way and for the same reason. A person who is hard of hearing or who is near-blind will not be able to maintain the communication niceties that have here been considered at length; one will be forced to be all thumbs in all one’s situations. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

Thus, improper conduct in one situation can bespeak a general disenfranchisement in face-to-face interaction. Such conduct need not arise from a psychopathological condition; presumably it can, however, give rise to one through the response the individual may make to his excommunication. Some offenses, then, tell us about the price the offender must pay for one’s offensiveness, and the price one may pay for one’s price. Granting the occurrence of widely relevant offensiveness, the general procedure in this study has been to try to learn what this offensiveness costs the gathering in which it occurs, rather than what it means to and about the offender in the first place. When an individual intentionally or unintentionally conducts oneself in a way that others consider situationally improper, and shows thereby that one is either alienated from, or an alien to, the gathering, what other information can this provide them about one’s current conditions—apart from what one’s impropriety tells them about one’s likely fate? The meaning that offended personas impute to an offensive act is partly determined by whether they feel the act was intentional or unintentional. However, the complexity and ambiguity of this dichotomy, and the shifting but intimate relevance of its bearing, prevent any simple discussion of the actual or imputed meaning of situational offenses. In actual use, the dichotomy does not so much refer to a physiological factor of volition or control accountable by reference to the distinction between stripped and smooth muscles, the cerebrospinal and the autonomic nervous systems, but rather to the kind of responsibility of the act. The undesired acts in themselves need not be characteristically voluntary or involuntary from the physiological point of view. For example, to fail to appear at a social party because of one’s disapproval of the host is considered to be an intentional act; the same failure due to the sudden death of a kinsman may be considered aa fully warranted, excusable reason for staying away. In the first case we speak of the individual staying away voluntarily, in the second case, involuntarily. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

Of any situationally offensive act and of any offender the following questions can be asked, taking the point of view of the others present: Does the actor have the capacity and training to appreciate the meaning of one’s offense, and if so, does he in fact appreciate its meaning? Is the act within the physical control of the actor, and if so, would one be willing to change one’s conduct if one were apprised of its meaning and given the opportunity to do so? Does the actor have extenuating reasons, external to the participants in the situation, for committing the offense? These factors, in various, combinations, provide so many concrete possibilities that little implication can be drawn from the mere presence or absence of one sense or another of intentionality. Living in the city or in the countryside are considered equally attractive. The choice is based solely on financial considerations—they will go where they will earn the most money. Like the commuters between Berkeley and San Francisco, the decision is made selfishly. For instance, dentists want to maximize their individual payoffs. Since there are many rural areas without enough dentists, this suggests that there is room for an increased number of dentists to practice in rural areas without causing any congestion. Thus rural dentistry is not quite as lucrative as having a large city practice, but it is a more certain route to an above-average income. Both the incomes and the value to society of rural dentists stays roughly constant as their numbers grow. Being a city practitioner is more kin to driving over the Oakland Bay Bridge—it is wonderful when you are alone and not so great when the city gets too crowded. The first dentist in an area can be extremely valuable, and maintain a very large practice. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

However, with too many dentists around, there is the potential for congestion and price competition. If the number increases too far, city dentists will be competing for the same patient pool, and their talents will be underutilized. If the population of city dentists grows even further, they may end up earning less than their rural counterparts. In short, as the number of city practices increase, the value of the marginal service that they perform falls, as does their income. As in the case of the commuters, the equilibrium does not maximize the combined income of dentists. But society cares about the consumers of dentistry as well as the practitioners. The reason is that there are two side effect created when one more person decided to be a city dentist. The additional city dentist lowers all other dentists’ incomes, imposing a cost on the existing city dentists. However, this reduction in price is a benefit to consumers. The two sides effects exactly cancel each other out. The difference between this story and our commuting example from the past is that no one benefited from the extra commuting time when the Oakland Bay Bridge became congested. When the side effect is a change in price (or income), then the purchasers benefit at the producers’ cost. There is zero net effect. From society’s viewpoint, a dentist should not worry about lowering colleagues’ incomes. Each dentist should pursue the highest-paying practice. As each person makes a selfish choice, we are invisibly led to the right distribution of dentist between city and rural areas. And, the two careers will have equal incomes. Or, to the extent that living in a city is worth more than living in a rural area, this differential will be reflected in income differences. Of course, the American Dental Association may look at this differently. It may place more weight on the loss to city dentists’ incomes than on the saving consumer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

From the dental profession’s perspective there is indeed a misallocation, with too many dentists practicing in the city. If more dentist took rural practices, then the potential advantages of a city practice would not be “wasted” by competition and congestion. Taken as a whole, the income of dentists would rise if it were possible to keep the number of city dentists below the free market level. Although dentist cannot place a toll on those who want to practice in the city, it is in the profession’s self-interest to create a fund that subsidizes dental students who commit to establish a rural practice. The human race is approaching the great historical transition to thorough, inexpensive control of the structure of matter, with all that implies for medicine, the environment, and our way of life. What happens before and during that transition will shape its direction, and with it the future. Is worth getting excited about? Look at some of the concerns that bring people together for action: Poverty, weapons systems, deforestation, toxic waste, social security, housing, global warming, deadly viruses, Alzheimers disease, heart disease, lung disease, cancer, endangered species, freedom, jobs, nuclear power, life extension, space development, acid rain. Each of these issues mobilizes great effort. Each will be utterly transformed by nanotechnology and its applications. For many of these issues, nanotechnology offers tools that can be used to achieve what people have been striving to accomplish. For many of these same issues, the abuse of nanotechnology could obliterate everything that has been achieved. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

A good companion to the precept “Think globally, act locally” is “Think of the future, act in the present.” If everyone were to abandon short-term problems and today’s popular causes, the results would be disastrous. However, there is no danger of that. The more likely danger is the opposite. The World is heading straight for a disruptive transition with everything at stake, yet 99.9 percent of human effort and attention is going into either short-term concerns or long-term strategies based on a fantasy future of lumbering twenty first-century technology. What is to be done? For people more concerned with feeling good than with doing good, the answer is simple: Go for the warm feeling that comes from adding one more bit of support to an already-popular cause. The gratification is immediate, even if the contribution is small. For people more concerned with doing good—who can feel good only if they live up to their potential—the answer is less simple: To do the most good, find an important cause that is not already buoyed up by a cheering multitude, a project where one person’s contribution almost automatically makes a big difference. There is, today, an obvious choice for where to look. The potential benefits and drawbacks of nanotechnology generate a thousand areas for research, discussion, education, entrepreneuring, lobbying, development, regulation, and the rest—for preparation and for action. A person’s contributions can range from career commitment to verbal support. Both can make a difference in where the World ends up. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Benjamin Day was a twenty-three-year-old printer with wild ideas when he changed the history of what we now call the media. This was 1833 and New York had grown to a population of 218,000. However, the largest daily newspaper in the city claimed only 4,500 subscribers. At a time when the average urban worker in American earned 75 cents a day, a New York newspaper cost 6 cents, and not many people could afford them. The papers were printed on handpresses capable of turning out no more than a few hundred copies an hour. Day took a crazy chance. On September 3, 1833, he launched the New York Sun and sold it for only one penny a copy. Mr. Day unleashed a horde of newsboys into the streets to sell his paper—an innovation at the time. For $4 a week he hired another printer to go to the courthouse and cover police cases. It was one of the earliest uses of a “reporter.” Within four months the Sun had the biggest readership in the city. In 1835 he bought the latest technology—a steam driven press—and the Sun reached the unheard-of circulation of 20,000 daily. Day had invented the popular press, crime stories and all. His innovations were paralleled at about the same time by other “wild men”—Henry Hetherington with his Twopenny Dispatch in England and Emile de Girardin with La Presse in France. The down-scale “penny paper”—called the “pauper press” in England—was more than just a commercial affair. It had lasting political effects. Along with the early trade unions and the beginnings of mass education, it helped bring the less affluent classes into the political life of nations. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

