"Rigorous and objective" (if at first...)

[measl at mfn.org]

On Fri, 16 Nov 2001, Tim May wrote:

> The list has only 5% of the content it had in its glory years, 1992-95. 
> And perhaps only 10% of its content in its declining years, 1996-98. 
> It's now at about half the level of its senile years, 1999-2000. This 
> past year has been the worst.

Agreed, with the notation that we are *all* guilty as charged...

> There are many reasons for this decline, discussed as early as 1994.
> 
> Any newbies who think this list is now interesting or exciting has my 
> sympathy.

While the "original content" may be sparse to the point of being a notable
event worthy of a note on the calendar, the list continues to serve
purposes worthy of it's continuation.  For instance, this is without doubt
the best of the "I hate {cops, government, other authority figure}" forums
(in my perfectly humble hate-group inspired opinion :-).  It's also great
fun watching Jeff and company pretend to be even dumber than your average
@home luser.  

But the real value here, and on this point I am serious, is
the the list is responsible for the actual [political] education of many
lurkers.  I realized this recently when "shooting the shit" with
one of my newer vendors.  The team in question was the standard pair of
Salesman and Sales Engineer ("SE").  The salesman was one of the most
naive people I have *ever* met, while the SE turned out to be a long term
(since mid nineties) CP lurker.  As a frequent poster here, the SE
recognized my name, and we started talking - and the salesguy sat there
with his mouth hanging open, stunned at the content of the
conversation.  That was about three months ago.

Last week we met with this team again, and the salesguy, the *naive* one
who was anti-gun, anti-drug, pro-whitehouse, etc., has just purchased his
first firearm, and begun to take active steps to protect his privacy.  It
seems he was so fascinated by the conversations between me and the SE,
that he did a little homework, read a few hours/days/who-knows worth of
older CP archives, and then found jesus so to speak.

Yes, the glory days are gone.  No, that does not mean we are wasting our
time here.

> --Tim May

-- 
Yours, 
J.A. Terranson
sysadmin at mfn.org

If Governments really want us to behave like civilized human beings, they
should give serious consideration towards setting a better example:
Ruling by force, rather than consensus; the unrestrained application of
unjust laws (which the victim-populations were never allowed input on in
the first place); the State policy of justice only for the rich and 
elected; the intentional abuse and occassionally destruction of entire
populations merely to distract an already apathetic and numb electorate...
This type of demogoguery must surely wipe out the fascist United States
as surely as it wiped out the fascist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The views expressed here are mine, and NOT those of my employers,
associates, or others.  Besides, if it *were* the opinion of all of
those people, I doubt there would be a problem to bitch about in the
first place...
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