From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Fri Jun 07 2002 - 18:27:21 MDT
I agree with the principles very much, but if I look for areas of
improvement I might focus on something I see missing:
> Self-Direction --
> Seeking independent thinking, individual freedom, personal
> responsibility, self-direction, self-esteem, and respect for others.
These are all good, but they are all individualistic. The most we see
in terms of our orientation towards others is that we show them respect.
Fine, but what does this say about friendship? About being supportive?
About cooperating in order to achieve common goals?
Max has often written about how he sees Extropianism as being more
than just a coldly intellectual movement. We are not all expected to
by Vulcans. As Extropians we share ideas and perspectives which are
largely out of touch with the rest of society. It's true that in the
past few years our ideas have begun to enter the mainstream. But we are
still way out ahead of most people on our issues. This makes us isolated,
socially and intellectually, from the rest of society.
Extropianism can be a social framework as well as an intellectual one.
We can be friends, we can be supportive of one another. We share a
tremendous amount in common, with goals and desires that most people
today would still find incomprehensible or even evil.
This social aspect doesn't really come through in the Principles. They
offer ideas for how we can behave on an individual basis, but not so much
for ways that we can cooperate as a group. Open Society is more about
how to get along peacefully:
> Open Society --
> Supporting social orders that foster freedom of speech, freedom of
> action, and experimentation. Opposing authoritarian social control
> and favoring the rule of law and decentralization of power. Preferring
> bargaining over battling, and exchange over compulsion. Openness to
> improvement rather than a static utopia.
This encompasses ideas of peace and tolerance, which are clearly good, but
those are most appropriate when dealing with people who are different.
With your own peers and fellow believers, you can go beyond mere
tolerance and respect. And I would say, you need to go beyond such
somewhat distant and reserved perspectives.
Our mailing list format unfortunately seems to provoke controversy and
argument. I have written about this at some length before. I haven't
attended any of the Extro meetings, but by all accounts they are jolly
and entertaining, friendly while still being intellectually stimulating.
It's hard to believe, sometimes, that the same people who engage in
intellectual knife-throwing on this list can let their hair down and
be friendly in person. (By IKT I mean a rather cold-blooded, harsh,
unfriendly and exacting style of debate.)
As long as Extropians remain a virtual community, which I think is
going to continue to be the case for many years, we could benefit
from guidelines which would help us to improve our communication and
cooperation. Given the challenges ahead, I think it will be crucial
to maintain good relations with people who share our basic beliefs
and perspectives. Look at the cryonics list for an example of a bad
tempered and hostile environment which cannot have helped that movement
to advance and attract newcomers. It seems to me that this is important
enough that we should consider elevating it to the status of a new
Extropian Principle.
Hal
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