[extropy-chat] Anarchy + Transparent Society + ???

[Technotranscendence]

On Friday, April 20, 2007 12:59 PM BillK pharos at gmail.com wrote:
> I doubt if Eugen's augmentation will help much.
> I don't much fancy the prospect of facing augmented gangsters, drug
> dealers, rapists, fraudsters, etc.

I don't put drug dealers in the same category as the rest.  After all,
they're really not violating anyone's rights -- to the degree that they
merely sell drugs to willing buyers.  I.e., just selling drugs to
willing buyers is NOT, in my book, criminal.

A few months back on another list, George H. Smith pointed out that
Locke's _A Letter Concerning Toleration_, a sort of founding document of
religious tolerance, has as one of its core arguments that people, in
Locke's time, were allowed to ingest whatever substances they wanted
into their body as long as they harm no one else.  The argument goes: we
allow this in regards to medicines and drugs, why not in regards to
beliefs?  If people hold differing religious beliefs and harm no one,
why bother them?  (Of course, Locke was 100% consistent here.  He was
still suspicious of atheism and was not tolerant of it.)  Smith pointed
out that it was strange that today there is religious tolerance galore
in Western societies and especially America, but people who ingest
certain substances and bother no one are harrased and jailed -- when
they're not shot outright.

Regards,

Dan
http://uweb1.superlink.net/~neptune/