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Careful. Righteousness has a way of turning on itself. You should ask yourself what exactly you want to accomplish here, because nothing will be accomplished h
by sillysaurus 14y ago
Careful. Righteousness has a way of turning on itself.
You should ask yourself what exactly you want to accomplish here, because nothing will be accomplished here. So if that's true, then ask yourself, "Why am I spending time making these posts?"
If you examine your reasoning, you'll be forced to conclude that you spend your time on this because it makes you feel good, and for no other tangible reason.
So, if that's true, then a better question to focus on is "Why do we choose to be ineffective?"
- javajosh 14y agoYes, I wondered about whether to reply to the GP at all. I posted for two reasons: first, I've never articulated precisely how I felt about Bush before, and second, I realized that it has a real explanatory connection to the patent problem. Ever since Bush started openly flaunting basic standards of decency it seems that many, many others have followed suit, and to devastating cultural effect. Myhrvold is just one particularly potent, obvious example. Does stating that do any good, or help anyone other than me? Our sick culture of power makes modern venality feel like a scary, dark, unknowable trend that came out of nowhere and has no source and no solution. Connecting Bush makes it feel more like a normal (if unwanted) social trend that has ordinary, identifiable roots and solutions. I think we consistently underestimate the presidential influence on other leaders--perhaps because in our sophistication such influence feels cliche. But I believe that his effect was real, it is lasting, and it will take a long time and a great deal of effort to heal those wounds. Sharing that hypothesis is fundamentally hopeful - if we know what happened, we can fix it. And I like fixing things.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]