From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Sep 10 2002 - 20:44:32 MDT
Greg writes
> > From: Brian D Williams
> > Sent: Monday, September 09, 2002 11:14 AM
> >
> > Extremely well put and timely
>
> A quick note on the run: I've had a number of off-list statements of
> agreement and appreciation about that message and a pleasant irony is
> that some of these messages are from people who seem to ALWAYS disagree
> on-list and who I know to have a wide diversity of life-styles and
> ideas. Way to go, extropians!
The "pleasant irony" that you've noted arises from the
fact that normally our discussions are extremely
polarized. People tend to participate in political
discussion in the same way they join up in a game
of tug-of-war: you pull with all your might in the
*direction* that you'd like to see the center move.
In actual games of tug-of-war with real rope I've
often seen people change sides when the losing side
started getting dragged through the mud. The analog
here would be to only gradually change sides over a
period of many decades when you begin to feel that
"your side" has gone too far.
The most striking effect of polarization is the utter
silence from some quarters that greets reports of
plain wrong-doing on their side. They leave it entirely
up to their opposite numbers to point out a wrong, and
even resent their doing so, since it weakens the pull of
the rope towards their own side.
So yes, it's remarkable when any near-unanimity is reached.
Lee
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:16:56 MST