-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Morlock wrote: >> And whatever deceptive advantages might possibly come from the *public >> perception* of rampant incompetence and donutchompery, the drawbacks are
>Optimism may somatize one against dread of reality, but it will surely >impair accuracy of predictions. Sure. But for the life of me I can't see where you ever got the idea I'm an optimist just because I don't think it's time to retreat to a bunker watch the whole world go up in flames. As bad as it may very well be now, you seem to be forgetting it could be a WHOLE lot worse. The more people who care about liberties give up and do nothing, the uglier it's going to get. Should the emphasis be on developing technology instead of fretting over laws? Actually, I agree. Like I said in a previous post, the only way you can counter math is with better math. If what you do best is write code, write code. The main thing is to DO something, whatever your skills and talents are. Spare everyone the hot air and just do it. Take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself: what are you doing that matters to anyone besides yourself? If all you're doing is going to a meaningless job for the paycheck, coming home, watching TV, puttering around and grousing on the Net, you're part of the problem--as useless and irrelevant as the faceless horde of sheep you despise. On that account, my conscience is clear. Maybe when I'm old and tired I'll give up and join you in the bunker. But unlike some of you, I'm not fooling myself that there'll be some magical Galt's Gulch safe-haven to get away to. I'm a libertarian realist. I believe in doing what I can in this world rather than ignoring history and human nature and pining away for an imaginary one. >Unless you have some historical examples of well-concealed government >competence ? In the main? Not particularly. But I could go on all week with case studies of incompetence, waste, and abuse which could have been avoided if only a decisionmaker-- interested only in staying elected-- had been persuaded to follow sound advice instead of bad. Say what you will, but I think chipping away at the state by facilitating privatization is a bigger achievement than than throwing rocks at pigs in a parade. I'd rather be able to know I did my part to save the taxpayer literally billions of dollars than know I cost the police department a couple of bandaids and a couple of man-hours to write up my criminal record. To each his own. ~Faustine. *** One of the chief sources of cultural paranoia is the ever-widening rift between the beliefs of people and their actual behavior, and the tacit assumption among these same people that this practice---this contradiction between idealism and practice---is a normal state of affairs. Lionel Rubinoff, "The pornography of power" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPKIT+fg5Tuca7bfvEQI3ngCfV6rJkX9F2XkhSOg83idmDwqH/AcAoI+l G7PVUTU9moLmgcJvA5Hye2lA =x/sW -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
