Subj: Howdy folks
Date: 99-08-06 16:15:34 EDT
From: Anilmitra
To: Joanelk
CC: Anilmitra

Hi Joan:
Questions, questions: the universe creates [on some accounts] nature, "just as" humans create social reality. Can humans create natural reality? [In an atomic-explosion, humans, using power of mind = concepts of physics, harness nature to transform the kind of natural reality = mass to energy...and this is getting pretty damn close though still quite far]... In unreflective moments social reality is real. In reflective moments I know that I have the power to make democracy unreal. That is, I can persuade other humans to stop behaving as though Congress and the Courts had power over all of us. I do not mean that I, Anil Mitra, could do that. I mean that that power, the power to persuade others regarding the dismantling [rather than destruction] or erection [rather than creation] of social elements is a common human power in that even, I, Anil Mitra, can persuade, you, Joan Elk, of a few small things, and the sum of such small things over time and population contributes to large scale changes and erections and dismantlings. In that way, I do not know that I can persuade an atom to unexist; and, though a hurricane can "destroy" a democracy, or a comet can destroy earth and so wipe out all societies, these things do not erect or dismantle social institutions...So, the question is which is more real, natural objects or social objects [you may want to call them artifacts]? It seems that on one reading nature is more real but on another society is more real.

Howdy folks, come on in!

Anil