virus: Re:truth, science, and the American way

D. H. Rosdeitcher (76473.3041@compuserve.com)
04 Apr 97 11:56:05 EST


Reed wrote:
> David R. was,
>in my opinion, communicating the meme "don't trust people who's ideas come
>from xxx.edu sources, as they are corrupt [anti-objectivist]".
> Given this is
>a mailing list, and it is currently not possible to create your own
>personal address
>ending (ie you can be -com, -org, -gov, -edu, etc. and can't just choose one at
>random) this amounts to a sort of internet-racism.

I was just stating a tendency. I wasn't putting down specific individuals for
having "edu" in their e-mail addresses. It's like if some races have higher
crime rates than others, this doesn't mean anything about specific individuals.

Reed later wrote:

>So why not try to change the institutions that already exist?

You mean like using institutions that already exist in a different way--like
turning them into amusement parks? I guess there are all kinds of ways to use
that space.

> If
>you would
>just stop insisting that the Objectivists have cornered the market on
>rationality and
>all logical objtctive thinking eventually reduces to the application of
>three axioms
>I think we would have lots less to argue about.

Actually, I don't think objectivism as presented by Ayn Rand will necessarily
corner the market on objective thinking. I think that Rand was successful at
putting her ideas out through fiction, but there might be better methods. For
instance, Neo-Tech draws people through aggressive marketing tactics.
Pancritical rationalism has the fundamentally interactive nature of
conjecture/refutation. Languages such as Lojban may appeal to people who want to
start a new country.(Hey, that's an idea.) Things that I might not be aware of
in my current database of knowledge might have their own advantages and the same
is true for hybrids of all of the above.

> It isn't the essence of
>your posts
>that I disagree with...it's the dogged defense of the structure and your
>insistence
>that everybody use your axioms and definitions. Funny, isn't it, that in
>this post
>you point out how institutionalization of structure leads to stagnation?

As Jim G. once said, "your sweeping use of the word 'is' really weakens your
argument."

-David Rosdeitcher