From: Phil Osborn (philosborn2001@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu May 30 2002 - 21:45:01 MDT
Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com) wrote
on Wed May 29 2002 - 20:29:32 MDT
"What was the point of this long story? We obviously
have radically different views, so I probably wouldn't
come to the same conclusions about the story that you
would. Could you specifically state what point you
think was made, and how it relates to the Extropians
List at this time?"
The point of the 12 paragraph story was that you don't
have to be offensive, deliberately or accidentally,
for people with hidden agendas to attempt to score off
you. There are people and organizations out there who
actively search for targets, infiltrate organizations,
and then subvert them via intimidation or other
strategies. The PC crowd is in fact notorious for
this kind of behavior.
Military strategy in a nutshell, as explicated by
David Freidmann at a lecture I attended decades ago,
consists of bringing irresistable force to bear on a
small area, thus forcing the enemy to retreat. You
don't have to shoot all the enemy - just the ones who
stick their heads up. If you get that ball rolling,
i.e., convince the enemy that sticking up ones head is
tantamount to suicide, then a small force that shoots
every head that pops up can contain a much larger
force. If they ever get organized enough to all stick
their heads and guns up at once, of course, then
you've lost that round.
Growing up as a radical anti-racist Yankee in the Deep
South in the '50s and early '60's, I watched how a
minority of ruling Crackers kept everyone - white or
black - from seriously challenging the status quo by
taking out or intimidating those individuals who spoke
up. My personal policy that grew out of that
experience is to fight the pressure to not speak up at
every opportunity.
I did not speak my mind on some issues that certain
intolerant people found offensive in order to push any
limits of expression. Nothing I said was inherently
that radical. The problem was that I wouldn't be
intimidated. That alone - that I was the recipient of
nasty little attempts to shut me up - would have been
good and sufficient cause to continue, although that
was not my motivation. It is just SO FRUSTRATING to
repressive people when someone keeps replying. Too
bad.
The surrender to those who would stifle free
expression in a forum that is dedicated to the
exploration of limitless growth would be a supreme
irony - and the death of that forum as such. If
extropians were so intolerant of expression that a
discussion of the kind that has gone on recently had
to be shut down or if that was even on the table as a
serious alternative, then the forum itself would be a
sham, another little venue for the PC crowd.
Not every issue is one of sweetness and light, and if
serious disagreements are reason to avoid a topic,
then what is the point?
As Maria Montessori put it in her final book that
summed up her life philosophy, "It is just as
important to resist and defeat a great evil as it is
to create a great good."
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