From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Jun 01 2002 - 12:24:21 MDT
Oops. I meant to ask Mitch off-line! Wow, that's an easy mistake to make.
Moreover, commenting on Brian's and Damien's exchange,
I just happen to quote some Max More explication of
an Extropian principle that reads as follows:
> "Extropians avoid utopian plans for "the perfect society",
> instead appreciating the diversity in values, lifestyle
> preferences, and approaches to solving problems."
But the whole point of my post had been to suggest that
even some people like Brian, who shall we say appear to
appreciate ethnic diversity less than others (if I don't
misread him), shouldn't by logical necessity desist from
calling themselves Extropians. How embarrassing! My
quote had exactly the opposite effect!
What if someone existed---I know of no one---who accepted
Extropian Principles #1 #3 and #5 in their entirety but
rejected #2 #4 and #6, and yet steadfastly claimed, "I
do believe that on the whole I am an Extropian. Sure,
I don't go along with 2, 4, and 6, but to my way of thinking
they are minor and unimportant anyway. It's 1, 3, and 5, WOW!
that are so cool and so important!"
What to do about this? My first impulse is to resist
getting into a "yes I am!" "no you aren't!" debate.
I guess---until I hear better suggestions---that I'd
say "It sure seems strange that you reject *so many*
Extropian principles that seem central to me, and yet
still bother to call yourself an Extropian". I might
even begin to entertain notions, in extreme cases where
the discrepancy seemed quite overwhelming, that indeed
we had a mole. But I'd be **very** reluctant to make
such a charge outright, until the evidence was truly
impressive.
Lee
---------Original Message-------------------------------
> First, Extropianism has to be a very large tent in terms of
> the personalities, cultural identities, (or lack thereof),
> races and genders and sexual orientations (obviously),
> and a huge number of other things. As is written in
> the current edition of the Extropian Principles
> "Extropians avoid utopian plans for "the perfect society",
> instead appreciating the diversity in values, lifestyle
> preferences, and approaches to solving problems."
>
> The only things that Extropianism must be narrow about
> are a number of different attitudes towards the future,
> and this is a sort of definitional issue, I think.
> More about that later, which is sure to be controversial.
>
> But what you write about "group solidarity" definitely
> falls in the first category: some will totally identify
> with being Extropian, and others will identify with it
> to the degree that they concede that their values and
> Extropian values happen to coincide a lot.
>
> Lee
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