From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Wed Sep 29 1999 - 11:15:41 MDT
> Second, when he started bagging on "politeness" he pissed everyone off.
Yes, people will react badly when you question their long-held
assumptions or their basic values. When we as Extropians question
the value of aging and death, or of God, people see that as an
attack; when we expound the virtues of boundless expansion of
technology to those whose lives are committed to nature, they see
that as an attack; when we question the value of our physical
bodies and brains in favor of uploaded concsiousness, we should
expect angry reactions; when we question the value of centralized
control in favor of spontaneous order, people who have devoted
their lives to perfecting that control will be threatened. Such
reactions are mostly just fear of the unknown or different.
Similarly, when I question the value of long-held beliefs like
"politeness" or "restraint", I am not surprized that this is
interpreted as an attack even though it is nothing of the sort,
and will provoke reactions from those who have committed much
time and effort to them. But I cannot let the reactions to my
ideas overly influence how I judge them, or else I wouldn't be
here. We are all radicals here, questioning many of the basic
assumptions of our society; why not examine this one as well
with just as much of a critical eye?
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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