[extropy-chat] Politics of the WTA

[Hughes, James J.]

The WTA is not socialist in any sense of the term, and, as was pointed
out, Max and Natasha are Honorary Vice-Chairs of the WTA, and Extropy
Institute is an affiliate of the WTA. 

As to whether WTA members are socialists, the WTA membership have been
polled twice about their politics, among other things. The results can
be read here:

http://transhumanism.org/resources/WTASurvey03Report.pdf

And here:

http://transhumanism.org/resources/survey2005.pdf

The results: 

-----------------------------------

How would you describe your politics?

				2003   2005

"Libertarians"
Libertarian			11%	10%
European Liberal		6%	7%
Anarcho-capitalist	4%	2%
Randian/Objectivist	1%	2%
Minarchist			1%	1%
		
"Socialists" 
Libertarian socialist	7%	7%
Democratic socialist	4%	6%
Left anarchist		2%	3%
Communist			1%	1%
		
"Progressives"
Progressive			6%	7%
Green				4%	4%
Social democrat		5%	5%
US-style liberal		4%	4%
Radical			2%	1%

Moderate			7%	8%
		
"Conservatives"
Christian Democrat	1%	0%
Conservative		2%	2%
Far right			1%	0%
		
Upwinger/advocate of 
future political system	8%	10%

Other				9%	7%
		
Not political		15%	12%

--------------------------------------------

In other words, only 14%-17% of the membership consider themselves
"socialists" compared to 22%-23% who consider themselves libertarians.
Even if you add together all the left-leaners as "socialists", from US
liberals to Communists (as the critics of the WTA seem to do) then
left-wingers constitute less than 40% of the membership. 

As to my own often-maligned politics, I have been a proud and
card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America
(http://dsausa.org) since 1980, organized campus chapters of the DSA,
served on the National Executive of the Young Democratic Socialists,
edited their magazine The Activist, chaired the Chicago chapter, and
started their website. The DSA is a member of the Socialist
International, along with the British Labour Party, French Socialist
Party, German and Swedish Social Democratic Parties, and more than 100
other parties. All of them have been and remain anti-communist, as am I
and as I have been since I became politically active in college. The
conflation of social democrats and democratic socialists with communists
is simply right-wing hyperbole. 

The assertion that the WTA is a socialist organization is simply
incomprehensible. 

--------------------------------------------
James Hughes Ph.D.
Executive Director
World Transhumanist Assoc.   Inst. for Ethics & Emerging Tech.
http://transhumanism.org     http://ieet.org
director at transhumanism.org   director at ieet.org
Editor, Journal of Evolution and Technology
http://jetpress.org

Mailing Address: Box 128, Willington CT 06279 USA 
(office) 860-297-2376