Free Market

Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Fri, 12 Sep 97 11:19:10 CST

Rick Knight wrote:

I would like to see our combined intelligence and illumination
distributed among the masses, however unworthy or illogical that may
seem to some, rather than hoarded among the privileged few.

Hagbard Celine responded:

I tried to point out to Holly that extropy is not a secret. We are not
hoarding arcane wisdom from the Ancients. There is no system of
degrees or initiation.

Rick Knight:

Clarification: The "we" was not Extropians (I am not an Extropian,
more of a voyeur, an optimistic futurist, a jack mystic, I dunno,
whatever...) but people of influence and intelligence.

Hagbard continues:

Rick, you happen to have not only a tactful diplomatic manner, but
also a desire to see the meme propogate. I think you would
be a good apologist for extropian transhumanism in the mainstream.

Rick Knight:

Thanks. I believe my power to effectively see both sides and connect
the dots to be a strong point and one that will effect great and
powerful change one day.

Hagbard:

I've made this point a million times, but I'll make it again. Idealism
without praxis is non-utilitarian.

Rick Knight:

Excellent reminder to keep focus when emotion, dispair and
disorientation about this ever-changing world put you off track. I
hear the pain, however angry and perceivedly irrational, that Holly is
speaking. I perceive she is trying to process it, trying to make
sense of it. Sometimes, that involves some hand waving and jumping
about but hopefully will not evoke too much defensiveness (which
results in nothing but a sidetrack dilusion into semantics and
clarified positions).

I have just recently decided that, with the increasing anxiety I am
feeling about disparity in our culture (and our world) that talking
about it is doing no good at all. In this current motif, it will take
people of power and influence to make genuine change. Protesting and
banging the drum about it does serve to keep people reminded just like
everytime I pass by a disinfranchised person and feel that
disorientation in my own heart, I KNOW something's not right.

And no, I don't believe it will *always* be that way as was previously
stated by a poster in this thread. That sounds like Jesus to his
disciples rather than an Extropian perspective. Different playing
field in the last years of the 20th century. Bucky Fuller said the
resources were available for every person to live well and no one, no
matter how undeserving or uncontributing they may be regarded by the
more successful, should have to beg, starve or be cold. Period.

For those without resources, protesting may be away of gathering
influence. But the real influence will come when more of us begin
strategizing ways to allocate our resources so that we as a community
are restored. As a wealthy friend of mine recently said, "it takes
having a lot of money to give you the opportunity to realize that your
real work is to make sure others can have what you have."

Rick