[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: heart
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
Charset: noconv
iQCVAwUBNAHifIVO4r4sgSPhAQH8XgP/UoNMQaHlg7NLmoNbsvT6zk4UKQQy2Y00
dI/y4bEl03d7C9zjNT5KpBIXlf9zWUSSMSa+EclFgu685IH6/zZ4eLmlan1yZIww
0zeiJ1LyBDUz3x9qWlrSZw8gWZP18pTodNkRySp8XIlU1xJ/aDuElwBqXAwj19Ju
Cxg/pcFow30=
=5v+i
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----