[extropy-chat] Scientists and engineers must work within the system

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at gmail.com> wrote:> 
> If you are involved in broken processes and your involvement brands
> the process as legitimate when it is not then you are legitimizing
> brokenness.  

You are being absurd here. Does a pshrink legitimize dysfunctional
families or domestic abuse by helping those suffering from it or
committing it? No. Does a an engineer redesigning a product legitimize
its previous, flawed, design? No. The only thing illegitimate here is
the pop psych bogosity about 'legitimizing processes'. Such terms are
all fine and dandy for agit-prop, but they break down when their
adherents start acting as if they are so valid that they define some
sort of immutable reality.

Your involvement or non-involvement in the political process doesn't
legitimize anything for anybody. The system frankly couldn't care less
whether you were involved or not. Stop being so full of yourself, so
solipsistic. It isn't about you. No one person is absolutely necessary
for the system to function, it is built to function no matter who sits
in the various positions of involvement. That being said, there IS a
butterfly effect.

Non-involvement is slavish assent. Involvement is claiming the
responsibility of citizenship for what the outcomes of the system are.
Your impact among millions of others may not seem like much, but it all
comes down to how, where, and how much you choose to get involved.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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