From: Blanc Weber <blancw@microsoft.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 94 13:57:46 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: RE: New mailing list?
Message-ID: <9403052158.AA01627@netmail2.microsoft.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


"I want each reader of these words to reflect on the phrase
"implementing culture".  If you do not realize the magnitude of this
principle and have some respect for its enormity, I would sincerely
suggest that your time would be better spent reading some political
philosophy and some technological history and pondering over your
desires, to make sure that you know them."

Okay, Teach.  :>)

Thanks for the clarification, Eric.  I remember some critical 
statements made about your attitude toward modifications to list and 
the suggestions which you apparently shot down.  I remained silent but 
wondering.

"Cypherpunks is where the politics meets the code.  ....  Policy 
separated from development lags the reality of deployment, and necessarily.  "

These are some things I have thought about, upon reading complaints 
against the tangential discussions which come up on the list:

It is not  unimportant to engage in these conversations as they 
develop, to allow for the associated efforts to achieve precision on 
attitudes/expectations which counter the rest of the intellectual 
atmosphere of acceptance, especially when one might be required to 
produce just cause why things should go in one direction (yours) rather 
than another (theirs); when you might have to answer to 'authorities' 
for non-complicity to collectivist programs.

Some people do (and some should) struggle for better justification in 
their own mind, of their position relating to what they themselves do 
(writing & distributing code which permits alternatives to 
government-supplied arrangements), of what they advocate to others that 
they ought to do (positive or negative support for a method/plan of 
action), or would prevent (as in thwart the progress/implementation of 
Clipper).

It is  not   unimportant to be clear about the propriety of the motives 
behind an argument, to be satisfied that one is correct -   that it 
isn't merely 'whining' because one is not getting one's way, or because 
the government & its advisors are not sufficiently lenient in their 
outlook;  that there is philosophical, logically consistency in the 
actions/solutions proposed.

It is not unproductive to maintain a general awareness among all those 
who would deem to be of the same "attitudinal alignment".   Else how 
could such a group survive as advocates of ideas promoting complete 
independence & total autonomy. (euphemism)

I myself would welcome the existence of a more thorough elaboration on 
this subject, from yourself and the others who founded the list: an 
explanatory FAQ for reference, especially on the matter of 
"implementing culture", since this implies more than simply effects 
dealing with government.

Blanc