From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jul 16 2003 - 18:09:07 MDT
> On Wed, Jul 16, 2003 at 07:26:37AM -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> > Spike wrote,
> > > In June we had the quietest time I recall having
> > > seen on extropians in over 6 years. (Did anyone
> > > count the messages?) Could it be that the
> > > spam filters were killing a lot of the posts?
> > > Perhaps I need to look over the archives. spike
> >
> > Heh. You have a strange sense of humor.
> >
> > Seriously, I don't think the list has yet recovered from the latest
> > flame-war and series of personal attacks that caused ExI to start
> > moderating again. I would love to blame low list activity on
> > spammers, but we did it to ourselves. It seems that this problem
> > gets worse every round. I would not be surprised if we were
> > losing members faster than we were gaining them at this point.
> > Sigh....
The last 3 months, my participation has fallen off significantly,
primarily due to my activities in support of the Free State Project. I
just can't be bothered with snitty little carping from a bunch of
people who in my opinion are about the most non-action-oriented people
I've ever met, online or offline, in my life (this doesn't apply to all
members of the list, just most of the active posters). The last two
years of pathetic inaction by ExI to deal with the luddite threat is
just the most blatant and important example. The daily and weekly
sniping by individuals whose only calling in life seems to be entirely
about figuring out reasons why things shouldn't be done is just the
most frequent recurring annoyance. That ain't friggin extropian in the
least.
The extropian and transhumanist community is full of so many melvinated
complainers, carpers, snipers and all around do-nothings that it is no
wonder nothing gets done. Anybody with any initiative of any
significant degree went away long ago.
In the time frame that ExI has had some great media opportunities and
chances to make significant impact and grow its membership
significantly, and done pretty much nothing with them, a small upstart
project that was the idea of a Yale graduate student in 2001 has
exceeded ExI's membership significantly, has garnered exponentially
MORE media coverage, and has attracted people who are fed up with the
abject failure of the National Libertarian Party to make any electoral
headway.
The Free State Project is taking one very extropian idea and has run
with it. Next month, when we hit 5,000 members, we will decide which
state will be the free state. We are raising funds, we are delegated
projects and responsibilities. Local groups are forming and taking
action. The Welcome to the Granite State Committee of the Libertarian
Party of New Hampshire is currently mailing a recruitment letter to
nearly 1000 former members of the Connecticut Libertarian Party (we
figure former party members are sick of debating societies and want
action) seeking their support for NH in the upcoming FSP state
election. We are sending out a fund raiser letter to do another
recruitment blitz to over 25,000 current and former Libertarian members
and voters in Massachusetts.
This is how real activist groups operate. They don't sit on their duffs
and host tea parties, run online debating societies, or operate like
some ivory tower think tank. Real activist groups take action. They
accomplish goals, and they get their message out and recruit membership
and financial support. They meet the powers that be (a bunch of us met
Governor Benson two weeks ago), and recruit support from within their
ranks (two members of the NH House are FSP members and the Governor's
Efficiency in Government committee chair John Babiarz, (also chairman
of the LPNH), is a member.
This all exactly what ExI AIN'T done, and as far as I can see, WON'T
do. It's too bad, cause this inaction by ExI is highly unextropic. If
the luddites win, it will be entirely ExI's fault.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
Blog: Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.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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