> >So the meme you are worried about is not anti-butchery, or
> >anti-communist, it is the [we-are-the-chosen-people] meme - [insert
> cult/country/religion]
> >are right, all others are by default, wrong. Thats the best thing about being
> an
> >[insert cult/country/religion], you are always on the morally correct side -
> YES!
>
> Yes?
>
> And, Bill, you _really_ should be living in Cambridge....
>
> ;-)
> The nice thing about a "freedom meme" is its anti-dogmatic, almost
scientfically non-judgmental, morally/ethically neutral character.
It doesn't prescribe what you must do with your freedom or proscribe
what you mustn't do with it (this is tautologically the nature of
freedom, by definition), it merely states that each individual should
have all freedoms that do not interfere with the same freedoms
exercised by anyone else, and where the inevitable conflicts occur,
they should be resolved by equal and proportional compromise. It
wears no altruistic blinders, however; the reason it is embraced is
the benefit it grants immediately to the individual, and only
subsequently (and mediately) to the society. It is a formal meme,
with negligible content, and is well suited to permeate the
emergently self-conscious, recursive psyche, which is programmed to
transcend its programming; in other words, programmed for freedom. I
am not worried about the freedom meme - I LIKE it, and the
evolutionarily creative diversity of thought and action it fosters.
It tolerates everything - except intolerance, and makes everyone
slaves - to their own free wills and choices (though it insists on
personal responsibility for their consequences, which is fine with
me). Like a free market and laissez-faire economics, it is a
synthesis of existentialism and ethical egotism, and works best
(though not perfectly, or even perfectibly - the nature of
open-ended, recursive systems is to be Godelianly imperfect and
incomplete) hand-in-glove with participatory democracy.
>
> *****************
> Wade T. Smith
> morbius@channel1.com | "There ain't nothin' you
> wade_smith@harvard.edu | shouldn't do to a god."
> morbius@cyberwarped.com |
> ******* http://www.channel1.com/users/morbius/ *******
>