Re: Debian conference in the US?
Glenn McGrath <bug1@optushome.com.au> writes:
> On Thu, 22 May 2003 12:20:39 -0500
> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> wrote:
>
>> Let me clue all of you in: anyone who takes a stand and tries
>> to hurt the US economy, I see as a taking action inimical to me, and
>> my loved ones, and I do *NOT* see that as friendly action.
>
> What you say is just bad, bad, bad, and you should be ashamed.
Did you forget to take logic while you were in school?
> In the least it implies you personally are only friendly with people
> when you are taking their money. In other words, you dont have any true
> friends.
No, Manoj isn't implying that at all. He said that if an individual
is taking a stand to hurt the US economy, he views that as an
unfriendly action. He can certainly be friends with people who
aren't giving him money, but if someone has the intent "I'm going to
take certain actions to hurt their economy and hope they learn a
lesson" that's not friendly.
> On the Australia-US trade deal thats being worked on.
> If it worked out to be better for Australia than for the US, would you
> bear a grudge against all individual Australians ?
See your below comment on separation between between governments and
individuals.
If the trade deal turned out to help Australia more than it helped
the US, who cares... we're still doing better.
If the trade deal _hurt_ the US while helping Australia, I'd be far
more likely to bear a grudge against the US politicians who
negotiated it, because it's pretty likely that they screwed the rest
of us for something that helped them out.
> There is a layer of abstraction been government and people, any action
> by or against your government is not necesarily an action from or against
> individual US'ians.
Yes, and that's what you seem to be missing. The US economy is huge
mass of individuals. Hurting the economy will certainly hurt
individual US'ians more than it will hurt anyone involved in
government (because those in government are usually independantly
wealthy). So people intent on harming the US economy are intent
individuals.
This seems much the same rationale as spam fighters... trying to hurt
innocents in hopes they'll rise up and convince their ISP to take
some action. Except with spam all that's lost is some mail... taking
deliberate actions to hurt an economy can destroy families.
> I hope you can see the obvious flaws in your comments, and can learn
> from your mistakes.
Ditto.
--
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - I am the rocks.
Looking for a developer in St. Louis? http://web.springies.com/~ats/
"I am Tigger of Borg! HooHooHoo...Assimilatin's what Tiggers do best!"
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