Hi,
(this wasn't directed at me, but I couldn't help overhearing...)
I think that the BNW is scary precisely becuase the ideology which
underlies it does seem attractive. Ultimatly, BNW is a trade off --
society trades progress (in the extropian sense) for the happiness of
it's members.
I would like to think (in a Utopia sorta sense) that a compromise is
possible; that the vast majority of people who *are* willing to trade
progress for happiness could live in the BNW, while those of us who
want to *stamp our name in the history books*, who want to *make
payments on our debts[1]*, could go and live on the island mentioned,
possibly benefiting not only residents of the island, but also
ensuring the contiuned existence of BNW (ala Mond, the World
Controller). I was disappointed not to see further discussion of what
transpires on that island in the book.
However, the pessimist in me tends towards the realization that
*individuals who will choose to forfeit the BNW* in favour of the
island will be *very* rare, to the point that the minimum necessary to
ERiC
[1] John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday @ 23, on discontent:
Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you
shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but
your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there's
time, the bastard Time. The end of life is now not so terribly far
away--you can see it the way you see the finish line when you come
into the stretch--and your mind says, "Have I worked enough? Have I
eaten enough? Have I loved enough?" All of these, of course, are the
foundation of man's greatest curse, and perhaps his greatest glory.
"What has my life meant so far, and what can it mean in the time left
to me?" And now we're coming to the wicked, poisoned dart: "What
have I contributed in the Great Ledger? What am I worth?" And this
isn't vanity or ambition. Men seem to be born with a debt they can
never pay no matter how hard they try. It piles up ahead of them.