Nice coincidence, we're discussing democracy on the local Swedish transhumanist list right now too. Must be something in the jet-streams.
Terry Donaghe <tdonaghe@yahoo.com> writes:
> Let's look at how the two major parties stack up to the Extropian
> Principles:
Quite amusing. The same results hold among Swedish parties too.
> Opinion:
>
> Democracy is simply a mechanism allowing the few (ethnic, social,
> corporate, cultural, philosophical minorities) to rule the many. In
> order to be elected any given candidate must pander to the wishes of
> as many of these minority groups as possible.
Actually, what you really should be saying is that "*Current representative democracy* is simply...."; representative democracy is just a subset of a larger set of democratic forms, some of which may have very different properties. Then again, I agree with your critique of the current system, and obviously it is worth looking for a better alternative.
> As for my pick? Why vote for the lesser of two evils? Check out:
>
> http://www.cthulhu.org/
> (Check out his platform!)
>
> *mwuhahahahaha!!*
Hmm, what about the extropian principles applied to the Elder Party?
Perpetual Progress: Definitely. Unfortunately it doesn't involve humanity.
Self-Transformation: Definitely. Although in slimy directions.
Practical optimism: Doesn't the party represten practical pessimism?
Intelligent technology: Definitely (just think of all the life extension, intelligence augmentation and brains-in-jars in Lovecraft's stories). Although it will be quite alien, employ black magic and eat people's souls.
Open Society: "for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild, and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstacy and freedom." Hard to get a more open society than that :-)
Self-Direction: See above.
Rational Thinking: discouraged by Azathoth - if The Lord of the Universe doesn't think, why should you?
Overall, it seems like the Elder Party is more extropian than the others. And remember, there are few cryonics slogans better than "That is not dead which can eternal lie // And with strange eons, even death may die." :-)
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y