From: Anton Sherwood (dasher@netcom.com)
Date: Sat Mar 14 1998 - 01:06:44 MST
Erik Moeller wrote in part:
> The best definition of freedom probably comes from the anarcho-socialists.
> Not being oppressed by power structures while, at the same time, helping to
> advance evolution. Such a freedom is entirely impossible in a "free market".
Why?
Or rather: what the heck does "helping to advance evolution" mean?
> The Christians murdered millions, buried the knowledge of the Romans and
> maintained power (and stagnation) for nearly one millenium. The Dark Ages
> were the worst time this planet has ever gone through.
The knowledge of the Romans was generally borrowed from the Greeks; Rome
was a conqueror, not an inventor.
It might be interesting to go back in time and prevent the rise of
Christianity, but I doubt that would have saved the Empire from
collapsing of its own tax structure.
> >I disagree, as the idea that the state has the right to use deadly force in
> >redistributing my property which they confiscate from me without due process or
> >proper Constitutional authority is not even worth discussing.
>
> Because you don't consider yourself as a part of the human community, but as
Non sequitur.
> an isolated being which has, for some strange reasons, the right to
> accumulate scarce goods and the currency necessary to acquire them.
"some strange reasons" indeed. Individualism bad, collectivism good,
Capitalism bad, plunder good ...
> Accumulation of information, external sensors and memory, the transhuman
> 'properties' you described, is OK. But in today's world, the resources must
> be distributed equally in order to allow everyone to participate in the
> great game of life.
Everyone participates, even if we cannot all participate equally. I'd
like to participate equally with Martin Cradick or Donald Knuth, but I
haven't got the talent; who will correct that maldistribution?
> ... By my definition, a transhuman is a being
> which has already transcended, and such a being does, according to my
> knowledge, not exist on this planet. We're still unconnected carbon bags
> filled with water. As such, we are all dependant on this planet's resources.
> Private property of goods and currency must not exist in an environment
> where goods are not reproducable.
On the contrary, private property must inevitably exist where goods are
not infinite.
See, I can make naked assertions too.
> .... The Americans didn't become a superpower
> because they were so clever. They've earned a golden nose with both World
> Wars, whereas the British Empire was eliminated as a superpower already
> after WW I. The German economy didn't fare so well after WW II because the
> politicians were so intelligent, but because it was greatly funded by the
> US.
Agree in part - but, you know, it wasn't by mere chance that Americans
won the wars. Why didn't Brazil (for example), which had similar
advantages of size and isolation, win them?
I like to think it's not *only* military power that makes Americana
fashionable around the world ...
> History could also look completely different, if, after WW I, Germany had
> decided to cooperate with Russia. Such a plan was made, by Weimar state
> secretary Rathenau. Remember the contract of Rapallo? It allowed the Germans
> to quit reparation payments and to build and test weapons in the SU.
> Unfortunately (probably), Rathenau was assassinated in 1922.
>
> Unfortunately, Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.
> Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.
> Unfortunately, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
> Unfortunately, Lee Harvey Oswald was assassinated two days later.
> Unfortunately, Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.
> Unfortunately, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.
>
> I wouldn't call this kind of selection natural. [...]
I wouldn't call it relevant, either, unless you can show how these
killings affected *culture*.
-- "How'd ya like to climb this high without no mountain?" --Porky Pine Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 !! visiting New Mexico, end of March !!
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