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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Natasha wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=natasha@natasha.cc href="mailto:natasha@natasha.cc">Natasha
Vita-More</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org
href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">ExI chat list</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, October 10, 2005 10:15
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [extropy-chat] Extropy,
Political Viewpoint and the Futureof ExI's List</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>At 10:46 AM
10/9/2005, Brett wrote:<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=cite cite="" type="cite"><FONT face=arial size=2>Natasha
wrote:<BR></FONT>
<DL>
<DD>Our Vice President, Greg Burch, said recently that ...we need a
new<BR>
<DD> political viewpoint -- one that far outreaches what we have
known in<BR>
<DD> the past - on that is more futuristic for a society that will
find its place<BR>
<DD> in the future and help others along into that future.
<BR><BR></DD></DL><FONT face=arial size=2>I'd like to hear more about these
thoughts on the need for a new political<BR>viewpoint.</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR>These are my words, not Greg's. Greg
said: "our vision is beyond transhumanism." I said we need a
viewpoint hat "far outreaches what we have known in the past - on that
is more futuristic for a society that will find its place in the future
and help others along into that future. " in regards to extropy and politics.
<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sorry. I knew I'd trimmed your text but I thought
I'd preserved who said what. I didn't mean to misrepresent you. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'd encourage you, Greg, (also Max) to write
your thoughts on politics and transhumanism down and to circulate them at least
amongst your friends as drafts so that you can get the benefits of feedback and
synergies. But the topic IS hard. Waiting to get it perfectly right
might amount to risking that you'd die with good contributions unmade.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't know Greg well enough to know whether I'd
agree with his views ultimately (I suspect I'd disagree with some of them at
least intially, I'm thinking of a post of Greg's that distinguish Nanny states
as unsavvory with Daddy states that might be necessary medicine for what ails us
for a bit) but I think they'd be *interesting* at least. I remember Anders
praising an essay Greg had written on game theory, and Greg saying he'd like
someday to have the time to develop those ideas. What tentative forays that Max
has made into the area of talking about politics (that I know about) I
think he has done well. So far as I know Max coined the term "monkey
politics" this is a phrase that has stuck in my mind as the most
apt description of how I feel the contemporay world practices
politics. I *feel* like I'm watching monkey's setting policy against their
own best interests all the time. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>With respect to yourself, I'm a bit like Dirk, I
don't understand exactly how you see politics. I get that you are not partly
political and that you do not want to see the</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>world through a prism that renders all human
behaviour political but I don't really understand the ambit of what it is that
you are discussing when you talk about politics.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't get the sense with you that you and I map
politics to the same referent. I like your values. I trust your decency, so
I'm confident that your efforts will be in directions that I'd approve
of. But I don't understand your take on politics. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm rambling, so I'll stop.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brett Paatsch</FONT></DIV>
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