Essay RFC delayed.

[Eric S. Raymond]

Signal 11 <signal11 at mediaone.net>:
> Eric, that idealism which you are so quick to dismiss

Sigh.  You seem to have joined the idiot chorus with this line.

I'm not "dismissing" idealism at all; like you, I *live* idealism.
I'm just pointing out that it makes ineffective communications tactics
for reaching people who aren't like us -- that is XNTX on the
Myers-Briggs grid.

>                         is what fired this whole
> movement up and is what continues to sustain it.

Well, *duh*!  Of course it is.  But that doesn't tell us a damn thing
about whether it's good tactics to blab about our idealism in front of
people who are neuropsychologically predisposed to treat it as nothing
more than evidence of insanity.  Brain wiring matters.

>I have to disagree - that's a myth perpetuated by the mindset of american
>society.  The idea of enlightened self-interest as the driving force behind
>all progress holds true for capitalism - not life in general.

Disagree all you like; that won't move reality by an angstrom.  I'll know
that you understand human psychology better than I do when you demonstrate
that you're better at I am at persuading people other than hackers.  Go for
it.  Take my job, please.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>

The abortion rights and gun control debates are twin aspects of a deeper
question --- does an individual ever have the right to make decisions
that are literally life-or-death?  And if not the individual, who does?