From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Thu May 23 2002 - 03:24:14 MDT
On Thu, May 23, 2002 at 02:10:31AM -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> All these arguments about how to value people, who is more valuable,
> when is killing OK, when is theft OK, when do the ends justify the
> means, etc. are bogus. They are written by people with too much time on
> their hands, who are trying to lead us down the slippery slope toward
> some violent revolution.
Excuse me, but I'm having a really bizarre vision right now, of what
the Extropian Revolutionary Front will look like in few years' time.
(That's what you get when extropians stop being content to agitate from
the sidelines and start thinking about mandating change, get rebuffed
by the mainstream, and adopt Lenin's vanguard party doctrine by way of
revenge.)
It's not pretty. In fact, it's pretty hellish.
If you mix coercive tactics, or even plain old-fashioned discrimination,
in with extropianism and high technology, you get a very, very nasty
end product. Previous tyrannies at least left the contents of your skull
alone -- they yammered propaganda at you, but if you're used to resisting
the blandishments of modern advertising you should be aware that most
propaganda is considerably less effective than that. An extropian tyranny,
enforced from without in accordance with the usual parameters of a tyrannical
system, wouldn't be content with mere physical compliance. The flip side
of uploading as a viable procedure is downloading, and could well be
abused to give new meaning to the phrase "the Stalin in your soul".
If you feel any kind of aversion to this possibility, you want to think
very hard about mixing coercion with extropian ideas. Before it's too late.
-- Charlie
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