From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Jan 21 2003 - 03:35:56 MST
On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Michael M. Butler wrote:
> "Remember the Maine!"
For those who are non-U.S. citizens or people such as
myself who have a very foggy recollection of 8th grade
U.S. history, see:
"The Spanish-American War"
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html
It is worth noting that the death toll (254 seamen)
were an order of magnitude less than the death toll
of *civilians* in 911.
I'm not going to try to justify the current U.S.
policy with respect to Iraq (or North Korea).
Because I'm not sure they can be presented in
a rational manner. But Spike's recent note on
nuclear weapons propagation and use raises the
red flag.
Precisely how bad do things have to get before
one says "you may not cross this line"? And
then are you willing to suffer the consequences
of allowing things to have gotten to that point?
As much as I may not (currently) be fond of utilitarian
arguments I think I am being forced into the position of
rationalizing and justifying them.
To remove the debate from it current "political" climate,
how on earth could we have allowed the genocide of over
a million people in Rwanda?
[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/rwandadeaths.htm]
The non-U.S. members of the extropian list don't get
to beg off on this because the U.N. provides, if anything,
a forum for third parties to raise voices of concern and
outrage. [Where were you?]
So, I would urge all people who consider themselves
"extropic" to consider long and hard the question of
when their arguments and efforts really are likely
to save or produce the greatest amount of information
(i.e. are most anti-entropic).
This isn't about being "right", it isn't about advancing
ones own political perspective (the entire libertarian
vs. some other political framework fades and exits stage
left in this forum), it isn't about whether having or
not having guns is a way to move forward a perspective.
It is about whether or not the information content that we,
as a species and civilization, have accumulated, is maintained
and hopefully evolved.
That is what "EXTROPY" is about.
Robert
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