[extropy-chat] Extropy, Political Viewpoint and the Future of ExI's List

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

Sounds like a plan Natasha! Perhaps these few considerations can help:

I agree with "Politics is not futuristic enough. What is vastly needed
is a strategic crafting of politics that is inclusive of the best
ideas we have, across political boundaries, and sculpts these ideas
into a plan of action that actually deals head-on with issues" in
another message of yours. But while elaborating the politics of
tomorrow, we still need dealing with the politics of today. Like you
work to save money for a Ferrari, but a Toyota is all you have today
to go to work. Even if you plan to discard your Toyota, you still have
to take care of it because if it breaks you will be unable to earn the
money you need for replacing it with the Ferrari of your dreams.

I am one of the very few leftwingers left on the list. As a matter of
fact I am quite fond of the Principles of Extropy and do not consider
them incompatible with my (usually) leftist political stance. What we
need, as you say above, is finding a way to merge the best of both
worlds into action plans that can energize people. It is not easy, but
nobody said it would be.

<<<First we need to reestablish this email list as a solid,
intelligent, creative and inspiring email list.  No more fights.  No
more wasted bandwidth.  I am expecting all list members to think about
the quality of their posts before sending them to the list>>> - Well,
perhaps you are being too hard. This *is* a solid, intelligent,
creative and inspiring email list. Better a tolerable level of
infighting than too much diplomacy and watering down. We are supposed
to be friends, the occasional F.Y.A. is no problem between friends if
it helps making the point and is kept within reasonable levels.

Extropy will never have a measurable impact on anything important if
it does not go mainstream. I understand that some early members may
have been disenchanted by seeing ExI distancing itself from
"outlandish political positioning, bad press from early days of cult
references, and being a small group of crazed futurists", but I think
this is a necessary evolution toward the goal of having an impact.
Some degree of compromising, like going to boring business meetings
with a suit and a tie, is a necessary part of growing up from teenager
to adult, toward a position where you *can* make a difference.

G.