None

[Anonymous <anon@anon.efga.org>]

At 07:06 PM 8/21/97 +0200, a confused Zooko Journeyman wrote:
>BULL SHIT.

Two words used to describe EVERTHING Zooko is about to say.

>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.

What the hell is an "Emotionally stunted man", any way, Zooko?

>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.

I don't see what's fanatical about hating a government.

>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.

Question, Zooko:

Who the fuck makes gun laws, helps pass censor laws, anti-freedom and
encryption laws, anyway???

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

We don't *demonize*, we put the blame on the guilty.

>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.

Think about this, Zooko:

You are standing, along with your other sheeple, screaming, throwing
objects, at Tim McVeigh, with images of Flag-waving freedom-fighters
(terrorists, by government terms) behind his face.

>THAT should give you pause for thought, Ray.

THAT above should give YOU pause for thought, Zooko.

>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.

And that is what most of us feel.

>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.

Sacred Jihads who work to overthrow the U.S. government, in order to
establish a more libertarian one?

I consider anyone as being sub-human who bursts through my door, armed
heavily, and with intent to steal my possesions, and my freedom, and
my sovreignity over my house.

>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.

And I'm sure you'll be thinking the same thing one day if THEY bust
down YOUR door, and fire at your wife, holding a baby daughter of
yours.

If they come at your house with a tank, outside standing, are hundreds
of armed ATF agents.

If they come to steal your wealth, force you from your house, after
seeing your are an enemy of the people, destroy your possesions, and
force you to a concentration camp.

Think about it, Zooko.  Don't close your mind in the shroud of hatred
for those different from you.