Spike Jones spike66@ibm.net wrote:
>We as extropians may have been exactly wrong about one thing:
>our notion that greater freedom comes from having freedom from religion.
>Perhaps we need *more* religions, lots of different ones, lots of them that
>are mutually exclusive! That way, people can get all the religious fixes
that
>humans seem to need, yet there is plenty of evidence for anyone who cares
>to see, that these ridiculous notions cannot *all* be true, but they
definitely
>*can* all be wrong.
>
>Let us encourage all religions, and hope none of them get more popular
>than the others, so there are a jillion little churches, all fighting for
market
>share. "You guys worship buddha, you other guys worship yhwh, you
>over there worship cucumbers..." All with different rules of moral conduct
>and none with a majority. Welcome them all, and offer an alternative
>for those who see the madness of it all.
This is very similar to the future libertarian world I envision. I use the
analogy of a vast ocean dotted by island chains. The ocean is the
libertarian main part of society; the islands are the enclaves in which
people live according to the rules of their religion or ideology that
differs from the main part.
On those islands, people would be free to stay or to move to the main. While
they stay on the island, they can allow their freedoms to be limited
according to the precepts of the cult they have joined. Once they leave,
they are free.
Some people might object that these islands could be highly repressive, and
that children born there could not leave. That is so. But this would only
affect individuals temporarily - children eventually grow up -- so long as
there is freedom of movement (which could be maintained via the ID implant
and regular checking to see if any individual wished to move).
Ironically, the main libertarian society would probably have to maintain
something of a social safety net (limited welfare system) to assist people
who leave the enclaves and have no economic resources of their own upon
their arrival in freedom. But that would be a small price to pay, I think,
so long as the assistance was limited in time and kept low enough to be
undesirable as a long-term lifestyle.
Regards,
Michael LaTorra
mike99@lascruces.com
mlatorra@excite.com
3229 Risner Street
Las Cruces, NM 88011-4823
USA
505.522.5121
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