Re: Of Paroxysms and Politics (was would you vote for this man?)

From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Sat Aug 30 2003 - 21:32:33 MDT

  • Next message: Brett Paatsch: "Re: Security council veto (was Re: would you vote for this man?)"

    From: "Greg Burch" <gregburch@gregburch.net>

    > This list has just gone through a paroxysm of anger and hurt over
    discussion
    > of current political issues. Before continuing with this thread, please
    ask
    > yourself whether this is the right forum for discussions of this sort.
    > There are literally thousands of places on the net to discuss contemporary
    > political issues. Other than those that bear DIRECTLY on the
    transhumanist
    > agenda, this isn't one of them.

    ... then why are the authors listed at the Extropy Shop - those that may not
    have a DIRECT bearing on the transhumanist agenda per se - have a
    right-wing/libertarian bent? If I were new to transhumanism and went to the
    Extropian site for the first time, I would observe some semblance of
    politics (and why not? it's difficult to separate humans from politics).
    Except, the Extropian site is not impartial - otherwise, maybe H.G. Wells
    would be represented along with Ayn Rand:

    http://www.extropy.org/shop/index.html

    There are many shades of transhumanism, and some of them bear directly on
    its agenda:

    e.g. Transhumanist Socialism:
    http://www.lancs.ac.uk/ug/greenrd/trans-soc.htm

    > I've given up on the idea of encouraging "civil dialogue" on contemporary
    > political issues: There will always be people who will push the rhetorical
    > heat up beyond what a civil discussion forum can tolerate. Draconian
    > policing of the list is a last resort. So let me please enter a plea to
    > simply leave off from discussion of the hot-button political and
    ideological
    > issues.

    I say, what we need here is more levity.

    Forgive me, as it may not have a direct bearing on the transhumanist agenda,
    but Dave Barry once wrote ...:
    "The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated
    time and again that they have the management skills of celery. They're the
    kind of people who'd stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow
    manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a
    Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would
    know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn't bother to stop because they'd
    want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club."

    Olga

    Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. ~
    Mark Twain

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Aug 30 2003 - 21:45:37 MDT