[extropy-chat] Priorities: Longevity, food or viruses?

[Harvey Newstrom]

Whatever happened to freedom of choice?  It seems to me that both sides of
this debate are striving for a winner-take-all solution, and are unwilling
to let other people make their own choices.  The bio-luddites don't want any
engineered food to exist at all.  They want to deprive us of the right to
eat new food crops.  On the other hand, the bio-engineering industry wants
to bio-engineer all food crops and refuses to label their modified crops
differently than the unmodified crops.  They want to deprive us of the right
to eat old food crops.

I find both positions extremist and coercive.  There must be a free-market
solution where both sets of products can co-exist, and consumers can choose
which one they want to eat.  This requires separation of facilities, safety
measures to keep one from contaminating the other, and clear labeling so
customer can make their own choice.  Sadly, nobody on either side of this
debate seems to want to let individuals make their own choices.  Each side
wants to make the decision for everybody else.

Beyond food politics, we find the same issue in religious, sexual, morality,
guns, government, etc.  Everybody wants to set up a monopoly power of their
particular preference, and don't want to allow people with other preferences
to even exist.  It seems that we will never have maximum freedom as long as
we keep playing zero-sum-game politics.  We must find a way to allow
everybody's preferences and rights to be exercised.  This means allowing
bio-luddites to have GMO-free food, allowing luddites to have
technology-free zones, allowing religions to have their schools and
churches, allowing other forms of government and political systems to exist.
There is no One True Way(TM) for everyone.  As long as we allow different
Ways(TM) to exist, our way and their way can both survive and flourish.
Wars only occur when One True Way(TM) tries to annihilate another True
Way(TM).

-- 
Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, CISA, CISM, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC
Certified IS Security Pro, Certified IS Auditor, Certified InfoSec Manager,
NSA Certified Assessor, IBM Certified Consultant, SANS Certified GIAC
<HarveyNewstrom.com> <Newstaff.com>