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.CB ESCAPE FROM THE EARTH


	There is a strong possibility that if a technological civilization
preserving individual freedom is to continue, those who favor it must
escape from the earth and maybe even from the solar system.
The trends in present civilization that may make it possible
and which I am about to describe may reverse themselves, but
I don't think anyone knows enough sociology and political science
to be sure of it.  This paper discusses both the trends that may
make continued civilization on the earth impossible and the means
of escape if that should be necessary.

.bb Decivilizing tendencies

	Here are the tendencies that may destroy civilization on the earth:

.item←0;
	#. Conquest of a country by the Communists has up to now been
irreversible.  Military dictatorship, murder and imprisonment of all
opposition or potential opposition combined with total control of
information has so far been an unbeatable combination.  It may be
that the dictatorships will rot from the inside, because many
insiders see its harmful qualities, but the Soviet leaders have
so far always been successful in corrupting enough qualified
people to man the secret police, the government administration,
and the decision-making levels of industry and science.
Their newest conquests, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos have exhibited
interesting variations - the mass murder in Cambodia contrasts
with the gradual tightening of the screws in Vietnam and Laos, but
the disillusionment of the local liberals who helped the Communists
win has had no effect in any of these countries in deflecting the
dictators.

	#. The underdeveloped world has developed a feeling of entitlement
to benefits of technological civilization without the acceptance
of the disciplines that make wealth possible.  The last shreds of
electoral democracy are disappearing from these countries and
a victory-or-death military ideology is developing.  This ideology
seems likely to be as undeterred by the prospect of mass slaughter
as was the religious ideology of 16th and 17th century Europe.
It may lead first to bloody conventional wars and then to nuclear
wars.

	#. In the West, large fractions of the intellectual establishment
have decided to side with the Communists and other revolutionary
movements.  That this allegiance may be unshakable by any revelations
of atrocities by the Communists is shown by the total American
intellectual disinterest in the mass murders in Cambodia and
the mass imprisonments in Vietnam.
The press has gotten into a mood of arrogance in which government
and industry may be torn down just for the fun of it,
and no other segment of society is prepared to challenge
them.

	#. Within the United States, a majority of intellectuals
see little value in political democracy or equality of
opportunity.
.CB OPPORTUNITIES FOR ESCAPE