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From: oliver@cahaba.med.unc.edu (William Oliver)
Newsgroups: misc.misc,news.admin,news.groups
Subject: Re: Dedication
Message-ID: <117@uncmed.med.unc.edu>
Date: 15 Jan 90 22:36:20 GMT
References: <$`J9$$@masalla.fulcrum.bt.co.uk>
Sender: news@uncmed.med.unc.edu
Reply-To: oliver@uncmed.med.unc.edu (William Oliver)
Followup-To: misc.misc
Organization: UNC-CH School of Medicine
Lines: 115

In article <$`J9$$@masalla.fulcrum.bt.co.uk> igb@fulcrum.bt.co.uk (Ian G Batten) writes:
>
>
>As chuq@apple.com said, people then start using words like
>rights, fascism, rape et cetera to make their point.  People
>accuse other people of dastardly deeds, dishonesty, immorality.
>As if it mattered.
>
>Let's face it, there are a lot of people with social problems in
>computing.  People who are damn good at what they do, but have
>nothing outside of it.  And people who aren't so good, and still
>have nothing outside.
>
>In the 70s, they played D+D.  Now they play the net.  All the
>words, actions and statements are really just role playing;
>people taking big stances about worthless things.  I attack the
>goblin.  I call Richard Sexton a rude name.  
>
>In the end, the net just does not matter.  Sure, it's fun.  Sure,
>it passes the time whilst your neat kernel hacks are compiling.
>Or the machine is rebooting after the panic().  But is it going
>to change the world?  Or even make you happier?  I doubt it.
>
>All we have are rather pathetic figures sparring with each other
>to try and mask out the pain of being unwanted.
>
>Someone a while ago got flamed for saying ``Get a Life!''.  It
>seemed a pretty good statement to me.
>
>Before you launch into some flame-war about the next newsgroup,
>or even a flame war against me, just think.  Couldn't you be
>doing something WORTHWHILE?  Do you have a better use for your
>life?


The net is about communication.  It's about people interacting with
other people.  And social intercourse is one of the important
things which make life, for me, fun.

Yes, there are other ways to interact with people.  I don't know
what brings you to assume that because I enjoy this method I am
perforce incompetent at other methods, or that I choose this method
at the expense or exclusion of them.  You assume too much and 
project your assumptions indiscriminately.  I am reminded of those 
folk who see copulating figures hidden in pictures of ice cubes 
in drink advertisements.  Sometimes a cigar is just
a cigar, and sometimes a conversation is just a conversation.

You criticize folk who bring their philosophies into discussions.
Why?  Do you believe that philosphy is something that should be
discussed only in the abstract, only as an end in itself without
application to one's positions about everyday things and actions 
toward other people?

If one holds a philosphy, then it necessarily influences all of
his or her actions. People who value honesty are justly inflamed 
when they perceive dishonesty.  People who abhor racism are justly
inflamed when they read racist statements.  People who value
certain  concepts concerning individual rights are justly inflamed
when they are denigrated in conversation.

And it does matter.  An honest man or woman is an honest man or woman
more because he or she is honest in the small, everyday things that
"don't matter" individually, but which make up a well-lived life,
than because of some single great temptation that was passed.
A person who is concerned about individual rights or about individual
dignity makes his or her difference not because of any sweeping
great statement or action, but because of the accretion
of small, individually seemingly insignificant acts that spread that
dignity and confirm those rights through every action they take. 
It matters because every action you take, and every action I take 
is an expression of the human spirit.  

Even more important than the fact that I can have conversations with
folk on the net as an end in itself is that fact that, in spite of
your characterizations of the net population,  the people on the
net have proven to be an intelligent and amazingly varied group
of people.  The net provides a means for me to interact with people
I would never otherwise have a chance to meet. The 
semi-anonymous nature of posting allows conversations
to often be a bit more frank and honest than would occur with 
mere acquaintances.  When one makes a statement about rape, 
women who have been raped and who are willing to discuss it provide
a perspective that I, at least, don't get over the dinner table. 
When military questions come up, there are veterans to discuss
their experiences.  When gender-issue questions come up, there
are folk here who have had a myriad of experiences and who are quite 
happy to describe them.  When medical questions come up, there are
physicians of every stripe who have an opinion, and folk who despise
traditional medicine who are eager to put in their two cents worth.
When anyone writes of their experiences or bothers to try to
organize their thoughts enough to put them to paper (or electron),
that simple effort means that they think that what they have
to say is important.  You are welcome to dismiss them 
simply as the ravings of  lonely social outcasts with no other 
virtues, but you will miss quite a few pearls along the way, I think.

Have you bothered to read any of Studs Terkel's books, such as 
"Working." or "The Good War?"  They are histories of the lives of
people who "don't matter."  If you bother to listen to what 
they are saying, you might see that they matter very much.

And that is, in essence, what the non-technical part of the net means
to me -- a small taste of thousands of lives and thoughts gathered
from across the world.  Sometimes a conversation is just a conversation,
but every conversation has its value.


The sum is greater than the parts, and I pity you for being blind 
to it.




Bill Oliver