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To: energyplay who wrote (50444)	5/25/2004 2:22:23 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

What is: Zero-Sum Knowledge, please?

To: energyplay who wrote (50444)	5/25/2004 5:02:48 AM
From: Seeker of Truth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Peter's metrics are quite interesting. Thanks for the post. If we rate the US under Bush we see restricted flow of info about the real situation in the middle east, the Iraq war, WMD, etc. etc. Also domination by religious interests. That is VERY serious. It also seems to me that hard work is not that much respected in the US; possession of wealth is respected. If you got it without working hard(such as illegally or on hearing the lawyer reading your inheritance from the dear departed) you are entitled(?) to equally profound respect. So it's hard to give the US high marks by these metrics. One needs to be careful with the criteria. For example one Japanese jokester remarked in an article "We Japanese are degree crazy not education crazy." I'm afraid that's true. I never hear people in Japan outside of academia complain that the government spends too little money on scientific research. Curiousity about the world of other countries does not equate to a thirst for knowledge, generally. Talking about societies, one of my main criteria is how do they treat people accused of crime and/or convicted of crime. Does the accused have any rights? Is torture used to extract confessions? Is the prisoner subjected to terror from other inmates? (China, of course gets a very low mark here.) Are habitual criminals quickly released to go and continue their life of thuggery? How much attempt is made to change the prisoners and how successful is it? How much effort is devoted to rooting out the ultimate causes of crime? Are guns legal in the society? etc. etc.