[ExI] Status as human motivator

[Olga Bourlin]

Mike, I was being just a bit facetious myself about the "lynching"
part (but also making reference to  a cruelly real part of history,
which seems irrelevant to Keith).  I was hoping my lighthearted
question: "So what have you got against capitalism ...?" would have
been a tip-off, especially on this list.  Sorry I forgot the smiley
emoticon.

I found Keith's previous reply to mine so unrelentingly mean spirited
with unexamined racism that I frankly didn't know where to begin.

But, hey, here everybody gets a free pass.  Ayn Rand gets a free pass.
 William Buckley gets a free pass.  The Nobel Sperm Bank probably even
gets a free pass.  And nobody needs to concern themselves with the
conservatives spewing their coded racism around the airwaves these
days. Why?  Well, because, as Keith went on to explain in his defense
of the racist eugenecist Shockley ... WHO CARES?:

"He thought this work was important to the genetic future of the human
species,"  For me and Extropians who think about it, this is a big WHO
CARES!  The human species doesn't _have_ a "genetic future."   People
are who they are in the present and genetics will be under full
control just before genes no longer matter at all.

On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 8:49 PM, Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 11:20 PM, Olga Bourlin <olga.bourlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> It should be a *hanging* offense to employ scientists or engineers in
>>> the kinds of stupid games they play on Wall Street.
>>
>> So what have you got against capitalism, Keith?  (Ah, but at least you
>> support lynching!)
>>
>> How very interesting.
>
> I read this thread very differently.  I see it as a committed member
> of one narrow field of interest becoming frustrated at the perceived
> waste of resource towards unimportant goals.  A gifted young musician
> is slighted by the disproportionate investment in high school football
> (for example) while music programs are slashed at every budget cut.
> Similarly a talented chef being asked to provide institutional meals
> at minimal cost would be frustrated that he or she is prevented the
> opportunity to showcase the skill the person possesses.
>
> I assume Keith's intent was to "lynch" the misappropriation of money
> that could otherwise solve the critically important problem of energy
> rather than any person employing scientists on Wall Street.  Keith's
> short list of topics (energy, EP) has never, to my knowledge, espoused
> any "lynching" ideology.  I feel it's a bit unforgiving to take the
> above comment out of context.
>
> (an unusually sober post today, I'll be sure to return to my usual
> lighthearted silliness forthwith)
>
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