#east vs. west

[sskk-manifesto]

When Mori talks about Nash in relation to war strategy, it's because of Nash's contribution to game theory (the Nash equilibrium). Game theory is a model that helps interpret interactions between players, and while it can be (and is) also applied to analysis of war strategy, it is a bit of a stretch to say that Nash, who was a mathematician, studied war strategies (as far as I'm concerned, he very much did not. To say Nash was an academic who studied war strategy is inaccurate). It's still funny that Mori is bringing up game theory again after (inaccurately) talking about it in the last season 1 episode, he must really like it.

It's a bit destabilizing to see Kissinger being mentioned here– because differently from all the other authors and thinkers fleetingly mentioned in bsd, it's one that feels close in time and inseparable from our world's history (the fact alone that he was still alive when this episode aired is terribly disorientating for me). You can't think of Kissinger without thinking about the Cold War, but it's unfeasible to think the bsd universe experienced something akin to our Cold War. Anyways, he was one of the main enablers of the realist theory as an international relations school of thought, which I suppose is a theory that fits Mori to a tee.

[thoughtportal]

The power of collective action

[kimchicuddles]

I know this is a bit late and probably overthinking it, but all the "man vs bear" stuff keeps making me think of beauty and the beast related lore and especially all the Scandinavian tales where the man shapeshifts into an actual bear. I'm curious to hear your thoughts, especially if you loved Midsommar.

Thank you for supporting my work! patreon.com/kimchicuddles

text reads:

The hypothetical bear vs man question keeps making me think of all the stories about Prince Charming being hidden within a beast, and how weird it is that that's part of our collective thought process about finding true love hidden within a diamond in the rough.

In some versions of this story (such as East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon) the prince is literally a bear who shapeshifts but needs to hide his true form in darkess.

In many of the stories, the beast is sullen and unlikeable, but the girl is drawn into uncovering whatever he is keeping secret.

And I know the recent man/bear question is about choosing which demise would be quicker and less psychologically horrific, but it's an interesting parallel, because so often in love we reach for the dangerous one who has potential to be a prince if we only can break the spell holding him prisoner. 

It worked in the stories, but in real life it might be better to look for the ones who have already figured out how to be men instead of beasts.

[radiantrookie]

The Reds and Blues interacting with the Shatter Squad

[alliluyevas]

on the subject of religious historians and my former mason professors. i have been discussing this with a few people in other academic fields recently because this year i went to Baby's First Academic Conference (and I'm going to another one in the fall!!! Yay!!!) and I actually went with Dr. Turner (not like, together, we just happened to be going to the same conference because we have similar historical interests, but he was very nice and introduced me and another Mason grad student who was also going for the first time to a bunch of people). and then my friend who is a linguistics phd student went to HER first conference this summer and i helped her shop for clothes because she says she just wears jeans and flannels all the time.

but apparently the standards for how dressed up you should be at academic conferences vary WIDELY by which field you are in. (linguists are way more dressed down than historians, especially field linguists.) my former coworker at Mason who is trained as a marine biologist says STEM fields also don't dress up and that historians are among the most dressed up fields but she says that military historians are unusually formal even by history standards (she has a close friend who does military history) and i think the same is true of religious history people. which makes sense because both "the military" and "religious people" are demographics that tend to be more conservative and even if not everyone who studies military history is military or former military themselves, it just influences the vibe.

it will be interesting to compare how people dressed for my first conference (religious history, and specifically mormon history which, well, skews heavily mormon) to the one I'm going to this fall which is history but not religious history.

[religious-extremist]

The Greco-Bulgarian Schism in the Orthodox Church began in 1872 and lasted until 1945; it took 73 years to resolve and they’ve been back in communion with each other since.

Countless non-Orthodox, with superficial knowledge of Orthodox ecclesiology and history, making op-eds about the hierarchical schism between the Russian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate and the Ecumenical Patriarchate-Orthodox Church of Ukraine as if it’s the end of Orthodoxy and we Orthodox Christians have no choice but to jump ship from the Orthodox Church and join their preferred schismatic heretical group!

I typically attend Divine Liturgy in Greek Orthodox Churches and Monasteries but on Russian feast days, I go to Russian Orthodox Churches and I can take Holy Communion in both. This “schism” is something nobody outside the Church can fully understand. Our loyalty lies not in the person of the hierarchy, in no Pope or Patriarch, but in Christ alone and the Right and Orthodox Confession of the Faith which will remain unshaken forever.

[bclarke]

Personally as someone who's from la who doesn't enjoy new york, i think it would be poetic if dodgers beat both the mets and yankees but that's just me being petty idk 🤷🏻‍♀️

[kajenus]

Grestin ⁉️‼️

[the-football-chick]

NBA All Star Game, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024 👀

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇷⚔️🇮🇱 🚁⛴️ 🚨

IRAN SEIZES ISRAELI VESSEL IN THE STRAIGHT OF HORMUZ

📹 Scenes from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operation seizing an Israeli commercial vessel operating off the coast of Dubai and headed into the Straight of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf on Saturday.

According to a report in the Iranian Tasmin news agency, Iranian IRGC forces seized the Israeli cargo vessel, the MSC Aries, which flies the Portuguese flag and is owned and operated by London-based Zodiac Maritime, a subsidiary of the Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Group.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[billfinarts]

Shatter Squad refs!

