Essay RFC delayed.

[Eric S. Raymond]

Ean R . Schuessler <ean at novare.net>:
>Come on Eric, laugh at yourself a little. I'm just yanking your chain
>because you make yourself such an easy target.  

Yeah.  Well, when you pull my chain, don't complain because I bite.

> ps. Thats quite a check you are writing when you say you want *win* more than
>     RMS _ever_ has.

I've known Richard since 1977.  He's very smart.  If he had ever wanted to
win badly enough to face up to what was required and *do* it, I could
have stayed a semi-obscure hacker happily coding away at home.

I would have preferred that outcome.  Turns out I'm *very* good at
this bullshit; good enough that high-powered professional PR types
call me a "natural" and I've seen at least one serious semiotic study
of my propaganda technique (in Feed magazine late last year).  I've
got the right cortical wiring, I guess -- but I don't *want* it.

Truly, I would have been a hell of a lot happier *not* discovering
that I really am the kind of guy who can smile, and smile, and smile,
and hand out soundbites carefully tuned for journalists with the
attention span and IQ of toe fungus, and shake hands with fat-assed
corporate predators who never had an original idea in their lives.

Dammit, all that shit should have been RMS's job.  I shouldn't have had
to do it at all. So when anybody sounds like they're accusing me of
selling out, I do tend to get a little testy.  Cope with it.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to
take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic
purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and
sacrifice for that freedom."
	-- John F. Kennedy