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Sept. 18, 2006 It looks like Fred Smith is giving up. In his article "Exposing John Waters: Part 3", Fred writes: “This is the third and final article in my series about John Waters - links to the previous articles are below. I do this because Waters buzzes around most anything I write related to these issues like a mosquito (rather than write in an engaging and logical manner) and he doesn't spend much time at the rebuttal forum.” Well, John has already explained why he doesn’t spend much time at the rebuttal forum, because John has cognitive handicaps, and the palaver goes pretty thick and fast in chat-rooms and forums. Admittedly, be glad that is John’s problem, not yours. Anyhow, Fred Smith tries to label John Waters a "modern Luddite, a proponent of the neo-Amish movement." Fred goes on to "prove" his point. People have labeled John Waters other things, as well. So what? Some labels are more appropriate for John than others. John thinks that Fred Smith is worried about the future of humanity when he writes, "I'm very sensitive to the damage man is doing to the environment, and there are three obvious paths we can take." John suggests there is more we can do than Fred mentions, including stimulating, developing, exercising and using more of the whole human brain, or at least as much of it that isn’t damaged or atrophied from lack of use. Fred continues in his effort to prove that John is a neo-Luddite: “WikiPedia has this to say about new-Luddites: (The link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-luddism) "Unlike anarcho-primitivists most Neo-Luddites do not consider technology itself to be evil. They instead believe that it influences human nature in a way that promotes evil actions." John notes that Fred didn't include the whole Wikiquote, which reads, "Unlike anarcho-primitivists most Neo-Luddites do not consider technology itself to be evil. They instead believe that it influences human nature in a way that promotes evil actions. People related to this category claim that technology is a force that may do any or all of the following: dehumanize and alienate people; destroy traditional cultures, societies, and family structure; pollute languages; reduce the need for person-to-person contact; alter the very definition of what it means to be human; or damage the evolved life-support systems of the Earth's entire biosphere so gravely as to cause human extinction or omnicide." In any event, relevant or not, Fred writes, "Apply that to this quote from John:" [In one of my articles I wrote,] Technology and science have advanced very rapidly during my lifetime, which began in 1939. The invasion of Poland and much "ethnic cleansing" followed. Today in Africa and in other "developing nations" there is "ethnic cleansing" as well. The more advanced the technology, in fact, the more rapid can be the "ethnic cleansing." Sci-tech has advanced exponentially since Archimedes and Pythagoras, but over the world at large, ethics has scarcely advanced at all. "So,(Fred writes,) "whether one agrees with these Luddite views or not, it should be rather clear that John does in fact support some of them." And so, Fred. Does having two eyes, a heart, blood in your arteries and veins, and a working brain necessarily make you a whale? Having a few characteristics of a thing does not guarantee logically that you are that thing. You make straw man logic, Fred, yet you say you are a secular humanist and you aspire to being logical. Fred next tries to argue from some text from John’s U-K spoof "Swarms of Technologusts Invade Mars." Fred missed the point in John’s spoof. John was not serious. Somehow Fred Smith failed to get it. Consequently John wonders if Fred has any sense of humor. Fanatics tend to be humorless. After showing his lack of humor about John's technologusts, Fred rambles on and on about various subjects, imagining he is refuting John Waters. This is a good example of quixotic Fred jousting with windmills. Next, Fred tries to explain (yet one more time,) his ideal of secular humanism by writing, “This debate highlights the humanist's desire for consistency and reason in ethics, where possible.” Coming from Fred Smith, that is one heck of a funny remark, in view of the many logical fallacies that Fred vainly deploys! In previous articles John has pointed out many of Fred’s logical errors. Fred’s set John Waters up as a straw-man so he can vent his humorless rage by attacking straw man John. It’s not the real John Waters that Fred keeps attacking. Fred is attacking an imaginary John Waters. Fred concludes his piece by writing, “Hopefully, in future articles from John, he will refrain from hiding behind a false front. Hopefully, he will expose himself as he really is.” Fred, you are asking John to do the impossible in an online environment. As John really is, he is three dimensional flesh and blood, bone and sweat, breath and intelligences that can’t be expressed on an online verbal forum. If you want to meet John as he really is, you have to visit John and interact with John and get to know the man in the many ways that he is in real space and real time, not just as an Internet writer. Furthermore, and this is a different point, if you are so striving to be freed from all deceptiveness, Fred, how can you support the deceptive t411sh, when he/she won’t even divulge his/her real name? How can you side with someone who is as deceptive as t411sh? Thoughtful people will conclude that you are hypocritical, Fred. And now for the MAIN POINT of this article: Rather as Fred has come to think of John Waters as a neo-Amish or neo-Luddite, John has come to think of Fred Smith is a shallow thinker instead of a deep thinker. For Fred to rebut this assertion, he needs to write profoundly about the following issue: If, as Fred wants, anti-neo-Luddism rules and everyone embraces high-sci-tech, what happens? More and more nations want to develop and use nuclear power. Right now, however, the USA doesn't want North Korea and Iran to develop high-tech nuclear power and join the Nuclear Club. After all, the President of Iran has repeatedly talked about wiping Israel "off the map." Consequently, quite a lot of sensible people see the dangers of unrestricted sci-tech. In fact, some people are even worried that the USA might get nuked. So what is wrong with Fred’s simplistic idea of high technology as the savior of humanity? What about all these high-tech weapons of mass destruction? Yes, and the US military has top secret high-tech weapons-system ideas that mainstream Americans have never heard of or read about! If “anti-neo-Luddite” Fred is so enthusiastic about everyone embracing all the possible super high-tech devices, well, superficially that might sound great, but what about the human situation? What about the ages-old hates, fears, and bad memories that still fester in the hearts and minds of millions of people today? What about the terrible destructive events that led Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell to write in the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 1955: "All, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert it. We have to learn to think in a new way."? So Fred Smith, what would you say or write to Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell? Prove to your U-K readership that you are not a shallow thinker. Write your profound answer and publish it on U-K soon. ------------ About the author: sixty-six years young, and vigorous in mind, body, emotions, and spirit, John L. Waters is an independent researcher on self-healing, integration, creativity, and unity. To help demonstrate the effectiveness of his research, John has created thousands of drawings, paintings, instrumental music pieces, songs, prose pieces, poems, and other inventions. John has used his research to help persons remove a mental block and solve a problem. John also gives personal presentations which illustrate his research results. Each one of these works demonstrates the effectiveness of John's research. For more information, read John's letters of recommendation: about John's self-healing and integration: about the mystical energy or yogic force and related topics: about John's independent research: about John's seeking an agent or a publisher: Email: blueguntwo@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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