[extropy-chat] the (scary) future of pro-death bioethics and legislation

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Chris Phoenix <cphoenix at CRNano.org> wrote:
> The Avantguardian wrote:
>  > ".... the current neo-con cabal .... it's like
> they are the
>  > metaphysical servants of death and chaos. And
> yet...
>  > they claim to be god-fearing xtians when in
> reality
>  > they worship a god of fear. That Jesus fellow
> they
>  > love to name drop only ever spoke of love."
> 
> Note that they are currently engaged in global
> struggle with nihilists.
> 
> He who fights with monsters might take care lest he
> thereby become a 
> monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the
> abyss gazes also 
> into you. -- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

You know, I sometimes wonder why people still cling to
labels that have long since been stretched so far that
they're practically meaningless.  Banning stem cell
research, for instance, is called "conservative", but
clamping down on research - even that which could
merely identify a threat - wasn't as widely used in
the past, so isn't promoting that change a "liberal"
move?  Likewise, a lover and a warmonger could both
claim to be the truest follower of Christ and honestly
(by their own understandings) call the other a heathen
against whom the world must be protected according to
Christ's teachings.

When a way has made enough compromises that it loses
all clear meaning of what is and is not the way, then
that way is lost.  It becomes a skin for politicians
to wear when useful, and discard when not.  But no way
is perfectly true and correct when first laid out, no
matter how much it may seem so to its initial
creators.  A way which could adjust and admit its
previous errors, such that that which was once thought
to be the way is now admitted not to be (and why, so
as to be sure the correction itself was not a mistake,
and to aid seeking the mistake out if it appears
elsewhere), would seem to be able to overcome this
weakness.  One wonders why such has not already
evolved.  Are the benefits of chameleonic
philosophical skins really that much more than the
benefits of a proper way of being?