[ExI] Don't be evil

[Dan]

I think there's a little bit more to it than that. It's not just that governance or whatever will have a really hard time working without at least acquiesence if not the support of the governed, it's also that the solutions tried must, unless they get lucky, work. And, in terms of solutions, I'd prefer the massive, decentralized, parallel process of hundreds of millions or billions of individuals interacting peacefully and voluntarily over the model of one or a few people directing all the rest. (Bertolucci's 2003 film "The Dreamers" had an interesting line where one character reacts to another's idolizing Mao as a great director of a big epic film: "In this big, epic movie -- everyone [else] is an extra." The film is set in Paris in 1968.) Of course, even this doesn't guarantee a solution, but it's kind of like science vs. organized religion: do we allow people to experiment, think for themselves, criticize, and such or have a small cadre tell everyone
 what to do and think? 

Regards,

Dan

From: Thirdeye Of Eris <thirdeyeoferis at gmail.com>
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tue, March 23, 2010 11:49:27 PM
Subject: Re: [ExI] Don't be evil


On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 11:41 PM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

Dan wrote:
>
>
>Even were that so, that would not be "Capitalism" making choices. It would be people acting in a market making choices. This is sort of like saying Science runs experiments or has debates. The truth is people run experiments and debate about the data or theory.
>> And this brings up a more general point. It's not markets that do things. It's people. People act and when they interact voluntarily, markets are what we might see
>>
>Jesus Christ! What are you trying to do, start a flame war?
>Unregulated voluntary economic interactions are precisely what
>has led to this worldwide condition so objectionable to so many
>people. (In Germany, it is known as "American conditions".)
>Of course, we don't see suggestions here to outright replace
>it with socialism, or with anything.
>
>But *something* has to be better than unregulated voluntary
>economic exchanges between individuals!  :-)  That's so evil.
>
>Lee 
>
>

Personally, I don't think that any system of governance can fix anything unless the people under it decide to fix something...  


      
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