[extropy-chat] Tyranny in place

[Samantha Atkins]

On Sun, 2006-10-01 at 22:58 -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:
> Russell writes
> 
> > I think the threat of terrorism is greatly overstated, but I agree there is a threat and it has to be fought. It does not at all 
> > follow that we in the West should tolerate erosion of our civil liberties by our own governments. It's not just that it's not 
> > necessary - _it's also not helpful_. If you have a problem, and you try to solve it by surrendering your freedom, you now have two 
> > problems.
> <
> 
> That could be true, but I believe it depends on future events. Do you almost
> daily think about what your reactions would be if a terrorist nuke was to go
> off in a large American city?
> 

Of course not.  Do you?  What for?  Seems like a terrible waste of
emotional energy.  There are much more immediate problems and much more
likely dangers.

> Do you think that your feelings and intuitions would change at all?
> 

Such hypotheticals are utterly useless to the issues at hand.

> The glorious thing about democracy is that it seems to periodically adjust itself
> in terms of mood just the way that a person does.  Right after 9-11, "America"
> as an entity behaved angrily, just as natural selection made people so act.
> There is less cause for anger now.  There may be more cause later.
> 

Civil rights will be every bit as important as now.  Let's deal with
now, shall we?


> Whatever happens, the choices made will be strongly criticized---which, up to
> a point, is exactly what should happen.
> 

What do you mean "up to a point"?  Criticism is always in order in a
free country.

- samantha