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North Korea and Human Clones Represent the Same
Problem |
North Korea is going ahead with its program to develop
nuclear weapons. A group that believes alien
scientists invented humans says it has produced a
human clone.
It doesn't really matter whether or not that cloning
actually took place,. What matters is that there is no
good reason it couldn't be done.
Human cloning and North Korea's atomic weapons are
part of a fundamental problem we will have to face in
the new millennium:
Technology is getting more and more powerful and more
and more widespread. If we don't deal with this
reality, the freaks are going to.
Trying to control nuclear and cloning technology is a
lot like trying to deal with drugs:
1) All we ever talk about is how to clamp down on
these things and ban them;
and
2) We all know we won't be able to stop proliferation,
cloning or drugs.
While the desperate problems of the new century are
growing, we just moralize about them. Meanwhile we
drift ever farther away from reality.
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Our Twin Towers Dialogue is absolutely Insane
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Media discussion about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
is an example of how we are getting sillier and
sillier when we discuss tomorrow's technical crises.
I wrote about WMDs on November 21, 1998 in
SUPERTERRORISM. When my predictions started to come
true I reprinted that article on September 11, 2001.
I made a recommendation on dealing with WMDs in the
1998 article. I repeated that recommendation on
September 15, 2001 in FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, AMERICA,
SPREAD OUT!
What I said was that, if a few people can kill
millions, the first thing we must do is spread people
out so they will not make easy targets.
But nobody but me will talk about spreading out our
population. Why? Because this involves talking
about something nobody wants to think about.
If we spread out it means we are admitting the
horrible likelihood that weapons of mass destruction
can't be stopped just by Clamping Down on them. It
means we have to face the fact they might be USED.
On the other hand, we can avoid that ugly thought by
doing what New Yorkers want to do about the Twin
Towers. They say we just need to Clamp Down on
terrorism.
Not only are New Yorkers going to build another Twin
Towers, many want to build them bigger and taller.
New Yorkers tell themselves that this means they are
not "giving in to terrorism".
What this really is, is wishful thinking. They want
to believe that terrorism is over. Rebuilding the
Twin Towers says we can have a target like that and no
one will ever hit it again.
No one mentions spreading out because that would mean
facing a reality that is horrible, ugly, and, worst of
all, realistic.
No one wants to discuss the nasty reality that, IN THE
LONG RUN, we cannot deal with weapons of mass
destruction just by Getting Tough and Clamping Down.
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Leftist Morality Can't face the Future
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I made another statement in SUPERTERRORISM that no one
is allowed to talk about. I said that the development
of WMDs probably means the end of Holy Diversity.
If we face the fact that a few hostile people can kill
millions there is little room for a policy that forces
hostile groups to live side by side.
On the left no one is allowed to question Holy
Diversity. All kinds of people must be forced
together by liberal social policy.
But what happens to Holy Diversity when any hostile
person will soon be able to wipe out the whole
community?
No one asks.
And we haven't even gotten started dealing with the
real problem yet. The Twin Tower attacks were low
tech. What happens when suitcase nuclear bombs and
tailor-made diseases become common?
Nobody wants to think about that, so we are betting
everything on our ability to Clamp Down on weapons of
mass destruction.
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Rightist Morality Can't face the
Future |
Conservatives deal with every technical reality of the
new millennium the same way liberals do:
They Clamp Down.
Conservatives can't deal with tomorrow's weapons of
mass destruction any more than liberals can.
Anybody who wants to be a respectable conservative has
to be every bit as fanatical about "diversity" as
liberals are. Conservatives are always trying to
prove they are more against "divisiveness" and
"racism" than leftists are.
On human cloning and human embryo research the right
wants to ban it all. But the millions of people
sitting in wheelchairs or who are otherwise
handicapped are not going to put up with that. Please
see May 12, 2001 - TWENTIETH-FIRST CENTURY AMISH and
FRANCE - THE BOY IN THE BUBBLE.
There is actually very little real difference between
liberal moralists and conservative moralists on these
matters. It is true that liberals favor abortion and
conservatives oppose it. For people whose political
debate is rooted in today, that is a big deal.
But where it really counts leftist moralizers and
conservative moralizers are very much alike. Harvard
sociology professors who call themselves "ethicists"
talk about developing medical technology in much the
same way conservative preachers and priests do.
On human cloning both liberal "ethicists" and
moralists on the right say that all we need to do
about the future is Clamp Down.
That saves a lot of thought. You can hide behind
that moral posture and raise money with it and run for
office on it.
But back on Planet Earth the clock keeps right on
ticking.
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