[extropy-chat] Re: The Force of Human Freedom

[Greg Burch]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Damien Broderick

> At 05:24 PM 1/30/2005 -0600, Greg Burch wrote:

> >
> >A kind-hearted person of good will, circa 1933: "Won't those people just 
> >shut up with their negativity about Hitler and Hirohito?  How can they 
> >sleep at night or get out of bed in the morning with all that 
> >fear-mongering?!?!"
> 
> Hang on, this is a rather different kind of story isn't it? 
> Muslims hither 
> and yon =/= a mad dictator with plans for world conquest. The 
> threat might 
> well be real, but as Steve Davies and others have argued it derives from 
> different drivers. What worries me is that the analogy looks closer to:
> 
> < circa 1933: "Won't those people just shut up with their 
> negativity about 
> Jews and gypsies all around the place?  How can they sleep at 
> night or get 
> out of bed in the morning with all that fear-mongering?!?!" >
> 
> That would not have been the most helpful response, either, but it places 
> the burden of proof where it belongs, and foreshadows something terrible 
> for the stigmatized groups.
> 
> Damien Broderick 

I'll certainly acknowledge there are significant differences between the threat of old-style secular fascism in the 1930s and islamofascism in the 1970s-20??, but I have concluded that we stand in an analogous situation in terms of the world's willingness to wake up to and deal with the threat.

As for "stigamatized people" -- go tell it to Theo van Gogh.

GB