Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Outquisition

There is an entry on Boing Boing about the Outquisition

Basicly, there is plenty of conjecture and fiction out there about how survivalist will hunker down and resist, railing against the dying of the light, there is little out there about folks that might go around post apocalypse trying to fix things for everybody. Remind us that we once walked on the moon and we can do it again.

They call this the Outquistion. The opposite of the Inquistion. (Huh? Ok, I can sorta see that. Instead of inquiring, disseminating.) Sort of a techno-Peace-Corps. Young idealist venturing out to help the stricken get back on their feet using only the resources they carry in their brain.

I dunno. What if they disseminate the wrong stuff? Like what if they are boosters for collectivism? Or if they were member of the Ayn Rand cult? (I love Objectivists, but MAN they can anoying, too.) If Milton Friedman and Gorver Nordquist clones were a big part of this sorta thing I might be for it. But I bet there are plenty out there that would prefer Charlie Manson to Grover.

Maybe they should forget the Outquistion and just keep up the whole "Leave Me the Hell Alone" attitude. That's the best part of the Apocalypse. You'll finally get left alone when you are the last man on earth.

So, I think the best policy for Outquisition Peace Corps types, post-Comet-Impact is: "You damn kids keep the hell offa my lawn!"


Best quote from the comments on that website:

RA Wilson recounts a conversation about paranoia with PK Dick. What if, they wondered, the universe were out to help you? They coined the word metanoia (despite it already being a word with a completely different meaning) for "the irrational belief that the universe is out to help you."

Paranoid future - Mad Max gangs
Metanoid future - The Outquisition

---patadave

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem is that people with lots of "good" ideas and wonderful intentions tend to quickly turn into tyrants when the common folk don't see things their way.

They think they know how everyone else should live and BY GOLLY, that's how everyone else is GOING to live....it's for their own good, don't you know.

"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."

--T.S. Eliot

"If people are free to do as they wish, they are almost certain not to do as we wish. That is why Utopian planners end up as despots, whether at the national level or at the level of the local 'redevelopment' agency."

--Thomas Sowell

NotClauswitz said...

If they say, "We're the Government and we're here to help," they are clearly insane and you must shoot 'em.