it was the domain of the greatest scientists, engineers, craftsmen, and artists
now its the domain of guys with ass crack showing
all industries go from new and fantastic to mundane and ordinary. IT work is no exception. for some of us in networking, it pretty much IS plumbing
but there's an important caveat here: some plumbers make a shitload of money. reason being, simple economics of supply and demand: if you're a good plumber, and you're willing to mess with a toilet, you're a rarity, and you can charge good money
the same simple economic truths apply to IT work, and always will. just like plumbing's disagreeable facets to the job according to average folk, to average folk, dealing with the technical aspects of a computer is a mindnumbing experience
this means there is and always will be a natural barrier to entry in the field, and so those of us who thrive in the nominally difficult mental arena of dealing with the innards of a computer will therefore always, for generations to come, make good money, just like plumbers today
except when you talk about "a racist myth". there's nothing mythical or racist about anything i am saying. you're injecting bullshit into the discussion
despite the best efforts of autocrats and dictators and brutal ugly rulers imposing their will throughout history, a few free minds always fell through the cracks and advanced mankind in scientific progress, despite some of mankind's efforts to keep us backwards
so the terrible irony here is that china WILL produce great scientists, just like the soviet union. and just like those soviet scientists, strong minds in spite of the system they were raised in, those minds will yearn strongly for a free society
and so those great chinese scientists will either yearn to leave china and go to the west, just like their soviet predecessors, where they can be free of all the enforced mediocrity in the political and information environment around them, or, more hopefully, they will serve as the seed of china's transformation to a free society
what i'm saying is, china will produce galileos. and galileo made scientific discoveries which challenged the political environment he was brought up in: catholic dogma. and galileo paid a price for that: house arrest. it will be sad and cruel but inevitable, but the best chinese minds of the future will inevitably wind up opposing the chinese autocracy, and will pay a heavy price for that. we can only hope that enough in china can see the stupidity of punishing their greatest minds for the sake of adhering to a brutal regime, which is brutal only to sustain itself, to be brutal another day
and my comment about galileo is not theoretical, its reality, this is the future and current reality of china's greatest minds:
He told friends that he knew the risk of imprisonment when he drafted Charter 08, which demands the open election of public officials, freedom of religion and expression, and the abolition of subversion laws.
"We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes," the petition says.
Liu was arrested last December before the Charter was made public. Other drafters and signatories have been harassed. The mainstream media have been forbidden to cover the subject and censors have blocked many related internet sites and articles. Many Chinese are unaware that it exists.
Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco and Margaret Atwood are among 300 international writers who have called for the release of Liu, who is a former president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre.
"Liu Xiaobo's case is about agreed international human rights standards, not merely the internal affairs of China," said John Ralston Saul, the president of International PEN. "China is signatory to international treaties and conventions, and cannot be given a free pass when it acts against its own and international standards."
The United States and European Union have also urged Beijing to free Liu.
"We continue to call on the government of China to release him immediately," Gregory May, first secretary with the US Embassy, said outside the courthouse today. May was one of a dozen diplomats stopped by authorities from attending the trial and sentencing.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters this week that statements from embassies calling for Liu's release were "a gross interference of China's internal affairs".
a dungeon is basically a medieval prison. any dragons in such a dungeon are simply a metaphorical abstraction of the idea of the criminals you find there: people who freely transgress against morals and decency
so the idea of prisoners, the dragons, playing d&d in prison, aka, the dungeon, is absurdist in the highest order
so i don't believe any chinese researchers will be making amazing breakthroughs as long as they live in a country which is fundamentally opposed to the idea of the free exchange of ideas. the free exchange of ideas is not some cute tweak on the product of scientific research, it is a preceding requirement for quality research to even be done in the first place
a society which does not allow a free exchange if ideas does not result in minds flexible enough to grasp important patterns quickly out of a morass of data. which is the essence of science. a society which carefully controls information results in minds weakened by an artificially placid media environment, where all information is carefully chosen for its adherence to an official point of view. but the truth is often ugly, and when "harmony" is artificially imposed, you breed flimsy minds which can only be spoonfed ideas which aren't too challenging to them
a truly keen scientific mind is bred in an environment where it is constantly challenged by ideas contrary to established belief. the mind is a muscle: challenge it, and it grows strong. put it in artificially serene environment free of opposing ideas, and it grows weak. the information environment that china supports therefore is contrary to the production of good scientific minds, and therefore contrary to the production of good science
in science, you question everything. and therefore, you get the best scientific theories. but in china, you never question, you only behave and adhere to the official party line. and so china is not building the social environment in which high quality minds can exist and high quality science can be done. china is breeding a generation of minds that are made of cotton candy and fluff with their desire for "harmony" over ugly truths. it takes an adherence to freedom of expression to get minds that are free in thought, and therefore make good science
you dislike the american censorial attitude towards cuba, but you lend no criticism to the cuban censorial attitude towards their own people
i can't take someone seriously who is so angry at american crimes in this world, but doesn't have anything to say about the much more horrid crimes of autocratic regimes against their own people
the american policy towards cuba does not hurt cuba. the cuban regime's policy towards cubans hurts cuba. you do understand and agree with that, right?
