NFT: If I could find a post of interest to comment on, I would. Otherwise:

[Painter]

Their win/loss record was surprisingly as exactly as I predicted.
They played hard and were in most games this season which pleased me.
I am pleasantly satisfied by both the performance of and relationship to the players to first time HC Joe Judge.
I think that Gettlemen has done done a decent enough job in areas of his influence and should remain GM for at least another year.
I am close to sold on Daniel Jones as the long time Eli successor who may yet prove to be even better.
The immediate re-signing of Pat Graham was a no brainer.
I think Jason Garrett deserves more time with Jones and with an improved receiver corps.
I continue to have hope but definite reservations about Barkley.
I have little enthusiasm about this season (indeed football in general) and couldn't care less as to what happens in the playoffs at any level.

I am trying to generate enough enthusiasm to engage in the silly season which after year's of study and analyses I have come to recognize as 95 percent subjective.

I'll refrain from non-football comment except to wish you all a Happy New Year, or Four or Forty.

Cheers!

[beaugestus]

A happy and healthy to you too Larry.

For myself I thought coming into the season the Gmen could go 8-8 with a better second half of the season.

It really pleased me for the effort the team gave every game and the players seem to have "bought in" to Judge's message.

We could really see the difference from last year with the lack of confusion within the team.

The difference in the play of the D and in particular the DB was almost miraculous. Give a lot of well deserved credit to Graham. Glad he's going to be back next year. I agree that Garrett and Gettlemen deserve another year.

Well, according to Mara he expects  Barkley to come back 100%, I hope it was well informed opinion not just an emotional one.

Surpisingly, there were a number of nail biters this season with the rest of the league that made this season enjoyable.

[MightyGiants]

I agree, with all your points

Happy New Year, Larry 

[Bob In PA]

Larry: Nice summation.  Silly season will be here sooner than we would all like, but I think the Giants will improve significantly next season, just because they'll have some "spring training" and are still a young team.  Bob

[Painter]

Thank you, Gentlemen. I also should have added that this was again by far the best Football Forum. Folks here have the experience, the knowledge, and the disposition to always rise to the occasion.

Many thanks. Happy New Season to all.

Cheers!

[squibber]

Gee, Painter, I would have loved to ask you a philosophical question.

Does free will exist?

Maybe next year.

[Jaime]

Hey Paint,
As my H.S. Coach would yell "How to go!"

[Painter]

Gee, Painter, I would have loved to ask you a philosophical question.

Does free will exist?

Maybe next year.

I would be glad if you did as an NFT, Squibb. I say that because Free Will has nothing much to do either way with the conscious mind. Indeed, I don't think it will be very long in the future when we will find it in our genome if we dare. How is it not obvious that there is free will with or without intellect? Just have a look in the news and join in with Albert Einstein saying: Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity.

Cheers!

[katkavage]

Careful, Painter, stay on topic. Don't dare drift from football despite the state of the world, your thread will be closed. We are too immature to discuss matters beyond the football field, it seems. Anyway, how about that Nick Saban?

[Painter]

I am quite aware of that, My Friend. I generally do my venting on Facebook where I have yet to be censored. And of course, Twitter is out of the question as far as I'm concerned.

In any case, all the best to and for you.

Cheers!

[squibber]

Thanks, Painter! I posted my question on The Front Porch.

[Painter]

When you first asked that question, squibber, I thought you were being whimsical. Was it directed to me because you imagined my head shaped somewhat more like an egg than that of an aircraft carrier? But as you have moved it to where the Princes would insist it to be, I guess you were being serious. While I am not sure why the question was raised, it is an important and rarely discussed one far beyond anything to do with football. And if you would prefer to let it go at that, let me say that I agree with you and the of Sam Harris quotes. Otherwise, once I get started, I may not stop until I infuse- if not confuse- the issue with my strongly held bias.

Although I remember discussing the question in depth at Columbia Grad School,  what was then called the Faculty of Pure Science, I didn't think it necessary to dwell on it as a creative event, or whether free will is an endowment or natural development thereof because in doing so it seemed we would have to know how space/time, or energy is able to produce mass, and that might take us to 34 numbers after a decimal point. If that's not supernatural, I don't know what is- just kidding.

By its simplest definition, "The ability to choose between different courses of action without impediment"- like do we walk the dog now or later?- the most logical answer is yes.  But I don't think that is what your question involves nor do I think Free Will is unrestricted nor is it often not self-contradictory, or has it been the same thing as for the 108 billion Homo Sapiens estimated to have occupied the Earth since its origin or is it for the roughly 7.8 billion still here today.

The ability to act at one's own discretion, the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate may exist in theory but as a matter of practical reality, indeed reality per se, I don't think it does. I suppose you are aware of the numerous polls which suggest that humans fear public speaking more than they fear death. I'd love to put that to the test by handing out microphones and loaded pistols. 

