From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Fri Sep 06 2002 - 12:17:59 MDT
>From: Amara Graps <amara@amara.com>
>Brian, Is there any way to demonstrate to you that there are
>people on this planet who *willingly* choose dangerous jobs,
>dreadful living conditions, commit themselves for many many years
>doing the most difficult and/or life-threatening tasks? I know
>some of these as acquaintances or friends of acquaintances or
>family. Every single example you've given to me, I can counter an
>example of someone _not a soldier_ who has lived that kind of
>life, committed to strong ideals.
First let's revisit this morning's post, Shermin set the "Way-back
(C) Machine" for this morning.
>From: Amara Graps <amara@amara.com>
>Many people here have stories of themselves or people close to
>them who have struggled (chosen freely) very hard for many years,
>often under the conditions that you wrote above. (You know that
>you've described normal life (or a pretty good life) for many
>people on this planet, anyway.)
>For those that we know, are you claiming that an engineer's
>struggleor a doctor's struggle, or a mother's struggle, or a
>writer's struggle, or a farmer's struggle is not as valuable as a
>soldier's struggle?
>Who gave you the authority to claim that _your_ struggle is more
>valuable than other people's struggles? Your weapon that you used
>might not have existed if it were not for that particular
>engineer's struggle. You might not be alive today if it were not
>for the 'sacrifices' and struggles (freely made) by a distant
>relative in your past. Perhaps the struggles of that farmer
>contributed significantly so that your family had food to eat. Or
>maybe the struggles of that scientist that learned how to
>vaccinate against against a particular deadly virus is the reason
>that you're alive today too.
Amara this is a strawman argument, I never made any such claim.
Curt Adams, who's never spent a day in the military as far as I
know, was trying to tell me, who served four years, that I was
wrong about military life because that's not what it said in the
travel brochure he read.
>I see no reason why these other people's 'struggles' are not just
>as valuable as the struggle that you're claiming as a soldier.
Again, strawman argument, I made no such statement or claim.
Back to the present.
Now, as I've tried to point out numerous times being a soldier is
not merely a job, you can quit a job as just one example. It's not
about how difficult, that was this morning's strawman argument.
>Soldiers do not have the monopoly of that kind of life, I'm sorry.
>(I'm sorry for you and for their difficult lives.).
Soldiers do have a monopoly on a soldiers life, and other lives, no
matter how difficult are not the same.
I have done both and speak from experience.
>The self-righteous attitude you are showing on this topic is
>bothering me immensely. I won't continue this any more.
Not self-righteous Amara, but completely confident of the facts.
You are not the only one bothered, I am receiving private E-mail
from people on both sides bothered by this, and am bothered by it
myself.
The Meta (extropian) question remains: "Would a society where the
vast majority of the members pay an equal share of the real costs
be a better society."
I still say yes.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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