From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Tue Sep 12 2000 - 14:25:19 MDT
"Corwyn J. Alambar" wrote:
>
> I'm a bi of a political thinker. Not an incredibly adroit one, but I try to
> consider the issues.
>
> This is goign to be an alarming thing to say, but I'll say it anyway. None of
> the established American political parties as they currently manifest are
> Extropian/transhuman in the least. And part of this is why I have elected,
> year after year, to abstain from giving even my tacit endorsement to any of the
> political candidates. I do not vote, and will not vote until I can make a
> conscionable choice.
>
Thank you for a comprehensive response. I feel much the same way, but don't feel
that poorly of all groups you describe.
> We can all point at the shortcomings of the Republicans and the Democrats -
> after all, they're the ones who've been in the forefront of political discourse
> for a century and a half. But let's consider the alternatives:
>
> Reform. As a column in the Washington Post said most eloquently, "It's good to
> see that Pat Robertson has finally attained his rightful place in the political
> sphere - an asterisk." Reform never stood for anything in particular save a
> bundle of ill-connected populist tripe that never managed to forment a coherent
> whole once the crackpot in chief resigned from day to day operations.
And since its been hijacked by Nazi-in-chief Pat Buchanan, its become even more
obtuse.
>
> Libertarian. I point anyon curious to a letter to the Los Angeles Times,
> http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20000910/t000085051.html. I can sympathize
> with this poor man's feelings - why do I always feel like I'm walking into
> a cult when I ee Libertarian political philosophy discussed? I am unwilling to
> take the canonical, dogmatic approach that so many people do when approaching
> libertarianism. I do NOT believe in the unalienable right to own automatic/
> assault/armor piercing/antitank/nuclear munitions - but nor do I believe that
> gun control as we practice it in the US is at all viable either. Nor do I
> believe in the philosophical distortions and gymnastics involved in such ideas
> as PPL and PPJ (Privately Produced law/Justice) - I have news for you.
> Columbia has a similar system - it's called right wing paramilitary death
> squads. I have neither th faith in free markets nor the inherent goodness of
> human nature to trust libertarianism as it is described at its core.
How about left wing paramilitary death squads (which happen to be more prevalent
in Columbia presently)?
Death squads, as seen in Columbia, El Salvador, Chile, and elsewhere are
decidedly NOT PPL/J by any stretch of the imagination, so any attempt to
assasinate the PPL/J concept by association with death squads is purely
disengenuous, to say the least.
>
> There aren't really any other meaningful political parties, but I will not vote
> to align myself with religious or economic fundamentalists, luddites, hopeless
> egotists, isolationists, nor starry-eyed optimists who show no understanding
> of human nature.
>
> Give me "None of the Above" any day.
As a form of political protest, that is a very good position to take, but only
if it actually serves your political goals.
>
> To bring this back on topic, are there any political systems that seem to
> support a transhumanist worldview and progression, or does anyone else feel
> that transhumanism/extropianism should be an INTELLECTUAL pursuit, with a
> lobbying and social education function, rather than attempting to become a
> political ideology?
Perhaps you should start by elucidating what you think a transhuman/extropian
political platform would look like? I don't neccessarily consider that >H and
Extro platforms would be identical, since I view Extropy as a subset of a more
general broad spectrum >H movement, a subset I am proud to be part of. There are
large numbers of >H people that I don't consider to be particularly extropic,
particularly the more communal, anti-individual borganist types, those who want
to strip the individual down to become a mere node or cog in the network machine
entity. Extropy is not about eliminating human feelings, desires, etc, it is
about giving the individual greater ability to feel, to need, to want, to think,
and to fulfill. I know Max has been trying for years to be mum about his own
politics, trying to avoid any sort of political dogma or personality cult from
being derived from the more general Extropian Principles. I don't know for sure
if this desire for maintaining a semblance of intellectual distance or
'reasonableness' has been for good or not. I do know that people respond to
dedication, to commitment, and to the visible expression of the 'fire in the
belly' that more charismatic leaders tend to evoke.
Anyone who studies political science can easily see that the most successful
groups are those that radicalize things, that illustrate their opponents as
supremely evil or misguided, and paint themselves and their positions as the
only resonable thing a reasonable person can think. While many people dislike
the negativity that results, it does not mean they will actually refrain from
participating in it. They are rather hypocritical this way.
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