From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue May 20 2003 - 15:07:29 MDT
--- Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net> wrote:
> --- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 20 May 2003, Brett Paatsch wrote:
> > > I reckon the next Extro is safe. Perhaps in no
> > small part because
> > > the next Extro is unlikely to be seen as a serious
> > threat to anyone.
> >
> > If you believe this then there are large segments of
> > the human
> > population whose points of view you do not
> > understand well.
> > Muslim fundamentalists, Christians, esp. of the
> > "born again"
> > variety, and much of the Presidential Bioethics
> > Committee come
> > immediately to mind.
>
> In his defense: threat, perhaps, but not "serious".
> If you were a suicide bomber belonging to one of these
> groups, who would you rather take out: a conference of
> people discussing modifications to the human genome,
> or labs that are actually implementing said
> modifications?
Effective terrorists go after symbols, because symbols have the
greatest propaganda power. Second tier targets are those that inspire
and lead. In our case such are sci-fi writers, philosophy drivers, and
techno-celebrities, along with next tier dedicated adherents: us.
I would not, however, expect actual deadly terrorism until and unless
there is widespread public perception that our side is winning. It
clearly is not in many areas at the present time.
I would instead expect logistical terrorism: sabotage of various types
which hinder our ability to operate. Promulgators of luddite terrorism
understand, unlike groups like al Qaeda, that killing doesn't change
public perceptions positively for their cause.
At the present time, sabotage of field operations like GM crops and
research animals is generally accepted by the left and public as
legitimate protest activity. Nobody not involved in GM research gets
higher insurance premiums, and few people understand how important GM
products are to their lives.
Trashing a wheat field is akin to making crop circles: a spoof, a bit
of harmless pranking. Nobody in the media is illustrating how delaying
research causes deaths and illness around the world numbering in the
millions. The best thing that Pro-Act can do right now is make such
calculations and hype them to every media outlet they can. Somehow I
doubt Pro-Act will do any such thing...
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
Blog: Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.blogspot.com
Flight sims: http://www.x-plane.org/users/greendragon/
Pro-tech freedom discussion:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/exi-freedom
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