[free-sklyarov] It won't happen

[John Dempsey]

> My  own experience is that the vast majority of programmers
> and system admins are really very passive when it comes to expressing
> themselves politically.

Nothing a little jail time couldn't cure.


> Do they have the power? Yes, of course, obviously the system admins
> could damn near turn the world off. Will they exercise that power,
> no way. Not in my lifetime.

Though a shared opinion of this group is a political force.


> Are you willing to practice a little civil disobedience

You were on it with "turn the world off".


> Are you willing to stay home from work for a day or a
> week and change the course of history?

A Sys Admin strike!  There'd be no presses to print the headline!


> Programmers unfortunately will shut up. Certainly they will not act.

You shut up!


> You will be lucky to get 1% of the computer elite to participate.

That's too bad cuz the tactic needs, like, 100%.  I ain't out yet, though.


> Good cogs certainly do not stop the machine.

Quit yawning!


> In the early stages of the Free Dimitry
> movement the place was like watching zombies at work. Let the EFF do it
> was ESR's remark and could well have been a slogan that described the
> entire crew.

There are whole other interpretations of his reply.  It takes time to
communicate outside the OS.  I think our message is transforming, and that
it takes leadership and heart for a movement.  But the heart of man is there
in sysadmins.  And programmers, I think, have a particular kinship with this
incredible man, Sklyarov.

That he said "let the EFF handle it" says he's not a lawyer.  But who can
say if he himself contributes to this vital thrust of our defense.  All we
can ask, as we build our movement, is have we.  They are the greatest hope
of our shared political passions.


> The wars they are used
> to fighting are of a very different character and most geeks learned in
> early childhood to avoid these "political" wars they could not win.

We just agreed this force could stop the world.  Where's your moxy?


> even when they have power and could win they carry within themselves the
> mentality of a political loser and will not pick up the battle.

We can touch them with flashes of duty and sacrifice, for the Union and
World.  And innocent men like themselves--made heroes and martyrs by
events--losing in fury at the line.


> The computer elite for the most part does not even begin to understand
> the true power they have as a group

Well the rich ones get around.  But never underestimate the power of shared
destiny.


> Because they
> are not truly willing to confront authority directly and assert themselves
> and their moral authority.

That'd be a roll in the dirt.


> In simpler terms, they just have neither
> the moral vision nor the balls it takes to fight this battle.

No way, Jose!  We're in it either way, so I'm rooting for us.


> I thank God that it was not programmers driving the civil rights movement
> or the anti-war movent of a previous generation. Had that been so we would
> still have Jim Crow and the war would have never ended.

Why did we have a civil rights movement?  Who led it, and who walked, sat,
sang mile on mile into years, even hundreds, into generations; we're all
made of this same thing.  Programmers and etc.


> I just would not
> count on the bulk of the computing community to perform a lot
> of heroics.

Heroics are rare celebrations, crystalizations of psyches of millions
reflected in a moment or event.


> Our path to winning this one depends upon allies from
> other fights for freedom who understand in a much more visceral way
> just what is involved.  These are the people to whom we must turn our
> attention.

I agree that it is a critical time to understand and communicate our rights
as natural citizens to own and apply tools of all kinds 'for all debts
public and private' to be shared and even published not only for their
importantance but for mankind's very natural freedom of inquiry, the right
to speak and inquire and even share, right there in the whole daily deal of
life.  I think we will win but it'll take some focus and static, Smackin'
The Man on this one.  DA MOVEMENT!