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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>spike<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, July 29, 2013 1:45 PM<br><b>To:</b> 'ExI chat list'<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] lists going quiet, was: RE: list test<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a> [<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org">mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Will Steinberg<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, July 29, 2013 1:26 PM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] lists going quiet, was: RE: list test<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>></span><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>OK Spike, I think you can retire "prole" now. I mean I'm sure we're all rather elitist here but it's become a bit tired nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>On the contrary, Will. The term has taken on a whole new significance in recent months. You have read Orwell, ja?</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>To expand a bit on the notion, the term prole should not be retired, but rather should be brought out of retirement, and used early and often by those of us who are awake and watching. I had an insight recently when my former college roommate came to visit. He and I graduated together. He went to work for the government, I avoided following him there, even though it was one of my options. Now, thirty years later, I marvel at how our once-similar perspectives have diverged.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>In Orwell’s 1984, the inner circle were the government officials that had actual authority and political power. The outer circle included the rather enormous group of workers who were employed by the government, everything from janitors up to top level bureaucrats outside the inner circle. The proles were everyone else. In Orwell’s scenario, the proles could be low level employees at anything, unemployed, but not necessarily: they could be highly educated and highly skilled. But not really wealthy, for in his dark scenario, people outside of government control did not prosper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>My former roommate did well, climbing the civilian ranks supporting the military. He is an outer circle guy very close to the inner circle. When we discussed the fed’s activities, especially in matters such as sequestration, it became clear our views had diverged radically. Regardless of whether sequestration is good or bad, he opposed it. He and everyone he associates with are dependent on a government paycheck. All else is irrelevant when one is completely dependent on that paycheck.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Have we lost perspective so completely that we cannot see the transition our country has made in 40 years? A president was caught using the IRS as a weapon against his political opponents, he resigned in disgrace under the threat of impeachment. The current president does the same thing only a lot more of it, and he is calling it a phony scandal. People are openly asking if there is anything illegal about using the IRS as a weapon. This transition happened in only 4 decades.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>For those outside the US, here is why this is so important. In politics as in anything else, the pendulum swings. Our senators are elected every 6 years. The 2014 elections will be 6 years since a whole bunch of senators were swept into office on Obama’s coattails, when he enjoyed a +20 percent approval rating. Now, those guys are up for re-election and Obama’s coattails are a negative value, about -4% and dropping steadily. So what happens when that pendulum swings all the way over, and the opposing side comes sweeping into office in the next two elections, 2014 and 2016? They come in with a powerful precedent: they can use the IRS to slay anyone in opposition. Result: a functional dictatorship possibly far more repressive than anything Orwell foresaw, one that can target anyone for any view, not just on taxes, but on cryonics, on transhumanism, on privacy rights, on atheism, on anything it doesn’t like, anything.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Will, do you still object to my use of the term proles? In the world in which we are headed, even proles are not free.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>