From: alexboko@umich.edu
Date: Fri Jan 31 2003 - 19:46:58 MST
From: "Alex Future Bokov" <alexboko@umich.edu>
X-Mailer: YaBB
[quote from: Lee on 2003-01-20 at 18:44:32]
What I have always wondered about is a Kantian take on
all this: what if everyone took to the streets to make
their voices and views on issues heard? What if all
the racists in the U.S., for example, marched to support
their right to their own beliefs?
It would be a very colorful and newsworthy weekend. Not *everyone* would
be out on the streets, since some people lack clearly defined beliefs... I
suppose they would compose the crowds of onlookers. Some individuals probably
believe that the best way they can further their goals is by doing exactly
what they're already doing, so they'd go to work as normal and work in
blissfully empty offices, labs, and workshops (ignoring the chanting and
bullhorns from outside). The cops and National Guard would for the most part
best serve their beliefs by policing the demonstration, sometimes policing it
very "actively" shall we say.
After a few days of this holiday-come-riot, everyone would end up detained,
hospitalized, or hungry and thirsty (since the shopkeepers would presumably
also mostly be out there demonstrating).
People would eventually drift back to their jobs. It would probably make the
politicians take note of public opinion a little more, and the effects would
probably last for a year or two. Since corporations aren't *really* people
and don't have beliefs, they would be the big losers in this event-- they
wouldn't get to promote their memes. Other big losers would be groups that
are vocal out of proportion to their true levels of public support (such as
the Klan, the socialists, and the closet conservatives who pretend they're
anarcho-capitalists or some such). The government may get toppled, but given
that people still mostly have the deeply ingrained assumption that *someone*
needs to be in charge, another one will soon coalesce to take its place. There
is a 50% chance that the new one will be more inane, and a 50% chance that it
will be less so.
We would all definitely think we knew which meme had the greatest numbers on
its side, and we probably would all continue to disagree with each other.
I would obtain a videocam and tape the whole thing during occasional breaks
from the lab. I would do my best to convince the people I was taping that
getting naked on camera would maximize the spread of their pet memes.
Kantian question answered.
---- This message was posted by Alex Future Bokov to the Extropians 2003 board on ExI BBS. <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=67;action=display;threadid=54419>
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