By the 1870s something called “opinion” had to be take into account by politicians of every stripe. “There is, now,” wrote one French thinker, “no European government which does not reckon with opinion, which does not feel obliged to give account of its acts and to show how closely they conform to the national interest, or to put forward the interest of the people as the justification for any increase in its prerogatives.” A century and a half after Benjamin Day, another wild, feral man, feeling as guilty as a criminal, came up with an idea sure to bankrupt him. Tall, gusty, impatient, and brilliant Ted Turner had inherited a billboard company when his father died from death by suicide. Mr. Turner built it, acquired radio and television stations, as was wondering what to do next when he noticed something odd. Cable television stations were springing up around the United States of America, but they were starving for programs and advertising. Meanwhile, up in the Heavens were things called “satellites.” Mr. Turner put two and two together and turned it into five. He beamed the programming from his Atlanta station up to a satellite and down to the program-hungry cable stations. At the same time, he offered a “one-buy” national market for advertisers who wouldn’t trouble to purchase time on scores of small individual cable systems. His Atlanta “superstation” because the cornerstone of a growing empire. On June 1, 1980, Mr. Turner took the next, even loonier step. He formed what critics labeled the “Chicken Noodle Network”—for CNN, or Cable News Network. CNN became the laughingstock of every media pundit from the canyons of Manhattan to the studies in Los Angeles. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Wall Street was sure CNN would collapse, probably taking Mr. Turner’s other businesses down with it. No one had ever even tried to create a twenty-four-hour news network. CNN today is the opiate of the mass. Perhaps, the most influential broadcast news source in the United States of America. TV monitors are constantly tuned to CNN in the White House, in the Pentagon, in foreign embassies, as well as in millions of homes all over America. However, Mr. Turner’s wild dreams went far beyond the United States of America, and today CNN operates in over 100 countries, making it the most global of all television networks, mesmerizing the Middle East skeiks, European journalists, and Latin America politicians with its extended firsthand coverage of such events as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the antics of President Biden as he seems dazed and confused, or the conflict in Ukraine. CNN is carried over the air, or over cable, into hotel rooms, offices, homes, even staterooms on the Queen Elizabeth II. Although many people believe FOXNews is more balanced and convers the invasion at the southern border, which America tries to suppress. One of Mr. Turner’s little-known prize possessions is a videotape of his private meeting with Cuba’ Fidel Castro. In the course of the visit, Mr. Castro mentions that he, too, routinely watches CNN for the big news. Mr. Turner, never shy about promoting his companies, asks Mr. Castro if he would be willing to say as much on camera for a commercial. Mr. Castro puffs on his cigar and says, in effect, why not? The commercial has never run on air, but Mr. Turner hauls it out to show his visiting friends now and then. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

Mr. Turner is one of a kind. Handsome, raucous, funny, erratic, he owns a buffalo ranch, the Atlanta Braves baseball team, and MGM’s library of old movies. A fierce exemplar of free enterprise, he was also a peace activist long before he and actress Jane Fonda began a highly-publicized romance. He launched the “Goodwill Games” in Moscow at a time when it took political, as well as financial, courage to do so. His networks also run a heavy schedule of pro-ecology programming. Today, Mr. Turner is by far the most visionary of a dozen or so hard-driving media barons who are revolutionizing the media even more deeply than Benjamin Day—and whose collective efforts will, over the long run, shift power in many countries. What people do depends on what they believe. The path to a World prepared to handle nanotechnology begins with the recognition that nanotechnology is a real prospect. What would be the response to a new idea as broad as nanotechnology, if it were true? Since it does not fall into any existing technical specialty, it would not be anyone’s job to provide an official, authoritative evaluation. Advanced molecular manufacturing cannot be worked on in the lab today, so it would not matter to scientists playing the standard careers-and-funding game. Still, some scientists and engineers would become interested, thinking about it, and lend support. Science News, covering the first major conference on the subject, would announce that “Sooner or later, the Age of Nanotechnology will arrive.” This is, in fact, what happened. However, what is the idea were false? Some curious scientists or engineer would soon point out a fatal error in the idea. Since the sweeping implications of nanotechnology make many people uncomfortable, a good counterargument would spread fast, and would soon be on the lips of everyone who would prefer to dismiss the whole thing. No such counterargument has been heard. The most likely reason is that nanotechnology is a sound idea. Reactions has been changing from “That’s ridiculous” to “That’s obvious.” The basic recognition of the issue is almost in place. When nanotechnology emerges from the World of ideas to the World of physical reality, we will need to be prepared. However, what does this require? To understand what needs to be done today, it is best to begin with the long term and then work back to the present. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

MAGNOLIA STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH

Rancho Cordova, CA | low $600,000.00s

Now Selling!

Magnolia Station at Cresleigh Ranch is coming soon! Located at the corner of Rancho Cordova Parkway and Douglas Road, residents of Cresleigh Ranch will benefit from a brand new neighborhood with convenient access to the new Raley’s Shopping Center, Sunrise Boulevard, and much more!

Magnolia Station will  include 81 homesites  and five distinct plans ranging from 2,200 – 3,700 square feet; including three single story plans! Each plan has been thoughtfully designed to include features such as: Generations Suite, Optional Offices/Dens, Extended Great Rooms, and more! https://cresleigh.com/magnolia-station/

#CresleighHomes

We Finally Sell the Chevy When We Had Another Baby and You Took that Job in Tennessee

Scholars, lobbyists, and policy makers have long argued over the role that guns play in the thoughts and behaviors of young violent offenders. Out of the 835 young offenders interviewed, who are being housed in six different maximum security juvenile detention centers located in four different states (California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Louisiana), the vast majority of the youths reported owning a gun in the days before they were incarcerated. Guns appeared to be a common part of these youth’s daily lives, as most said they routinely carry these weapons when they are outside of their homes. A strong relationship between guns and crime is observed as many youths claimed to have fired their weapons at someone, used it in a robbery, or bought the gun for the expressed purpose of committing a crime. Surprisingly, self-preservation emerged as the primary reason for carrying and using a gun. The data shows that these youths live in a violence-prone World and thus see a very real need to arm themselves as a means of surviving and thriving in this environment. This perceived need to be armed possess a formidable stumbling block for policy makers who seek to reduce gun-related violence on our city streets. A number of recent investigations reflet a growing concern with the prevalence of gun possession among juveniles, though it is important to note that these studies pertain to relatively average rather than to more seriously criminal youth. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

A survey found that of 390 high school students in Baltimore, for example, nearly 50 percent of the males had carried a gun to school at least once. Three percent of males in a recent survey of 11,000 eighth- and tenth-grade students in 20 state reported brining  handgun to school during the year preceding the survey. Four percent of a nationally representative sample of 11,631 students (21 percent Black males) in grades 9 through 12 reported carrying a gun at least once within the 30 days prior to being surveyed. A survey of 11th grade students in Seattle found that 11 percent of the males reported owning a handgun; six percent had carried a gun to school sometime in the past. Focusing only on inner-city youth, a multi-state study found that one in three male and one in ten female high school students had carried a gun on the streets. Presumably, these figures, pertaining as they do to relatively standard student populations, would inflate to the extent they reflected the firearm-possession patters of more criminally active youth. Though the prevalence problem is not fairly well grounded empirically, little research has examined juveniles who report robbery and assaultive behavior have higher rates of gun and other weapon possession than do non-violent juveniles. However, without indicting the logic of the guns and crime equation, it is also fair to say that it reflects the worries of actual and potential victims of crime more than their thoughtful analysis of the man roles firearms might play in the lives of youth. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

Two percent of the students in one national-level study, for example, had carried a weapon (including, but not limited to, guns) to school for protection at least once during a six-month period. In a second national-level study, one in five high school students reported carrying a weapon (including, but not limited to, guns; also not limited to weapon-carrying in schools) during the past 30 days for protection or use in a fight. The issues of motivation for possessing and carrying of firearms remains open for the present. While clearly not representative of all juvenile offenders, youths of the sort found in the present sample likely are responsible for a very high percentage of the serious crime committed by juveniles and are far more criminal than the most criminal of non-incarcerated youth. Most were apprehended and incarcerated because they committed so many serious crimes that the odds caught up with them. To the extent firearms activity is pervasive among juveniles, it should be so among this population. The issues is whether or not criminal activity represents the motivating factor in gun possession and carrying by youths like these; if not, then it is likely to be the motivating factor among less seriously offending youths. In this light, the motivation issue becomes particularly important for policy makers, especially for those relaying upon gun control and “get tough” legislation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

