I read that article and was going to reply earlier, but HN was down... (all because of you, writing that recursive article...)
You make a very interesting point there (more than in this article, in fact, imho). My thought on it is that there is a spectrum of techniques to "engage" groups of people and elicit desired behaviour. Some of them work, and some of them don't. Some of them are towards the Dark Side, and some of them closer to the Light Side.
I think it's incorrect to suppose that only the techniques on the Dark Side work. Light Side techniques work too, but differently. And Dark Side techniques have a cost too, which is not always obvious. Raelians may be very good at generating agreement and coordinated behaviour, but what creativity do they have? The brainwashing ensures that there is little original, individual thought left.
For example, the technique used by your synagogue seems like a good technique, not unethical, but very effective.
I haven't given it too much thought, but I suspect that a good way to draw the line is to examine whether a technique merely encourages or whether it coerces.
Finally, do we "atheist/libertarian/technophile/sf-fan/early-adopter/programmer/etc" fail at organising ourselves? I don't think it's fair to say that. Considering the cooperative achievements we've achieved, starting with the operating system that this site no doubt runs on, I'd say we're doing quite well on the whole. And in the long run, that matters more.
You make a very interesting point there (more than in this article, in fact, imho). My thought on it is that there is a spectrum of techniques to "engage" groups of people and elicit desired behaviour. Some of them work, and some of them don't. Some of them are towards the Dark Side, and some of them closer to the Light Side.
I think it's incorrect to suppose that only the techniques on the Dark Side work. Light Side techniques work too, but differently. And Dark Side techniques have a cost too, which is not always obvious. Raelians may be very good at generating agreement and coordinated behaviour, but what creativity do they have? The brainwashing ensures that there is little original, individual thought left.
For example, the technique used by your synagogue seems like a good technique, not unethical, but very effective.
I haven't given it too much thought, but I suspect that a good way to draw the line is to examine whether a technique merely encourages or whether it coerces.
Finally, do we "atheist/libertarian/technophile/sf-fan/early-adopter/programmer/etc" fail at organising ourselves? I don't think it's fair to say that. Considering the cooperative achievements we've achieved, starting with the operating system that this site no doubt runs on, I'd say we're doing quite well on the whole. And in the long run, that matters more.