Dialogue-Ron & Ken This continues a previous post 'The perils of distraction' - August 2014. I wanted Ken to clarify his position on distraction. He seemed to think it both ubiquitous and a constant. K. Almost from the start people distract themselves from the inevitability of their own death. Culture is itself a distraction...in the widest sense...any activity may be considered distracting, sometimes creative, sometimes not. Cultural artefacts may be seen as attempts to gain some form of immortality. R. Distraction is a negative term. K. I object to distraction when it is an unexamined avoidance of our finitude. For example, religious or faith based fervour seems to me to be an emotional avoidance of a rational or realist approach to the big questions. R. Fundamentally you seem concerned about acknowledgement, of what? K. Personal mortality. R. If it were then what? K. Plastic surgery out of business. A radical change in what we call narcissism. Potential for the...