Posted by Bruce L. Beyer on April 24, 2001 at 23:57:14 from 64.20.15.133 :
I am at a loss to pick my favorite EHP tale. There are so many stories and so much history between us. Yet there is a fable that stands out regarding talk/action/and the need for clarity of thought through the written word... During the summer of 1980, Ed and I were deeply engaged in the creation of an alternative "Manhattan Project". We envisioned the invention and development of a non-violent bomb and related non-violent weaponry i.e. land mines, gernades, and guns. In Ed's inimical style, anyone who dropped into 124 was invited to participate and upon their agreement was engaged as a research associate. Over the course of the summer, people submitted ideas for trigger mechanisms, delivery systems, and potential targets. Ed's first question was always which insitutions or individuals deserved to be non-violently bombed or offed with a non-violent gun and why? One beautiful August morning we bagan dicussing nuclear power and the seeming inability of the anti-nuke movement to halt the building of more power plants. By early evening with the sun setting behind Judy and Allen's house, we were hungry, thirsty, and in a fairly militant mood. I was dispatched to the store to fetch a couple of gallons of Carlo Rossi and Ed set about preparing some steaks with lemon. After diner, we lite candles and settled in on the back porch with our wine. By midnight, we were into the second gallon and had arrived at the conclusion that the development of the non-violent bomb was going to take far longer than we had originally anticipated. What was needed, we determined, was an intermediate action....something that would grab people with its daring and awaken them with its ramifications. We decided to target the nuclear reactor on the Main St. campus at UB. "Somehow" we justified the building of a pint sized Molotov cocktail using gasoline, Tide, and a Tampax for a wick. Our stragety was to ride our bikes to the campus reactor, light and throw the cocktail against the cement wall, then sit down and wait for the police to arrive and arrest us. We managed to navigate our way to the reactor and were just about to light our "symbolic bomb" when Ed realized that we hadn"t written a leaflet to explain our action. "We cannot act without first committing ourselves in writing!" Ed demended. We got on our bikes and rode back to Jewett Parkway to write an explanation. By the time we arrived home it was going on three thirty in the morning. We sat down on opposite sides of Ed's desk and began outlining our leaflet. As the clock ticked, our joint effort began to wear on our nerves and we agreed to put off the leaflet until the next day. Strangely enough, the following morning we could no longer remember why the "symbolic bombing" was such a good idea. Work on the non-violent bomb is a life long task. I'm sure Ed would want those of us left standing around here to grab a pen and write a leaflet. You find out what you think when you write, he used to tell me. "If an important decision is to be made (the Persians) discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day, the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decsions for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not iit is abandoned. Conversley, any decision made when sober is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk." Herodotes
Decision Theory
The Histories
ca. 450 BC