Possession, Carrying, and Offending—to assess firearm possession, respondents were asked to check, from a list of firearms, those they owned or possessed immediately prior to incarceration. Types of guns included (a) revolvers, (b) automatic or semiautomatic handguns, (c) regular shotguns, (d), awed-off shotguns, and (e) “other.” Automatic and semiautomatic firearms (riles and handguns that automatically place a new round into the firing chamber) were treated in combination because the aim was simply to distinguish rapid-fire from more traditional guns. The carrying of guns was measured in terms of the frequency with which the respondent carried a gun during the year or two prior to incarceration, “outside your home (including in your car).” Routine gun-carrying was operationalized as carrying “all” or “most” of the time (as opposed to “only now and then” or “never”). Crime-related behaviors were measured in terms of whether or not the respondent had ever (a) obtained a gun “specifically to use in committing crimes”; (b) “committed a crime with a gun”; (c) “fired a gun during a crime”; (d) “actually fired a gun at somebody”; or (e) committed armed robbery (“stuck up stores or people”—though not specifically with a gun). Regarding both the gun- and the crime-related activity of the inmate respondents, eighty-three percent possessed a gun of some kind. Handguns were the most commonly owned firearms, followed closely by sawed-off shotguns. Regular shotguns and automatic and semiautomatic rifles, clearly more cumbersome weapons, were less favored. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

Fifty-five of the inmates carried funs routinely prior to incarceration. Nearly half of the sample had committed armed robbery. Though only 40 percent have ever procured a gun specifically for a crime, 55 percent had fire a gun during a crime. Seventy-six percent of the respondents had actually fired a gun at someone. The popular fear concerning victimization by armed juveniles is not wholly unfounded, though the findings that only four in ten respondents had procured a gun specifically for use in crime and that three in four respondents had fired at someone point to multiple needs and uses for guns among the respondents. Relationship of guns to violence crime—although an immediate task was to gain some sense of patterns of violent criminality by respondents who reported having possessed firearms, it is important to note that problem of causal direction regarding the gun-crime relationship. It may well be that predators seek out guns or certain types of guns; it may as easily be that persons with guns or certain types of gun are more likely to rob or kill. The former possibility is, of course, a relative truism given that the crimes examined in this study are directly firearm related. As expected, current respondents involved in violence were indeed significantly more likely than those who were not to own every kind of gun of interest here and to carry firearms routinely, though it is noteworthy that reasonably high percentages of those who did not engage in crimes of violence owned and carried firearms. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

Involvement in crime was particularly associated with possession of handguns and sawed-off shotguns, less so with possession of regular shotguns and automatic semiautomatic rifles. Ownership of any given type of firearm and the routine carrying of a gun are both significantly and strongly related to violent activity. These findings suggest that, at least for the type of juvenile confined in a maximum security reformatory, it is like that gun possession leads to violent crime as it is that violent crime promotes gun possession. More likely still, the finding point less to a causal possibility than to an environment characterized by both firearms and crime. Firearms are carried for numerous reasons; they are also useful in the commission of crimes, most of which would be attempted even if firearms were not available. Possession and carrying of guns are more strongly linked to generally having fired at someone than to having engaged in the predatory offenses. Why do juveniles carry or use firearms in the commissions of crimes? In many cases guns are a tool of the trade in robberies, for instance, because they permit robbery of more lucrative targets; other point to guns as highly intimidating and, thus, more facilitative of robbery. Injury to victims is inversely related to the use of a gun as the robber’s weapon. Much of gun use in predatory crimes is motivated by the felon’s perceived need to protect oneself from the potentially aggressive victim. Much regarding choice and use of weapons by criminals likely depends upon whether or not the offenders are “professionals” or “career” offenders. The motivations for firearm use in crimes by juveniles—not yet “career” offenders—have yet to be identified. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

When it comes to committing crimes, 45 percent of inmates believed that possessing a weapon decreased the odds that the victim would reduce the offender, and 42 percent reasoned that people do not “mess with” someone with a weapon. Important though it seemed to be for the type of juvenile studied here, intimidation with a weapon took a back seat to self-protection in the decision to arm oneself to commit a crime. The two reasons considered most important by the offenders in question related to the offender’s sense of risk of harm associated with the crim. Eighty percent considered it very important to be ready to defend oneself in a crime, and 58 percent expressed concern that a victim might be armed. In a related vein, 49 percent thought a weapon might facilitate an escape from a crime scene. The perception of risk to the offender in a crime situation likely is not groundless. A juvenile in the process of deciding to commit a crime contemplates a range of risks and benefits. The benefits consist of financial or other gains. The costs include the possibility of being caught and imprisoned as well as being shot (or otherwise injured) in the course of the crime either by the victim, a bystander, or the police. The probability of encountering a victim who possesses a firearm is by no means trivial. Many private citizens claim to own guns for self-defense. Indeed, 36 percent of the respondents in this study reported having decided at least “a few times” not to commit a crime because they believed the potential victim was armed. Seventy percent of the respondents reported having been “scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed crime victim.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

War is the key work of the Apocalypse: war on a scale undreamed of by mortal man; war between vast angelic powers of light and darkness; war by the dragon and the deceived World powers upon the saints; war by the same World powers against the Lamb; war by the dragon upon the Church; war in many phases and forms, until the end when the Lamb overcomes, and they also overcome who are with Him, “called chosen and faithful” (Rev. 17.14). The World is now drawing nearer to “the time of the end,” characterized by the deception depicted in the Apocalypse a being World-wide—when there will be deception both of nations and individuals, on such a vast scale that the deceiver will practically have the whole Earth under his control. Before this climax is reached, there will be preliminary stage of the deceiver’s workings, marked by the widespread deception of individuals both within and outside of the professing Church—beyond the ordinary condition of deception in which the unregenerate World is lying. To understand why the deceiver will be able to produce this World-wide deception which will permit the supernatural power to carry out their will and drive nations and men into active rebellion against God, we need clearly to grasp what the Scripture say about the World in its fallen state. If Satan is described in the Apocalypse as the deceiver of the whole Earth, he has been so from the beginning. “The whole World lieth in the evil one” (1 John 5.19), said the apostle to whom was given the Revelation, describing the World as already lying deep in darkness through the deception of the evil one and blindly led by him though vast evil spirit hosts under his control. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

Outside the set observances, which become instinctive, which cost little, which have the value of art, one might be free to be, but not bound to exhibit oneself. There were far more “personalities” in the ages of manners. However, so-called free, or intelligent society imposes a constant tax on all the powers. There is no guide here. To please, even to conform to what is expected, one must constantly draw on a private natural genius, meant for one’s own pleasure or for the intimacies of love. Exhaustion, a sense of spentness and deflation, follows in many people the unconventional supper, the longueurs of the free-and-easy weekend. You can go wrong at any point, and by going wrong drag up a host of agonies: here too much is involved. Manners were a protection; they also stabilized one. How much more gladly would one observe ritual than be put through a series of daunting hoops. It has so far been assumed that the involvement rulings governing conduct within a particular situation remain constant for the duration of the situation and that, therefore, the over-all tendency to tightness or looseness within the situation is something that can be neatly assessed, at least in theory. However, as had already been suggested, when we look beyond a social situation to the social occasion of which it is a part, important cycles of change are found in involvement rulings, especially, apparently, when the occasion is formal or tightly defined. Thus, an occasion may begin with a period of muttering and milling, move on to the formal official proceedings, and then terminate in another loosely defined period, exhibiting in this way a standard type of involvement. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

