a possibly sentimental notion of what we lost and must regain by any means necessary...,

the finite games vs. infinite games section truly resonates with me viewed in the light that hiphop culture gives every appearance of having been a self-orging infinite games millieu - and I wouldn't hesitate to go back in time, knowing what I now know.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back in time, knowing what I now know.

But to change things, notto live that life, correct?

let me add some stuff from my dissertation proposal. 

Proposition One:  Blacks are full members of the human race.

• Corollary:  Portrayals of Blacks should not focus solely on instances of deviance from societal norms; e.g. poverty, criminality, sexuality, literacy but instead portray Blackness in a full spectrum of human behavior.
• Corollary:  Regardless of skin color, American custom tends to categorize anyone with Black ancestry as Black, with a corresponding loss of social and economic capital.

Proposition Two:  Blacks are fully enfranchised citizens of the United States of America.

• Corollary:  Blacks are entitled to all legal rights due a citizen of the United States.
• Corollary:  American custom, discourse, and folklore often deny Blacks the social/cultural/economic privileges and benefits enjoyed by whites.

Proposition Three:  The Black American community coalesces around the recognition of the struggle against historical discrimination and an understanding that discrimination against the Black community still exists.

• Corollary:  This communal understanding of present-day discrimination holds true even if the individual has not been personally subjected to such discrimination.

• Corollary:  The Black community is automatically granted a lower socioeconomic status as well as reduced cultural capital by mainstream America.
• Corollary:  The Black community is consistently portrayed as criminal, hypersexual, violent, poor, lazy, and unintelligent.

Proposition Four: Institutional discrimination, in varying degrees, is a fact of life for all Blacks at some point in life, regardless of economic status or social standing. 

• Corollary:  Despite the efforts of well-meaning but poorly conceived programs designed to eliminate economic and social inequity, Blacks still lag behind mainstream America in nearly every category.  As such, Blacks are constantly on the search for information that will enhance their economic standing. 
• Corollary:  Any significant achievement by Blacks should be considered normal, rather than labeled ‘exceptional’.  Black folklore contains the saying that Blacks have to work ten times as hard as whites in order to achieve some sort of parity.
• Corollary:  Any Black failure should be attributed to individual shortcomings or the failure of institutions to properly fulfill their functions, rather than ascribed to cultural/intellectual/moral deficiencies of the entire Black community.
• Corollary:  The success of mainstream Americans should be evaluated with the understanding that many institutions are designed to support their activities and aims, as opposed to using the tropes of “merit” or “hard work”.

Proposition (no number yet):  Black culture can be either representative of American culture, oppositional to American culture, or both.

• Corollary:  Blacks and Black culture are an enormous influence on American culture in art, music, style, and language.  Blackness is used as a metaphor for “cool”; as physical, sexual, or spiritual prowess; it also serves as an iconic representation of crime, lust, death, or evil.
• Corollary:  American values such as violence, hypermasculinity, and misogyny are overly evident in commercial successful Black art forms because white culture deems those values most integral to the culture of poverty ascribed to Blacks.
• Corollary:  Black English is not ‘bad’ English; it is a dialect of English containing remnants of West African linguistic features.  It is, however, a “home” language and inappropriate for situations where one comes in contact with mainstream culture.

Proposition (no number yet):  Black standards of beauty and art can and should be considered a different aesthetic, rather than a corrupt or primitive version of Western values. 
 

But to change things, not to live that life, correct?

There is an advanced Work aim, and therefore irrelevant to my present level of development, called "repairing the past". Obviously it only applies to the timestream encompassed by one's own conscious attention.

recalling that;

Fourth Principle and Praxis
You can only defeat it in yourself, period.

The only changeable element in the addictive consensus perpetuum mobile - is one's very own self. Don't ever even consider changing anyone elses.

Selfishly, I would relish reliving a great deal from my own earlier life...,

CP, I don't think your corollaries are corollaries so much as points you intend to examine in connection with your propositions.

hmm.  i thought i was working by this definition: 

1. A deduction or an inference.
2. A natural consequence or effect; a result.

How is this

Regardless of skin color, American custom tends to categorize anyone with Black ancestry as Black, with a corresponding loss of social and economic capital.

a corollary of this? 

Blacks are full members of the human race.

Corollary:  Blacks and Black culture are an enormous influence on American culture in art, music, style, and language.  Blackness is used as a metaphor for “cool”; as physical, sexual, or spiritual prowess; it also serves as an iconic representation of crime, lust, death, or evil.

The yin-yang thing seems real.  If you're going to be intense on some axis, you're going to be intense on both ends of it.  Brown sugar and death, all rolled up into one.

But then, back to reality.  There is a temptation, as a white man, to think just as you suggest. The problem is, I know too many black people.  They're none of intensely sexy nor intensely evil nor intensely anything.  The mysterious thing is based on lack of actual interaction. Lack of touching.

Music, now that's for real. 

i'm often guilty of holding conversations in my head; this is one of those times.   fully written out, it should look like this.

 Proposition:  Blacks are full members of the human race.

Corollary:  Regardless of skin color, American custom tends to categorize anyone with Black ancestry as Black, with a corresponding loss of humanity, human rights, and social and economic capital. 

the corollaries were conceived as a way of looking at Black and White perspectives/consequences on each proposition.  thanks for helping me to be clearer...

I wonder what would happen if Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle embarked on a truly ruthless interrogation and lampooning of the Murkan beast?

besides the obvious that they'd each get fired from their cushy $TD-riffic appointments as Murka's edgy kneegrow jesters, or at least demoted back to the Paul Mooney section of Murkan consciousness...,

You looking for a fusion of Head of State and Enemy of the State?

Give Dave a chance. His stepping back from stardom to reconsider the whole mess is already a strong statement.

True dat, having never struggled with an $TD as fierce as the one Dave contracted, his fight to recover purity of essence can't be easy..,

The States fusion hadn't occurred to me.., I pictured something more twisted-yet-juvenile with Rock reprising the Muffley-Mandrake-Strangelove caricatures..., a la PootieTang..,