[extropy-chat] Re: Nam

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:

> The Avantguardian wrote:
> 
> >don't really need a byzantine hodgepodge of republics,
> >democracies, monarchies, plutocracies, oligarchies,
> >theocracies, and dictatorships on our planet to
> >maintain cultural diversity. We just need universal
> >freedom. The Muslims in the U.S. are just as Islamic
> >as the ones in the Middle East, they just happen to be
> >free and tolerant.
> >  
> >
> I beg to differ.
> Most people, let alone Moslems, are not 'free and tolerant'.

That is mighty intolerant and unenlightened of you.

> 
> >      If you REALLY believe that we should suffer the
> >existence of archaic forms of government in far flung
> >corners of the world, then we should go all the way
> >set them up as "historical anthropological preserves"
> >and forbid the transfer of technology beyond that of
> >agrarian societies into their borders.
> >     I don't trust caliphs and sheiks to wield germs
> >and nukes responsibly, not with what they have shown
> >me so far.   
> >
> >  
> >
> So in your future there is really only One Culture - The American
> Way.
> In the end we all need to control the bit of turf we stand upon,
> whether metaphorical or literal. Territoriality is not going to
> disappear in the future. Or at least, not in my future, which
> obvious differs from yours.
> That two Transhumanists should be in such conflict is less an irony
> and more a prophecy.

Well, if we are going to chat about 'diversity', shall we ask what the
point is of diversity? The only positive value of diversity, beyond
providing colorful dress and a wide selection of restaurants, is that
evolutionists claim it helps ensure that life survives crises: having a
wide selection of genomes or lifestyles ensures that when push comes to
shove, some or at least one of them will have the characteristics
needed to survive the crisis, like mammals surviving Chuxulub because
they have warm blood. Diversity, in and of itself, isn't valuable
except as an insurance policy for a means to an end.

Diversity, being merely ONE strategy of evolution, should not be
protected against evolutionary pressure itself. If evolution says some
species or some cultures cannot compete, then they should not be
preserved except as data.

If evolution says that The American Way is the best culture, then so be
it. If it isn't then evolution will evolve it, if it is capable (and I
think its history shows that it is that, if anything, capable of
evolving) or else cut it down as unworthy. Same goes for Islamic or
other societies. Western enlightened market culture is merely one
possible semi-stable equilibrium for the human race. One that has
dominated to date, but that does not mean that it will automatically
survive in the face of a truly barbaric and cruel islamo-fascism. 

We are overdue for a dark age. That Islam originally helped to preserve
empiricism and inspire the enlightenment in Europe seems immaterial to
those intent on ending the experiment.

Muslims who come to the US are mostly NOT like their bretheren
elsewhere. You read about the few exceptions in the news, but most who
are here in the west are enlightened muslims who recognise the
difference between the American attitude that we can always do better
and that nothing is impossible versus the general attitude of the rest
of the world that anything that doesn't already exist is either
impossible, or wrong, or against the will of whatever god that matters,
while much that does exist is wrong and needs to be atoned and punished
for.

There are lots of people who have the American attitude who are
elsewhere, but they are in the distinct minority and without power,
which is why many try to come here.

For this reason I tend to be confident about "the American Way", and
despite the moral equivilancy griping of Dirk, I have no problem with
the idea that the rest of the world should be like us.

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://intlib.blogspot.com

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