therefore, america has every right to want to have nothing to do with cuba as long as its regime is so vile. europe has chosen to still deal with cuba. ok, that's your choice. i would say that the european choice is the wrong one, simply because you are lending support to a regime which gives its own people no rights
you are familiar with the crimes of china against its people, you are familiar with the crimes of iran against its people. and you understand why europe modifies its relationships towards these countries due to these violations. then why don't you see that cuba is the same type of vile autocratic regime that affords its own citizens no rights? and furthermore, why do you believe the lie that it is the usa hurting the cubans, rather than seeing, as with the iranian regime or the chinese regime, that its actually the cuban regime that is at fault here?
and if you see that, you'd stand against the vile cuban regime, and support the notion that europe should not deal with an illegitimate government that abuses its own people
and honestly, if you do not understand that, you understand very little about what it takes to maintain our rights in this world
rights are not magic things that exert some magic force that means they can never be taken away. rights are a social compact that must be maintained and fought for against constant backsliding in all societies and cultures. people, not governments, are constantly trying to violate your rights. you prevent them from doing that by giving them no reason to violate your rights. you give them no reason to violate your rights by acting repsonsibly with those rights
take for example your right to privacy. lets say some people use their right to privacy to hide for example, bombs in their luggage. if enough people do that, everyone else begins to consider the right to privacy something that is a negative, not a positive, and begin to support the violation of the right to privacy, to ensure they have another important right, the right to live
note that i am not talking about government policy, i'm talking about simple poopular attitude. you will never maintain, for example, a right to privacy, if everyone in a society doesn't support that right. and they won't support that right if people use that right to commit transgressions, if they don't live up to their responsibilities to use their rights fairly. the right privacy therefore can only exist in a society of people WHO RECOGNIZE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY NOT TO ABUSE IT. it stops existing when the right is abused. not because of anything the government does, but because the social compact, the common attitude, begins to go AGAINST that right
when you abuse your rights, when you ignore your responsibilities about how to behave them, you lose them. not because of some government mandate, but because of the attitude of everyone else in your society. its simple cause and effect, and its a direct correspondence
know that about your rights, that they are under constant threat and must be constantly maintained with responsible social behavior, or understand nothing about rights in this world: they are very tenuous, and must be maintained against backsliding, forever
some people, rightfully, fear moral absolutism, that it can quickly backslide into ethnocentric judgments of other cultures. but i'm not arguing for the imposition of mcdonalds on china (although, ironically, plenty of genuine mainland chinese are doing that), i'm arguing for the basics: human rights
so what i ask all of the so-called moral relativists in the west out there to consider, when they see in my words the ugly visage of ethnocentrism, that instead they put aside their fears and see that i am simply arguing for a flat playing field on questions of basic human decency worldwide. another culture does not excuse violations of human rights
where do you stand on clitorectomies? if you are against them, is it simply because you are a hopelessly ethnocentric westerner and don't understand african culture? or is it because your basic sense of human decency, having nothing to do with you being western, finds them offensive? not every impulse your mind has has at its roots western-centric thinking. no, you are not simply the product of your culture, you're also a product of your humanity, which transcends culture
we are all human beings. a chinese can share the same revulsion at clitorectomies, for the same reasons, that you do. see that? its called shared humanity. recognize that it is a valid impulse, and it is a valid framework for what can be called moral absolutism: judgments that transcend all cultures, coherently and validly. for example: footbinding is a dead chinese tradition. its been wiped out, by the chinese. has this destroyed chinese culture? does a modern chinese person feel like the wiping out of footbinding is simply the result of westerners revulsed at the practice? so if you are revulsed at footbinding, are you simply hopelessly western? a modern chinese is equally revulsed, correct? so its not western ethnocentrism at work when you judge footbinding, or clitorectomies. meanwhile, if a chinese of the 1700s saw in american slavery something disgusting, are they being ethnocentric? furthermore, would it be valid for an american to argue that slavery is just a part of american culture, and therefore outsiders have no right to judge? this is a false defense, that abrogates a basic sense of human decency: crying "culture" to defend violations of human rights is logically incoherent and invalid
the chinese themselves grew out of footbinding, out of a sense of humanity. the american themselves defeated slavery, out of a sense of humanity. maybe africans can grow beyond clitorectomies too. so stand up, and speak the simple truth of our shared humanity: clitorectomies are wrong. you're not a westerner when you say that, you are a human being when you say that. when you hesitate to judge clitorectomies, meanwhile, you are spineless, and without morality, you are failing to live up to your HUMAN conscience
