3 ms·

Why publish this at all? It adds no value to society.

leggomylibro 9y ago
It's probably just another document that fell out of classification and was published in accordance with blanket sunshine laws. A) This sort of thing is probably not a great handbook in the first place; it looks like a committee just decided to compile a bunch of general knowledge about sabotage in a big bullet-point list. B) Information from the 1940s is probably not terribly relevant today. It ignores modern safety systems, engineering principles, surveillance technologies, and most kinds of telecommunications. Any prospective saboteur trying to put this 'manual' to practical use will probably get caught or maybe electrocuted in short order.
shubb 9y ago
In a democracy, it is important for normal people to understand what our governments have done in the past, in order to know what they may be doing today. Today, Venezuela is on fire. The opposition claim this is due to government ineptitude, and the government, at times, claims it is due to foreign interference. If this sort of thing were going on, even if we agreed with it, our governments could not tell us that they were doing these things, or they would be less effective. So we must study history to understand what may be contributing to events around the world. It might help us decide how to vote. Though as demonstrated in the most recent US election, nothing really changes, just the wall paper.
- BatFastard 9y ago
  I agree its important to know what the government has done in the past. What I disagree with is making all of that available to anyone with access to the internet. I just imagine 11 year old boys trying this stuff out on the school. That is what you learned from the last election? What I learned is that people can be fooled very easily. And that they can not differentiate between a qualified candidate and a pompous narcissist. But that is just my opinion.
synicalx 9y ago
In that case, why post anything? 99% of the internet is drivel but people love it.
- BatFastard 9y ago
  But 99.9999% of that drivel does not teach people how to disrupt society.
  - synicalx 9y ago
    Not sure I follow, what do you mean?

It's probably just another document that fell out of classification and was published in accordance with blanket sunshine laws. A) This sort of thing is probably not a great handbook in the first place; it looks like a committee just decided to compile a bunch of general knowledge about sabotage in a big bullet-point list. B) Information from the 1940s is probably not terribly relevant today. It ignores modern safety systems, engineering principles, surveillance technologies, and most kinds of telecommunications. Any prospective saboteur trying to put this 'manual' to practical use will probably get caught or maybe electrocuted in short order.

shubb 9y ago

In a democracy, it is important for normal people to understand what our governments have done in the past, in order to know what they may be doing today. Today, Venezuela is on fire. The opposition claim this is due to government ineptitude, and the government, at times, claims it is due to foreign interference. If this sort of thing were going on, even if we agreed with it, our governments could not tell us that they were doing these things, or they would be less effective. So we must study history to understand what may be contributing to events around the world. It might help us decide how to vote. Though as demonstrated in the most recent US election, nothing really changes, just the wall paper.

BatFastard 9y ago
I agree its important to know what the government has done in the past. What I disagree with is making all of that available to anyone with access to the internet. I just imagine 11 year old boys trying this stuff out on the school. That is what you learned from the last election? What I learned is that people can be fooled very easily. And that they can not differentiate between a qualified candidate and a pompous narcissist. But that is just my opinion.

synicalx 9y ago

In that case, why post anything? 99% of the internet is drivel but people love it.

BatFastard 9y ago
But 99.9999% of that drivel does not teach people how to disrupt society.
- synicalx 9y ago
  Not sure I follow, what do you mean?