Re: Allowing Self-abuse

E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@uniserve.com)
Fri, 18 Jul 1997 14:10:23 -0700


Rick Knight wrote:

> I want community connectivity and agreement on common goals that
> enable us to advance and thrive. What's in the way is ego, avarice
> and apathy. Our sense of freedom is so skewed by our sense of ego
> that it's amazing that anything productive happens!

Few words have as much emotional baggage as the word "ego". The
term has become so convoluted in the last century that it is now commonly
accepted as a synonym to arrogance and narcissism...things that are seen as
"bad" in the eyes of society. Rick's paragraph above gives the impression
that there is a contrast between "agreement on common goals" and one's ego.
First of all, to have a goal, one must have his\her own reason for setting
the goal...one must pursue it for his\her own self. When, say, a thousand
people have the exact same goal for their own egoistic (not to be confused
with egotistic) reasons, then you have a thousand people working to make
that goal reality; these are a thousand individuals --not a mass with one
name: community.

Secondly, one cannot have true freedom without having ego. If one
is bound to another's ideals, he\she is just that: bound. The only
non-physical limits that exist are the ones that each individual decides to
create or adhere to him\herself. *Nothing* is blocking a person from
taking a machete and decapitating his\her neighbor except for his\her own
moral limitations. Nothing is stopping me from doing 80 miles per hour in
a 50mph zone...however, I must consider the consequences. In addition,
every person has freedom, however, every person has to look at the
ramifications and effects that every step he\she makes will cause. Only an
individual --with an ego-- can make his\her own decisions to adhere to
limits or break them. Nothing is barring any individual from working with
another person or a thousand other people, and by no means does having an
ego quell productivity...quite the opposite has been proven time and time
again.

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E. Shaun Russell Poet, Musician, Atheist, Extropic Artist
==============================> Transhumanities editor for Homo Excelsior
Kineticize your potential... http:\\www.excelsior.org
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