Subject: Re: Questions about Symbolics lisp machines From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 19:57:31 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3226334265378318@naggum.net> * Thomas Bushnell, BSG | The problem with your analysis is that it supposes everyone is | motivated by what the imagine will happen to themselves. The problem with this atitude is that those other than oneself tend to be selected rather randomly, and if someone is not on that most favored others list, they tend to be completely worthless. You have demonstrated a serious lack of respect for those who are not on your most favored others list, including your disloyalty to your boss that first made me aware of your tendencies, and then your utter disrespect for those you think do something wrong. Respect for others start with respect for oneself, and I think it is impossible to acquire or maintain that value if you are not _aware_ that you cannot escape originating your own interests, including those for others. But then again, I tend to distrust people who devote their efforts to "aid" the poor by means that ensure that they cannot get back on their own two feet without such aid. You have, for instance, shown us your interest in giving people food for free, but this also means that there is no way the people who get it for free could get a working market started where they could make a living growing food on their own. Considering that the financial instruments of modern society were all invented by farmers back when farming was the most advanced thing we could do, what you do by giving away food is not only to deprive them of a market, you deprive of all incentive to grasp the concepts of economy. This will ensure that you will keep on giving them food they could not have gotten on their own, and they will in turn be very grateful to you. I have a very low opinion of people who base the value they expect others to see in them on the gratefulness that they receive from people they have forced into a situation they cannot escape. /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.