Re: A Modern Parable

[Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>]

Bart wrote:
> 
> The evolution of a Hack:
> 
>      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
> 
> By now the suits, feeling their natural inadequacy, saw how HUGE the internet
> was, how comfortable the hacker was in this new space, and how if business was
> to survive there, the Hacker needed to be decried, vilified and generally cast
> out.
> To do this, the very term Hacker had to undergo a change.  Witness the
> evolution of a word
> 
> Computers are like the early frontier: the skills needed to blaze the trail
> are admired at first, then later considered not quite up to polite society
> standards.
> 
It seems to be the way things are done:  use them while they are *convenient*,
and then get rid of them (or make it extra *hard* for them to continue).

Something that I only recently learned:  There was a group in Germany called the
Brown Shirts that help bring Hitler to power.  Afterward they became "inconvenient",
so Hitler had a hundred of their highest leaders killed (including the top man).
This effectively disposed of the Brown Shirts.

Mark Twain said:  "Take a starving dog from the street and make him prosperous,
and he will *not* bite you.  This is the principle difference between a dog and
a man."

--
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|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
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