[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: is Debian an anarchist organization/project?



On Thu, Oct 31, 2002 at 07:06:40PM +0100, Matijs van Zuijlen wrote:
 MC>> Debian developers wouldn't need to grow their own food, because
 MC>> they could trade their code for food. We have lots of users. I'm
 MC>> sure that open source developers in general would all be fed, if
 MC>> society found our work useful, which they do. 
 MvZ> Ok, so if I combine this with:
 JW>> Or maybe, every individual needs to BE an army?  One could have a
 JW>> kalashnikov in the kitchen, an RPG in the attic, and sniper rifles
 JW>> here and there...
 MvZ> it seems that I don't have to grow my own food, but I do have be
 MvZ> an army. Personally, I'd much prefer growing my own food to being
 MvZ> an army. It seems, this way, anarchism does not give me the
 MvZ> freedom to not own weapons and know how to use them.

Not exactly, anarchism just says that you _can't_ have freedom without
being an army.

Actually, `army' is a wrong word, it is too short and can be
misunderstood if given no further explanation. Here it means that having
freedom Build-Depends: _and_ Depends: on being able and ready to defend
it. Compare with with quote:

    You can have peace.  Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
    having both at once.
    -- Lazarus Long

Speaking about food, you don't have to have freedom to not to have to
grow your own food :)

But:

    If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its
    freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money it
    values more, it will lose that, too.
    -- W. Somerset Maugham

You see, you can have food without freedom, but you must have freedom to
ensure that you will still have food tomorrow.

-- 
Dmitry Borodaenko



Reply to: