Re: Applied Libertiariansism (Was Re: kathryn's comments)

James Veverka (headbands@webtv.net)
Sun, 12 Sep 1999 15:59:59 -0400 (EDT)

Beautiful J.R., Beautiful. Complete. I could not have said it better



<<No, it's not You are confusing a very small minority of loud mouthed radical feminists with equity feminists that only seek simple outright equality and respect.
The only men that complain are the mindless patriarchal social conservatives that have an agenda of getting their flock riled up. It is a black or white thing with these less than intelligent people. The right wing fascist goons like Rush, the Christian Reconstructionists, and their like stereotype women activists-feminists into one group. They call themselves "libertarian"; that is ludicrous and the typical deceptive logorrhea for the right. They are "Guns and Gawd" people only. They would scrap the establishment clause in a second if they could............jim>>
============================================================================JR
says:

Let's try switching the objects of your invective: "You are confusing a very small minority of loud mouthed radical right wing fascist goons with equity libertarians that only seek outright equality and respect, along with freedom and prosperity for all. The only females that complain are the mindless matriarchal socialists that have an agenda of getting their flock riled up. It is a black or white thing with these less than intelligent people.
The radical feminist man-hating fascist goons like the N.O.W.
(Non-Orgasmic Womyn) and their like stereotype libertarians into one
group. They call themselves "feminists"; that is ludicrous and the typical deceptive logorrhea for the left. The are "Stalinists in Skirts" people only. They would castrate the entire male population in a second if they could."
Political rhetoric parses out a lot like tribal insults. "My tribe will kick your tribe's butt" and "my tribe is better than your tribe" -- that makes up the message.
For extropy to succeed with Homo sapiens socially, for networks of cooperation and collaboration to supplant tribal warfare, I think we need to understand that what makes people use diversity to create divisiveness, what makes people group themselves into competing factions, comes from tribal instincts, not from the supposed merits or faults of any particular social or political program or set of principles.
People instinctively join (or create via families) tribal groups
(political parties, religious denominations, sports teams, and so on),
because of the strength they gain in numbers. Lone visionaries generally get beat up, ignored, cast out, or vilified by mobs. Not that lone visionaries don't sometimes deserve cruel treatment. Sometimes visionaries take their revenge by starting their own group. I think libertarianism appeals to extropians because it seeks to limit or reduce government. I don't see feminism doing that. On the contrary, feminism seeks to expand government and to control peoples lives even more. For example, feminists in California and Washington enacted a law which requires husbands to obtain permission from their wives before they can get a vasectomy. Not very extropic, that. I don't think libertarians would enact such a law.
Libertarianism doesn't appeal to tribal instincts as successfully as feminism does. This, I think, explains why feminism remains more popular and powerful than libertarianism. To the degree Homo sapiens overcomes its tribal instincts, I think it drops the whole business of politics.

Without tribal instincts, we'd have no need for libertarianism, and no patience with feminism. Lone visionaries almost never go berserk. Tribes almost never avoid going berserk.
Some extropians write about evolving beyond biology. They probably don't think that by calling themselves extropians, and identifying themselves tribally, they have already tied themselves to the biology of tribalism. I think extropic memes will succeed among humans in proportion as they transcend politics, religiosity, competition, and romance. Otherwise, they will simply degenerate into just another brand of divisive rhetoric.