when you hesitate to condemn vile excesses of some cultures, i ask that you consider that your hesitance is a failure, not a strength. moral relativism is a failed ideology. again, on SIMPLE questions that should be obvious to you: participatory democracy, for example
but its not like i have to really defend myself. any iranian or chinese know what i am talking about. a lot of western moral relativists just live in these hermetically sealed ivory towers, and cast judgment from on far. they aren't defending real iranisn or real chinese from western ethnocentrism. they're just confused and clueless. moral relativism is false, and a failure to have a human conscience
the wise thing for sourceforge to do is simply agree to whatever the usa demands. and then its business as usual. which is: everything is available with no restrictions to anyone remotely familiar with a proxy server
enforcement is impossible, even for the usa within its own borders, so who fucking cares what the lawyers and bureaucrats and diplomats say? they've already been routed around
i'm not saying you shouldn't get upset at the arrogance and the audacity of the american demands, i'm saying a bully making demands without any actual ability to follow through on his threats is nothing you have to pay any respect to, and therefore nothing you should waste much effort or emotion on
you simply pay the asshole lip service, put a big smile on your face, say "yes" to whatever the asshole wants, and then its business as usual, which is: these laws mean nothing. all of the posturing and threats and demands mean nothing. there's NO ENFORCEMENT POSSIBLE
they can't enforce any of it. its the internet age. this is not about exporting video game machines, which can be intercepted, its about the internet, which routes around everything
people: stop getting upset at idiots trying to enforce legal understandings from a previous technological era and just ingore them and their petty demands without any muscle behind them. they can't stop technological change. they are defunct, they just don't know it
don't waste your time getting upset at a paper tiger
nothing makes my blood boil more than these condescending western attitudes that nonwestern places have a "special" culture that means they can't appreciate or don't deserve basic things like participatory democracy
as if you cross the ural mountains or the mediterranean or the rio grande and *poof*, magic!: those people over there have a "special" thousands of years of history and a deep intricate culture that apparently teaches us... somehow... drum roll please... that its ok for autocracies to commit horrible violations of basic human rights
wtf?!
human rights triumph culture. culture does not triumph human rights. nevermind the fucking braindead obvious observation that government != culture. is german culture the third reich? is russian culture the soviet union?
furthermore, its called HUMAN rights, not WESTERN rights. please, some of you morons out there: this attitude about "special" cultures needing our respect... translating in your ignorant mind as asshole governments needing to be excused of outrageous crimes... this attitude is really nothing more than soft racism
maybe even sinks a little. then all hell breaks lose
sure, everything is quiet now, and plenty support the grumpy old technocrats in beijing. because they are delivering massive economic growth. but the elite are living on borrowed time, because when things go south, and they will: no country grows economically unhindered forever, then the people will ask questions. and then the grumpy old men in beijing won't have answers, just platitudes and lies, and so the people will look to other grumpy old men to answer those questions. but since there is no peaceful way to make regime change, a la a democracy, then the government becomes increasingly seen as illegitimate by its people, and before long, beijing looks like tehran
democracy is the only form of government that manufactures legitimacy, appeasing the masses. the people vote, there's a new face, a new ideology, and everyone is happy again. but of course, discord grows again, it always does. so you repeat in a few years. this is the most powerful positive attribute of democracy: legitimacy. which leads to social stability, security, economic growth, a good environment for education: everything you hold dear. manufacturing legitimacy offsets all of democracy's messiness
in fact, the autocrats frequently talk about "harmony" being a positive value and ooh: look at how messy and full of discord democracies are. and the autocrats are absolutely right, democracies ARE messy. except that the harmony they provide is a placid lie, a pressure cooker. messiness and discord is the natural state of human politics: an ugly truth. "harmony" is the false state of mankind. we bicker, and we always will. "harmony" is borrowed time, only the calm before the storm. but apparently the grumpy old men can't see that. autocracies, no matter how orderly, inevitably decay in legitimacy over time in the eyes of the people they govern, because there's no institutionalized means of feedback like a democracy provides. so a breaking point is reached, and all hell breaks out. and then you have iran
its completely unavoidable, unless the grumpy old men in beijing prove to be the REAL geniuses they supposedly are, and transition to democracy. it's not like they haven't done every other point in the master plan:
they have 1. the nationalism. they kicked out all the foreign parasites. they righted the shame of the british forcing opium on them. they got out from under the warlords. they united, strong and vigilant they have 2. 'the People's welfare/livelihood'. deng xiaoping said "let a thousand flowers bloom", and they did: economic might definitely came. now all they have left is 3. democracy. so pull the trigger already, you fuckers. it's all right there in the fucking master plan
did you forget, grumpy old men?
