Re: Cyphernomicon by Tim May

[Toto <toto@sk.sympatico.ca>]

blanc wrote:
> From:   Toto
> Hm, well, what's an anarchist to do about other people's psychological
> makeup?

  Hold up a mirror. 

> Not that I'm condoning centralized management, but I bet I could flame
> anyone pretty good yet by-pass the moderator.  It's all in the style, you
> know.   Some people are very delicate about what offends them - I know I
> could get on some particular people's nerves any day without trying.   An
> opportunist can take advantage of another's infirmity by being perfectly
> polite while yet excruciatingly annoying.

  What constitutes a 'flame' seems to depend heavily on whose mouth it
comes out of. Jim Choate called me a schizophrenic, and it seemed to
be acceptable enough to make the censored list. He tends to call 
people "Bessie", basically saying they are a Cow, and that also
seems acceptable.
  Personally, I could care less when people want to play footsie-games
with flaming, but I think it points out the ludicrousness of having
a moderator limiting people to 'childish' insults.
  I prefer someone screaming at me what a cocksucker I am.

 Ray Hettinga forwards these long, literate missives advertising
this-or-that million dollar a plate conferences, but when he chose
to insult me with his own words, the result was an immature 
blathering which showed questionable literary skills.

> Oh, I wasn't condemning Tim's posts as being repetitive and boring - it's
> commendable that he would write about the same ideas in fresh new ways, for
> the benefit of the newbies and the entertainment of the oldies.
 
> But not everyone is as interested & willing (or have the time) to
> re-iterate this way, and  with only one or a few "holding up the ship", so
> to speak, it leaves a lot of room for wayless bickering degenerating into
> unproductive ad hominems - ad absurdum, ad nauseam.

  There are some good socio/politico posts by a variety of list members
who are highly knowlegeable about a range of topics surrounding crypto,
but they tend to come sporadically.
  I suppose that this is because they actually have real lives.

> You, know, Toto, I heard that there's a vacancy in the Cypherpunk Division
> of History & Philosophy ....

  I suppose that Sandy might nominate me, just for the pleasure of 
sitting back and enjoying the flood of, "A Vote of FUCK OFF for Toto"
postings.
  It would be nice, however, to try to twist the rest of the list
around to my own world-view. It gets lonely here in the 'rubber room'
at the Home, and I could use some company.

Toto