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Majority rules makes sense to me; especially if my needs are in the
majority. That is why living in America, it is easy to be (a)
religious, wealthy and educated male; or, (b) Black, Hispanic, White
uneducated and poor male or female. This all depends on what
mountain top one is peering down from. <br><br>
I'm with Abraham Lincoln when he said that "...I would not be a
slave, so I would not be a master." However, according to the
encumbrances of slavery in the early-mid 1800s I would probably be
exactly where I am today, not with a or b. These categories are
quickly defusing, blurring, fuzzying, fading into the past. But not
everyone recognizes this, or even realizes it to be occurring.
Feminists still claim there is a glass ceiling, Jesse Jackson still hunts
for global problems he can mediate, and the welfare and homeless still
beg for money on the corner of Los Angeles's freeway off-ramps.<br><br>
That "politics" will not find solutions to transhumanist
problems is a pipe-dream - all light up with sugar plum fairies and
dancing elves. As Thomas Crown said in the "Thomas Crown
Affair, "It's just a game. It provides a venue to roll up
shirt-sleeves, pump up our chests and vent, blame, and defend. What
better way to keep people off the streets? :-)<br><br>
The human capacity for fairness or moral rightness makes the idea of
democracy possible, albeit the human tendency toward obligatory of
justice makes the idea of democracy necessary. Plato said that some of
the "features of democracy ... will enable a "footing of
equality, whether they be really equal or not." Since when did
futurists consider human beings and transhumans chattel?<br><br>
Maybe Mark Twain, a favored American humorist/writer/thinker was more
honest when he said that "I am a democrat only on principle,"
as it seems wholesome and caring to be democratic. However, we do
not live in a "perfect" world in which people are treated
"equally." A physician of A PhD is often given more
credence than her fellow "majority" - just listen to some
soap-box academics. Further, artists seem to think we are more
in-touch, more intuitive, more spot on when it comes to visionary ideas
and frowns upon the social ineptitude of the masses. We can pass the
baton of disciplinary-snobbery around the Internet and we will discover
how most humans hold onto their ideas like a lifeboat in the rough seas
of political turmoil.<br><br>
"Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice,"
wrote Gore Vidal. Sounds good. But then he adds, "like
Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they’re both just
aspirin." <br><br>
The common thread between all the political agendas discussed over the
past many years is the, "I'm right. You are wrong."
principle. <br><br>
Freedom and equality are contradictions in terms, just as society and the
individual are mutually exclusive. How can I be free if my
individual needs are not part of the majority? Only if the majority
is so confident that individuals are allowed to pursue and make their own
choices. In this country, it is the Democrats vs. the Republicans,
but how is "a political order in which the supreme power lies in a
body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and
representatives responsible to them" different than a
democracy? How is wanting the world to be healthy and prosperous
not draw from the principles of socialism in which everyone is
equal? How is wanting to live indefinitely different from wanting
eternal life in Heaven? How does a desire to live in a
pollution-free world where there is land yet to explore not
environmentalist? Of course these are rhetorical questions used to show
that while we may all want what seems to be the same thing, we approach
it from different constructs for different purpose.<br><br>
I can sum it up in meaningful directive in a one-liner clipped from
another thread:<br><br>
Max More wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>However, I disagree that *anything*
done to get ideas about liberty out there is good. First impressions have
a powerful influence on the human mind. A poor first impression only
increases the work to be done.</blockquote><br>
Why resort to outdated political models and religious views just because
we want to go "mainstream"? When did affirmative action
find its way into transhumanism? We must not bend over for every
political or political group-think to soften and erode the values and
principles of transhumanism just because we want to go
mainstream.<br><br>
BETTER, we must enable a sense of understanding, cooperation and
willingness to work together. We must invite others to learn about
our ideals in ways that are non-threatening. We must hold our own,
stand strong, and educate the "mainstream." Let's us not
take our hard-earned sense of the future down to a low common
denominator. Let us work toward raising the level of reason and
vision to the rest of the world. <br><br>
Natasha<br>
__________________________<br><br>
"Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two
because it permits criticism.<br>
E. M. Forster (1879-1970), British novelist, essayist. Two Cheers for
Democracy, “What I Believe” (1951). Forster thought two cheers “quite
enough: there is no occasion to give three.” The third he reserved for
the Republic of Love.<br><br>
"Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather
Boa!"<br>
Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Journals: Early Fifties Early
Sixties, “New York City” (ed. by Gordon Ball, 1977), Oct. 1960 entry,
“Subliminal.“<br><br>
"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are
involved, as a rule the majority are wrong." Eugene V. Debs
(1855-1926), U.S. trade unionist, co-founder of the U.S. Socialist Party.
Speech, 12 Sept. 1918, Cleveland, Ohio, defending himself against charges
of sedition. Found guilty, Debs was subsequently jailed for three
years..<br><br>
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and
murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit
suicide." John Adams (1735-1826), U.S. statesman, president. Letter,
15 April 1814 (published in The Works of John Adams, vol. 6,
1851).<br><br>
"Nor is the people’s judgement always true: The most may err as
grossly as the few."<br>
John Dryden (1631-1700), English poet<br><br>
"I swear to the Lord,<br>
I still can’t see,<br>
Why Democracy means,<br>
Everybody but me."<br>
Langston Hughes (1902-67), U.S. poet, author. The Black Man Speaks, in
Jim Crow’s Last Stand (1943).<br><br>
"Democracy don’t rule the world,<br>
You’d better get that in your head;<br>
This world is ruled by violence,<br>
But I guess that’s better left unsaid."<br>
Bob Dylan (b. 1941), U.S. singer, songwriter. “Union Sundown,” on the
album Infidels (1983).<br><br>
"When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act,
inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They
then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its
aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It’s
a remarkably shrewed and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks
of it."<br>
John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908), U.S. economist. The Age of Uncertainty,
ch. 12 (1977).<br><br>
"Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist
public organization cannot live a full-blooded life." Mikhail
Gorbachev (b. 1931), Soviet president. Speech, 25 Feb. 1986, to 27th
Party Congress, Moscow.<br><br>
"The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand<br>
The vote that shakes the turrets of the land."<br>
Oliver Wendell, Sr. Holmes (1809-94), U.S. writer, physician.
Poetry: a Metrical Essay.<br><br>
"Democracy with its semi-civilization sincerely cherishes junk. The
artist’s power should be spiritual. But the power of the majority
is material. When these worlds meet occasionally, it is pure
coincidence."<br>
Paul Klee (1879-1940), Swiss artist. The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918,
no. 747 (1957; tr. 1965), Jan. 1906 entry.<br><br>
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<dl>
<dd><font face="Viner Hand ITC" size=4 color="#000080">Natasha
Vita-More</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" color="#0000FF">
<dd><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/" eudora="autourl">http://www.natasha.cc</a></font>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times">President, Extropy
Institute
<a href="http://www.extropy.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.extropy.org</a>
<dd>Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture
<a href="http://www.transhumanist.biz/" eudora="autourl">http://www.transhumanist.biz</a></font>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><a href="http://www.transhuman.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.transhuman.org</a>
</font>
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