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

Lorin Ricker Lorin at RickerNet.us
Tue Jan 3 14:33:55 MST 2012


Yup.  Too many laws -- too much reliance on law... "Because we keep 
voting totalitarian."  We've forgotten that the fundamentally best 
approach is to _assume best intentions_ from the other person, at least 
until proven wrong by his/her overt actions, and give them the benefit 
of our own personal integrity, honesty and authenticity.  Laws, per se, 
cannot enforce this -- only our own personal actions can encourage this 
as "default behavior" in others.

It's the impersonality, the remoteness and virtuality, of so many of our 
ordinary, contemporary day-to-day interactions that allows so many of 
our fellows to get away with treating others like crap.

Yet what we each do, individually, matters so much.
best regards,
   -- Lorin

On 01/-10/-28163 12:59 PM, David L. Willson wrote:
> New Year's Day seems like a good day to pontificate, and the thread
> is appropriately labeled, and nobody's asked me to STFU, so I'll have
> another go.
>
> It seems to me like we've endorsed many sorts of laws and granted
> many sorts of powers to our rulers that have nothing to do with
> protecting one person from another. Laws and powers that, rather than
> protecting us from one another, allow us to pillage one another,
> starve one another, limit one another's autonomy, murder one another
> in fact, and preserve privilege for some, while utterly failing to
> protect others.
>
> I believe our faith in the law, in enforcing the will of some on
> others, has cost us dearly in terms of freedom, and has caused us to
> participate in many things that can only be called atrocities.
>
> Because we keep voting totalitarian. Because we keep deciding who
> should do what to our neighbors and with which weapon. Because one
> distrusts the other, is unwilling to forgive his faulty behavior, and
> believes, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, that suing
> him, bombing him, or legislating against him, will help the
> situation.
>
> The litigator and the legislator are NOT our guardians! There's no
> profit for them in truly protecting us! In order to remain fed, they
> have to keep us at one another's throats, and believing that nobody
> actually cares about his fellow. They are the devils of our world,
> feeding on our hate, our distrust, and our fear. They bankrupt us,
> and gain power over us, because we refuse to believe in one another's
> goodness more deeply than we believe in force, and because we refuse
> to forgive or re-interpret any percieved injustice. We are too ready
> to believe that the other fellow is a villain, and it makes us fodder
> for the cannons.
>
> I'd rather tolerate you socking me in the eye one day, and try to
> figure out why that happened with you or with you and some others we
> both respect, than create a law that says you mayn't, because I
> believe in you, and I believe that you and I, or you and I and our
> respected friends, can work it out better than you and I and the
> magistrate, or you and I and the governor, or you and I and our
> weapons. I don't believe you are a bad fellow. In fact, I believe
> you're doing the best you can with what you have, and further, I have
> made a commitment that nothing you can do will make me think
> otherwise about you. I'll live and die protecting your freedom to
> choose, even if you choose to sock me in the eye, say bad things
> about my lineage, and use Microsoft or Apple products. I believe that
> things between us can only get better, if we agree to make them
> better, freely.
>
> 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 -----
>> 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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>


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