[From xorcist offlist] Cloudflare & NoDAPL again w/ a ROTF

Zenaan Harkness zen at freedbms.net
Sun Sep 18 16:58:45 PDT 2016


On Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 09:20:15PM -0000, xorcist at sigaint.org wrote:
> > On Sun, 18 Sep 2016 16:22:44 -0000
> 
> > 	Is that supposed to mean : only 'abuses' of power are a
> > 	problem, not power per se?
> 
> "I tried being an anarchist but there are too many rules."

Gold.

:)


> Crypto won't help there, except as a tool to avoid state oppression.
> Activism and protests won't help, except as a means to draw attention to
> minor issues. Even if you manage to effect full-on insurrection, and get
> rid of alpha-male school bully #1, unless you change the very dynamic of
> behavior, some other douche will just take his place.

We can hope for the occasional 'benevolent' dictator. They might be
rare, but they occasionally get into a seat of power.


Linus Torvalds demonstrates that a bit of assinine dictatoriness, when
mixed with a dose of willingness to hear others say your an ass and
demur to their authority when they're right, can work.

RMS might be arse up on "democratic" government, but his dictatory
immovability for free libre software was and remains a decent stand for
something better in the world.


I heard a conspiracy once that Hitler tried to take back the money
power, just like JFK a bit later, and got convinced by insiders in his
circle to attack Russia in the winter when he should have consolidated.


> And that, in a nutshell, is why I don't favor even bothering with most of
> this stuff. The depths of "the problem" go deep enough that all it does is
> to become its own form of distraction. Rather, I prefer to proceed this
> way:
> 
> Find a small, soluble problem that fills a need. Propose a solution. 
> Implement it. Repeat.
> 
> If everyone does a little, a lot will get done.

+1

Excellent foundations. I used to suggest that to people who were new to
the Internet re wikipedia - make it a bucket list to start or improve at
least one article every few years.

I'm sure a few of us around here have done so...


> Or, you deal with it, and shovel shit working for "the Man."

Sure. Just be careful you don't "sell your soul" in the process.

> It's just the nature of things.
> 
> I'd love to be proven wrong, however.

I remain marginally hopeful you will never be proven wrong on "that
which exists, exists."

But hey, I'd love to proven wrong on that too :)


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