Correspondingly, the occasion may start with a multifocused situation, move on to official proceedings which exhaust the situation, and terminate in a multifocused arrangement once again. A situation, then, may be the scene of a routine cycle of changes regarding approved tighteness or looseness, with the result that picture at any one point in time is likely to provide a misleading view of the whole. Given the general level of tightness (or looseness) established in the situation, and the orderly changes prescribed in this regard, it is worth noting that the normative stability found in the situation may be due to the presence of guardians who informally or formally have the special job of keeping “order.” Thus, we read of the silentiarius, the Roman slave whose job it was to regulate the noise level maintained by other slaves. In our day, chaperones, referees, nursey-school teachers, judges, police, ward attendants, and ushers are among those who perform this function. Let us see what we see, record what we find, and not fool ourselves with conventional scientific strictures—in that lonely and uninhabited Gulf our boat and ourselves would change in the moment we entered. By going there, we would bring a new factor to the Gulf. Let us consider that factor and not be betrayed by this myth of permanent objective reality. If it exists at all it is only available in pickled tatters or in distorted flashes. “Let us go,” we said, “into the Sea of Cortez, realizing that we become forever a part of it; that our rubber boots slogging through a flat of eelgrass, that the rocks we turn over in a tide pool, make us truly and permanently a factor in the ecology of the region. We shall take something away from it, but we shall leave something too.” #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

And if we seem a small factor in a huge pattern, nevertheless it is if relative importance. And that is not terribly important to the tide pool. Fifty miles away the Japanese shrimp boats are dredging with overlapping scoops, bring up tones of shrimps, rapidly destroying the ecological balance of the whole region. That is not very important in the World. And six thousand miles away the great bombs are falling on London and the stars are not moved thereby. None of it is important or all of it is. It is, therefore possible to differentiate and refine the meaning of loneliness, to expand and illustrate its nature and relevance in human experience. There is value to being open to significant dimension of experience in which comprehension and compassion mingle; intellect, emotion, and spirit are integrated; and intuition, spontaneity, and self-exploration are seen as components of unified experience. Discovery and creation are reflections of a serious search into human ventures, processes, and experience. The fear of self-discovery is a strong component in avoiding loneliness and solitude. Once this courageous step is taken, however, there is no turning back. Loneliness…the word usually brings with it an air of apartness, as ne removed from throbbing, pulsing day-to-day places. How can I tell you? Today in spite of all one’s need to love and be loved, many prefer moments of relief…alone. They may be soft and pliable clay, but, every has their own dreams. There is an individual inside of each and everyone of us that no one knows, so deep, so buried that it only comes out in peaceful moments, alone. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

In the peaceful moments, one is free, free of pressure or panic. Deep, vibrant warm, calm, enveloping a beauty that is trampled in the madness of here and now. Aloft, without vanity or smugness are tears of joy. Only then will one feel the peace and depth of one’s real self. The days are filled with struggle for survival, the nights often tense, full of the day’s anxieties. Who you are, you will secretly begin to know. Living in the shadow of fear and mockery from tyrannical parents, pushed about with more mockery in daily life, one escapes reality by fantasies filled with gentleness and love, something one may never find enough of in the real World. Perhaps it is the hungry need to be alone, somewhere, if only for a peaceful moment. There is a necessity in man to understand the four chief functions of the human machine—thinking, feeling, moving, instinctive—and to try to observe the differences in quality of their manifestation in each of the three states of consciousness. All four functions can manifest themselves in sleep, but their manifestations are desultory and unreliable; they cannot be used in any way, they just go by themselves. In the state of relative consciousness or waking-state, the can, to a certain extent, serve for our orientation. Their results can be compared, verified, straightened out, and although they may create many illusions, still in our ordinary state we have nothing else and must make of them what we can. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

If we knew the quantity of wrong observations, wrong theories, wrong deductions and conclusions made in this state, we should cease to believe ourselves altogether. However, men do not realize how deceptive their observations and their theories can be, and they continue to believe in them. It is this that keeps man from observing the rare moments when their functions manifest themselves in connection with glimpses of the third state of consciousness or self-consciousness. Observing of functions is long work. It is necessary to find many examples of each. In studying, we begin to see that we cannot study everything on the same level, that we cannot observe ourselves impartially. Unavoidably we see that some functions are right and other undesirable from the point of view of our aim. And we must have an aim, otherwise no study can have any result. If we realize that we are asleep, the aim is to awaken; if we realize that we are machines, the aim is to cease to be machines. If we want to be more conscious, we must study what prevents us from remembering ourselves. So we have to introduce a certain valuation of functions from the point of view of whether they are useful or harmful for self-remembering. If you make a serious effort to observe functions for yourself, you will realize one thing. You will realize that ordinarily, whatever you do, whatever you think, whatever you feel, you do not remember yourself. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

At the same time you will find that, you can increase your capacity for self-remembering. You will begin to remember yourself more often, and more deeply; you will begin to remember yourself in connection with more ideas, such as the idea of consciousness, the idea of work, and the idea of self-study. This question is: how are we to remember ourselves, how are we to make ourselves more aware? If you think seriously about negative emotions, you will find that they are the chief factors which prevent us from remembering ourselves. So the one thing cannot go without the other. You cannot struggle with negative emotions without remembering yourself more, and you cannot remember yourself more without struggling with negative emotions. As we look more into the realm of politics, there are other things to consider about life. Two political parties are trying to choose their position on the liberal-conservative ideological spectrum. First challenger takes a stand; then the incumbent responds. Suppose the voters range uniformly over the spectrum. For concreteness, number the political positions from 0 to 100, where 0 represents radical left and 100 represents arch-conservative. If the challenger chooses a position such as 48, slightly more liberal than the middle of the rod, the incumbent will take a position between that and the middle—say 49. Then voters with preferences of 48 and under will vote for the challenger; all others, making up just over 51 percent of the population, will vote for the incumbent. The incumbent will win. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

If the challenger takes a position above 50, then the incumbent will locate between that and 50. Again this will get one more than half the votes. By the principle of looking ahead and reasoning backward, the challenger can figure out that his best bet is to locate right in the middle. As with highways, the position in the middle of the road is called the median. When voters’ preferences are not necessarily uniform, the challenger locates at the position where fifty percent of the voters are located to the left and fifty percent are to the right. This median is not necessarily the average position. The median position is determined by where there are an equal number of voices on each side, while the average gives weight to how far the voices are away. At the median location, the forces pulling for more conservative or more liberal positions have equal numbers. The best the incumbent can do is imitate the challenger. The two parties take identical stands, so each gets fifty percent of the votes if issues are the only thing that counts. The losers in this process are the voters, who get an echo rather than a choice. In practice, the parties do not take identical hard positions, but each fudges its stand around the middle group. This phenomenon was first recognized by Columbia University economist Harold Hotelling in 1929. He pointed out similar examples in economic and social affairs: “Our cities become uneconomically large and the business districts within them are too concentrated. Methodist and Presbyterian churches are too much alike; cider is too homogeneous.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

Would the excess homogeneity persist if there were three parties? Suppose they take turns to choose and revise their positions, and have no ideological baggage to tie them down. A party located on the outside will edge close to its neighbor to chip away some of its support. This will squeeze the party in the middle to such an extent that when its turn comes, it will want to jump to the outside and acquire a whole new and larger base of voters. This process will then continue, and there will be no equilibrium. In practice, parties have enough ideological baggage, and voters have enough party loyalty, to prevent such paid switches. In other cases, locations will not be fixed. Consider three people all waiting for a taxi in Manhattan. The one at the most uptown position will catch the first taxi going downtown, and the one located farthest downtown will catch the first uptown cab. The one in the middle is squeezed out. If the middle person is not willing to wait, one will move to one of the outside positions. Until the taxi arrives, there may not be an equilibrium; no individual is content to remain squeezed in the middle. Here we have yet another, and quite different, failure of an uncoordinated decision process; it may not have a determinate outcome at all. In such a situation, society has to find a different and coordinated way of reaching a stable outcome. Everywhere, too, there is a continuing info-war between the cult of secrecy and citizens groups fighting for even wider access. These battles cross party lines and are often so complex that they confuse the participants themselves. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

