From: Jim Burnes <jim.burnes@ssds.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 03:34:25 +0800
To: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
Subject: Re: Tim May on "The People"
In-Reply-To: <19970721180611.27600@bywater.songbird.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970722092534.7401C-100000@westsec.denver.ssds.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain





(this is a mail messages that got stuck in the
queue a long time ago and just came out)

On Mon, 21 Jul 1997, Kent Crispin wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 21, 1997 at 10:29:37AM -0600, Jim Burnes wrote:
> > 
> [...]
> > Re: Tim May's quote.  May is pointing out the truism that the world
> > is full of weak-minded fools.
> 
> Almost everybody believes they are above average, believe it or not.
> 

I don't care.  IQ scores cluster about a bell curve.  Someone has to
fill out the left side.  Most of the left side don't understand
bell curves and that worries me.

> > This is the essential problem of
> > the illusory democracy that we live in today.  Since in our 
> > illusory democracy, the people falsely believe they've excercised their
> > will via "the vote".
> 
> ?

The people believe they are free because the powers-that-be allow them to
excercise a relatively feeble "right" to vote.  Somehow, even though we've
had this right since the beginning, things have gone from bad to worse
without stop.


>> The reality is that the sheeple, lulled into veritable unconsciouness
>> with an unending stream of monday-night sports, the Home Shopping
>> Channel (TM) and Beavis and Butthead couldn't care a less as long as
>> they feed on the media/social security/propaganda tit.  Their personal
>> opinions, thorougly pre-chewed and digested are spoon-fed to them
>> through a port in the side of their head labeled "fear".


> Right.  So those people simply don't count, and might as well be
> eliminated.

I never said that.  They count and I might say that giving them
the right to vote soothes their nerves because it gives them the
illusion of excercising (rather innefectual) self-determination.
Truth be told, the kinds of issues solved by the "vote" are minor
ones.  Somewhere (circa 1938) the constitutional republic was 
de-activated and replaced by something horrible and malevolent.
Meanwhile all the real power is wielded by a fascist melding of 
powerful corporations, politicians and the military/police state.

I think it quite likely that people are born into this world with some
combination of agression, intelligence and empathy.  The eight
combinations of these three variables determine the natural castes
in life.

Watch out for the one with high agression, high intelligence and
relatively little empathy.

I do internet security consulting for a living and get a chance to
interview everyone from the lowest engineers up to CEO's.  Its very
interesting to see what happens when we turn in our security 
vulnerability reports and see how the people react at the top.
Its a great reflection of character.  Many VPs run scurrying trying
to cover their asses and cover up the facts.  They will destroy
their underlings and force blame on them even when its clear
that their management decisions brought about the current situation.
Often their talent for deceit undermines the very security we
set out to establish putting at risk billions of dollars of
other peoples money.

Relatively little changes from the playground.

The worst are the ones that beligerantly assert that there
is no security problem and how dare we suggest that there
is.  These types are very dangerous because they are not
just reactive, they are pro-active and will destroy the
messengers to cover up their insecurity.  Their tactics are
very clever, quick and decisive.

For whatever its worth....

Actually I'm tired of stating the obvious.  What are the
current outstanding cypher projects?  I'd rather be
writing code. What I need is one more project on the
burner.


Jim Burnes

"How do you explain school to higher intelligence?"
                        Elliot to his brother in ET