Br'er Tim and the Bug Hole

Kent Crispin kent at songbird.com
Fri Nov 14 14:36:09 PST 1997



On Thu, Nov 13, 1997 at 05:59:51AM -0000, Secret Squirrel wrote:
[...]
> 
> "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, 
> or give me death." -- Patrick Henry
> 
> What is life without liberty?  Abject slavery.  Any sane man would rather
> die than be a slave.

It makes nice rhetoric, but this is simply not true, you know.  Most 
people correctly evaluate that you have no chance for freedom at all 
if you commit suicide, whereas a slave *does* have a chance.

But of course we know from game theory that being completely
predictable can be a weakness.  So having a certain percentage of the
population who will behave irrationally is probably necessary for the
health of a society.  But if too many people act irrationally, 
society will disintegrate.  (By "irrational" here I am referring to 
behaviour clearly contrary to your own survival.)

-- 
Kent Crispin				"No reason to get excited",
kent at songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
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http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html







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