[extropy-chat] letter concerning presidential growth

[Brett Paatsch]

Adrian Tymes wrote:

> --- Brett Paatsch <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>> If I cannot hold America as a whole responsible for what America does
>> in the world then who can I hold responsible?
> 
> Those Americans who actually implement that which you would
> assign responsibility for.  America is not one giant whole, and
> if you treat it as such for the purposes of declaring enemies,
> you make a lot of enemies out of those who might otherwise be
> your best allies.  Even if it seems simpler, it doesn't actually
> work in the end.

President Bush gave the order to invade Iraq illegally. I do hold him
personally responsible for that. And he for his part would accept 
responsibility. In Australia, the Howard government supported him
when he should have opposed him or counselled against him, so I do
hold the Howard government and John Howard personally responsible
for that. In the UK, I hold Blair personally responsible.  

These men had jobs to do and public trusts to uphold and so it is proper
that they be held personally responsible for the good they do and the 
harm. 

But Bush could only do what he did, and Howard and Blair what they
did, because they were acting as agents within a larger framework.
And the citizens of their countries are the human manifestations of those
larger frameworks.

If we who post to the extropian list want to understand why progress
is inhibited and so do our bit to increase it we have to be honest.

Bush, Blair and Howard are all sufficiently skilled politicians and readers
of the public mood that they would love to have opposition to them 
characterisable as anti-americanism or anti-western or un-australia,
because they can then turn the mob on those that oppose what them. 

But that does not mean that there are not rational humanistic grounds
for being anti-American, and anti-Western, and anti-Australian when
the collective citizenry of America, or the UK or Australia are morally
culpable for not caring enough to hold their governments to account for
breaches of promise and further contributions to the erosion of human
rights and the rule of law.  


Brett Paatsch