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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!bandy
From: bandy@lll-crg.ARPA (Andrew Scott Beals)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: necessities, and the REAL reason for all this barfage
Message-ID: <783@lll-crg.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 21:23:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: lll-crg.783
Posted: Mon Aug 12 21:23:37 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 04:03:45 EDT
References: <735@lll-crg.ARPA> <1742@reed.UUCP> <765@lll-crg.ARPA> <1779@reed.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Labs, CRG group
Lines: 35
Keywords: trivialization, nukes

>From: purtell@reed.UUCP (Lady Godiva)
>   Since you seem to view hugs, and even friends as a luxury rather than
>a necessity, may I ask, what exactly DO you view as being necessary?

Sufficient food, clothing/shelter to fit the enviroment and mental
stimulation to keep the mind able to properly take care of the body.
(staring at clouds or stars could provide the extra amount needed aside
from food gathering and weather guessing)

To produce a creature that is able to decimate the planet requires
significantly more than this.

>[...] I really don't  understand why you seem
>to find the topic so offensive. I assure you that I hate "cutsie" and
>"childish" as much as the next person, but I guess that I just don't see
>physical affection as being either of those things. 

Neither do I. I just see the discussion of such things digressing
towards the cutsie-wootsie (as Alex, Your Humble Narrator would say).
I feel that this trivialization (my room-mate makes "silly animal
noises" (to quote a friend of mine) when he hugs random people - he
claims (if I remember correctly (we talked about this recently after I
started making barfing noises when he did this)) that it is a way to
reduce the threat that others may see in the action) of physical
affection to be bad. By making it silly and "cute" so that people can
accept it in a "safer" context, they end up getting stuck in that mode
of "cute" ("golly gee, isn't this fun") or in the this-is-a-formality
mode. In either case, the net result is the same - you end up removing
all emotional content from the action.
-- 
andy beals, bandy@lll-crg.arpa, {seismo,sun,gymble,mordor,dual}!lll-crg!bandy

she arrives like a limo/smooth and moving/on the prowl through the crowd
to the beat of the city/she glow in the dark/wherever she parks
the concrete crumbles and the night rumbles.../big electric cat...