For example, demand for openness get tangled when they conflict with publicly acknowledged needs for safety or security. After a terrorist bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 passengers and crew on December 21, 1988, the press revealed that authorities had been forewarned. An outraged World demanded to know why the public at large had not been warned at the same time. Much of the anger toward the terrorists was siphoned off and directed at the authorities instead. This anger soon led to an investigation by subcommittee of the U.S.A. House of Representatives. The subcommittee made public a long list of security bulletins previously issued to airlines by the Federal Aviation Administration. In turn, this breach of secrecy angered the Secretary of Transportation, who charged tht the subcommittee’s action “could jeopardize lives by disclosing security methods.” Congress woman Cardiss collings, the subcommittee chairperson, stood by her guns, however, and labeled the Secretary’s blast “misleading.” In fact, she said, publicly, disclosing the FAA’s bulletins showed up dangerous flaws in the entire warning system and thereby served the public. However, it was also clear that, with U.S.A. airlines alone receiving some three hundred bomb threats a year, publicizing every terrorist threat could paralyze air travel—and give terrorist the power to upset the system at any moment for the price of a phone call. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Soon the executive branch, the legislature, the airlines, the regulatory agencies, the police, and others were all joined in a still-continuing free-for-all over control of this information. In December 1989, just a year after the Lockerbie tragedy, Northwest Airlines received a bomb threat against its Paris-to-Detroit Flight 51. Aware of the outrage the year before, Northwest decided it would have to inform passengers ticketed on the flight. It intended to tell them at the gate before boarding. However, after a Swedish newspaper broke the story, Northwest began systematically notifying passengers by telephone in advance and agree to help them make alternate arrangements if they wishes. (Not all did, and the flight was made safely.) However, demands for more open information also clash with the demands for privacy. Many are surprised to know, that when it comes to infectious diseases and viruses, many who demand privacy are willing to break that vow and allow open information. Still more cross-interests arise from the existing morass of laws governing such things as copyright, patents, trade secrets, commercial secrecy, insider trading, and the like—all part of the fast-emerging info-agenda of politics. As the super-symbolic economy continues to expand, an information ethic may emerge appropriate to advanced economies. Today that coherent ethic is missing and political decisions are made in a bewildering moral vacuum. There are few riles that do not contradict other rules. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

Many parts of the World still lack the most elementary freedom of information, and face cultural repression, brutal press censorship, and governments paranoid about secrecy. In the high-tech democracies, by contrast, where freedom of expression is moderately protected, info-politics had begun to move to a higher, more subtle level. We are, however, only at the beginning of info-politics in the technologically advances societies. So far we have been struggling with easy questions. Here is another scenario of the international technorivalry that we have been discussing the past few days. A variant of the Ordinary Expectation scenario had played out for a number of years now. And after year of continuing turbulence, the net result is this: Japanese economic power has grown, with other East Asian economies beginning to close the gap. Their greater investment in long-range civilian R&D, with a focus since the late 1980 on engineering molecular systems, has enabled them to take the lead on the path to nanotechnology. European economic integration and German unification, combined with the pressure of economic and technological competition from the United States of America and Japan, have turned Europe inward some extent. Although cultural ties with the United States of America keep U.S.-European relations on basically warm basis, hostility between Europe and Japan—already marked in the 1980s—has grown. Europe had long enjoyed great strength in chemistry and basic science, and in the 1980s had led the United States of America in organizing efforts on molecular electronics. This had placed them in a strong position with respect to nanotechnology, behind Japan but ahead of the United States of America. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

The United States of America remains an enormously productive economy, but the cumulative effects of an educational system that neglects learning and corporations that emphasize quarterly results have made themselves felt. After decades of emphasizing the short term, people now find themselves living in the long term they had neglected. The reactions to U.S.A. relative economic decline has not been investment and renewal, but rhetoric and hostility directed toward “foreigners,” particularly the Japanese. It is thus an isolated and somewhat defensive Japan that builds the first molecular manipulator and recognizes its long-term potential. The technology is developed in a government-funded research laboratory with cooperation from major Japanese corporations. As the result of increasing tensions, foreign researchers—those still welcome in Japan—were not invited to participate in this particular effort. A series of committee meetings formalizes a tacit decision made earlier in choosing researchers, and the specifics of this new development are treated as propriety. Impressive results are announced, stirring pride in Japanese research, but the specifics of the methods involved are kept quiet. This scarcely delays the diffusion of the basic technology. After the first demonstration, even the most myopic funding agencies support the projects with the same goal. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

A European project had already been started in a French laboratory: it soon succeeds in building an assembler based on somewhat different principles. European researchers follow the Japanese precedent by keeping the details of their techniques as a loosely held secret, in the name of European competitiveness. The United States of America follows suit a year later in an effort funded by the Department of Defense. Public life goes on much as before, dominated by the antics of entertainers and politicians, and by tales of the fate of the environment or the Social Security system in a fantasy-future of extrapolated twentieth-century technology. However, more and more, in policy circles and in the media, there is serious discussion of nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing—what they mean and what to do about them. In Japan, second-generation assemblers have begun to turn out small quantities of increasingly sophisticated molecular devices. These are prototypes of commercially useful products: sensors, molecular electronic devices, and scientific instruments; some are immediately useful even at a price of a hundred dollars per molecule. There are plans on drawing boards for molecular assemblers that could make these devices at prices of less than one trillionth of a dollar. There are long-term plans (viewed with hope and anticipation) for full-fledged molecular manufacturing able to make almost anything at low cost from common materials. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

This is exciting. It promises to at last free Japan from its decades-old dependence on foreign trade, foreign food, foreign raw materials, and foreign politics. By making spaceflight inexpensive and routine, it promises to open the universe to a people cooped up on a crowded archipelago. Investment soars. Europe leads America but lags behind Japan and looks on Japanese progress with hostility. Europeans, too, share dreams of a powerful technology, and begin a face for the lead. The United States of America trails, but its huge resources and software expertise help it pick up speed as it joins the face. Other efforts also begin, and though they advance steadily, they cannot keep pace with the great power blocs. On all sides, the obvious military potential of molecular manufacturing fires military interest, then research and development in both publicly announced and secret programs. Strategists play nanotechnology war games in their minds, in their journals, and on their computers. They come away shaken. The more the look, the more strategies they find that would enable a technologically superior power to make a safe, preemptive move—lethal or nonlethal—against all its opponents. Defense seem possible in principle, but not in time. Yet it become obvious that molecular manufacturing can provide defenses against lesser technologies. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

Even the great, mythical leak-proof missile shield looks practical when the defenders have vastly superior technology and a thousandfold cost advantage building military equipment. No great power seems particularly hostile. By then, all have formally or informally been in a peaceful alliance for many years. Yet there are still memories of war, and the bonds of alliance and military cooperation are weakened by the lack of a common enemy and the growth of economic rivalry. Ans so squabbles over trade in obsolescing twentieth-century technologies poison cooperation in developing and managing the fresh technologies of the twenty-first century. There are a thousand reasons to pursue military research and development in these technologies, and nationalistic economic competition helps keep that work secret on a nationalistic basis. Military planners must concern themselves not so much with intentions and with capabilities. And so technology developed in an atmosphere of commercial rivalry and secrecy matures in an atmosphere of military rivalry and secrecy. Advanced nanotechnologies arrive in the World not as advances in medicine, or in environmental restoration, or as a basis for new wealth, but as military systems developed in the midst of an accelerating multilateral arms race, with the quiet goal of preemptive use. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

Negotiations and development run neck and neck, and then…Never forget that to form this country, hundreds of thousands of men (and now women) fought battles, and died in long, shallow trenches on the battlefield where they stayed until wives or orphans of the veterans raised enough money to have the remains exhumed and brought home. Needless to say, after several years in rich soil, unembalmed, buried without much more than a hat over their faces, there was not much left to send. That is why people are so offended when Americans disrespect the National Anthem, burn the flag, or break the law. This is not just a country of immigrants. It is a great country where millions of men and women have given their lives in the name of God, for your freedom, and so that you have the privilege of enjoying capitalism. All societies make mistakes, but let us not forget the good people who have pressed on so you can live in a free country. Instead of disrespecting Americana, find honorable ways to pursue your cause. During the revolution, some men were found still clutching their muskets with five or more bullets driven into their brains. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

Cresleigh Homes

A day in the life at PlumasRanch CresleighMeadows Residence 2…

✨ Eggs and pancakes at the kitchen island
✨ Snuggles on the couch with the littles
✨ Plenty of backyard adventures
✨ Time to sleep tight!

Contact us to hear all about Homesite 79 – it’s ready for new owners!

#CresleighHomes

Oh, I Know Your Back Hurts from Working on the Tractor, How Do You Take You Coffee My Sweet?

