[free-sklyarov] Re: FBI operation penetrates hacker underground Computerworld News & Features Stor

[Keith Handy]

free-sklyarov-request at zork.net wrote:

> From: "James S. Huggins \(Free Sklyarov\)" <FreeSklyarov at ZName.com>
> To: "Free Sklyarov List" <free-sklyarov at zork.net>
> Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 13:52:03 -0500
> Subject: [free-sklyarov] FBI operation penetrates hacker underground  Computerworld News & Features Stor
> 
> http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO63711,00.html
> 
> This story, and others to follow, will work to corrupt the term "hacker"
> over the next few days.
> 
> James S. Huggins

Why don't you all just let that one go?  We don't *need* the term
"hacker".  I see the fight to control the public's perception of a term
as a waste of energy.  Start using another term.  No one will ever write
a story about the FBI cracking down on "hobbyists" or "enthusiasts", nor
will any malicious cracker want to glorify himself with such an innocent
sounding word.

Ayn Rand made a big mistake in trying to teach the world to associate
"selfish" with great achievers who take pride in their work.  She
couldn't stop the perpetually evolving English language -- which comes
into being via a rocky course of widely accepted errors, not from a
carefully laid-out plan -- from identifying "selfish" with short-sighted
lust for material rewards and instant gratification.  Subsequently, a
lot of her pro-selfishness assertions sound ridiculous out of context.

I'm not suggesting use of a euphemism here.  Euphemisms are words that
try to cover up or sanitize an actual Bad Thing.  I'm only suggesting
you give up the use of a word that is positioned to demonize you.  It's
like calling someone who walks for four hours a day a pedophile; there's
no point to it.

-Keith