[ExI] Cosmopolitanism, collective epistemology and other issues

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Sat, Jul 9, 2016 at 5:15 PM, Anders <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

There are three reasons Brexit disturbs me: (1) it represents a rejection
> of cosmopolitanism, (2) it represents a serious failure of collective
> cognition, (3) it likely has somewhat bad effects for me.
>

### I am surprised you are a Remainer.

The EU bureaucracy is a vastly inefficient, illiberal, destructive system,
with very weak feedback loops, uncontrolled and uncontrollable and
therefore liable to make more and more costly mistakes. It has proven
itself incapable of protecting Europe against hostile immigrants (granted,
many national bureaucracies are not any better), it limits the
experimentation and competition that is the grist for progress, it
blatantly limits freedom of association and it isn't necessary to prevent
internecine warfare - that issue hinges on warfare being currently
unfashionable in Europe, not on bureaucratic diktats.

And on an individual level, the likelihood that Brexit would have a
prolonged major negative influence on your own life is very low. Do you
really worry about being expelled? I am reasonable sure that expelling
Oxford scholars is not what Brexit is about.

Cosmopolitanism thrives in liberty, not in red tape, cynical lobbying,
financial malfeasance and abridgment of basic rights of association. As an
immigrant, cosmopolitan and libertarian, I applaud Brits for their grit.
Brexit FTW.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20160711/e0d385b0/attachment.html>