From: Michael Butler (mbutler@ocv1.ocv.com)
Date: Mon Nov 04 1996 - 15:03:23 MST
Banjo said:
I'm reminded of the Japanese
saying "when all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail".
I say:
With respect, the farthest back I can trace this is to Abraham
Maslow. I'd love to get a source for its being Japanese. Do you have
one?
<snip>
Banjo said:
i'm not denying that "commerce is natural", i'm only denying that
"commerce is all"
Me:
I'd say that "commerce is the minimum level of civility with which
we can, or ought hope to, hold as a standard for dealing with strangers".
Courteous commerce, not commerce shoved down anyone's throat.
And that's sometimes a blurry thing, unfortunately (see below).
But we're told the Phoenicians managed it, without even knowing the
languages of the people they traded with (in some cases, at least).
The source of that civility may be anything, including especially
compassion. For example, the Rotarians, corny as they may seem.
What an utter stranger needs to know most, however, is not
"does this unknown person want me to have a wonderful life?" but rather
"will this person rip me off, or kill me, or enslave me?"
Or to quote Einstein (possibly apocryphally), "The most important
question a person can ask is: 'Is the universe a friendly place?'".
There's friendly-like-Mom-&-Dad, and there's friendly-like-the-nice-
man-behind-the-candy-counter, and there's friendly-like-the-crack-
dealer-down-the-block. Are they interchangeable? Not really. (1) may
be better than (2), but (2) is better than (3). I think. And these
are all generalizations, anyway.
Ob Extropian comment, re: "what is enlightenment":
I see the H. accelerans speed-mismatch issue as being one that
could result in considerable trouble and potential mistrust.
Consider how irritated some people get when they're stuck in
traffic after just a couple coffees. Now scale that by two orders
of magnitude. How pissed-off can someone get in a subjective
half-hour, waiting for the non-accelerated human in front to
notice the light has been green for 18 whole objective seconds?
And how tempted to do something impolite and self-serving?
Perhaps enlightenment is that set of qualities that will keep
accelerated humans from doing such, even when sorely tempted...?
MMB, at but not for OCC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:35:49 MST