> > Footnote: how I can know these things and still be so broke is another > > discussion :) > > Bill, you took the words out of my mouth...<s>
Changed this to OT. Even though the subject starts with business, it ends with politics. First problem: I tend to perfectionism. Unlike Bill Gates who had no problem releasing buggy software, I look at the bug list and wouldn't even think about shipping my product until it's wiped out. But, so not as to bash myself too much, I have harnessed, by design, the essence of what's important to small business database applications (big statement, but I can back it up). That's one thing. Lesson learned - but ignored still: the staggering price of perfectionism. Second problem: I have developed a real distaste with how capitalism has progressed. I see a big Monopoly game going on, with all the railroads and Park Place's long ago swallowed by now deeply entrenched hegemonies with an insatiable appetite for more - and more and more. We know that capitalism never was a fair game but that it did work better then the alternatives. I think some of the "truths" that existed when the subject was up for debate years ago (e.g. Ayn Rand's heyday) have changed. For example, the need for checks and balances has degenerated to mere lip service as companies like Wal-Mart trample manufacturing, and Big Guns like Verizon walk slipshod over customers (I've got a perfect story to illustrate this right now!) I know there are those who say wealth should be redistributed - and others who say that if it were, it would only wind up back where it is today, but the older I get the more I side with redistribution. It's the hegemonies, the empires, that have grown so deep and large as to be out of touch with our reality - yet demand and require our loyalty and allegiance. People seem to be fooled so much they don't even realize they're fooled anymore. The MI complex, the media, the gov't - are examples at the top end, of well founded institutions that have transformed over time into veritable monsters. The essential ingredient of this great problem is that these monsters are organized, and we-the-people are not. We've grown dependent on two major political parties, only to see them both seized and eaten by consolidated empires. We can no longer turn to militia and guns to replace a government gone sour - as our own Constitution tells us we have the right and obligation to do - but we must do something. Today the behavior of these monsters has us standing on a precipice, on the brink, of descent into what we think is the exclusive providence of the third world. We are witnessing, in our lifetimes, the once great country that was America spiral into something that we as children never thought could possibly happen. I don't even like to think like this, but someone has to: just try to imagine what will happen with another major attack on this country. I not only see the ease with which this can happen, but at least two great consequences: (1) the end of privacy and freedom as we finalize the transformation into a police state, and (2) disruption of systems, even just milk delivery in cities, that creates, through the panic such relatively small events can spark, further disruptions as confidence as systems tilt. History teaches us that countries in such trouble are then vulnerable to "strong" leadership, aka dictatorship, but that's the opposite of what we really want and need. We've been insulated for too long from the third of the world that doesn't even have drinkable water and is being torn apart by disease and blights. Today we're focused on wiping out the militants these conditions create, oblivious to the conditions themselves, while our rulers - the very ones with so much power they have completely lost touch with reality - reassure us that all is well and we just have to stay the course. They couldn't be more wrong. I got into computers because I saw how fantastic they are early on. It was easy to see the two-edged sword, but it was also easy to have confidence that our system would make sure they would be used for good things. I've since lost that confidence and now see the computer proposition as something we better get a handle on before they are misused to the extreme (e.g. those dossiers on us - are all too real). Bill > A+ > jml > (btw. PowerPoint has a lot to answer for) _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
