[ExI] Famous Scientists saying Racist Things

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of John Clark via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] Famous Scientists saying Racist Things

 

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 12:22 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

 

>>… A long time ago, I was told of a particularly savage form of execution reserved for bad guys who did things like raping and murdering a child…

 

 

>…The real life inspiration for the Dracula myth , Vlad the Impaler  (1428-1477), once impaled  20,000 Men women and children at the same time according to contemporary witnesses:

 

>…"The sultan's army entered into the area of the impalements, which was seventeen stades long and seven stades wide…

 

 <http://Vlad%20the%20Impaler> Vlad the Impaler

 

John K Clark

 

 

Owww damn.

 

The capacity of humanity for inhumanity is astonishing.  But I have a reason for hope.

 

As recently as the middle of the last century, mass starvation was a very real threat in some places.  Now it really isn’t, or it isn’t a huge threat.  Keith’s model of the bleak future leading to war makes us stop and think: how grim does the future need to be in order to compel a society to go to war?  If starvation is not a threat at all, immediate exposure to lethal elements are not a threat, but the other guy has better basketball shoes and somehow ended up with a rolex watch, is that sufficiently grim to risk everything?

 

I think it isn’t.  I can envision people having to travel a long distance to get supplies in Chicago’s food deserts, but not actually starving there.  They may pull down statues and paint graffiti, but stop short of armed resistance for the most part.  Evolutionary psychology might suggest our real troubles will not happen so long as people have the necessities of life.

 

spike

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