[220] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What can we do?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Laas)
Fri Apr 27 03:17:11 2001
Message-Id: <200104270716.DAA23079@melbourne-city-street.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 07:16:10 +0000 ( )
From: Chris Laas <golem@MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: golem@MIT.EDU
To: mit-talk@MIT.EDU, ifc-talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <ppwpudyzxnm.fsf@PIXIE.MIT.EDU>
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On 27 Apr, Ray Jones wrote:
> Zhelinrentice L Scott <zlscott@MIT.EDU> writes:
>
>> A few years ago the MIT extropians got in trouble for their
>> mass mailings which degraded minorities and women based on lies.
>
> The Extropians were (procedurally) in the wrong for sending an
> "unapproved" mailing, but I question whether their brochure should
> have been excluded in the first place (particularly in direct
> contradiction to the ASA's recommendation). The fact that the
> administration rejected their pamphlet is quite disturbing, since it
> was almost surely because it expressed views contrary to what the
> administration wanted presented to freshmen.
>
> NB: I haven't seen the packets (the one that did go out, and the
> Extropians') in question. If someone still has them, I'd actually
> like to see what did go out.
I was one freshman who received that packet, though I'm afraid I don't
have it around any more. However, I can tell you that when I read it,
I did not find it in the least racist or sexist --- in fact, they were
attempting to make the point that MIT's affirmative action program
degrades minorities and women by setting a lower bar for their
admission. Although I didn't buy all of their (somewhat extreme and
perhaps naive) arguments, the Extropians' mailing struck me at the time
as one of the very few honestly written and straightforward mailings I
received from MIT --- most of the goop I got was unsufferable
feel-happy-and-be-a-good-little-sheep pap. (I was especially
disappointed with the Tech --- although my opinion of it has improved
since then. I'm not sure whether this is a function of me or it.)
When I actually arrived at MIT and attempted to discuss the mailing
with the people I met there, I was repeatedly shocked by the number of
people with strong feelings about it --- it was commonly reviled as a
racist manifesto --- none of whom had actually read it. I was
disappointed by the credulousness of the average MIT student, but at
least there was a bright side: I started MIT with a great litmus test
for picking out the ignorant people...
--Chris
--
NO, pennies dropped from the top of the Eiffel Tower do not embed
themselves in concrete.
http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/penny_falling_impact.html
______________________________________________________________________
Chris Laas: KB1DEM \ golem@mit.edu (617)225-6522 \ EC, Hayden 507, MIT
