Re: PSYCHOLOGY: Healing Pathological Belief System Addiction

From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Date: Fri Jan 17 1997 - 17:28:38 MST


> > There are lots of dangerous, evil, counterproductive memes floating
> > around in our society, and the fact that even Extropians can fall prey
> > to them is a testament to their tenacity. Let me try to find some:
>
> I'm surprised to hear you using the word "evil" in the context of
> healing counterproductive belief systems.
> Ken Meyering

Touche! The word does have mystical connotations, doesn't it?
I think it may also make the mistake of implying normative value to
a simple fact of existence. Beliefs are just beliefs. It is our
choices of will that are good/evil, moral/immoral. To the extent
that certain beliefs encourage certain behaviors, they can be
counterproductive or dangerous, but I think you're right that "evil"
is not a good word here.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:01 MST