X-Message-Number: 18759
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 01:28:32 +0000
From: Philip Rhoades <>
Subject: Enviromental troglodytes . .
References: <>

Hi all,

I haven't written for a while but I am forced to respond to a few 
recent posts:

Starting with:

> Message #18718
> Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 19:56:14 -0800
> From: Kennita Watson <>
> Subject: Re: COSTS OF SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

..

> Comments, please.  Am I being shortsighted and poisoning a
> planet that I'm going to have a use for for a long time?

continuing with:

> Message #18732
> From: 
> Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 22:19:09 EST
> Subject: Pave the Earth (Kennita)

..

> But
> by far the biggest risk that we face is political and economic
> stagnation.

and:

> Message #18729
> From: "George Smith" <>
> References: <>
> Subject: Re: #18718: Re: COSTS OF SOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
> Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 12:33:39 -0800

..

> As for me, I have never been that impressed by this planet anyway.
> Most of
> it is covered by oceans, lakes, mountains and deserts with extreme
> temperatures and lousy weather.  Earth needs to be domesticated and
> housebroken.  That it is the most "natural" hospitable envornment to
> support
> human life is an abject condemnation of nature, as I see it.

and finally:

> Message #18739
> From: "Mark Plus" <>
> Subject: Bush Administration preparing to use nukes?
> Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 13:26:06 -0800
> 
> You know, if you combine this story with the one from the other day
> about
> the activation of a "Shadow Government" hidden in a bunker somewhere,
> and
> it's starting to look as if the Bush Administration is planning on
> initiating or provoking a nuclear war. -- Mark Plus
> 
> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030902bombs.story

When I was more active in progressive politics we used to have a 
catch-all name for people (labelled conveniently as "reactionary", 
"right wing" etc) who were unthinking, dogmatic, dangerous philistines: 
and that was "troglodytes".  Now that I have been a small capitalist 
myself for a while now, I have modified some of my revolutionary views 
(why is it that an American revolution was a good thing but a 
revolution for anyone else isn't?) but I am still appalled by comments 
that presumably intelligent people make sometimes.  Now I know that 
George is deliberately provocative (and this is a good thing at this 
stage of Cryonics history) and I do have a soft spot for him, but I 
just can't let some things pass . .

Obviously we are poisoning and ruining our environment with our 
obsession with "things" and "wealth" and "power" - you really would 
have to be a troglodyte not to be convinced of that.  I started out 
being a biologist but you don't need to be a biologist to know that 
humans _depend_ on biodiversity for the continued maintenance of life 
on this planet.  Point 1 - we are wiping out biodiversity at an 
accelerating rate.  Point 2 - we are living on the only currently homo 
sapiens inhabitable planet in the known universe.  Point 3 - we will 
not be able, any time soon, to shift large numbers of people to Mars 
(even if we could terraform it quickly) or anywhere else for that 
matter.

The biggest danger we face as a species is still the threat of nuclear 
war, initiated by troglodytes or by accident.

The second biggest danger we face is making the planet uninhabitable by 
non-nuclear means, mostly to do with "development".

The US is such a contradiction - on the one hand it can invent lots of 
really great stuff (like Cryonics) and on the other hand it is probably 
the single most likely country to prevent immortality for everyone . .

R&LL,

Phil.
-- 
Philip Rhoades

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