Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site linus.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!brando From: brando@linus.UUCP (Thom Brando) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: (Re:)*n reply to ** FRODO ** Message-ID: <267@linus.UUCP> Date: Wed, 17-Aug-83 11:04:58 EDT Article-I.D.: linus.267 Posted: Wed Aug 17 11:04:58 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Aug-83 14:22:46 EDT Organization: MITRE Corp., Bedford MA Lines: 85 <<>> What really frosts my cake are those selfish, inconsiderate a**holes who think that whatever THEY want is by default more important than whatever anyone else wants, e.g., 1. When I smoked 2 packs a day (which I did for almost 15 years, until 2 years ago) I was careful to the extreme not to inconvenience others: not smoking where there was inadequate ventillation, asking if anyone minded before I lit up, blowing smoke away from people. I enjoyed smoking -- I liked the "fuzzy" feeling you get in your lungs after a long day of chain smoking, the nicotine "high" -- but I knew it bothered some people and it didn't kill me to abstain for a few minutes or even a few hours if it was going to inconvenience anyone. Now that I've quit I absolutely HATE the filthy habit -- it stinks, it stains your teeth and your fingers, and it can kill you. Still, I don't mind if people smoke: I can identify perfectly with what they're into, and now, instead of putting up with the nicotine fit you get when you can't light up around nonsmokers, I put up with the disgusting smell you get when you're around a smoker or anyplace a smoker has been. If it's really bad, I ask the smoker for a little consideration, but from either point of view -- the smoker's or the non- smoker's -- the only way to achieve a mutually beneficial state of peaceful coexistence is to balance your own inconvenience with the other person's. Cooperation and mutual consideration is the only way to minimize friction, and this is what I think of as simply not being selfish. 2. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs -- even that killing is wrong -- but anyone who would oppose the draft -- even on the grounds that killing is immoral -- has got their head up their a**. IF you're drafted AND you actually do have a conscientious objection THEN you get a noncombative position. However, opposing the draft itself is denying the right of the government to raise an army to defend the country. Tell me, bright eyes, who the hell is gonna defend your beautiful land if nobody wants to get drafted? Another attitude I call selfish is the attitude that anything I can get from someone else is good, especially if I can get away with giving nothing in return. I think this is a pretty damn good country we've got here -- yes, there is a LOT that ain't good, but try judging on relative merit, not absolute, and you'll see what I mean -- and I think all of us could stand to work a lot harder to improve it and protect it -- especially protect it, because if we don't, nobody else will, and you remember what that fat little Russian guy said about 20 years ago? They plan on burying us, remember? I'm as pacific a guy as exists anywhere, but I'd be damned if I'd let someone tell me they're gonna beat the shit out of me and then walk up to me and do it without my doing my damnedest to inflict HEAVY casualties in return!!! This is already too long, so let me close by saying that everyone has their own ideas about how to fill in the blank in the sentence "If ... then we wouldn't have all the problems we have now in the world". My belief is that if people were less selfish and more considerate of their fellow creatures (this opens up the door to ecological inter- pretations, and does this not sound in some way reminiscent of the Golden Rule which was beaten to death on this very net for the umpteenth time not too long ago?), this world would be a hell of a lot nicer place in which to live. <<>> P.S. People can STOP being a**holes, just as they can START being a**holes. When I call someone an a**hole it means that they're ACTING like an a**hole. While it IS fun, at times, to act like an a**hole, it is NO FUN to actually BE an a**hole: it leaves a taste not entirely unlike cigarette smoke in your mouth!!! Donning my new asbestos suit, I remain... Thom Brando {allegra,decvax,ihnp4,utzoo,uw-beaver}!linus!brando