From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Mon Sep 28 1998 - 16:07:00 MDT
Robin Hanson wrote:
> Actually, the attitude you describe is partly what I'm trying to avoid
> in my ideal community of discourse. "Yeah, we look wierd, but they
> persecuted Galileo didn't they? And abolisionists eventually won, right?"
> Yeah, but most "kooks" really are, movements and religions grow for
> lots of reasons besides the accuracy of their factual claims, and most of
> them are not fondly remembered by history.
I would amend that to say that most proponents of progress are not fondly
revised by present day historians. Since most present day historians are of
the luddite/crunchy/left persuasion, they obviously are applying their biases
to what they write about individuals who were prophets of progress. For
example, the Industrial Revolution, a period which saw the greatest growth in
wealth, health, and education of the largest percentage of the general
population in history, is seen today as a time of backwardness, disease,
exploitation of the working classes, etc.
I think that the time of the kook is upon us. Since it is now generally cool
to be a computer geek, at least among the younger generation (the old school
media are still stuck in the 50's "nerd" attitude rut), I can imagine that the
next wave of acceptance in the next generation is the futurist, especially as
their predictions start to come true at a faster pace.
Mike Lorrey
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