Replying to LO26921 --
Mark W McElroy writes:
> I guess I have to wonder now, why do we call it a 'tragedy' at all?
> Where's the tragedy in it and what makes it so? Tragedy for whom? Us?
>From Hardin's original article (found e.g., at http://www.dieoff.org/page95.htm):
We may well call it "the tragedy of the commons," using the word
"tragedy" as the philosopher Whitehead used it [7]: "The essence of
dramatic tragedy is not unhappiness. It resides in the solemnity of the
remorseless working of things." He then goes on to say, "This
inevitableness of destiny can only be illustrated in terms of human life
by incidents which in fact involve unhappiness. For it is only by them
that the futility of escape can be made evident in the drama."
7. A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (Mentor, New York, 1948),
p. 17.
Best regards,
--Don Dwiggins "The truth will make you free, d.l.dwiggins@computer.org but first it will make you miserable" -- Tom DeMarco
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