[extropy-chat] Why I am No Longer a Libertarian Either...

[The Avantguardian]

--- Al Brooks <kerry_prez at yahoo.com> wrote:

> What about intellectuals-- can they be trusted?

Well it depends on what you are trusting them to do or
not to do. Most intellectuals can be trusted not to
rob you at gun point. Whereas intellectuals are humans
with all the trappings of self-interest, their
machinations for personal gain would be much more
likely to be of a subtle almost invisible nature.
Moreover intellectuals tend to want to give back to
society more than typical thugs and politicians as
they are more aware of interdependence of people at
all levels of society. Moreover, higher awareness of
suffering in the world breeds higher levels of
personal responsibility, if of course the intellectual
is not in a self-imposed state of denial of reality.
Would that necessarily make intellectuals better
leaders than thugs with guns? I don't know but you
would think that millions of years of getting pounded
on by the overgrown alpha-monkeys of the world would
make people willing to try something different for a
change.   

> Would
> it be reasonable to say around 80% of professors are
> in it mostly for the salary and benefits?

I doubt it. It is way too demanding a process to
become a tenured faculty professor to be worth it for
salary alone. Aside from the fact that it takes many
years of schooling, underpaid training positions, and
utterly ridiculous demands on ones time, less than 1
in 5 in biological research make it to such a level.
Even after one becomes a tenured professor, that only
guarantees a base salary of about $100k but can be
doubled if one is of sufficient merit to win sizable
grants. You really have to love the actual science to
even consider putting yourself through THAT grueling
gauntlet. If you want to be rich, go to law school or
start your own business. If you want to gamble on
being able to live in relative comfort, while you
manufacture "truth", than become a professor.


> I
> certainly
> don't want to criticize the military-industrial
> complex if most intellectuals (professors at the
> top)
> are no more trustworthy.

Well aside from the fact that there are some
professors that are funded by the military-industrial
complex, I would say that as a rule, the science
professor's whole stock in trade is trustworthiness
and truth. After all, if some schmoe on the other side
of the world can't follow your instructions and
duplicate your results, then you will be weeded out of
the system. Because of this, I think that at least in
a professional sense, intellectuals in the sciences
hold truth in higher regard than the average business
executive. I think that even a "bad" professor is more
trustworthy than a "good" politician.  
 
>   I hesitate to discuss the illegal immigration
> issue.
>  Mexican families are now so plugged into America
> there is no chance of consensus to close the border
> to
> illegals, unless we get another big attack in the
> U.S.
>  Liberal friends wont discuss it at all, they clam
> up.

Where do you live? In southern-california I have
noticed that liberals and conservatives strongly agree
that illegal immigration is a problem. Illegals use
public facilities paid for by tax-payers while they
themselves do not pay taxes. Here it has gotten to the
point that even communists feel the need to do
something about it. The difference lies in who they
blame. The liberals blame the government and the
conservatives blame the illegal-immigrants.

> Some wont even admit terrorism exists. They don't
> argue, they merely scoff, "terrorism? what
> terrorism?"; the most they will say is America wont
> admit what it did in the past to the Mideast. then
> they change the subject & refuse to be drawn out.

Well you liberal friends should ride the buses in
Jerusalem for a few months and then try to deny the
existense of "terrorism". But hell "terrorism" is just
a label any ways. Violent thugs are violent thugs no
matter what you label them. You kill one person and
you are a muderer. You kill 100 people and you are a
terrorist. You kill 10,000 men and you are king,
dictator, or president. 



The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson

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