It did, however, cause me to wonder what really concerns us, motivates, indeed worries us; that is what most affects our willful behavior in general.It now is believed by many including myself that from the most trivial to the most profound, Free Will acts and decisions are associated in some way with our current self-esteem, that is our overall sense of self-worth or personal value. That is, how much you appreciate and like yourself or not which includes appraisals of your beliefs and behaviors and relationships and impacts on others. I might like to think of it as a voluntary choice or decision to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention, but I don't. I feel that way because I think we choose to avoid it, that is to rationalize which is what we do best.

What I mean by rationaling is justifying one's or another's behavior or attitude with logical, plausible reasons, even if these are not true or appropriate; to invent plausible explanations for acts, opinions, etc., that are actually based on other causes.If we think of Free Will as a factor in future decision-making in respect to our most important economic, social and political issues, I believe that it is essential to understand it in cultural terms. 
It is a well-known and documented reality that people of East Asia ( Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc.) rate themselves below other cultures in terms of self-esteem. Indeed, have you never felt a smirk about those East Asian cultures which eschew the notion of lost face to the extent that they prefer to structure their decision-making as a group so as to not to lose face as an individual? To some extent, it also is part of their etiquette to avoid washing dirty linen in public. And is there anything intellectually or emotionally in any culture that challenges us more than to admit that we are wrong or part of something wrong? 

It might be helpful to know that 60 percent of the world's population (4.64 billion) is Asian. of which 1.41 billion are Chinese (Han Chinese not English is by far the world's most popularly spoken language. India is a close 2nd with a population 1.37 billion which combined is 4 times that of the U.S.A. Moreover, South Asians- Indians in particular- are almost opposite to East Asians in terms of willful decision-making and self-esteem. Indeed, there are as many as an entire U.S.-sized population among their much larger impoverished cheap labor force who seek prestige and are happy to remind us of their successes at every opportunity.

You may have noticed that the tens of thousands of Asian students in the USA are not going to Cow Colleges but to Stanford, Wharton, the Ivy League, Northwestern,  and Duke while Indians practicularly own University of Texas at Dallas. 
In both instances, Free Will is being manipulated to attain a group goal and whatever sense of security that may bring with it.  It is well understood, of course, that modern history is dominated by the notion of European exceptionalism, much of which is reflected in America's Eurocentric culture; a meaningful difference of which is in not being inherently group oriented. Rather, we mimick the traditional Northern Europe as the society of strong individuals. 

But that is rapidly changing whether we know it or not, or are ready to accept it.  Asians are rapidly increasing as a proportion of the world's entrepeneurs and scientists. Over the past several decades, China

[Ed Vette]

It would be a shame to waste the time and effort of expression regardless whether anyone agrees in part or whole or not. Let

[MightyGiants]

Larry,

That was a well reasoned and well thought out commentary.   Depressing, but I can't argue that you are pretty much spot on in your overall observations.   I believe the heart of the issue is free will.  Yes, we have free will, but we are also flawed in the sense that we have emotions and hardwired desires (the result of evolution) that make us vulnerable to manipulation.   There are the logical fallacies that many of us try to guard against, but there are others that see the fallacies as a way to manipulate others.  So in my mind, we have free will if we train ourselves, but if we fail to train or lack the intellectual capacity to understand, our free will is not so automatic.

In my 3 decades as an EMT by biggest strengths were convincing people to go to the hospital (you would be amazed at how many people don't want to go to the hospital) and treating hyperventilation/anxiety attacks.   Both of those skills required the ability to control and manipulate others.    I like to think that what I did was using the talents to manipulate others for good.  However, not everyone has such noble intentions and there are certainly people more skilled than I when it comes to the arts of manipulation.

To make matters worse, the cold war was "won" but it was a bit of a pyrrhic victory in the sense that we removed one of the main things that united us a people and a nation, the threat of a rival power.   We also lost our common set of facts or a shared reality as the mainstream media was replaced by agenda-driven media that cared less about informing the public and more about advancing an agenda.

To make things worse technology and Covid have worked together to isolate people and also drive them apart into their separate groups.   The one moderating factor of being around groups of disparate and level headed people has all but vanished.  That socialization played a critical role in reducing extreme views that ran contrary to reality as the socialization had a natural tendency to reign in the craziness.   There is a reason that many of the terrible acts are committed by loners who are described by neighbors and coworkers as "kept to themselves".

So perhaps it's a cosmic irony or joke that we all believe we have free will, but for many that decision or belief they thought they arrived at freely on their own was anything but.

[squibber]

Painter,

I was being somewhat whimsical in asking you about free will but at the same time I find deep philosophical and religious discussions interesting. I also know you have wisdom and knowledge that I rarely come across. You wrote a lot to chew on and my brain is trying to digest it.

I consider myself a little above average intelligence-wise but it would have been nice if I had the facilities to be a published philosopher or theologian.  Several years ago I took a liking to reading books by biblical scholars or historians such as EP Sanders who wrote