if the technocracts choose democracy, we are entering an age of world dominance by china, because it will be economically powerful AND stable, and i really wouldn't be bothered by it either, i'd welcome it. a change of pace from american ideological inconsistency and lack of coherence and damaged integrity on the world stage
but if the technocrats choose the tiananmen square answer to calls for democracy, china is not going to be a world power, not for a thousand years. its going to sink into discord and mediocrity and simmering anger. and i will then only say to china: serves you right. because you either give a voice to your people, or you're illegitimate. in your people's eyes, and the eyes of the world
the grumpy old men are living on borrowed time. but i haven't completely written them off. remember, we're talking about a communist party which has embraced rabid capitalism. if they can pull off that ideological dissonance, i don't see why they can't pull off the ideological dissonance of an autocracy choosing democracy
its your move, grumpy old men. choose wisely. for the sake of a billion and a half people, please, choose wisely
the consumer got something for free over the radio. and yet that paid economic dividends in orthogonal ways
i ma merely attacking the lie that selling files on the wide open web (an absurdity, if you think about it, but apparently many don't) is a defensible economic model
the issue with (now simply parasitic and unnecessary) distributors in the internet age is they have reduced themselves to attacking consumers. pointing to an agreement between creators and distributors behind the scenes in the pre-internet age is a tangential observation and simply means you don't understand the point i am trying to make
for giving their files/ airplay away for free, creators (or, in the age before internet, the distributors) are getting financial returns on that through real, valid indirect means. and that's the new economic model the internet has handed us for linking commerce and art
meanwhile, paywalls, the economic model of distributors in the pre-internet age, and trying to force that model on us in the internet age, is simply absurd and a failure to understand the fundamentals of the new situation. the only thing for distributors to do now is to simply die: technological progress has rendered them obsolete
that is, creators dumping their content online for free
in effect, the same point as radio airplay: free advertising
then financial benefits come in the form of warm bodies showing up to your concert gigs, more fame (since there's no barrier to consumers enjoying your content), and then with enough fame, new ancillary streams of revenue like endorsements, personalized content, movie soundtracks, etc.
granted, this system will only reward a few, those who are truly fame worthy. not every artist will benefit from the free advertising. as if most artists benefit from the current system. the truth is that in all art, and this will always be true, no matter the distribution system, that only a tiny few are smash successes. but at least in the direct consumer-creator link, there's more "granularity": artists of marginal value to consumers still get a few bucks. while in the old distributor controlled system, the marginal acts simply wouldn't get any exposure, or any money. this is true even of some "just ok" acts. distributors decided in the old model, and their decisions were often fickle and without reason. plenty of good acts in the past didn't get a contract for really stupid reasons. at least with a direct consumer-artist link, plenty of mediocre to middling acts get good exposure still, and money still from warm bodies at live gigs. so rather than a "cliff", that if you fall beyond a certain amount of fame, you get nothing, in a direct creator-consumer links, its a gradual falling off of exposure... i just realized i just wasted a lot of time explaining the concept of the "long tail"
everyone talks about their rights, but few speak up about their responsibilities
if people don't live up to their responsibilities, they lose their rights. not as a matter of some government mandate, but as a simple logical, natural consequence of ruining things- the internet, safe roads, a healthy economy, etc., for other people
ah yes, i've heard of mexicans and canadians, there's only a few in the world, but they're real. as for these so-called "americans", i believe this is a mythical nationality, i don't think they ever really existed. they're just bogeymen made up to scare small children
and besides, i'm talking about creators self-distributing. let every sleazebag who gets their hands on what is available for free from the creator try to redistribute it at cost second hand. good luck with that
Slashdot Mirror
that's exactly what she says
is that you francesca?
sadly, i mostly encounter uncooperatives
this leads to do-it-by-yourself biology
would that be the miniskirt toga craze of 73 BC?
