Re: Changing people (was: Re: look out! long-haired gun loon!)
michael k teehan (miketeehan@worldnet.att.net)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 19:37:16 -0500
----------
> From: Holger Wagner <Holger.Wagner@lrz-muenchen.de>
> To: extropians@extropy.com
> Subject: Re: Changing people (was: Re: look out! long-haired gun loon!)
> Date: Friday, December 19, 1997 2:20 PM
>
> Michael Butler wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 18 Dec 1997, Wings of the Morning wrote:
> > > do with guns. I think if we could change the way people think, there
would be
> > > a lot less reasons for guns to be produced anyways.
> >
> > I absolutely agree.
> >
> > But *how* to change the way people think?
>
> A dream: take over all the media and any educational institution and
> flood "society" with good information that makes them more critical.
> More realistic: talk to as many people as you can. Doing that you can
> 1) make a few (very few) actually change the way the think
> 2) get better in achieving 1)
> 3) make up your own mind about the things you talk about
> another possibility is writing articles, books, etc. (or creating
> computer games) that contain certain messages. Let the critical
> characters win, while the others fail.
>
> I've been thinking about this a lot (unfortunately, I didn't get to read
> a lot about it, yet). I believe that there are different "levels" to
> reach people:
> With some people, you can actually start a "philosophic" discussion.
> Unfortunately, some people - even if they understand the concept - won't
> change because they think that philosophy has nothing to do with real
> life. Others simply aren't interested in that kind of conversation, so
> either you tell them stories with a message (I recently found out that
> most communication among friends is about their experiences, things that
> happened to them recently - simply stress the "extropic aspects" in such
> conversation), or you "live as a good example". It makes a great
> difference, whether you tell people something, or if people ask you, why
> you are successful and happy and such a nice person ;-)
>
> Obviously, with these steps, you only reach a few people - but that's
> way better than reaching no one at all. If we are lucky, some people
> will have the idea of also spreading "good memes" which may result in a
> snowball effect.
>
> > To scare them? To lie to them? To tell them guns have demons in them
that
> > make you kill people when you're pissed off in traffic?
>
> That's what (so-called) governments have been trying for millenia. It
> does work for some people, but I rather live among critical people who
> know why they're doing what (fear and misinformation are pretty unstable
> reasons).
>
> > Or to tell the whole truth, and get people "evolved" (bad word:
> > "post-evolved" might be better) to a point where violent acts aren't
their
> > first resort during a bad-hair day?
> >
> > I favor the latter. That means getting everyone rich and calm, AND not
> > trying to screw each other. Including not lying to each other.
>
> So far, I see the major problem in the addiction of some people to
> maintain power, while others prefer being ruled to being
> self-responsible. Those "power-addicts" would do anything just to keep
> their power (including the use of violence), while some of those who are
> ruled maybe develop aggression.
>
> Obviously, those in power ("governments", media, enterprises) usually
> won't try to get across messages who may result in self-responsible
> people who are critical about everything because that would destroy any
> centralized power. The only thing I believe I can do about this is
> become rich and powerful myself and "do a part of the job" (and I would
> never expect anybody else to do anything about it - if someone does, I'd
> appreciate it).
>
> later,
> Holger
>
> --
> o---------------------------------------------------------------o
> | "That's the funny thing about memories, isn't it? We are not |
> | what we remember of ourselves, we are what people say we are. |
> | They project upon us their convictions - we are nothing but |
> | blank screens." +$+ Trevor Goodchild in "Aeon Flux" |
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