A thread for RL's theories about sociopaths.

Let me be the first to respond, while waiting for the great ideas to unfold.

This is what prompted this thread.

Thank you for starting this tread Izzy. Did you notice that my comment "You like " C. Hitchens ? Are you out of your mind? What would you like to title this new thread? "received the most negative replies ever that I received? It was -4 That means that it must have touched 5 people in a negative way.

You dislike some of what Hitchens believes but would you thought that my reply would have received such a negative response? I like Hitchens myself and only disagree with a small amount of what he says.
He is one of my favorites and it seems that many other people admire him.
It is amazing what you can learn from studying other people.

I don't think that you will like my theories about sociopaths because I think that many of us will be seen in the same light as those who profited off of slavery when people of the future analyze us.

I challenge RL to post a photo on a2k.

It takes a long time for even the smart to capture good photos to illustrate a sense of place for a part of a city, especially areas photographers are not snapping up.

ossobuco are you a photographer? I am not.

Not professionally. I've shown photographers in our gallery when I was there. Photography is in my blood; my father was one (extremely long story), but I got to it on my own after that. I have started a lot of photo threads, and so what, few responses. Check the tag window for photography.

RL - it hasn't been easy for Fbaezer to compile photos of Mexico City, filling out a map. He is not a stupid man, and has, I presume, culled useful photos.
I post animal photos on Roberta's animals thread and that can take me a lot of time, just to post the links.

Past all this, Baez is a guy I will always listen to, so please don't **** up his thread.

Ossobuco I am sorry I did not mean to f up his thread and by the way I found your profile to be genuinely honest in my opinion. I think that I have read it before but my memory is so poor that I forget until someone like you replies and I reread.
You seem to be a good person or should I say you try to be the best that you can.
I do not mean to be hateful by intruding other peoples threads but I find a overwhelming importance for all of us to think about ethics, You know how your society has a very strong interest in math, writing, science and so forth? I can only guess that you make it mandatory that young people study them, I think it may be time for ethics to be mandatory.
I am not saying that people should have to share your own thoughts of morality but rather study them and come to their own understanding because moral law should be observed and not mandatory such as Statutory law.

All fine, do it.

But when a man is trying to give the rest of us a sense of Mexico City at great length, please don't try to shut it down re slave labor of the past. The place is complicated and he knows that, way more than you or I do.

I've been to mexico city several times and am just now even beginning to get the geography. Give the rest of us a break, to go get a sense of the region.

That is cool, I'm trying to learn about it myself. Do you know if slavery played a big part in its development? I seen this below and wondered what you thought about it.

Slavery in Colonial Mexico was quite different from that in the American South. The bulk of those enslaved remained on the land where they were born. There was no large scale buying and selling of Indian slaves. Even the blacks imported from Africa, like the Indians, were incorporated into the encomiendo system that bound them and their descendants to a particular plantation or hacienda. Over 75 percent of modern Mexico's population, have at least one Indian or Mulatto ancestor. The vast majority of them were slaves. Ironically, it is the Indians, never enslaved, who retreated into largely inaccessible mountain and jungle areas, that today make up the most destitute and deprived population in modern Mexico.

Actually I want to challenge your allegation that John Newton was a sociopath. Not at all, he deeply regretted his involvement in the slave trade and campaigned against it. Sociopaths don't feel remorse. I think you're throwing labels around because he had a religious revelation, and you won't be having any of that.

No but, your comments were completely unwanted, which is why I did not respond to your comments about John Newton on that thread. You were acting like a Jehovah's witness at a party who won't have a drink, but refuses to go home.

I can't think why anyone rants about slavery in colonial Mexico--doing so shows profound ignorance. When Columbus returned from his first voyage, he broached the idea of enslaving the aboriginals, and Isabella immediately and without hesitation prohibited it. On his second voyage, Columbus enslaved some Arawak, because he thought the Caribs were dangerous--the idiot couldn't tell one tribe from another. He eventually got in big trouble for it. The Office of the Holy Inquisition in Spain set up a bureau, the Indies Commission would be a fair translation, and they devoted themselves to enforcing the dicta of Queen Isabella.

The majority of the people of what call Spain were peons, what we call serfs. They were not free in any sense we recognize, but they weren't slaves, either. They had rights in property, were attached to land they worked and could not be bought or sold, or moved from the land they lived on without their consent. This exact condition was imposed on the aboriginals in the so-called new world. So long as they converted to Christianity, they could not be bought or sold and could not be forcibly removed from the land they inhabited--in effect, they became peons, serfs.

Someone might argue about what does or does not constitute slavery, but the institution of peonage was no different from the standard European view of the status of peasants in the 15th and 16th centuries. The key difference took place over time as serfdom disappeared in Europe in response to labor shortages caused by pandemic plagues. This did not take place in Spain, however, and it did not take place in Spanish colonies. Nevertheless, by the standards of their day, the aboriginal people were not enslaved, and the church enforced the rules for the treatment of them, as far as they were able to do so. Slavery was illegal in the Spanish colonies.

Discussing sociopaths with RL is a complete waste of time. The label has no meaning for him other than "someone of whom i don't approve." I told him in so many words once that he's ignorant and doesn't do anything about it, so he called me a sociopath.

Keep in mind, for RL sociopath just means someone he doesn't like.

You may be right, I've decided to go for the 'Give them enough rope,' approach.

That is cool that you want to challenge my allegation. By the standards of society at that time, I would think that some people would have seen him that way and others would not.

If you were to work and earn money on a ship that transports captured people to be sold as chattel and you seen the horrible living conditions but did nothing about it because it was profitable to you, would you not think that you might be acting a little antisocial?

If you continued to invest your life savings into the slave operations while you pursued a new career "Priest" which you thought had a handsome return and enabled you to manipulate the minds of other people " would you not denounce the slave trade as well if you are already wealthy from it and were receiving more rewarding results from controlling other people?

Have you ever seen a Jehovah's witness at a party who won't have a drink, but refuses to go home? If not don't you think you are just making fun of their religion?

I like sociopaths but I do not like their antisocial behavior.

So you don't accept he had any remorse at all then? You believe it was all an act.