World Lifestyles

You may have seen those books, where people stand, usually outside, in front of a dwelling, surrounded by possessions and/or foods, supplies, the stuff that they go through at some rate. We all go through stuff, one way or another.

A common misconception regarding Wittgenstein's philosophy is that it was about somehow purging ethics or aesthetics from the mix, by isolating empirical science and keeping that as "positive", with everything else "negative" (e.g. religion) slated to fall by the wayside. This story then becomes the "linguistic turn" for these believers, another bedtime story.

What we discover about lifestyles is they seek to make sense against a larger backdrop or cosmology. If humans are indeed information harvesters and problem solvers, have that in their nature somehow, one could say by design or by roll of the dice, then it stands to reason they would feel discomfort or judge inferior, a lifestyle wherein harvesting didn't happen, and problems were not tackled, sometimes solved.

The war colleges are cranking out the science fiction again, about the temporary bases, still in Korea after all these years, or in Japan. Those of us old enough to remember the Peace Dividend and Beyond War years may recall the rhetoric of "repurposing". Perhaps the "mad men" of today (those experienced with psychology) realize that military units wish for continuity as units, as specific groups or wings with lore and pride. Civilians have those wishes too. Nor is it either/or. At least bases make more sense that aircraft carriers, some say.

Bases might have medical facilities, prototype and production emergency shelter options, various grades of transitional accommodations. Evacuees might be flown in. Sometimes the compassionate thing is to rescue civilians in large numbers. Bases could help with this. Large scale operations take a lot of logistics, strong organizational structures.