From: Zooko Journeyman <zooko@xs4all.nl>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 01:27:03 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: heart
Message-ID: <199708211706.TAA00218@xs1.xs4all.nl>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




 A million monkeys operating under the pseudonym
 "Ray Arachelian <sunder@sundernet.com>" typed:
>
> Meethinks (not speaking for Tim) that years under a fascist natzi-like
> regime bent on ripping out all out freedoms one by one and confiscating
> all things threatening to it would cause any awake person to lose any
> compassion for the scum that run our Freeh country.


BULL SHIT.


This is a cop-out, used by emotionally stunted men to excuse 
themselves from their solemn responsibility to ethically 
justify their own actions and to deal fairly with their fellow
humans.


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.


Note that this process _always_ includes a group of other 
humans which are demonized in order to serve as a scapegoat and
as a concrete focus for the participant's negative emotions.


This process is objectively identical to the process 
experienced by _all_ hate groups, gangs and nationalists.


You are standing in the auditorium, Louis Freeh's face is 
displayed on the screen, interposed with film of jackbooted 
thugs breaking down your door, and you are screaming wordlessly
at him along with all of your brethren during the Two Minutes 
Hate.



THAT should give you pause for thought, Ray.







Listen to me:  I might take up arms in the trenches next to you
someday, if it comes to that.  I might murder enemies or 
civilians in their sleep, if I were convinced that it was the 
only way to preserve the people and the ideals that I love.  
I might work to deploy ideas and technologies that threaten to
induce social chaos, if I believed that those ideas and 
technologies were the only way to ensure the blessings of 
liberty and prosperity for my children.


But I will _never_ take one of these actions while intoxicated
by a cloud of hatred and self-righteousness.  I will _never_ 
tell myself that I am part of a sacred jihad which absolves me
of all guilt, and I will _never_ re-classify my enemies as 
sub-human in order to justify my treatment of them.




So take a fucking BREAK man.  Just get up from the computer and
go for a fucking walk in the mountains and think about your 
fucking family and loved ones.




Z