or the side split toga fad of 49 AD?
it was the domain of the greatest scientists, engineers, craftsmen, and artists
now its the domain of guys with ass crack showing
all industries go from new and fantastic to mundane and ordinary. IT work is no exception. for some of us in networking, it pretty much IS plumbing
but there's an important caveat here: some plumbers make a shitload of money. reason being, simple economics of supply and demand: if you're a good plumber, and you're willing to mess with a toilet, you're a rarity, and you can charge good money
the same simple economic truths apply to IT work, and always will. just like plumbing's disagreeable facets to the job according to average folk, to average folk, dealing with the technical aspects of a computer is a mindnumbing experience
this means there is and always will be a natural barrier to entry in the field, and so those of us who thrive in the nominally difficult mental arena of dealing with the innards of a computer will therefore always, for generations to come, make good money, just like plumbers today
hopefully we'll show less ass crack though ;-P
except when you talk about "a racist myth". there's nothing mythical or racist about anything i am saying. you're injecting bullshit into the discussion
or at least, ahead of you by 17 minutes ;-P
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1524310&cid=30903536
despite the best efforts of autocrats and dictators and brutal ugly rulers imposing their will throughout history, a few free minds always fell through the cracks and advanced mankind in scientific progress, despite some of mankind's efforts to keep us backwards
so the terrible irony here is that china WILL produce great scientists, just like the soviet union. and just like those soviet scientists, strong minds in spite of the system they were raised in, those minds will yearn strongly for a free society
and so those great chinese scientists will either yearn to leave china and go to the west, just like their soviet predecessors, where they can be free of all the enforced mediocrity in the political and information environment around them, or, more hopefully, they will serve as the seed of china's transformation to a free society
what i'm saying is, china will produce galileos. and galileo made scientific discoveries which challenged the political environment he was brought up in: catholic dogma. and galileo paid a price for that: house arrest. it will be sad and cruel but inevitable, but the best chinese minds of the future will inevitably wind up opposing the chinese autocracy, and will pay a heavy price for that. we can only hope that enough in china can see the stupidity of punishing their greatest minds for the sake of adhering to a brutal regime, which is brutal only to sustain itself, to be brutal another day
and my comment about galileo is not theoretical, its reality, this is the future and current reality of china's greatest minds:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/25/china-jails-liu-xiaobo
a dungeon is basically a medieval prison. any dragons in such a dungeon are simply a metaphorical abstraction of the idea of the criminals you find there: people who freely transgress against morals and decency
so the idea of prisoners, the dragons, playing d&d in prison, aka, the dungeon, is absurdist in the highest order
so i don't believe any chinese researchers will be making amazing breakthroughs as long as they live in a country which is fundamentally opposed to the idea of the free exchange of ideas. the free exchange of ideas is not some cute tweak on the product of scientific research, it is a preceding requirement for quality research to even be done in the first place
a society which does not allow a free exchange if ideas does not result in minds flexible enough to grasp important patterns quickly out of a morass of data. which is the essence of science. a society which carefully controls information results in minds weakened by an artificially placid media environment, where all information is carefully chosen for its adherence to an official point of view. but the truth is often ugly, and when "harmony" is artificially imposed, you breed flimsy minds which can only be spoonfed ideas which aren't too challenging to them
a truly keen scientific mind is bred in an environment where it is constantly challenged by ideas contrary to established belief. the mind is a muscle: challenge it, and it grows strong. put it in artificially serene environment free of opposing ideas, and it grows weak. the information environment that china supports therefore is contrary to the production of good scientific minds, and therefore contrary to the production of good science
in science, you question everything. and therefore, you get the best scientific theories. but in china, you never question, you only behave and adhere to the official party line. and so china is not building the social environment in which high quality minds can exist and high quality science can be done. china is breeding a generation of minds that are made of cotton candy and fluff with their desire for "harmony" over ugly truths. it takes an adherence to freedom of expression to get minds that are free in thought, and therefore make good science
you dislike the american censorial attitude towards cuba, but you lend no criticism to the cuban censorial attitude towards their own people
i can't take someone seriously who is so angry at american crimes in this world, but doesn't have anything to say about the much more horrid crimes of autocratic regimes against their own people
the american policy towards cuba does not hurt cuba. the cuban regime's policy towards cubans hurts cuba. you do understand and agree with that, right?
