From: Russell Blackford (RussellBlackford@bigpond.com)
Date: Fri Aug 31 2001 - 17:38:11 MDT
Natasha said
>It's a major misconception that extropians and other transhumanists lack of
empathy or even sympathy toward others. Some on this list may feel that
way, but it's clearly a personal stance and not an extropian view.
Fair enough. I've never seen such a lack of empathy in you, personally,
Natasha.
What worries me, however, is that I've seen on this list an extraordinarily
high level of impatience with, and lack of imaginative identification with,
other people's current and historical sufferings. It's higher than I've
encountered in any other forum. Even posts about the history of American
slavery are met with quibbles about the number of million people who were
enslaved, whether some other countries were even worse, whether we can feel
guilt about things that were done before we were born (forgetting that if we
feel any vicarious pride in our respective countries and their histories, we
can certainly have this stained by *shame* at aspects of our their
histories... I don't know of *any* reputable thinker who seriously says that
*guilt* is what we should feel), adn so on.
I have never claimed that anyone on the list is racist, but there is an
unusually high level of impatience, lack of imagination (of all things!!),
lack of empathy with racial issues, for example. Why is this? I can see
nothing in the extropian principles that underpins it. Indeed, I don't even
see how it follows from libertarianism. You can have all sorts of abstract
views about the moral limits on government interference with "rights"
without having such emotional attitudes to social tragedies such as slavery,
the destruction of non-European cultures, and the modern aftermath of
colonialism. If you are a libertarian and are sympathetic to disadvantaged
black communities (say) you'll simply have to respond with your own
charitable contributions or voluntary work, for example, rather than
lobbying for government expenditure.
The tentative conclusion I coming to is that the problem is the other way
around: that (economic) libertarianism - which has *some* links with
extropianism, even if only of an historical nature - is attractive to, among
others, those who already have the emotional responses I've described.
Perhaps there is a sense in which none of this matters for the cause of
transhumanism. However, I'd like to think that transhumanism can be linked
to other values that intellectually engaged and emotionally decent people
take seriously. I dread to think what impression is being created in the
minds of any postgraduate students - the public intellectuals of tomorrow -
who might be poring over the list's archives trying to understand
transhumanism from a sociological or similar perspective. If they do come to
a misconception that transhumanism is linked to inhumane attitudes, I'd say
they'd have some justification for it.
Russell
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