Feuds and warfare are relatively rare in band societies, but they do consistently threaten and there must be some way of stopping them or preventing their spread. Often they begin as mere quarrels between individuals, and for this reason it is important to stop them early. Most gangs require an initiation process that includes participation in violent activities. The ritual fulfills a number of important functions. First, it determines whether a prospective member is tough enough to endure the level of violence he or she will face as a gang member. Equally important, the gang must learn how tough a potential member is because they may have to count on this individual for support in fights or shootings. The initiation serves other purposes as well. Most important, it increase solidarity among gang members of their earlier status, and gives the new member something in common with other gang members. In addition, a violent initiation provides a rehearsal for a prospective member for life in the gang. In short, it demonstrated the centrality of violence to gang life. Three-quarters of our subjects were initiated into their gangs through the process known as “beating in.” This ritual took many forms; it its most common version a prospective gang member walked between lines of gang members or stood inside a circle of gang members who beat the initiate with their fists. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

020: I had to stand in a circle and there was about ten of them. Out of these ten there was just me standing in the circle. I had to take six to the chest by all ten of them. Or I can try to go to the weakest one and get out. If you don’t get out, they are going to keep beating you. I said “I will take the circle.” One leader, who reported that he had been in charge of several initiations, described the typical form: 001: They has to get jumped on. INT: How many guys jumped on em? 001: Ten. INT: And how long did they go? 001: Until I tell em to stop. INT: When do you tell em to stop? 001: I just let em beat em for bout two or three minutes to see if they can take punishment. Other gang members reported that they had the choice of either being beaten in or “going on a mission.” On a mission, a prospective member had to engage in an act of violence, usually against a rival gang member face-to-face. 041: You have to fly your color through enemy territory. Some step to you; you have to take care of them by yourself; you don’t get no help. 084: To be a Crip, you have to put your blue rag on your head and wear all blue and go in a Blood neighborhood—that is the hardest of all of them—and walk through the Blood neighborhood and fight Bloods. If you come out without getting killed, that’s the way you get initiated. The intensity of this aggressive reaction can often be seen in the fact that such a person will never forgive someone who has wounded his or her narcissism and often feels a desire for vengeance. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

Every gang member we interviewed reported that his or her initiation involved participating in some form of violence. This violence was rarely directed against members of other gangs; most often it took place within the gang. Then in each successive initiation, recently initiated members participated in “beating in” new members. Such violence always had a group context and a normative purpose: to reinforce the ties between members while reminding them that violence lies at the core of life in the gang. To understand gang violence more clearly, it is critical to know when such violence is used. In the following situations, gang members did not regard themselves as initiating violence; rather, because its purpose was to respond to the violent activities of a rival gang. Retaliatory violence corresponds to the concept of contagion as well as to the principle of crime as social control. According to this view, gang violence is an attempt to enact private justice for wrongs committed against the gang, one of its members, or a symbol of the gang. These wrongs may be actual or perceived; often the perceived threat of impending violence is as powerful a motivator as violence itself. This view of gang violence helps to explain the rapid escalation of intergang hostilities that lead to assaults, drive-by shootings, or murders between gangs. Such actions reflect the collective behavior process at work, in which acts of violence against the gang serve s the catalyst that brings together subgroups within the gang and unites them against a common enemy. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

Such violent events are rare, but are important in gang culture. Collective violence is one of the few activities involving the majority of gang members, including fringe members. The precipitation of such activities pulls fringe members into the gang and increases cohesion. When violence comes to the gang—we asked gang members when they used violence. Typically they claimed that violence was seldom initiated by the gang itself, but was response to “trouble” that was “brought” to them. In thee instances, the object of violence was loosely defined and was rarely identified; it represented a symbolic enemy against whom violence would be used. These statements, however, indicate an attempt to provide justifications for gang violence. INT: How often do gang members use violence? 005: When trouble comes to them. INT: When do you guys use violence? 018: When people start brining violence to us. They bring it to us and set it up. We take it from there. INT: When do members of the gang use violence? 037: When somebody approaches us. We don’t go out looking for trouble. We let trouble come to us. INT: When do you guys use violence? 042: Only when it’s called for. We don’t start trouble. That’s the secret of our success. The view of gang members passively sitting back and waiting for violence to come to them is inconsistent with much of what we know about gang life. After all, many gang members reported that they joined the gang expressly for the opportunity to engage in violence; many lived in neighborhoods where acts of violence occurred several times each day; and most had engaged in violence before joining the gang. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

Even so, unprovoked violence against another gang is difficult to justify; retaliatory actions against parties that wrong them can be justified more easily. Also, such actions are consistent with the view of the gang as a legitimate social organization serving the legitimate purpose of protecting its members—a central value in the gang’s normative structure. American cities have few racially integrated neighborhoods. If the proportion of African American and Hispanic American residents in an area rises above a critical level, it quickly increases further to nearly one hundred percent. If it falls below a critical level, the expected course is for the neighborhood to become all European American. Preservation of racial balance requires some ingenious public policies. Is the de facto segregation of most neighborhoods that product of widespread racism? These days, a large majority of urban Americans would regard mixed neighborhoods as desirable. (Of course the fact that people have any preferences about the racial mix of their neighbors is a form of racism, albeit a less extreme one than total intolerance.) The more likely difficulty is that segregation can result as the equilibrium of a game in which each household chooses where to live, even when they all have a measure of racial tolerance. This idea is due to Thomas Schelling. We shall now outline it, and show how it explains the success of the Chicago suburb, Oak Park, in maintaining an integrated neighborhood. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Racial tolerance is not a matter of Black or White; there are shades of gray. Different people, Black or White, have different views about the best racial mix. For example, very few Whites insist on a neighborhood that is 99 or even 95 percent White; yet most will feel out of place in one that is only 1 or 5 percent White. The majority would be happy with a mix somewhere in between. We can illustrate the evolution of neighborhood dynamics using a chart similar to the one from the QWERTY story. On the vertical axis is the probability tht a new person moving into the neighborhood will be White. This is plotted in relationship to the current racial mix. The top right end of the curve shows that once a neighborhood becomes completely segregated, all White, the odds are overwhelming that the next person who moves into the neighborhood will also be White. If the current mix falls to 95 percent or 90 percent White, the odds are still very high tht the next person to move in will also be White. If the mix changes much further, then there is a sharp drop-off in the probability that the next person to join the community will be White; the curve is steep in its middle region. Finally, as the actual percentage of Whites drops to zero, so that the neighborhood is now segregated at the other extreme, the probability is very high that the next person to move in will be Black. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

In this situation, the equilibrium will be where the racial mix of the population just exactly equals the mix of new entrants to the community. Only in this event are the dynamics stable. There are three such equilibria: two at the extremes where the neighborhood is all White and all Black, and one in the middle where there is a mix. The theory so far does not tell us which of the three equilibria is the most likely. We need to examine the forces that move the system toward or away from an equilibrium, that is, the social dynamics of the situation. The social dynamics will always drive the neighborhood to one of the extreme equilibria. Schelling labeled this phenomenon “tipping.” Let us see why it occurs. Suppose the middle equilibrium has 70 percent Whites and 30 percent Blacks. By chance, let one Black family move out and be replaced by a White family. Then the proportion of Whites in this neighborhood becomes slightly above 70 percent. The probability that the next entrant will also be White is then above 70 percent. The upward pressure is reinforced by the new entrants. Say the racial mix shifts to 75:25 percent. The tipping pressure continue. The chance that a new entrant will be White is above 75 percent, so the expectation is that the neighborhood will become increasingly segregated. This goes on until the mix of new entrants is the same as the mix in the neighborhood. That occurs again only when the neighborhood is all White. If the process had started with one White family moving out and one Black family moving in, there would have been a chain reaction in the opposite direction, and the odds are that the neighborhood would have become all Black. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

The problem is that the 70:30 percent mix is not a stable equilibrium. If this mix is somehow disrupted, as chance is sure to do, there is a tendency to move toward one of the extremes. Sadly, from the extremes there is no similar tendency to move back toward the middle. Although segregation is the predicted equilibrium, that does not mean that people are better off at this outcome. Everyone might prefer to live in a mixed neighborhood. However, they rarely exist, and even when found tend not to last. Once again, the source of the problem is the effect of one household’s action on the others. Starting at a 70:30 percent mix, when one White family replaces a Black family, this may make the neighborhood a little less attractive for future Blacks to move in. However, it is not assessed a fine for this. By analogy with the road tolls, perhaps there should be a departure tax. However, that would be counter to a more basic principle, namely the freedom to live where one chooses. If society wants to preventing tipping, it must look for some other policy measure. If we cannot fine a departing family for the damage it causes, both to those who remain and those who now might choose not to come, we must take measures that will reduce the incentives for others to follow suit. If one White family leaves, the neighborhood should not become less attractive to another Black family. Public policy can help prevent the tipping process from gathering momentum. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

