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Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!

1997-08-25 - Re: heart

Header Data

From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
To: Zooko Journeyman <cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 54aaa121330df1b7acba4f1eb083079de0969b80811567bbc33d860e4e1faf4c
Message ID: <3.0.2.32.19970825155232.03681e3c@panix.com>
Reply To: <199708211706.TAA00218@xs1.xs4all.nl>
UTC Datetime: 1997-08-25 20:04:52 UTC
Raw Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 04:04:52 +0800

Raw message

From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 04:04:52 +0800
To: Zooko Journeyman <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: heart
In-Reply-To: <199708211706.TAA00218@xs1.xs4all.nl>
Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.19970825155232.03681e3c@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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At 07:06 PM 8/21/97 +0200, Zooko Journeyman wrote:

>By reciting mantras to one another emphasizing their sense of 
>having been mistreated and their sense of having 
>_unquestionable_ moral superiority, people in this situation 
>persuade each other to become more and more fanatical in their 
>attitudes, less and less in touch with reality, and less and 
>less compassionate towards the "others" who have been demonized
>in the process.

Save that the people who *actually* go out of their way to rob, rule, and 
kill other people are worse.  They don't work themselves up into a frenzy.  
They just rule, and steal, and kill with a smile on their lips confident that 
they're doing it for the good of their victims.

Tim has never said that he was interested in robbing, ruling, or killing 
others apropos of nothing -- something governments do every day.  Tim has 
merely said that he reserves the right to use deadly force to defend himself 
and that he was not interested in helping other people just because they 
"need" his help.  He didn't say he *wouldn't* help.  He just said he does not 
believe he is *required* to care or *required* to help.  That is a morally 
superior position compared to those who insist on helping others at the point 
of a gun.

I should also point out that at Tim's potential billable hours, the amount of 
time he has dedicated to "helping" others on the Net over the last many years 
would add up to a hefty sum.  The fact that he did it for his own reasons 
makes him no different from anyone else.  Even Mother Teresa does things for 
her own reasons.  

All of our reasons are *our* reasons and are not subject to logical analysis 
by others who lack the ability to read our souls.  Actions can be judged, 
words can be judged, motives are much trickier.  I will only point out that a 
world of Tim Mays would have many fewer homicides in it than a world of Bill 
Clintons and much less oppression of others.  Mostly everyone would leave 
each other alone.  The fundamental of politeness.

DCF


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