Text 25893, 51 rader
Skriven 2009-01-09 10:08:02 av Lee Lofaso (3:800/432.0)
     Kommentar till en text av BjÖRn Felten
Ärende: Tolerance
=================
Hello Bjorn,

In light of a recent flame war in this echo (subject "Tit for Tat"),
the following Fidonews editorial, dated 24 October 1993, written by
Sylvia Maxwell, comes to mind.  Perhaps you would like to share your
own thoughts on this matter.  Or not.  :)

Tolerance.

Sometimes, one gets their comeuppance.  I found myself, this week,
almost cutting an article.  I wanted to.  We all have our sore spots,
and I will admit that mine are hate literature, violence, intolerance
... the mindset that says "I am *RIGHT*, and you will admit to it or
I will ram it down your throat."

When we were applying for this job, I remember a letter to Tom Jennings.
I am not sure which one of us said it, but the effect was that the net
allowed each to speak mind-to-mind rather than face-to-face.  That the
net overrode colour, accent, sex, physical deformities and all the other
stupid impediments to thinking of people as individuals.  Tom replied
that he liked to think of the net as a roomfull of people, armed to the
teeth, but with no casualties.

Freedom of the press has a great disadvantage, a press is an expensive
beast, and freedom to use it in any form can only work if everyone has
access.  That has not been the case with the printing press, but it is
far truer with a net like Fidonet.  The intolerances can only be fought
if we can first hear them, and we can then respond to them.  Both are
required.

There is an election this week in Canada.  One of the parties is
campaigning on the premise of replacing the airforce with a team of
levitating yogi's.  Crazy.  But then, fifteen years back, I remember two
groups that campaigned on another basis.  Essentially, the idea was that
each side got 10,000 or so atom bombs.  If the other side did not
behave, then we all committed suicide by aiming and pulling the trigger.
Crazyness is relative.

We only get to choose when alternatives exist.  Perhaps that is the
great reward of tolerance: that we give others, and therefore ourselves,
choices.  I don't give a damn who is *RIGHT*.  I wanna fly.

                                ###

--Lee


 * SLMR 2.1a * Gao yang jong duh goo yang.

--- Maximus 3.01
 * Origin: Xaragmata / Adelaide SA telnet://xaragmata.thebbs.org (3:800/432)