Re: About that rant....

From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Wed Nov 15 2000 - 13:11:49 MST


From: "Corwyn J. Alambar" <nettiger@best.com>

>Where are the threads on nutrition, etc.? I don't see them much,
>but I would imagine this is one of the core things we can do, as
>individuals today, to assure we live to see more of the future,
>instead of waiting for some technological savior to come and
>uplift us from our unhealthy lives.

Threads on these subjects come up all the time, most of the time
you don't see them because they've been discussed already. Just
recently I posted about a book by CBS medical man Dr Bob Arnot for
example. In fact I've dropped 10 hard-to-lose pounds so far
following this strategy.

>Ironically, some of the best advice I've gotten on health,
>nutrition, exercise, etc. comes from one of those mystic, green
>types that seem to be generally denigrated around here. Maybe if
>we listened with open minds instead of closed ears to some of what
>they had to say, we could learn something.

If you have something usefull to contribute, go ahead and do so.
But remember you've a list of intelligent people here, many of them
scientists, and we've all seen every diet fad/nutritional quackery
to come along.

>It would be a simple matter from an inexpensive launch mechanism
>to full-scale private habitation in space, to manufacturing and
>community formation.

Space is difficult, and expensive: prove me wrong, show us YOUR
business plan.

>(c) People who are not economic libertarians have significant
>greivances; why aren't we addressing these?
 
The purpose of this list is not to address the grievences of those
who follow archaic ideas about economics.

>Things such as overseas labor conditions, personal sovereignty,
>artificial scarcity in key needs (such as housing), environmental
>degredation, and the oft-proven link between agrochemicals and
>cancer are concerns raised again and again by those across the
>political spectrum. These are not political concerns, but social
>ones.

Your welcome to go out and battle these windmills Don Quixote, but
your unlikely to find a Sancho here....

>Are these things dismissed because they're the hard questions, and
>we want to only answer the easy ones? Or are they simply
>inconvenient for the political and personal philosophies of some
>of the speakers here? We are intelligent; we should all be
>capable of rising above cheap rhetorical devices and knee-jerk
>dismissals to consider issues at the fundamental level.

>So what about these social issues, the ones that transcend simple
>political pigeonholing, despite our attempts to do so. Let's
>consider how to take some of these issues from the statists, and
>turn this to our advantage. No one wants to see people starving
>in the street - how do you manage to feed people or enable them to
>feed themselves without turning to handouts and massive government
>subsidies? How do you assure a stable food supply with fewer and
>fewer externally added chemicals, while addressing the fears of
>"outbreaks" and possible negative reactions in those whom eat
>these new foods? It's all about tradeoffs in the real world - if
>you fear the Greens so much, find what their issues are and
>present solutions to the issues that fit with your mode of
>thinking, instead of simply dismissing them as non-issues.

Go back and re-read the Extropians principals and see if this time
you can figure out what this list is for.

I'm not being harsh or sarcastic, I'm trying to point out that what
you want to do is outside the purpose of this list.

As an example, the comment about the greens, with the exception of
yet another redistribute-somebody-elses-wealth scheme, everything
they're advocating can be accomplished under the present system if
people are willing to do it. The fact is most people don't want to,
they want someone to force everyone do it.

Not interested.

If you are willing then go out, do it, and report back on your
success.

Brian

Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W



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