Re: virus: _____ of Virus
Tom Parsons (parsonst@icarus.ihug.co.nz)
Tue, 9 Dec 1997 12:36:50 +1300
At 11:28 AM 11/26/97 -0700, you wrote:
>At 06:52 PM 11/24/97 +0000, Ken Kittlitz wrote:
>
>>But don't traditional religions use such prescriptions all the time, more
>>or less successfully? I agree it is somewhat dishonest and hyprocritical,
>>but in some cases can the end justify the means? One instance where I
>
>Not if the end is to excoriate dishonesty and hypocrisy.
>
>>think it did is Richard B.'s use of button-pushing in _Virus of the Mind_
>>to teach people how to avoid having their buttons pushed (you brought up
>>this example a week or two ago).
>
>I don't think Richard B. was being dishonest or hypocritical when he
>did that.
>
>>Sure, a Virian religion that made use of the Virian sins to draw people in
>>would be less elegant than one that didn't, but I'm willing to bet it would
>>be more successful. And perhaps its hypocracy would be forgivable if in the
>
>More popular maybe, but that isn't the only criterion for success.
>
>>long run it made pan-critical rationalists out of its members. If Virus
>>doesn't adopt the tactics of conventional religions at some point, I doubt
>>it it will ever move beyond the stage of choir practice. (Yes, even though
>>we often don't sing in tune, the members of this list are the Virian Choir ;-)
>
>One of the purposes of the CoV experiment is to falsify the hypothesis that
>it is necessary to use dishonest methods to propagate a religion. I concede
>that the spread of Virus is going slower than initial estimations but I'm
>not ready to give up yet. :)
>
>If you and Tom Parsons would like to pursue the same agenda along another
>vector (The Church of Perpetual Revelation, for instance) then I will gladly
>set up a mailing list and website for you.
>
>--
>David McFadzean david@lucifer.com
>Memetic Engineer http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
>Church of Virus http://www.lucifer.com/virus/
>
Many thanks for your offer, but I don't think that the Church of Ongoing
Revelation (note the yet-nicer acronym) is ready for prime time yet. I
believe that it will need more face-to-face human interaction to take off.
And since I can't even keep up with *this* mailing list . . .
Tom