From: Lee Crocker (LCrocker@informant.com)
Date: Tue Jan 13 1998 - 16:49:56 MST
>: Most extropians despise governments, but at the same time, they are
the
>: perfect democrats. Because they really believe that democracy works
the
>: way it is intended to work - they just think that this way is not
right.
> Well, let's have a show of hands. How many here believe there's no
fraud
> in democracy as it is, in your respective city or country?
Perfect democracy I find morally repugnant. The very idea that my life,
liberty, or property exist at the whim of my neighbors, or that I have
any say at all in theirs, is contrary to my most cherished beliefs. I
do not consider anyone a serious Extropian unless ey is fighting against
both death /and/ taxes (ironically, Mark Twain is an ancestor of mine).
Democracy and freedom are contradictory. Extropians want freedom,
diversity, and expansion. Democracy encourages conformism, unity, and
stagnation. Democracy is deathist paradise.
Reluctantly, I vote--an act of violence I am forced to commit in self-
defense against the present government. But don't think for one moment
that I don't live for the day when there will be nothing to vote for.
Rand may have gotten some of the details wrong, but she did leave us
with the most beautiful words I've ever seen in the English languauge:
"I swear by my life and my love for it that I will never live for the
sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:48:27 MST