[extropy-chat] POLITICS: terrorism and strategies

[Amara Graps]

Reason:
>My 2c addition to this thread is to point out that the only moral way
>forward is the libertarian one: to lead by example in the company of those
>who want to help. You don't win friends and help to make a better world by
>threatening and demonstrating that you can tear things down (literally or
>figuratively). To make a better world, you get on with building: those who
>want to build - the vast majority of humanity - will join you. Those who
>don't wish to build are marginalized in every possible way by this strategy.


I agree. The reputation of the US government is in the mud right now.
Here is yet another anecdotal story of how far it has gone.

A month ago I spent a weekend at a "star party" in the mountains hosted
by the Italian Amateur Astronomy association. A hundred people or so
met in a very sleepy town in the middle of Italy in the mountains
in order to visit a solar telescope, hear a few hours of astronomy talks,
go for hikes at 2000m and stay up all night with ~30 small telescopes looking
at comets, stars, galaxies etc. etc. Very nice.

During that weekend, a friend gave a comet talk where she presented a
summary of comet missions: those presently flying and those in
preparation, including that of NASA's Deep Impact mission (launch in
December 2004). If you are unaware of this mission, it is a 'new
technology' mission testing the ion drive, and other technologies. The
surprising aspect of that mission is that when it goes to the periodic
comet P/Tempel, it will send an impactor into the comet to make a huge
crater, seven to 15 stories deep. Now what about that? I don't like
that aspect of the mission very well, and the Italian amateur
astronomers in the audience didn't like it either. "How can they do
that?!" they said. Other in the audience answered: "Oh it is just like
those Americans to be always wanting to blow things up."

I think the government could do better by demonstrating that it can
build well, instead of the opposite.

Amara

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Amara Graps, PhD             email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics        vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers            URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water."
         --A Bulgarian proverb