Re: what, not an extropian?

From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@extropy.org)
Date: Sun Jun 02 2002 - 23:51:44 MDT


Damien wrote:

>Well... here's a hint:
>
>At 08:44 PM 6/2/02 -0700, Olga wrote:
>
> >I just poked my head into the new Extropians List Guidelines,
> >and saw Ayn's name there again, keeping company with all the
> >other erudite recommended books. Oh dear oh dear oh dear
>
>Yep. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Damien: you've got to be joking. Is this really the only major thing that
prevents you from considering yourself an extropian? That would be like me
not considering myself a musician just because I didn't like Mozart (which
I don't)...someone who had an effect on musical history. Rand is just an
influence on extropy...and that's all. Max would tell you the same, as
would any extropian who has been around for a few years. As I just
mentioned in my response to Olga, Ayn Rand was just a starting point as far
as philosophies go; in my mind, she helped liberate the minds of
individuals who felt stuck inside a collective vacuum. There are many
flaws to her philosophy, and she herself was a hypocrite who needed a cult
of followers around her to help her feel secure. But why should this in
any way diminish the pure influence *some* aspects of her thought (not even
her philosophy) had on extropy.

Disregarding a philosophy because of one of its influences strikes me as a
really odd and irrational thing to do. I'm really curious as to your more
personal reasons (you can email me offlist, if you like).

________________________________________________________
E. Shaun Russell<---------------->Operations Officer, Extropy Institute
e_shaun@extropy.org<--------->http://www.extropy.org
Music Production Student<--->Trebas Institute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          Hear my music at: http://www.mp3.com/eshaunrussell
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                  ~K i n e t i c i z e Y o u r P o t e n t i a l~



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