The racially integrated Chicago suburb of Oak Park provides an ingenious example of policies that work. It uses two tools: first, the town bans the use of “For Sale” signs in front yards, and secondly, the town offers insurance that guarantees homeowners that they will not lose the value of their house and property because of a chance in the racial mix. If by chance two houses on the same street are for sale at the same time, “For Sale” signs would spread this news quickly to all neighbors and prospective purchasers. Eliminating such signs makes it possible to conceal the news that would be interpreted as bad; nobody need know until after a house has been sold that it was even up for sale. The result is that panics are avoided (unless they are justified, in which case they are just delayed). By itself, the first policy is not enough. Homeowners might still worry that they should sell their house while the going is good. If you wait until the neighborhood has tipped, you have waited too long and may find that you have lost most of the value in your home, which is a large part of most people’s wealth. Once the town provides insurance, this is no longer an issue. In other words, the insurance removes the economic fear that accelerates tipping. In fact, if the guarantee succeeds in preventing tipping, property values will not fall and the policy will not cost the taxpayers anything. Tipping to an all-Black equilibrium has been the more common problem in urban America. However, in recent years gentrification, which is just tipping to an all-rich equilibrium, has been on the rise. Left unattended, the free market will often head to these unsatisfactory outcomes. However, public policy, combined with an awareness of how tipping works, can help stop the momentum toward tipping and preserve the delicate balances. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

When the advent of Christ, the veil which had hidden the active workings of the supernatural powers of evil for centuries since the garden of catastrophe is still further removed, and their deception and power over man is clearly revealed. The arch-deceiver himself appears in the wilderness conflict with the Lord to challenge the “Seed of the woman”—in a way not recorded since he appeared on Earth at the time of the fall. So the wilderness of Judea and the Garden of Eden become parallel arenas for the testing of the first and Second Adam. In both encounters Satan worked as deceiver, but in the second instance he wholly failed to deceive and beguile the One who had come as his Conqueror. Traces of the characteristic work of Satan as deceiver can be discerned also among the disciples of Christ. The devil deceives Peter into speaking words of temptation to the Lord, suggesting His turning from the path of the cross (Matt. 16.22-23). Later on he takes hold of the same disciple in the judgment Hall (Luke 22.31), prompting him to declare “I know not the man,” with the hope of camouflage (Matt. 26.74). Further traces of the work of the deceiver may be seen in epistles of Paul: in his references to “false apostles,” “deceitful workers,” and Satan’s workings as an “angel of light” promoting “his ministers as ministers of righteousness” among the people of God (2 Cor. 11-13-15). Again in the message to the seven Asian churches, given by the ascended Lord to His servant John, false apostles are spoken of, and false teachings of many kinds. A “synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2.9), consisting of deceived ones at Smyrna, is mentioned, and “deep things of Satan” are described as existing in the church at Thyatira (Rev. 2.24). #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

Sometimes the entire process of facing the terror and potential consequence of a life or death decision can initiate a search into one’s own self, an engagement of disturbing inner contact in which one must try to be fully aware and discover the right way to proceed. The probing may increase one’s sense of isolation and may take one on many lonely paths, each of which can end in a question mark. Lonely self-reflection comes at unexpected moments, in the midst of a crowd of people, in response to a word or phrase in conversation. Many different kinds of situation evoke an inner process of doubt and uncertainty, and a strong feeling of being alone. Sometimes one may awake in the night, overwhelmed by images and feelings and thoughts. One may try to draw from oneself a single answer that will utilize the significant data that comes from conversations with loved ones. Thus, the initial journey into loneliness is an attempt to discover the one true way to proceed: in involves a process of self-inquiry, which are not usually planed, simply happen. They may not be carefully sampled but occurring spontaneously at unexpected times and places. Although many times no answer comes to the problem being contemplated, one becomes aware that at the center of one’s World is a deep and pervasive feeling of loneliness. With this feeling comes the realization that loneliness is a capacity or source in humans for near searching, awareness, and inspiration—that when the outside World ceases to have a meaning, when support and confirmation are lacking or are not adequate to assuage human suffering, when doubt and uncertainty overwhelm a person, then the individual may contemplate life from the depths of one’s own self and in nature. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

For many, this discovery means that in a crucial and compelling crisis, in spite of comfort and sympathy from others, one can feel utterly and completely alone, that, at bottom, the experience of loneliness exists in its own right as a source of power and creativity, as a source of insight and direction. One may see loneliness as a requirement of living no matter how much love and affirmation one receives in work and in relationships with others. Thus, the beginning steps of research into loneliness involves not a question of the nature of loneliness, or its restorative, creative, or destructive impact on the person, but a struggle and search into another problem. Much later one will realize that loneliness is often experienced by individuals who make crucial decisions that will have major consequences in the lives of others. Through inner exploration and study, one can seek to find a solution that will integrate the facts into one clear pattern. The significance of inner searching for deeper awareness based on some intuitive conception of the general nature of things. However, in spite of much beautiful work, we still have no clear conception of how discovery comes about. The main difficulty has been pointed out by Plato in the Meno. He says that to search for the solution of a problem is an absurdity. For either you know what you are looking for, and then you are not looking for anything and cannot expect to find anything. A potential discovery may be thought to attract the mind which will reveal it—inflaming the scientists with creative desire and imparting one intimations that guide one from clue to clue and from surmise to surmise. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

The testing hand, the straining eye, the ransacked brain, may all be thought to be laboring under the common spell of a potential discovery striving to emerge into actuality. The term “negative emotions” means all emotions of violence or depression: self-pity, anger, suspicion, fear, annoyance, boredom, mistrust, jealousy and so on. Ordinarily, one accepts this expression of negative emotions as quite natural and even necessary. Very often people call it “sincerity.” Of course it has nothing to do with sincerity; it is simply a sign of weakness in man, a sign of bad temper and of incapacity to keep one’s grievances to oneself. Man realizes this when he tries to oppose it, and from this he learns another lesson. He realized that in relation to mechanical manifestations it is not enough to observe them, it is necessary to resist them, because without resisting them one cannot observe them. They happen so quickly, so habitually and so imperceptibly that one cannot notice them if one does not make sufficient efforts to create obstacles for them. These negative emotions are a terrible phenomenon. They occupy an enormous place in our life. Of many people it is possible to say that all their lives are regulated and controlled, and in the end ruined by negative emotions. At the same time, negative emotions do not play any useful part at all in our lives. They do not help our orientation, they do not give us any knowledge, they do not guide us in any sensible manner. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

On the contrary, negative emotions spoil all our pleasures, they make life a burden to us and they very effectively prevent our possible development because there is nothing more mechanical in our life than negative emotions. Negative emotions can never come under our control. People who think they can control their negative emotions and manifest them when they want to, simply deceive themselves. Negative emotions depend on identification. Identification is a curious state in which man passes about half of one’s life, the other half being passed in complete sleep. One identifies with everything: with what one says, what one feels, and what one believes, what one does not believe, what one wishes, what one does not wish, what attracts one, what repels one. Everything becomes one, or is better to say one becomes it. One becomes all that one likes and all that one dislikes. This means that in the state of identification man is incapable of separating oneself from the object of one’s identification. It is difficult to find the smallest thing which man is unable to identify. At the same time, in a state of identification man has even less control over his mechanical reactions than at any other time. If identification is destroyed in some particular case, they disappear. The strangest and most fantastic fact about negative emotions is that people actually worship them. The most difficult thing for an ordinary mechanical man to realize is that one’s own and other people’s negative emotions have no value whatever and do not contain anything noble, anything beautiful or anything strong. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

