[clue] Cory Doctorow - war on general computing [talk]

[Lorin Ricker]

"I use honor to guide my own life, and the law to protect me from other 
people.  It, of course, helps to have honorable legislators and judges 
of those laws."

Maddog -- Again, and with deepest respect, I agree with you in principle.

However, it's our institutions, legal, jurist, political, and even moral 
(churches) that are breaking down in the face of an ever-more complex 
society.  The weight of mutually-contradictory, overly-complicated and 
pervasively-intrusive system of laws, statutes and regulations virtually 
guarantees this as a self-fulfilling prophesy.

We have certainly, IMHO, reached and exceeded some threshold or limit of 
complexity as a society -- much of it seems to be at a breaking point. 
Historically, such a situation is regularly remedied by a revolution, 
whether conceptual (and therefore relatively bloodless) or physical 
(running the continuum from benign to violent).

Doctorow's address seems, to me, to underscore these very ideas, limited 
to the domain of intellectual property.  Yet, by extension, he seems to 
endorse these very same notions.

Thank you to all for your thoughtful responses... this thread is 
intriguing, perhaps even essential.

best regards,
   -- Lorin

On 01/-10/-28163 12:59 PM, Jon "maddog" Hall wrote:
> It is a combination of honor and law, and sometimes what we consider
> to be "moral".
>
> But is it honorable to rape a woman, or beat her?
>
> It is honorable to run out on your family and leave them destitute?
> To cheat on your spouse?
>
> To kill innocent civilians, old people and children, even in war?
>
> These are things that (in my mind) are without honor, yet they
> happen every day.
>
> I use honor to guide my own life, and the law to protect me from
> other people.
>
> It, of course, helps to have honorable legislators and judges of
> those laws.
>
> Warmest regards,
>
> maddog
>
> On Mon, 2012-01-02 at 13:51 -0700, David L. Willson wrote:
>> I have some. You have some. Every man I know well enough to say
>> with confidence whether or not he has some, has some.
>>
>> I infer from that, not without some trepidation, that every man has
>> some.
>>
>> I make an intuitive leap that honor has the same property that
>> faith does. Even a very small amount, regularly exercised, can do
>> great things.
>>
>> David L. Willson Trainer, Engineer, Enthusiast RHCE MCT MCSE
>> Network+ A+ Linux+ LPIC-1 NovellCLA UbuntuCP tel://720.333.LANS
>> Freedom is better when you earn it. Learn Linux.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>>> Men, freely associated and joined by agreements that are as
>>>> binding as their own sense of honor,
>>>
>>> There be the rub...where is the honor?
>>>
>>> md
>>>
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>>
>