Emlyn wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Technotranscendence" <neptune@mars.superlink.net>
> To: <extropians@extropy.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2000 3:45 AM
> Subject: Atheist Propoganda?
>
> [snipped all that stuff]
>
> It's a pity for those poor right-leaning religious folks that their
> religions are based on commie propaganda such as being nice to other people.
> The wisdom of hindsight tells us, in this bright new century, that the only
> truly ethical way to coexist with one's neighbours is to attempt to kick
> their teeth in at any opportunity. To do less would be innefficient, which
> is clearly the blackest sin immaginable.
>
> If only I had the means to an end. Sigh.
Hello Emlyn,
I think your post succeeds as satire even though it is dangerously
close to the edge of "righteous indignation". I'm very glad you didn't
cross over -- by observation all "righteous indignation" amounts to
"self-righteousness", the inflation of egoism which you are criticizing.
But I would add, although satire, in general the exaggerations are
meaningful descriptions of what always seems to occur when someone
attempts to "update social darwinism" and give it a patina of moral
respectability. We don't say "Society red in tooth and claw" anymore;
we might offer the concept of "Constructive Individualism" which means
to avoid constraints placed on our competitive, ambitious, and Type-A
tendencies. On the highway, this allows busy people with superior
eye-hand coordination and reflexive reaction-time to get where they
are going without the interference of speed-limits, and it allows lousy
drivers to kill themselves, removing their genes from the pool. If you
think this is hyperbole, try the Autobahn.
You see, it isn't really necessary to implement a social policy of bad
memecide; just don't interfere with their self-destruction. If you want
progress, you need winners. Losers are merely collateral damage. It's
not a question of reveling in this -- one soberly accepts it as an
unavoidable cost of doing business. I do question whether it ought
to be deductible.
Bob
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
=======================
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