extrosatva

Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Mon, 15 Sep 97 10:53:09 CST

Rick Knight wrote:

My largest incongruity with the classic Extropian viewpoint (as
expressed on this digest) is a seeming lack of humanity and
connectedness.

Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:

I don't think "incongruity" works here either. It's at best a
misperception, and at worst a malicious slander. I don't think
anyone who has ever personally been with a group of Extropians
and gotten to know them would call us anything but compassionate.

<waxes extropian and then concludes>

...perhaps this episode will help us work on our public image a bit.

Rick Knight continues:

Hopefully, I have not snipped out of context here in getting to the
point. My initial quote above seems to be resurfacing in new posts,
if only for the purpose of tweakin the vocabulary <G>. However, it
was not my intention to be malicious. And as word choices, I had
hoped to disarm that interpretation by use of the word "seeming".

I consider extropians very intelligent and gifted people. It is my
perception that there are more of what I would classify "engineering"
mentalities than there are say..."liberal arts" mentalities. Of
course, my speaking emerges from the latter category as anyone who's
read anything I've posted here can readily interpret.

I know each group can't survive (well) without the other. We are
polarized but dependent on one another. A yin/yang, right-brain,
left-brain, positive/negative, zero/one opposites attract type of
thing. When the artsy-fartsy types (like moi) get too out there, I
often NEED someone to say "Earth to Rick". When the calculating,
empirical types reach their version of critical mass, they too need
some reconnection from "the other side".

This is staring to sound like Rodney King asking why we can't get
along. I think we do merge and interpolate well and the occasional
"disturbance in the force" here in this digest is of no cause for
alarm to me and hopefully to no one else.

Humanity and compassion are not simply defined when you have so many
"subjective realities" to factor in <G>. This digest is an
EXTRO-ordinary melting pot of ideas and perspectives. I say it's
great. I've learned much and hopefully contributed much. I'd like to
make a living doing this and am paving the way for me to do so.

Live long and prosper folks!
Rick