Some comments on the comments:
As I hope folks are aware, the list I'm compiling is certainly not an
"enemies list" per se, but rather an attempt to put together resources for
monitoring the development of ideas and organizations that have one or more
items of active anti-progress ideology or value in their make-up. It's also
not officially associated with Extropy Institute in any way - it's just a
personal project of my own. I'm simply looking to create a set of links to
make monitoring a wide spectrum of groups and movements easier.
Regarding "greens", it pains me particularly to see what's happened to the
"environmental movement", but the anti-science, anti-technology and
anti-enterprise tendencies of even most mainstream "environmental" groups has
becomes quite clear-cut to me in the last few years, so much so that I've
come to describe myself with the older word "conservationist" so as to avoid
association with the likes of Greenpeace. Folks who know me well will
realize that this is particularly galling, because I'm more at home outdoors
in the wilderness than in any city.
As to the Green Party, I know that it has become the most effective
anti-technology group in Europe, especially in Germany, the first country in
which party members hold ministerial posts. I would personally include them
on an "anti-progress" watch list here in the US because I fear they may
become the "respectable", establishment front for more radical "deep ecology"
types and Rifkinites in general. One of the key developments I'm looking out
for (and hoping I don't see) is an explicit opposition to ALL genetic
engineering as part of official Green Party platforms.
By including a category for religious groups on my list, I'm certainly not
indicting all religious people or organizations as anti-progress. However,
the religious right in the US and fundamentalists elsewhere (especially
Islamic fundamentalists) DO pose a grave danger to the transhumanist agenda.
In the propagation of nonsense such as "creation science", their opposition
to genetic engineering as "ungodly" and their antagonism to individual
liberty, religious fundamentalism represents the number one threat to the
specific transhumanist goal of augmenting and transcending the human animal -
all IMHO, of course.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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