I know most of us really didn't like RvB Zero (myself included), but I decided to give these guys another chance. However, they're very different from their show counterparts.

Get ready to see them appear in Chapter 3 of Towards the Sky!

[thoughtportal]

No-strike clause

[kaurwreck]

Fukuzawa plays Go & Mori plays chess because of how the two different game strategies align with the resources they have available and the structures of their organizations. Not all symbolism is descriptive; much of it is substantive.

[radiantrookie]

East and Phase dynamic

[gemsofgreece]

I'd like to drop in an opinion of someone from Eastern Europe about this whole "West vs. East" thing that American, British (and sometimes French) media/public loves to put out, seeing that they are the absolute (if we aim for these definitions) West compared to South and East of Europe: those are completely inapplicable ideas stemming from the West alone.

Like, I don't understand why it's so hard for the ultimately Western countries to understand that hell of a cultural mix going on around East and South (respectively and individually, not mashed together) of Europe is not separated into the simple categories of West and East, especially not in the Western idea of a "progressive West" and "barbaric East"; a lot of our countries have always been Eastern-leaning and only got pulled into this whole narrative of Western society recently. And a lot of us are still only notably Western, being excluded on many occasions as not being Western "enough".

I'm sorry for such a disconnected rant, I hope my point ("Western idea of how West & East interact in Eastern and Southern Europe is absolute bullshit") was clear regardless. I'm happy to see you talk about this crap, I hope you take good care of your mental health. I can't comprehend the issues of the Greek state in terms of Western treatment of your country fully, but it's relieving to see that others are speaking out on the issues East and South of Europe seem to be both going through.

Have a lovely day!

Yes and also I am not exactly sure what “western culture” is supposed to stand for. More human rights? Blandness? Money? I always thought the financial and social progress and protection of rights in the West is a matter of many sociopolitical and economical parameters that are not the same to what a culture is. And like you said, this progress is fairly recent (in the long run of history) and it is not directly or straightforwardly linked to any particular culture or civilisation.

Culture does not operate in boxes, it is a fluid and continuous evolution of people’s expression and it does not fit into categories. The conditioning that occurs lately with which the west attempts to westernise East and South Europe is embraced by some people but what those people actually embrace is an opening to more short term opportunities for economical growth and social progress. This is why it is a sociopolitical phenomenon in its origin, except it has cultural repercussions as cultural influences are naturally invading alongside the welcome social reforms and they impact the younger or more impressionable people.

Since you wondered about Greece, its case is a little different. The way it is perceived in terms of cultural orientation is very funny and unique. Geographically, Greece along with Cyprus is the most southeastern culture of Europe. Politically and culturally, you will see that Greece is officially considered a part of Western Europe!!!

This placement is honorary. Yes you read this correctly; honorary! Honoured to be considered part of the west for being the good ol’ “cradle of the western civilisation”. Thank you so much. In short, Greece is an eastern place which everyone has silently agreed to mislabel as western simply because they dig the ancient influence that much.

Having said that, since the formation of the modern Hellenic Republic, the Greeks were indeed determined to more or less follow through with all the reforms and policies that would shape the society according to the western principles. This is why you will often see Greece ranking in between western and Eastern European countries regarding various social, political and economical markers. This all began even before the Greek revolution - the Greek nation had to adopt a western orientation in order to fight off the Ottoman Empire effectively and win the sympathies of west Europe. Most Greek expats of power had fully embraced and prospered in the western ideals of Europe and did their best to bring them to the Greek subjects of the empire. It would be thus unfair to claim the West actively forces the westernisation of Greece - Greeks have been consciously oriented towards the west all the last centuries. The problem is that the West stands bewildered before the various and potent eastern elements of the Greek civilisation - at times it chooses to ignore them and at times it demonises them (ie Byzantine Empire, which ironically was far more secular than many western nations at the time). The worst consequence of this is an effort to fabricate a strong bond to the ancient culture while expelling all the eastern elements as compromise for which Byzantine and Modern Greeks are responsible, distancing them from their heritage as a result. And the worst, many Greeks have internalised this, inevitably welcoming also unproductive influence like other Eastern Europeans.

The responsibility lies with the Greeks to understand that their culture does not fit any box the West feels comfortable with and it does not have to. I don’t care so much what westerners think as seeing young Greeks being clueless enough to feel sorry for not being “western enough” or thinking that eastern elements first invaded the culture with the Turks.

It can be said for so many countries that they are not leaning either eastern or western exactly in this made up spectrum and Greece is certainly among the ones that this can be said about the most.

Have a great day too! ☺️

[the-physicality]

ppl are yapping on twitter about the post season format needing to go back to east vs west and can i just say: do you know which teams have a practice facility?

Phoenix, Vegas, Seattle, Bay

Can you take a guess as to which conference they are all in?

what happens when all the hottest free agent destinations have to play each other earlier in the post season? the finals will be less good

and some other people are complaining that the playoffs format only gets changed when certain people complain about it without recognizing that maybe there's no causation. maybe every team should get a guaranteed home game in the playoffs, not because someone's special but because it creates a fairer test for advancing to the next round.