Re: Norman Spinrad on THE SPIKE

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Tue Jun 05 2001 - 03:08:59 MDT


Al Billings wrote:
>

> > 3. deviance of belief is not recognized, or if it is,
> > it is severely criticized as "not getting with the
> > program"
>
> I've seen that every time someone expresses something largely
> non-libertarian, heavily in disagreement with the Max's principles or
> even supportive of such simple things as spirituality...
>

I think I've probably talked about spirituality here more than
most anyone. While the subject is held as questionable (with
some justification) I don't feel that severely criticized or
ever accused of "not getting *it*". I very much do "get it" but
with tonalities and implications that are likely a bit (or even
a lot in some cases) different from those of some others here.
But that is true of many of us. It doesn't look like much of a
uniform cult thing to me.

> > 4. money or lifestyle is almost always a key issue
>

Having been in something at one time that comes a lot closer to
being a cult, I don't get this one either.
 
> I think that this could be heavily debated for a cult requirement. I
> see plenty of discussion of this here in any case.
>
> > 5. you're either in or you're out
>
> That's about the only thing missing here but perhaps the Extropian
> Institute qualifies?
>
> You seriously don't think this looks like some sort of cult for science
> fiction fans and computer geeks to the mainstream (the people that you
> want to influence)?
>
> Al



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