Joi has resigned. I consider that the end of the story as far as I am
concerned.
The counterpoints being put forward are many, such as about just how many US
universities were endowed by 19th century robber barons, or European ones by
kings and nobles whose behaviour was more rather than less reprehensible. RMS
has a rather stranger defense of Epstein that I sure hope he was misquoted on.
None of those has any bearing on Joi’s decision to accept or not accept
Epstein’s “anonymous” donations or Negroponte saying the donations must be
accepted. Any more than someone appealing a fine for running a stop light has
relevance to the police fining or not fining a car with expired plates that
just drove past.
He’s accepted responsibility for that decision and resigned. And future
university administrators will either get the jitters about not taking any
money that people might object to, or be much more careful in how thoroughly
they anonymise such donations.
--srs
On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 4:57 AM +0530, <j...@wetmachine.com> wrote:
On 2019-09-15 17:03, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> I agree here. Not having an opinion is just how badness continues to
> flourish.
> For example the rise of the Nazis was largely facilitated by the large
> number of people who just didn’t have any opinion on atrocities as
> long as they had a strong government and well functioning
> infrastructure.
>
>
>
> --srs
I agree that "not having an opinion" on some issues — those that involve
human actions that affect many people in significant ways (including for
example, their being kidnapped, tortured, and murdered) (and for which,
furthermore, facts are not difficult to obtain by people who look for
them in good faith)(and doubly furthermore for people whose opinions and
actions on said issues have actual consequences) — for example Nazism —
and in particular, the position of not having an opinion on it *when
taken by citizens of 1930's and 1940's Germany* (and the USA today) — is
a cowardly cop-out and abrogation of a moral responsibility.
But in my opinion that's not the same thing as not having an opinion on
how much culpability Joi Ito had in the matter of Jeffrey Epstein &
MIT's Media Lab.
jrs