therefore, america has every right to want to have nothing to do with cuba as long as its regime is so vile. europe has chosen to still deal with cuba. ok, that's your choice. i would say that the european choice is the wrong one, simply because you are lending support to a regime which gives its own people no rights
you are familiar with the crimes of china against its people, you are familiar with the crimes of iran against its people. and you understand why europe modifies its relationships towards these countries due to these violations. then why don't you see that cuba is the same type of vile autocratic regime that affords its own citizens no rights? and furthermore, why do you believe the lie that it is the usa hurting the cubans, rather than seeing, as with the iranian regime or the chinese regime, that its actually the cuban regime that is at fault here?
and if you see that, you'd stand against the vile cuban regime, and support the notion that europe should not deal with an illegitimate government that abuses its own people
that not also carries with it a responsibility
and honestly, if you do not understand that, you understand very little about what it takes to maintain our rights in this world
rights are not magic things that exert some magic force that means they can never be taken away. rights are a social compact that must be maintained and fought for against constant backsliding in all societies and cultures. people, not governments, are constantly trying to violate your rights. you prevent them from doing that by giving them no reason to violate your rights. you give them no reason to violate your rights by acting repsonsibly with those rights
take for example your right to privacy. lets say some people use their right to privacy to hide for example, bombs in their luggage. if enough people do that, everyone else begins to consider the right to privacy something that is a negative, not a positive, and begin to support the violation of the right to privacy, to ensure they have another important right, the right to live
note that i am not talking about government policy, i'm talking about simple poopular attitude. you will never maintain, for example, a right to privacy, if everyone in a society doesn't support that right. and they won't support that right if people use that right to commit transgressions, if they don't live up to their responsibilities to use their rights fairly. the right privacy therefore can only exist in a society of people WHO RECOGNIZE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY NOT TO ABUSE IT. it stops existing when the right is abused. not because of anything the government does, but because the social compact, the common attitude, begins to go AGAINST that right
when you abuse your rights, when you ignore your responsibilities about how to behave them, you lose them. not because of some government mandate, but because of the attitude of everyone else in your society. its simple cause and effect, and its a direct correspondence
know that about your rights, that they are under constant threat and must be constantly maintained with responsible social behavior, or understand nothing about rights in this world: they are very tenuous, and must be maintained against backsliding, forever
i think it has more to do with S&M than D&D
just saying
some people, rightfully, fear moral absolutism, that it can quickly backslide into ethnocentric judgments of other cultures. but i'm not arguing for the imposition of mcdonalds on china (although, ironically, plenty of genuine mainland chinese are doing that), i'm arguing for the basics: human rights
so what i ask all of the so-called moral relativists in the west out there to consider, when they see in my words the ugly visage of ethnocentrism, that instead they put aside their fears and see that i am simply arguing for a flat playing field on questions of basic human decency worldwide. another culture does not excuse violations of human rights
where do you stand on clitorectomies? if you are against them, is it simply because you are a hopelessly ethnocentric westerner and don't understand african culture? or is it because your basic sense of human decency, having nothing to do with you being western, finds them offensive? not every impulse your mind has has at its roots western-centric thinking. no, you are not simply the product of your culture, you're also a product of your humanity, which transcends culture
we are all human beings. a chinese can share the same revulsion at clitorectomies, for the same reasons, that you do. see that? its called shared humanity. recognize that it is a valid impulse, and it is a valid framework for what can be called moral absolutism: judgments that transcend all cultures, coherently and validly. for example: footbinding is a dead chinese tradition. its been wiped out, by the chinese. has this destroyed chinese culture? does a modern chinese person feel like the wiping out of footbinding is simply the result of westerners revulsed at the practice? so if you are revulsed at footbinding, are you simply hopelessly western? a modern chinese is equally revulsed, correct? so its not western ethnocentrism at work when you judge footbinding, or clitorectomies. meanwhile, if a chinese of the 1700s saw in american slavery something disgusting, are they being ethnocentric? furthermore, would it be valid for an american to argue that slavery is just a part of american culture, and therefore outsiders have no right to judge? this is a false defense, that abrogates a basic sense of human decency: crying "culture" to defend violations of human rights is logically incoherent and invalid
the chinese themselves grew out of footbinding, out of a sense of humanity. the american themselves defeated slavery, out of a sense of humanity. maybe africans can grow beyond clitorectomies too. so stand up, and speak the simple truth of our shared humanity: clitorectomies are wrong. you're not a westerner when you say that, you are a human being when you say that. when you hesitate to judge clitorectomies, meanwhile, you are spineless, and without morality, you are failing to live up to your HUMAN conscience
