Hoping everyone had an enjoyable time here with love and friendship in abundance.

Also, since I've booted this baby up again this morning, I'll likely get to drafting emu replies to Jess (shoot me if I procrastinate into the New Year, OK?) and a few others; very flattered here with your kind wishes and present(s) (Tim, Howard).

I like this brand new one a lot- quite Irish, I feel, and a powerful voice:

<Andrew Sweeny>: Cantina

Football madness has arrived again.

The dismal performance by the local teams makes it especially challenging to maintain interest.

The Husky win over the Trojans is really the only bright spot. That was so long ago but the afterglow will last.

And what can be said about the Hawks? How the almost mighty have fallen?

You say HoushmandZAYdeh. I say HoushmandZAHdeh.

heh <Jess> - Jinx, probably, as i am, AT THIS MOMENT been working on a TOP SECRET Mullahmullah, heh, for about 2 hours straight, though it luckily is still in concept form, as I heard you say that you have so much catching up to do.

Hence ergo propter hoc:

It is your call; I can send it to you when I have it finalized, roughly tomorrow morning my time... Or keep it on hold and send in 3-4 days, as to avoid the Mule getting showered with other mails and buried and such.

I can always resend it, and I was also wondering if you have already opened the ALL NEW CG corr. emu account.

Just give me a shout or else I will just 'send' it to the hotmail account.

Btw - there is a FINE match being played between young <Robin van Kampen> and <The Great Jan Timman>, here in Groningen, at the moment.

Robin was expertly brushed off by Jan in the first game, but came back brilliantly with a marvellous game as White in the 2nd - of 4 - rounds.

I do believe every human being is born selfish. I have reached this conclusion through my own observation of toddles, babies and eventually grown-ups. Babies cry whenever something annoys them, and they only stop when their need is satisfied. You could say, "oh, a baby is too little to understand the surrroundings", but this feature remains more or less throughout all of one's life, maybe a little different, maybe a little weaker, but it's always there. A three year old kid can already speak, and yet still wants everything immediately.

Let's say Mary and John bring little 2-year-old Edward along to the supermarket because they have nobody to look after him. They go to the fruits section, but Edward flees and heads to the toys. Then he comes back to its parents holding a beautiful car box. The parents are poor, however, and try to explain him they have no money left for the gift. Do you think he would accept this? No! He'd scream and shout and roll on the floor and use all other available means to make his parents buy it for him!

We can see this from the youngest little person to the greater people groups. Mankind is, indeed, selfish. Sigmund Freud got it right when he created the ID concept. In modern life we have to hide some of our self-love and yield to pleasures and comforts, so that we can live in society.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments on that question-

Sure, but I'd remind you of these caveats.

1. I think it's silly to characterize a fundamental character trait- one that exists as a feeling, and thus potential action- in all humans as "good or evil." That is Medieval thinking that has no place in any serious discussion of human selfishness qua selfishness.

2. While Freud's publicizing the notion of "Id" was groundbreaking, this concept is not useful as anything other than a starting point in actually analyzing human selfishness. The most reliable data on the study of human selfishness at present derives from the fields of developmental psychology, and more controversially, from sociobiology.

I can tell you have read "Civilization and its Discontents," a fine book, but it's not just modern humans who had to learn to subjugate selfish urges for immediate gratification. This had to be done hundreds of thousands of years ago in both human and prehuman society.

This is a behavioral characteristic that exists in all social animal groups, including Chimps, Hyenas, Cape Hunting Dogs and other popular African animals. Social animals live on all continents, but

FACT: African animals are coolest

And more- "selfishness" and "altruism" are both selected for by evolution in social animals- both biologically and culturally.

You don't have one without the other. We can't speak about animals "experiencing emotions," we can only observe their behavior- but with respect to humans, it's clear that we derive a pleasure from altruistic acts that seems to be in and of itself- not just tied to winning the approbium of our social group, to advancing ourselves in a social group, or even to winning "self-approbium."

Clinical psychology studies indicate that even the contemplation of an altruistic act stimulates pleasure centers in the brain- as does, of course, the contemplation of a selfish act.

The question of "selfishness VERSUS altruism" is a non-starter.

Both character traits have been selected for, and both are necessary for an individual to live in a social group- be it a herd of hunter/gatherers or a trailer park in <Pork Bend, Utah>.

FACT: Few people ever move to <Pork Bend, Utah>, based solely on its name.

The balance of selfishness and altruism that a human might prefer, or think best, seems almost a matter of taste rather than ethics.

For example, a culture that accepts more selfishness as a norm compared to another culture- (American culture vs. Korean culture, for example) is not necessarily a less ethical culture.

Far from it. There are advantages and disadvantages to the current American and Korean cultural norms with regard to selfishness.

At any rate, my main movitvation in my original posts was, frankly, to reprimand those two people arguing who were not only citing sources they had zero knowledge of= in each case, the source very much did not support thier claims.

In my view, there are a surprising number of non-chess related posts at this website that indicate a woeful lack of a basic education or even simple cogency.

Well... I don't think I'm so much more superior than everybody else to consider everything other people say as nonsense. Actually, I like to hear all kinds of opinions and points of view on the topic I'm interested in, this way I can see what makes more sense and pick the best ideas :-)

Happy Newt Ear!

First let me say that your addition to the "selfish" discussion enjoys the benefit of accurate citing of your source.

I enjoy discussing the Bible with people who have actually read it.

And yes there is something we hold fundamentally dear, the idea that we humans are not the same as animals- that we have the nature and capacity for spirituality, mercy, forgiveness, glory, magnificence, and dignity.

This fellow here also agrees with you:

<hippos can run 30mph... underwater>

HAHAHAHA

Well played.

Hope you like it.