From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@extropy.org)
Date: Tue Sep 17 2002 - 10:41:05 MDT
Brian D Williams wrote:
>If this is all you do it's nothing more than a token gesture.
>
>Renounce your citizenship, go ahead, lose the ultimate safety
>net...
Goodness, this pro-America stuff *is* getting pretty out of hand, isn't
it? Despite being Canadian, I have always loved the U.S., and thought of
it as a superior country to that of my own. Look at the constitution...how
can one not adore a country with such an amazingly logical and sincere
document? The problem is that the constitution was written in 1776, and
since then, a lot have changes have gone afoot, and while a lot of the
meaning of the constitution is still deeply ingrained into American
culture, just as much seems to have slipped by the wayside. As great as
America still is, it is only a shadow of what it has been and still could be.
Comments like the above strike me as being a bizarre combination of naivete
and hubris, with ignorance masquerading as patriotism. America is most
certainly *not* the ultimate safety net, and an American citizenship is
*not* the be all, end all of life. While I truly love America, I'm
currently seeing a side of it that I don't at all like; just as bad, I have
seen a reflection of this in a number of regular list posters in recent
threads.
It seems to me that there comes a point where support for an America that
once was (and still could be) should turn into an acknowledgement of what
it is *right now*. This is where unconditional nationalism should be
replaced by unconditional rationalism. This is where theory and political
idealism should be replaced by fact and realism. I don't see much of either
going on via the extropians list these days.
I have just received a motion to ban political threads from this list, and
while it is not solely my call, I must admit that it is somewhat
tempting. I can't spend the same amount of time as I used to spend on
reading this list, but what I am seeing now is a definite split between
views...views of the underlying "hate your neighbor" sort. Perhaps I'm
wrong, but ultimately I wonder if any of this is politics, or just plain
hubris.
________________________________________________________
E. Shaun Russell Operations Officer, Extropy Institute
e_shaun@extropy.org http://www.extropy.org
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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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