when you hesitate to condemn vile excesses of some cultures, i ask that you consider that your hesitance is a failure, not a strength. moral relativism is a failed ideology. again, on SIMPLE questions that should be obvious to you: participatory democracy, for example
but its not like i have to really defend myself. any iranian or chinese know what i am talking about. a lot of western moral relativists just live in these hermetically sealed ivory towers, and cast judgment from on far. they aren't defending real iranisn or real chinese from western ethnocentrism. they're just confused and clueless. moral relativism is false, and a failure to have a human conscience
you don't have free speech
because it has been blocked by someone else abusing the priveledge, not living up to their responsibility
thus, my point that not exercising responsibilities means the loss of rights
most trangressions against your rights in this world is not done by any government, but by your fellow citizens
it doesn't "shit on centuries of philosophical though" (pffft) to make this plainly obvious observation
i don't know what exactly that you are missing about this simple obvious truth
the wise thing for sourceforge to do is simply agree to whatever the usa demands. and then its business as usual. which is: everything is available with no restrictions to anyone remotely familiar with a proxy server
enforcement is impossible, even for the usa within its own borders, so who fucking cares what the lawyers and bureaucrats and diplomats say? they've already been routed around
i'm not saying you shouldn't get upset at the arrogance and the audacity of the american demands, i'm saying a bully making demands without any actual ability to follow through on his threats is nothing you have to pay any respect to, and therefore nothing you should waste much effort or emotion on
you simply pay the asshole lip service, put a big smile on your face, say "yes" to whatever the asshole wants, and then its business as usual, which is: these laws mean nothing. all of the posturing and threats and demands mean nothing. there's NO ENFORCEMENT POSSIBLE
they can't enforce any of it. its the internet age. this is not about exporting video game machines, which can be intercepted, its about the internet, which routes around everything
people: stop getting upset at idiots trying to enforce legal understandings from a previous technological era and just ingore them and their petty demands without any muscle behind them. they can't stop technological change. they are defunct, they just don't know it
don't waste your time getting upset at a paper tiger
nothing makes my blood boil more than these condescending western attitudes that nonwestern places have a "special" culture that means they can't appreciate or don't deserve basic things like participatory democracy
as if you cross the ural mountains or the mediterranean or the rio grande and *poof*, magic!: those people over there have a "special" thousands of years of history and a deep intricate culture that apparently teaches us... somehow... drum roll please... that its ok for autocracies to commit horrible violations of basic human rights
wtf?!
human rights triumph culture. culture does not triumph human rights. nevermind the fucking braindead obvious observation that government != culture. is german culture the third reich? is russian culture the soviet union?
furthermore, its called HUMAN rights, not WESTERN rights. please, some of you morons out there: this attitude about "special" cultures needing our respect... translating in your ignorant mind as asshole governments needing to be excused of outrageous crimes... this attitude is really nothing more than soft racism
maybe even sinks a little. then all hell breaks lose
sure, everything is quiet now, and plenty support the grumpy old technocrats in beijing. because they are delivering massive economic growth. but the elite are living on borrowed time, because when things go south, and they will: no country grows economically unhindered forever, then the people will ask questions. and then the grumpy old men in beijing won't have answers, just platitudes and lies, and so the people will look to other grumpy old men to answer those questions. but since there is no peaceful way to make regime change, a la a democracy, then the government becomes increasingly seen as illegitimate by its people, and before long, beijing looks like tehran
democracy is the only form of government that manufactures legitimacy, appeasing the masses. the people vote, there's a new face, a new ideology, and everyone is happy again. but of course, discord grows again, it always does. so you repeat in a few years. this is the most powerful positive attribute of democracy: legitimacy. which leads to social stability, security, economic growth, a good environment for education: everything you hold dear. manufacturing legitimacy offsets all of democracy's messiness
in fact, the autocrats frequently talk about "harmony" being a positive value and ooh: look at how messy and full of discord democracies are. and the autocrats are absolutely right, democracies ARE messy. except that the harmony they provide is a placid lie, a pressure cooker. messiness and discord is the natural state of human politics: an ugly truth. "harmony" is the false state of mankind. we bicker, and we always will. "harmony" is borrowed time, only the calm before the storm. but apparently the grumpy old men can't see that. autocracies, no matter how orderly, inevitably decay in legitimacy over time in the eyes of the people they govern, because there's no institutionalized means of feedback like a democracy provides. so a breaking point is reached, and all hell breaks out. and then you have iran
its completely unavoidable, unless the grumpy old men in beijing prove to be the REAL geniuses they supposedly are, and transition to democracy. it's not like they haven't done every other point in the master plan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Principles_of_the_People
they have 1. the nationalism. they kicked out all the foreign parasites. they righted the shame of the british forcing opium on them. they got out from under the warlords. they united, strong and vigilant
they have 2. 'the People's welfare/livelihood'. deng xiaoping said "let a thousand flowers bloom", and they did: economic might definitely came.
