In the ESP Training Materials’ module on ‘Work and Value’ (as to be found in the Rational Inquiry™ patent (1999) application on
page 121) there is another example for re-inventing the wheel.
The paragraph at the bottom of the page corresponds practically one-on-one with Gene Roddenberry’s positive vision of a future as portrayed in Star Trek. One might just recall the dialogue in "First Contact" (1996) between Alfre Woodard’s character and Captain Picard, where he explains that in the future mankind has shed internal strive and material needs. Matter-Energy conversion is ever-present in Star Trek: replicators providing all sorts of goods from Earl-Grey to tubas; beaming; matter/anti-matter reaction as a source of energy; holodecks; etc.
The problem of course is that this kind of a vision cannot be attained by adhering to libertarian principles of property. Once all is produced by simply demanding the goods from a machine, how do we pay for them? How do we earn our money, when machines do all the work? It is simply impossible to achieve this vision based on the monetary implications of libertarianism; in fact, the current system of material exchange, i.e. money, cannot be sustained to do so.
So, as usual, by ‘copying’ (and not giving ‘tribute’ where it’s due) and simplistic application without regard to potentially occurring ‘inconsistencies’ in the teachings, NXIVM has managed to take a positive idea (to lure the more idealistically concerned) and made it useless by other elements (for the more materially oriented espians) of the ideology; the paradox between abdication of material needs, if you wish, and libertarian principles of property is paramount.
(Should this result in a double post, sorry. It's meant in reply to rrmoderator's 're-inventing the wheel?')
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2010 08:13AM by Macumazahn.