3 ms·

Paul Graham calls for all talented people to leave Russia

5 points by EGreg 5y ago

EGreg 5y ago
I am glad so many people have finally woken up to denouncing invasions, occupations and war crimes. I just wish they did it just as forecefully when it wasn’t Russia carrying them out. Perhaps going forward that will be the case, but it doesn’t seem to be happening with any other humanitarian crisis in the world even at this moment. I’m talking about Ethiopea, Yemen, Libya, where millions of people need help, as well as recently war-ravaged countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. I would like to suggest that we care more about the conflict in Ukraine because they are European. Even bringing up these other millions of people is met with charges of “whataboutism” and to stop “all lives mattering this stuff”. But all humans should have equal weight. The sentiment is actually backwards: Europeans have more privilege of people actually caring about attacks on them. Another example is when Paris attacks occurred, the world lit up in French colors, but attacks the same day in Beirut and Baghdad by the same terrorist group (ISIS) did not get even 0.1% the support: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/world/middleeast/beirut-lebanon-attacks-paris.amp.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/world/middleeast/beirut-l... But the most egregious example to me is that the plight of 16 MILLION Yemenites (half the country) fails to arouse even 1% of the energy. The Western world only woke up when one US-related person, Kashoggi was brutally killed, and even then guys like Trump questioned whether we should even care because he wasn’t a US citizen. Then and only then and for a little while there was a bit of self reflection: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284378 Until everyone went back to normal. Paul Graham did not speak up about this publicly, to my knowldge. And near as I can tell, he explains it in a 2004 essay called What You Can’t Say: http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html I admit it seems cowardly to keep quiet. When I read about the harassment to which the Scientologists subject their critics [12], or that pro-Israel groups are "compiling dossiers" on those who speak out against Israeli human rights abuses [13], or about people being sued for violating the DMCA [14], part of me wants to say, "All right, you bastards, bring it on." The problem is, there are so many things you can't say. If you said them all you'd have no time left for your real work. You'd have to turn into Noam Chomsky. [15] Perhaps money talks, and you should’t alienate your LPs. But as industry leaders who are building computer networks around the world, we need the courage to speak up about helping prevent invasions, bombings and work together to resolve humanitarian crises around the globe, not just jump on a bandwagon in only one specific case. Same goes with Black Lives Matter: George Floyd’s murder touched a colletive nerve and inspired a lot of protests and a lot of rioting and looting. But every day, Black people are being killed by violent criminals way more than by police, and people are killed by handguns way more than by assault weapons. We have to do something about reducing violent crime, not SOLELY jump on a bandwagon of yelling about specific events and blaming specific scapegoats, but by working together to improve the entire system. That last part is much harder to do, and requires humility, cooperation and courage. It requires developing frameworks that can prevent problems that regularly arise. It also requires caring about every human life equally.
- argreerth 5y ago
- smt88 5y ago
  You're never going to get even a single human to be morally consistent. Why is your response to a global awakening immediately to say it's too little and too late? If you operate from a baseline of perfection, everything will be a disappointment. No one will ever care about all lives equally (including you and me), and they don't need to.
  - EGreg 5y ago
    Because millions of people need our assistance right now. One third of Yemen’s food supply comes from Ukraine.
    - smt88 5y ago
      If all lives are equal and everyone has a finite amount of resources, why does it matter if they prefer to help Europeans? Yes, there is an uncomfortable racist and classist component to it, but it's human nature. We feel more sympathy for people who are more similar to us.
      - EGreg 5y ago
        I do not think it costs many resources to exercise diplomacy to avert wars and also to end them. It is a question of political will. Saying it is too limited a resource means maybe we should care more about that than a bunch of celebrity gossip and complacency.

5 points by EGreg 5y ago

I am glad so many people have finally woken up to denouncing invasions, occupations and war crimes. I just wish they did it just as forecefully when it wasn’t Russia carrying them out. Perhaps going forward that will be the case, but it doesn’t seem to be happening with any other humanitarian crisis in the world even at this moment. I’m talking about Ethiopea, Yemen, Libya, where millions of people need help, as well as recently war-ravaged countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. I would like to suggest that we care more about the conflict in Ukraine because they are European. Even bringing up these other millions of people is met with charges of “whataboutism” and to stop “all lives mattering this stuff”. But all humans should have equal weight. The sentiment is actually backwards: Europeans have more privilege of people actually caring about attacks on them. Another example is when Paris attacks occurred, the world lit up in French colors, but attacks the same day in Beirut and Baghdad by the same terrorist group (ISIS) did not get even 0.1% the support: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/world/middleeast/beirut-lebanon-attacks-paris.amp.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/world/middleeast/beirut-l... But the most egregious example to me is that the plight of 16 MILLION Yemenites (half the country) fails to arouse even 1% of the energy. The Western world only woke up when one US-related person, Kashoggi was brutally killed, and even then guys like Trump questioned whether we should even care because he wasn’t a US citizen. Then and only then and for a little while there was a bit of self reflection: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284378 Until everyone went back to normal. Paul Graham did not speak up about this publicly, to my knowldge. And near as I can tell, he explains it in a 2004 essay called What You Can’t Say: http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html I admit it seems cowardly to keep quiet. When I read about the harassment to which the Scientologists subject their critics [12], or that pro-Israel groups are "compiling dossiers" on those who speak out against Israeli human rights abuses [13], or about people being sued for violating the DMCA [14], part of me wants to say, "All right, you bastards, bring it on." The problem is, there are so many things you can't say. If you said them all you'd have no time left for your real work. You'd have to turn into Noam Chomsky. [15] Perhaps money talks, and you should’t alienate your LPs. But as industry leaders who are building computer networks around the world, we need the courage to speak up about helping prevent invasions, bombings and work together to resolve humanitarian crises around the globe, not just jump on a bandwagon in only one specific case. Same goes with Black Lives Matter: George Floyd’s murder touched a colletive nerve and inspired a lot of protests and a lot of rioting and looting. But every day, Black people are being killed by violent criminals way more than by police, and people are killed by handguns way more than by assault weapons. We have to do something about reducing violent crime, not SOLELY jump on a bandwagon of yelling about specific events and blaming specific scapegoats, but by working together to improve the entire system. That last part is much harder to do, and requires humility, cooperation and courage. It requires developing frameworks that can prevent problems that regularly arise. It also requires caring about every human life equally.

argreerth 5y ago
smt88 5y ago
You're never going to get even a single human to be morally consistent. Why is your response to a global awakening immediately to say it's too little and too late? If you operate from a baseline of perfection, everything will be a disappointment. No one will ever care about all lives equally (including you and me), and they don't need to.
- EGreg 5y ago
  Because millions of people need our assistance right now. One third of Yemen’s food supply comes from Ukraine.
  - smt88 5y ago
    If all lives are equal and everyone has a finite amount of resources, why does it matter if they prefer to help Europeans? Yes, there is an uncomfortable racist and classist component to it, but it's human nature. We feel more sympathy for people who are more similar to us.
    - EGreg 5y ago
      I do not think it costs many resources to exercise diplomacy to avert wars and also to end them. It is a question of political will. Saying it is too limited a resource means maybe we should care more about that than a bunch of celebrity gossip and complacency.