now all they have left is 3. democracy. so pull the trigger already, you fuckers. it's all right there in the fucking master plan
did you forget, grumpy old men?
if the technocracts choose democracy, we are entering an age of world dominance by china, because it will be economically powerful AND stable, and i really wouldn't be bothered by it either, i'd welcome it. a change of pace from american ideological inconsistency and lack of coherence and damaged integrity on the world stage
but if the technocrats choose the tiananmen square answer to calls for democracy, china is not going to be a world power, not for a thousand years. its going to sink into discord and mediocrity and simmering anger. and i will then only say to china: serves you right. because you either give a voice to your people, or you're illegitimate. in your people's eyes, and the eyes of the world
the grumpy old men are living on borrowed time. but i haven't completely written them off. remember, we're talking about a communist party which has embraced rabid capitalism. if they can pull off that ideological dissonance, i don't see why they can't pull off the ideological dissonance of an autocracy choosing democracy
its your move, grumpy old men. choose wisely. for the sake of a billion and a half people, please, choose wisely
the consumer got something for free over the radio. and yet that paid economic dividends in orthogonal ways
i ma merely attacking the lie that selling files on the wide open web (an absurdity, if you think about it, but apparently many don't) is a defensible economic model
the issue with (now simply parasitic and unnecessary) distributors in the internet age is they have reduced themselves to attacking consumers. pointing to an agreement between creators and distributors behind the scenes in the pre-internet age is a tangential observation and simply means you don't understand the point i am trying to make
for giving their files/ airplay away for free, creators (or, in the age before internet, the distributors) are getting financial returns on that through real, valid indirect means. and that's the new economic model the internet has handed us for linking commerce and art
meanwhile, paywalls, the economic model of distributors in the pre-internet age, and trying to force that model on us in the internet age, is simply absurd and a failure to understand the fundamentals of the new situation. the only thing for distributors to do now is to simply die: technological progress has rendered them obsolete
and iran only wants nuclear power for peaceful purposes
(rolls eyes)
there's keeping an open mind, and then there's a giant chasm of gullibility
to entertain the notion that the chinese government is not attacking chinese human rights activists through electronic means is stupefyingly naive
that is, creators dumping their content online for free
in effect, the same point as radio airplay: free advertising
then financial benefits come in the form of warm bodies showing up to your concert gigs, more fame (since there's no barrier to consumers enjoying your content), and then with enough fame, new ancillary streams of revenue like endorsements, personalized content, movie soundtracks, etc.
granted, this system will only reward a few, those who are truly fame worthy. not every artist will benefit from the free advertising. as if most artists benefit from the current system. the truth is that in all art, and this will always be true, no matter the distribution system, that only a tiny few are smash successes. but at least in the direct consumer-creator link, there's more "granularity": artists of marginal value to consumers still get a few bucks. while in the old distributor controlled system, the marginal acts simply wouldn't get any exposure, or any money. this is true even of some "just ok" acts. distributors decided in the old model, and their decisions were often fickle and without reason. plenty of good acts in the past didn't get a contract for really stupid reasons. at least with a direct consumer-artist link, plenty of mediocre to middling acts get good exposure still, and money still from warm bodies at live gigs. so rather than a "cliff", that if you fall beyond a certain amount of fame, you get nothing, in a direct creator-consumer links, its a gradual falling off of exposure... i just realized i just wasted a lot of time explaining the concept of the "long tail"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail
everyone talks about their rights, but few speak up about their responsibilities
if people don't live up to their responsibilities, they lose their rights. not as a matter of some government mandate, but as a simple logical, natural consequence of ruining things- the internet, safe roads, a healthy economy, etc., for other people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera
ah yes, i've heard of mexicans and canadians, there's only a few in the world, but they're real. as for these so-called "americans", i believe this is a mythical nationality, i don't think they ever really existed. they're just bogeymen made up to scare small children
and besides, i'm talking about creators self-distributing. let every sleazebag who gets their hands on what is available for free from the creator try to redistribute it at cost second hand. good luck with that
how do free installs somehow compel other people to buy?
free installs compel more free installs
but how would you enforce those rules on a million technologically savvy, media hungry, and, most importantly, POOR teenagers
the future is now, get used to it