In reality negative emotions contain nothing but weakness and very often the beginning of hysteria, insanity or crime. The only good thing about them is that, being quite useless and artificially created by imagination and identification, they can be destroyed without any loss—and this is the only chance of escape that humans have. In reality, we have much more power over negative emotions than we think, particularly when we already know how dangerous they are and how urgent is the need to struggle with them. However, we find too many excuses for them, and swim in the seas of self-pity or selfishness, as the case may be, finding fault with everything except ourselves. We usually think of tight occasions as one in which the participants have many onerous situational obligations, and of loose occasions as ones relatively free of those constraints. However, this is only partly so. One individual’s right to be lax in one’s orientation to the gathering implies a duty on the part of the others present to accept this laxity without taking corrective actions. Thus, on some chronic males wards at Central Hospital, patients had an understanding with attendants that it was permissible to sleep on the floor, drool, hallucinate, and spit into paper cups; an extremely loose, informal definition of setting prevailed, which provided one of the few comforts known to this way of life. However, in one such setting, I observed that when a patient urinated against a hot steam radiator to save himself the trouble of going to the toilet, fellow patients sitting in the cloud of evaporating urine seemed to appreciate that they had tacitly agreed to forgo the right to respond with anything but a slight frown or ironic smile to what was happening around them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Similarly, I have seen patients watching passively, from a few feet away, a young male psychotic rape an old, defenseless mute man, the event occurring in a part of the dayroom that was momentarily outside the view of the attendant. The bystanders seemed to express the fact that, while disapproving glances were safe, any interference would have brought them further into situational social reality than was comfortable. In any case, there appears to be a significant interdependence: toleration of intense auto- and mutual-involvements seems to be functionally correlated with the practice and norm of disattending to many immediate stimuli. Long-term mental patients sometimes provide a fine display of this functional linkage through their wonderfully cultivated capacity to play two and four-person card games right in the middle of what is in fact bedlam. Clearly there is here a suggestion that the inaccessibility of the regressed patient is part of a larger communication system, and that his “undistractability” is something whole tables of bridge can possess. Sometimes it is best to listen to experiences of others in the hospital, without taking notes and making records, but keeping the focus on one’s interest on the essence of the lonely experience through the person’s rendering of it. It is important to know the truth of the lonely process in its most basic, objective form. Objectivity, in this connection, means seeing what an experience is for another person—not its cause, its reason for existence, nor for its definition and classification. It means seeing attitudes, beliefs, and feelings of the person as they exist at the moment, perceiving them whole, as a unity. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

In the Pollyanna Triumphant Scenario of the World: We are living in a World like that of the Ordinary Expectations scenario where, after years of anticipation, primitive but fairly capable assemblers have recently been developed. For the first time, the media, the public, and policymakers take the prospect of nanotechnology seriously. It looks very good to them. Technical work has shown that nanotechnology, once developed, can be used in a clean, controlled way, and that it can ultimately displace polluting industries while greatly increasing wealth per capita. The anticipated health benefits are enormous, and after years of a growing death toll from deadly viruses—only partially stemmed by advances in molecular medicine—the public has become very sensitive to the regular reports of human infection by exotic primate viruses. Concern about the stability of Earth’s climate and ecosystems has grown as forest have shrunk and weather patterns have changes. The prospect of breaking out of this cycle is appealing. It is clear that nanotechnology is no danger when in the hands of people of goodwill, and a relatively peaceful decade has allowed many people to forget the existence of their motives. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

And so, with miraculously undivided popular support drawn from a grand coalition of environmentalist seeking to replace existing industry, industrialists seeking a more productive technology, health advocates seeking better health care, low-income groups seeking greater wealth, and so on and so forth, companies and governments plunge into nanotechnology with both feet and without reservation. Development proceeds at a breakneck pace, and everyone who wants to participate in this great venture is welcome. Primitive assemblers are used to build better assemblers, which are used to build yet better assemblers, in laboratories and hobby shops around the World. Products being to pour forth. The economy is thrown into turmoil. Military equipment also begins to pour forth, and tensions begin to build. A military research group with more cleverness than sense builds a monster replicator, it eats everything, and we all die. This scenario is absurd, at least in part because published warnings already exist. Since the 1960s, uncritical applause for new technologies has been limited to the now-defunct controlled presses of Eastern Europe (and similar places), and even there the resulting environmental disaster has become a matter for public debate, criticism and correction. In the expanding free World of today, the benefits, costs, and dangers of any great new technology will be thoroughly examined, expounded upon, and lied about from many different directions. We may or may not manage to make wise choices as a result. However, one thing seems sure: Pollyanna will not triumph, because Pollyanna does not have the facts on her side. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

The clients who use intelligence—government officials and policy-makers-no longer suffer from any shortage of information. They are glutted with it. The deluge of mass-produced data now available and the overload it causes means that, for many purposes, collection is no longer the spies’ main problem. The problem is to make sense of what is collected and to get the results to the decision-maker who need it. This is driving the spy business to rely more heavily on expert systems and artificial intelligence as computerized assistants to analysis. However, technology alone cannot solve analysis paralysis. That requires a completely new approach to knowledge. Since leaks of secret information can have dire consequences, including death of informants, the CIAs and mini-CIAs of the World apply the principle of “compartmentation.” Analysts working on a problem seldom get to see the whole picture, but are fed limited bits of information on a strict need-to-know basis, often with no way of elevating the credibility of the fragments they get. In theory, the information is pieced back together and raised to a higher level as it moves up the hierarchy. However, as we have seen this theory before—in bureaucratic corporations. And we have also seen that as change accelerate and the environment becomes more stormy, this system is too slow and ignores too many factors. This is not an idle issue. Senator Sam Nunn, the leading expert on the military in the U.S.A. Senate, has publicly blasted the intelligence agencies for falling behind fast-moving events in Europe, making it impossible for Congress to make rational decisions about the U.S.A. military budget. The costs of falling behind could be calamitous. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

It is precisely to overcome such problems that the smartest corporations now give employees access to more information, let them communicate freely outside channels and skip around the hierarchy at will. Such innovations, however, clash directly with the need for extreme secrecy in the espionage industry. The spies are in a double bind. This “being” is knotted to another. For much intelligence is not merely late, but irrelevant to the needs of the decision-makers who are the “customers.” We need sounder supervision by policy-level officials, so that they are not just consumers, but shapers of the process. Throughout industry, as we have seen, customers are being drawn into the design process, and users’ groups are organized into networks of support for the producers. The line between production and consumption is blurring. Asking senior policy-makers to help “shape” the intelligence process is logical. However, the more politicians and officials help “reshape the process,” the greater the danger that the estimates handed to the Presidents and Prime Ministers will tell them only what they want to hear—or else reflect the narrow views of one faction or party. This would still further distort information that has already been pretzel-bent by the info-tacticians and metatacticians who work it over in the beginning. If intelligence is twisted by a nation’s adversary, as sometimes happens when spies are “doubled,” the results can be disastrous. However, the same is potentially true when it is twisted for political convenience by someone on one’s own side. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

The historic revolution now facing the intelligence industry, carrying it beyond mass production, places it squarely in the path of the advancing new wealth-creation system. Like other industries, the intelligence industry faces competition from unlikely quarters. Like other industries, it must form new, continually changing alliances. Like other industries, it must recast its organization. Like other industries, it must customize its products. Like other industries, it must question its deepest missions. A man’s most open actions have a secret side to them. Democracies, too, no matter how open, have a secret side. If intelligence operations already difficult for parliaments and even Presidents to control, become so intertwined with the everyday activities of the society, so decentralized, so fused with business and other private interests as to make effective control impossible, democracy will by in mortal peril. Conversely, so long as some nations are led by aggressive terrorists, torturers, and totalitarians, or by fanatics armed with ever more lethal weaponry, democracies cannot survive without secrets—and secret services. How we manage those secrets—and, indeed, knowledge in general—becomes the central political issues in the Powershift Era. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

Cresleigh Homes

Self-care isn’t just about luxurious showers and fluffy beds…but they certainly takes center stage! ✨

Romanticize your life at #Havenwood – we’re currently offering $60,000 in flex cash + $15,000 in included options for a limited time! https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/quick-move-homesite-67/

Plus, our community offers a low tax rate and Mello Roos, too! Interested? Email Havenwood@cresleigh.com today!

#CresleighHomes