Hal and I are actually more in agreement than not. I am not against all
blinding fogs. I might be, some day, but right now I'm not.
Like Michael Lorrey, Hal seems to think I am conflating individualism
with pathology. I am not: I am saying that at any given instant, my
judgement of whether you are bad-crazy is a function of how much I trust
you. If I have confidence that I share values with you, I am more easily
persuaded that you are just expressing yourself, not about to do harm to
me.
> > The mantra you mention is far from valueless to me. Please don't make me
> > your enemy just yet.
>
> The problem with "I am a member of a civilization" is that it doesn't say
> whether the civilization is good or bad.
Yes, it is true that, taken by itself, then notion is so boiled down as
to be too value free. How about "I am a member of an increasingly
enlightened planetary civilization"? Welp, it sounds awful prissy and
NWO; besides, the Nazis probably thought that too.
Brin doesn't want the Reichstag, he just wants a day a year and some
time once in a while spent on reflecting on how far we've come with the
imperfect systems we have. I do grant you that a new Goebbels, or even
David Duke, could easily twist the mantra into "Ein volk..." with no
problem.
Real mantras are safer, you just say them for the sound while you
meditate. :)
> > Principles *are* important. One principle that's important is not to
> > burn the barn down while the horse is still inside.
>
> I don't follow what that means in this context.
It's an old saw that cuts both ways. In this case, I meant that
premature polarization (enemy talk) can cost you. Brin might not be as
useful to your goals as an enemy as he might be as a grudgingly
respected gadfly with whom you have piquant disagreement.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:32 MDT