From: Ian Goddard (igoddard@erols.com)
Date: Thu Nov 14 1996 - 00:36:24 MST
At 11:55 PM 11/13/96 -0800, David D. wrote:
>J. D. wrote:
>>
>> I am even optimistic that Extropians and Libertarians will
>> eventually see that the anti-conspiracy meme is a powerful pro-state meme
>> and stop clinging to it!
>>
>> Now that is really optimistic!
>
> Pynchon's third proverb for paranoids --
> If they can get you asking the wrong questions they don't have to worry
> about the answers.
IAN: I don't think that the case for encouraging conspiracy theory
against authority is about "asking the wrong questions," it's simply
encouraging the asking of questions and suspicions about the unreli-
ability and criminality of authorities and of authoritarianism. Because
power corrupts, a conspiracy theory protocol is rational and healthy for
the preservation of individual liberties. Conspiracy theories compromise
faith in authority. Seeing the reality of criminal conspiracy shows the
inherent danger of unlimited State power, and because indeed authority
corrupts and thus tends toward criminality, lo and behold, our basket
of true-life conspiracies runnith over.
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IAN GODDARD <igoddard@erols.com> Q U E S T I O N A U T H O R I T Y
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