From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Sun Apr 14 2002 - 07:39:34 MDT
On Sunday, April 14, 2002 7:03 AM Samantha Atkins samantha@objectent.com
wrote:
> Amen. Thanks for saying this.
>
> -samantha
Ditto.
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>> I wish I felt like I was doing a good job, but lately I feel like it
is
>> a losing battle. I seriously think I see more anti-freedom,
>> anti-rights, anti-speech rheteric here than calls for freedom. I see
>> more support for initiating force at the slightest imagined wrong
rather
>> than calls for evenhandedness. There is more classism, nationalism,
>> pro-government, pro-military, anti-individual support than I ever
>> imagined could survive here. I even see more pseudo-science and
>> religious faith in unverified conjecture than real technical
>> possibilities. People seem to be just making up ideas for propaganda
>> value rather than concerning themselves with real research,
validation
>> and facts. It is getting harder and harder to justify putting any
>> energy into this movement when is seems to becoming more destructive
and
>> less scientific. This discussion list seems to have little to do
with
>> the Extropian Principles, the Scientific Method, or even logical
>> thought. Politics and propaganda seem to have become the primary
>> purpose for most participants.
I think the pro-freedom side will always be in the minority, but I
didn't expect it to happen on this list. But if you want the discussion
here to move from politics to technical possibilities, there are two
ways you can do this. One is to limit yourself to such discussions.
The other would be to convince the moderator to disallow political
discussions. I'm for the former because short of moderating the list, I
don't see the latter as likely. Also, I don't mind a little political
discussion now and then.:)
One other comment. How representative do you think people on this list
are of the Extropian movement? Are the various welfare statists and
militarist statists (not that I can see much difference between the two
types) represented by huge numbers of others? Or are they just highly
vocal pundits?
How many Extropians, too, spend a lot of time on the list? I bring this
up because over the years I've been involved -- on and off since 1996 on
this list -- I've seen many people leave who were supporters of the
Principles. What if those people were more representative than the ones
you're talking about?
Cheers!
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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