From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Tue Jan 26 1999 - 11:49:21 MST
>"Individualism [is] the practice of living in terms of coherent desires
>under the rule of law. [It] unleashed, for better or worse, everything
>that makes the modern West dynamic and innovative."
>Kenneth Minogue (Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of
>London), 1999, 'Times Literary Supplement', 8 i.
Living "under the rule of law" sounds hypocritical (if not entirely silly)
to me. Conservatives in America like to assert that they live by the "rule
of law, not the rule of men" but who makes the laws? Actually, "We the
people" founded the US, not "We the law." Since lawyers (legislators) make
the laws, and people become lawyers, this extra layer of governance serves
to obscure the fact that the ruling class decides how people live (and
sometimes _which_ people live).
Society means one person's relationship to another.
To paraphrase Scott Adams, who may well have outdone Prof. Minogue, "There
are two types of people in the world: the bright and attractive people like
yourself who participate in the Extropy mailing list, and the 6 billion
idiots who get in our way. Since we're outnumbered, it's a good idea not to
refer to them as idiots to their faces. A devious Extropy list reader
suggested calling them 'In-duh-viduals' instead. The advantage to this word
is that you can insult someone without risk of retribution. Example:
You: You're quite an Induhvidual, Jethro.
Jethro: Thank you.
"If you're not already surrounded by Induhviduals, you will be soon. New
ones are being born every minute, despite the complexity involved in
breeding. Frankly, I think much of the procreation of Induhviduals happens
purely by accident when two of them are trying to do something
complicated -- like jump-start a car -- and they suddenly get confused.
Whatever causes the breeding -- and I truly don't want to know the
details -- it's safe to assume there will be more of it.
"The way I see it, you have three good strategies for thriving in a future
full of Induhviduals:
1. Wear loose clothing and pretend your car battery is dead.
2. Keep Induhviduals in your car so you can use the car-pool lane.
3. Harness the stupidity of Induhviduals for your own financial gain.
"Option one is dangerous. I recommend that you stay away from anything that
involves Induhviduals, electricity, and sex. It's just common sense.
"Option two requires you to be in your car with Induhviduals for long
periods of time. There is a real risk that they will attempt to make
conversation. That would negate any benefits you get from avoiding traffic
congestion. And if you accidentally leave them in the car and forget to
crack the window open, they'll die. You'll need more than one of those
little Christmas-tree air fresheners to solve that problem.
"I recommend option three: Harness the stupidity of Induhviduals for your
own financial gain. In order to do that, you'll need to be able to
anticipate their moves well in advance. This can be difficult, because the
average Induhvidual does not anticipate his own moves in advance.
"If you asked the average Induhvidual about his plans, he'd say he has no
plans. But if you yanked the eight-track tape player out of that
Induhvidual's Pinto and then repeatedly hit that average Induhvidual with
it, you could make him confess that he has some plans, even if those plans
are not very exciting:
AVERAGE INDUHVIDUAL'S PLANS
* Become shorter and more crotchety over time.
* Lose all appreciation of popular music.
* Cultivate ear hair.
* Get a new eight-track player.
"Clearly, with a world full of people who have goals like that, most of the
things that happen in the future will not be the result of good planning.
That makes the future difficult to predict. That's why you need to read this
mail list."
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(Slightly) Paraphrased from _Dilbert Future, Thriving on Stupidity in The
21st Century_
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