From: Steve Peterson (peterson.steve@verizon.net)
Date: Tue Nov 25 2003 - 21:13:49 GMT
Hi Mati, Paul, all,
> Paul:
> This repression of "illegal intellectual patterns" is not limited to any
> part of the world; I would think it is a matter of intensity rather than
> a clear cut absence of an entire evolutionary level. The west has its
> "illegal patterns" too.
>
> Mati: What "illegal patterns" are you referring to?
Paul gave his answer to this question. I'd just like to add my first
thoughts when reading Paul's suggestion that our western intellectual
culture also maintains illegal intellectual patterns.
(I think Paul's answer about insanity may be a different issue than that of
Stalin and Saddam since on insanity we are talking about one set of
intellectual patterns overruling another set rather than social tyranny over
intellectual freedom.)
I find that both American liberals and conservatives have their own brands
of social tyranny over intellectual freedom. We can recognize illegal
intellectual patterns by the topics of conversation that we can only have
with trusted friends or in places where we feel comfortable accepting
negative social consequences for our views. I know that I have said
something illegal when disagreement comes not in the form of reasoned
argument but rather in labeling me as some type of person (e.g. unpatriotic,
racist, or in the MD as a social level type.) By MOQ premises it would be
moral for one idea to outlaw another, but immoral for an idea to be outlawed
on social grounds.
On the conservative side I found that I could not talk about the roots of
terrorism after the 9/11 attacks without being accused of being
anti-American or supporting the terrorists. Such accusations by
conservatives continue in the news with great frequency in reference to tax
cuts and (obviously) the Patriot Act. Rather than argue a point,
conservatives like to merely say that so-and-so "is biased" or "has an
agenda."
Liberals think that this sort of social tyranny is only perpetrated by
(fascist) conservatives, and I do hold out the most hope for liberals to
choose the right side in the social-intellectual conflict (and for this I am
most irritated by their short-comings). Yet, liberals fuel the continuous
social attack on intellect known as political correctness. Extreme liberals
will even right-off the views of any white middle-class male who did agrees
with the liberal positions on social engineering as hopelessly racist due to
racist cultural indoctrination.
In a recent example of liberals failing to take the intellectual route,
liberals cheered when Limbaugh got canned for being a racist, favoring
social level name-calling over intellectual argument about whether Rush was
right or wrong about media hype. Personally, I found that among liberals I
could not focus conversation on whether Rush had any point about the media
without being considered to be defending what Rush said and being viewed as
racist. I find racial discussions to be conversations that cannot be had in
America. In general, because certain positions are outlawed as politically
incorrect, liberals prevent us from having the conversations that may lead
to solutions to the social problems that they care so much about. They
often merely seek to replace one form of cultural oppression with another
rather than rising above the social tyranny.
The important positive note to all this is that though western culture also
outlaws certain intellectual patterns, unlike in many countries, we are
fairly safe from being persecuted by our governments for our illegal
intellectual patterns. We merely face social consequences but not
biological ones. This is because Democracy in the west does not just mean
"majority rules" but also that the individual's rights must be protected
against the majority.
Thanks,
Steve
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