It may be true, as the saying goes, that absolute power corrupts absolutely. But throw absolute wealth--plus an unhealthy measure of inbreeding--into the mix, and the depravity gets downright entertaining. Richard Behar, Fortune http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,378989,00.html The only way to change security is to step outside the system and negotiate with the people in charge. It's only outside the system that each of us has power: sometimes as an asset owner, but more often as another player. And it is outside the system that we will do our best negotiating. -- Bruce Schneier "Not every problem someone has with his girlfriend is necessarily due to the capitalist mode of production." - Herbert Marcuse "Men Idogheten skal upmuntras. Ingen ting är lättare. Man behöver allenast at lämna den åt sig sjelf; otvungen, obehindrad. Det är så i naturen, at hvar och en människja sjelfmant söker sit uppehälle och välstånd, at några nya motiver synas föga nödvändige. Behofvet är nog, at gifva henne både håg och medel härtil. Regeringens skyldighet är blott, at icke förbjuda dessa medel; tvärtom at göra dem många, fria, lätta och säkra. Då hvarje Medborgare i et Samhälle, efter råd, lägenhet och skicklighet, får söka sin bärjning, sin välmåga och rikedom genom alla de medel och hvilka hälst af de medel, som han sjelf finner tjenligast, och som icke strida mot allmänt väl; då äger detta Samhälle en fullkomlig frihet i näringar; der kan ej annat hända, än at hvar och en Medborgare, följakteligen hela Riket vinner en fullkomlig lycksalighet. Ty, hvad annat är et Samhälles väl, en hvarje enskildts väl?" -- Kjellgren, "Afhandling om Näringstvånget i gemen och Skrån i synnerhet" Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded- here and there, now and then- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck." -- Robert Heinlein We blame ourselves, and at our best universities there are professors who are paid quite nicely to find as much fault with our society as it is humanly possible to do. An insane policy by any standard you might wish to chose, except that of pure pragmatic success: the most self-critical nation in human history is also the first nation to achieve absolute superiority over all the other nations of the world; and perhaps, by some dialectic irony, it is more through the efforts of men like Noam Chomsky than Rush Limbaugh that we possess supreme military might. -- Lee Harris One man's world is my background noise, and vice versa. -- Jesse Walker Our illusions about the media are almost as interesting as the media themselves. Not that that's surprising -- after all, they're part of the media too. -- Jesse Walker One of the things that the novel [Aristoi] was reacting against was the general feeling in science fiction that barbarian societies are good, healthy, wonderful societies, and that we should all live in them and be two-fisted he-men living out there with nothing but a yard of naked steel between us and the savages trying to destroy us. And I think this is a bad idea. I like civilization. I like penicillin. I like the motor car. I like the nice police force to apprehend my enemies for me, so that I don't have to go out with my yard of naked steel and do it by myself. Oddly enough, the people who really want to go out and be two-fisted barbarians are people who, in any actual barbarian society, would last about two seconds before someone planted a yard of naked steel right in their chests. - Walter John Williams The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. --David Friedman Government produces all order. Under anarchy there is no government. Therefore anarchy is chaos. Q.E.D. In Washington there isn't any plan With "feeding David" on page sixty-four; It must be accidental that the milk man Leaves a bottle at my door. It must be accidental that the butcher Has carcasses arriving at his shop The very place where, when I need some meat, I accidentally stop. My life is chaos turned miraculous; I speak a word and people understand Although it must be gibberish since words Are not produced by governmental plan. Now law and order, on the other hand The state provides us for the public good; That's why there's instant justice on demand And safety in every neighborhood. --David D Friedman As distances vanish and the people can flow freely from place to place, society will cross a psychological specific heat boundary and enter a new state. No longer a solid or liquid, we have become as a vapor and will expand to fill all available space. And like a gas, we shall not be easily contained. -- Sister Miriam Godwinson "But for the Grace of God" Anarchy is not lack of order. Anarchy is lack of ORDERS. "We have to be mature and get used to the new chaos. We have to be patient with that chaos. There is no simple or clear solution for it. One of the most important things is sympathy and respect. In the war between our network and their network these can go a long way." -- Haruki Murakami, writer 'Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em.' -- Terry pratchett, Thief of Time I am not here to have an argument. I am here as part of a civilization. -- Michael M. Butler Today's liberal politicans (and the non-evangelical protestant priests) convince the voters that the average yokel can't be trusted with his/her own money, firearms, morals, or private property, while religious right wingers convince the voters that women can't be trusted with their ovaries, that people can't be trusted with free speech, computers, pictures of naked women, etc. The easiest way to convince people of this is to 'prove' that the average person's thinking is 'low grade', 'primitive', even 'beastial' and needs to be restrained from their natural inclinations by force. When you've been programmed to be your own best prison warden, what need is there of real iron bars? -- Mike Lorrey Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection. Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, I, 1869 [source: Esar] "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; >From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." -- Alexander Fraser Tytler (later Lord Alexander Fraser Woodhouslee), in "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic," published 1776.< `If Karl and his followers, instead of proclaiming: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it", had actually tried harder to understand it before changing it, we'd have suffered a great deal less.' --Karl Marx's crushed kitten --Damien Broderick Essentially society tells us that the activist has 3 choices: take no action; take legal action; or take illegal action. Therefore if you're active, you must be one of either a lawyer, or a criminal. Steve Mann Socialism is like group sex - it works best in theory Stig-Björn Ljunggren A true capitalist fights with their wallet. A true anarchist fights with the opponents' wallet -Jessica Marrell Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others. -Edward Abbey Socrates collided not with culture, society or economy but with the law--which means with a political fact. The law is coercive. The human things impinge on the philosophers in the form of political demands. What philosophers need to survive is not anthropology, sociology or economics, but political science. Thus without any need for sophisticated reasons, political science was the first human science or science of human things that had to be founded, and remained the only one until sometime in the eighteenth century. The stark recognition that he depended on the city...compelled the philosopher to pay attention to politics, to develop a philosophic politics, a party, as it were, to go along with the other parties, democratic, oligarchic, aristrocratic and monarchic, that are always present. He founded the truth party. Ancient political philosophy was almost entirely in the service of philosophy, of making the world safe for philosophers.' (Alan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, pp. 275-276) This is the beauty of being libertarian: we never win an election, but regardless of the outcome, we always have plenty of political opponents who are disappointed. Spike Jones In the 50s "cool" people read Meade and Marcuse and Marx and could feel good about maintaining their ideological progressiveness in the face of the conformity of "the man in the gray flannel suit"; today people in the know read Dawkins and More and Kurzweil and look forward to a REAL revolution, while the mainstream of academia slowly dissolves in a self-congratulatory puddle of subjectivist nonsense. Greg Burch "The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed." -Alexis Carrel, Reflections on Life Anarchy is bad because somebody might die or get hurt. But statism is good even though many, many people die and get hurt. ---Ken Hooper Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -- Margaret Mead "Workers of the world... relax!" --Bob Black "Apathy at a local level leads to insanity at a global level" Douglas Hofstadter Civilization is a natural, biological phenomenon. There is nothing in civilization that has not been a well established aspect of life for billions of years. To think of civilization as somehow "unnatural" shows a profound lack of understanding of life and nature as well as a profound lack of understanding of civilization. David_Musick@juno.com "Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. ... Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well: even those who are mostly occupied with their own business are extremely well-informed on general politics--this is a peculiarity of ours: we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all." Pericles (495-429 BCE) Oscar Valparaiso had once imagined politics as a chess game. His kind of chess game. Pawns, knights, and queens, powers and strategies, ranks and files, black squares and white squares. Studying this tape had cured him of that metaphor. Because this phenomenon on the tape was not a chess piece. It was there on the public chessboard all right, but it wasn't a rook or a bishop. It was a wet squid, a swarm of bees. It was a new entity that pursued its own orthogonal agenda, and vanished into the silent interstices of a deeply networked and increasingly nonlinear society. -- Bruce Sterling, Distraction "It is not the possessions but the desires of mankind which require to be equalised." - Aristotele, Politics P.J. O'Rourke: "Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power." An ideologue with a wooden club poses not much of a threat to a hedonist with a flame thrower. Posthumans win the hearts and minds of the masses by simply outliving them. -- J. R. Molloy I'd put my money on a truly civilized, diversity-loving, adventure-thirsty macro culture, against any monolith it encounters in deep space... or against a Darwinian stew of vicious, mutually-predating pirhanas, spreading randomly and chewing up everything in sight. Neither opponent sounds very formidable to me. A federation of sub-units that try a myriad possibilities, yet will still come to each others' aid, is simply unbeatable. -- David Brin We have two regulatory systems: legal and etiquette. The legal system prevents us from killing each other. The etiquette system prevents us from driving each other crazy. -- Miss Manners Only one sort of future seems broad enough to have broad appeal: an open future of liberty, diversity, and peace. With room for the pursuit of many different dreams, an open future will appeal to many different people. Grander schemes, such as establishing a uniform world order, seem more dangerous. If "one world, or none" means imposing a single social system on a world of hostile nuclear powers, then it seems a recipe for disaster. "Many worlds, or none" seems our real choice, if we can develop active shields to secure peace. -- Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation This says to me that society as we know it is doomed, but I'm optimistic that successor to our society will be an unimaginable improvement. Dan Clemmensen Naturen er vor far og mor som gode gaver gav os, og staten er vor storebror som tar det hele fra os. --- Piet Hein Moralisk indignation består till 2 procent av moral, till 48 procent av indignation, och till 50 procent av avund. --- Vittorio de Sica Population growth is inherently good since it means that more artistic and scientific geniuses are born in each generation to enrich our civilization. We should consider population growth as a positive goal if it can be achieved without destroying Earth's resources. Paul B. Dennis. Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny. Heinlein Cyberfeminism - not a term Haraway uses - is based on the idea that, in conjunction with technology, it's possible to construct your identity, your sexuality, even your gender, just as you please. In contrast to the prohibition-based feminism of the so-called political correctness movement, which concentrates on trying to police sexuality and legislate against "inappropriate" behavior, the cyberfeminists revel in polymorphous perversity. Hari Kunzru, Wired 5 02 Beneath a change of age lies a change of thought. Teilhard de Chardin The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. - Abbie Hoffman - "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." C.S. Lewis "I forsee the time when all who care for freedom of the human spirit will have to rebel against a scientific tyranny. Nevertheless, if there is to be tyranny, it is better that it should be scientific." -- Bertrand Russell "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys" - P.J. O'Rourke How long will the American public keep themselves ignorant of what is going on in the world until they hear it on the 6 o'clock news. It is up to the citizens to keep themselves (and their neighbors) up-to-date on these issues and speak their minds before the fact, not after. -- Rhonda R. Baird Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. - C.S. Lewis, _God in the Dock_ - via Julian Assange Term limits for laws, not just Congressmen! -- Damien R. Sullivan Timothy Leary so nicely suggests within Chaos & Cyberculture, "Reality designing is a team sport"(1994). The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race. -Don Marquis (1878-1937) "The world is now too dangerous for anything less than Utopia." (Buckminster Fuller) -> The larger the collective, the greater the number of people to whom -> it does a disservice --- usually well over 50% of the population. -> A collective of 1 never has that problem. This is an historic problem, one that is grounded in culture rather than in the existence of social structures. It is a problem that comes from static hierarchies and unchanging power structures and systems of organization. The idea of democracy is an interesting one, but only a halfway solution. One must not merely change the faces of those in government, one must change the government entirely every so often, or it will become occupied in continuing its own existence, and the social contract is void. Revolution is conceivably a necesary element of social evolution. Corey Alambar "The problem is not that the politicians have lost touch with the voters but that both groups have lost touch with reality." —Jonathan Schell What we seek is not the overthrow of the government but a situation in which it gets lost in the shuffle. -- Duncan Frissell , CP 29-Aug-96 Frank Ogden says that parents often ask him what profession their children should prepare for. His response is: "A profession that you've never heard of." Thought I was alone. Stupid thought, I just realized we are about five billion. Hellrackamendi