Hi, On Fri, Nov 15, 2002 at 11:49:23PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote: > >>"Emile" == Emile van Bergen <emile-deb@evbergen.xs4all.nl> writes: > > >> Debian is geared to provide *ME* with a system I can > >> use. ME. ME. Helping like minded people is a bonus; other users are > >> just a happy happenstance. > > Emile> That's fine. > > Why, thank ye kindly, sir. My apologies. It was certainly not my intention to be condescending, I just wanted to indicate that I saw no conflict between my point and what you were saying with such intensity. > Emile> Perhaps, but are you really always so sure of your motives? > > This seems to imply you are not. Perhaps you should indulge > yourself in some much needed introspections. > > Emile> You'd be an exception with such unfaltering introspective > Emile> abilities. > > And I thank you again, kind sir. Just as you are sceptical to people who claim selfless altruism as their motive, am I sceptical of people who think that all the good they do comes from ulterior motives. I'm sorry if my scepticism was offensive. > Emile> I think there's no conflict between helping yourself and > Emile> helping users. To paraphrase a bad advertising slogan: we're > Emile> users too. > > Quite so. But that is not what I was responding to: You said, > and I quote: > >> Amen. We've /got/ to realise that serving the users is in the end the > >> only goal. > > I _know_ there is no conflict; but to imply serving others is > the only goal is stupendendously specious. Sorry, I don't think so. And again, I didn't say *others*, I said *users*. Inclusive. There are common interests shared by people. There is no natural scarcity in knowledge, information or software. We don't have to compete for it. The single same bit of information is at the same time useful to you as to others. For the rest, it's just a matter of perspective. The fact that in 99 % of the cases, ulterior motives can account for whatever you do that happens to help others, only shows how easy it is in fact to help others. Most of the time you don't even need to think about it. Just be productive and people other than yourself will automatically benefit. However, to not only assume generally but to assert that ultimately, the only reason for doing anything at all is serving yourself, is effectively saying that humans are incapable of real gifts. I don't believe that, and I like to see it the other way around; the fact that you can help others by helping yourself in a lot of cases, only shows how easy it is to contribute. Cheers, Emile. -- E-Advies / Emile van Bergen | emile@e-advies.info tel. +31 (0)70 3906153 | http://www.e-advies.info
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