I probably complain too much about my fellow Lefties. But really, one does encounter some of the oddest attitudes.
It was recently reported that the US military is going to shitcan the supposedly "secure" Windoze operating system that has been running the drone fleet -- which turns out to be infested with all kinds of malware, surprise surprise -- and run the drones on Linux. Of course I'm sorry that now the drones will work better, and mildly surprised that the military brass were intelligent enough to take this obviously reasonable course.
But one of my red-hot Lefty correspondents is... indignant:
I would feel ashamed if I were a Linux developer, to allow the use of my work to drive those terrorist`s weapons, the drones. There should be clause in Linux license to not let it use it for weapons. That`s utterly disgusting. I`d instantly quit any link with Linux.I've always thought I had a pretty good imagination and felt that I could come to understand a lot of attitudes and behavior that I don't actually share, but this really baffles me. Gotta admit, it made me mad, too, since I'm a big fan of open-source software and have even participated, in a small way, in some open-source projects.
Is my correspondent just ignorant? The open-source world never attempts to place any restrictions on what the software is used for -- not that you could ever enforce any such restrictions, or get consensus among the developer community as to what uses should be restricted. It's like asking a rotisserie football league to take a political stand.
More broadly it raises the question of a neutral instrumentality. Lefties in general don't regard technology as an autonomous domain, standing over against the social dialectic. Quite right too. But on the other hand -- is there a capitalist technology, and a proletarian technology? A revolutionary technology, and a reactionary technology? To which does fire belong? The wheel? The transistor? The Fourier transform? Was Linux a Good Thing before the Pentagon started using it, and a Bad Thing now?
Terence, this is stupid stuff. I can't quite say why it's stupid. But I know stupid when I see it. Blaming Linus Torvalds for the depradations of the drone fleet seems a lot like blaming Ogg the caveman -- the inventor of fire -- for the burning of Giordano Bruno.
Comments (15)
It's like asking a rotisserie football league to take a political stand.
As it so happens, I'm taking Tebow as my starting quarterback. Suck it libs!
Posted by Happy Jack | June 25, 2012 7:23 PM
Posted on June 25, 2012 19:23
I could actually get to those Open Source Projects ..if it weren’t for the fact that the majority of this earth’s human dwellers (some thiry plus percent, in the UZ even?) , have never owned a computer; and the fact that those Open Source Projects persons never bother to discuss what happens when the plug to all those puters is pulled, which it surely will be at some point in time ...and never bother to acknowledge, outside of patronizing and supposedly uplifting, those who are not ‘connected,’ who are currently doing far more good, in terms of aiding their fellow humans (feeding and sheltering), than those Open Sourcers have ever done.
Posted by diane | June 25, 2012 8:42 PM
Posted on June 25, 2012 20:42
Honestly, at the end of the day, it ‘gets’ to sound like those still own some property pundits of the techie world, and their spouses, are bawling about: We Were Promised The Jetsons!!!!!!! ....when so many disconnected ...... are hoping to die pretty soon, after they’ve seen to their remaining loved ones, with a minimum of physical pain, after that stunning overdose of not physically provable pain of being utterly ‘unconnected.’
Posted by diane | June 25, 2012 9:06 PM
Posted on June 25, 2012 21:06
Tecchie types will gladly part with their souls for a chance to get a ringside seat to a big bang event ("'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department', says Wernher von Braun".), although there is still the odd eccentric willing to put his money where his mouth is.
Posted by sk | June 25, 2012 10:01 PM
Posted on June 25, 2012 22:01
The indignation can get pretty competitive on the left. The end phase of the contests is a condemn-a-thon, in which everyone is invited to condemn an atrocity; or be proved indifferent and perhaps complicit...
It seems to me like so much jockeying for status. Maybe we should anoint a bull goose indignado, who we can all agree has achieved a greater degree of indignation than we could ever hope to attain. When it's time to condemn an atrocity, we'll defer to the bull goose and quietly go about our own affairs.
Posted by Al Schumann | June 25, 2012 10:07 PM
Posted on June 25, 2012 22:07
Give two men each a stick. One will tie on a fishing line and have a lazy afternoon with some beers and maybe catch a couple of trout for the frying pan. Another one will sharpen his stick and poke someone's eyes out.
I blame the trees for making sticks.
Posted by Drunk Pundit | June 26, 2012 1:33 AM
Posted on June 26, 2012 01:33
Long live ARPANET!
Posted by par4 | June 26, 2012 7:53 AM
Posted on June 26, 2012 07:53
The Fourier transform
is a bourgeois postivist universalist reductionist plot
-----------------------------------------------
"I've always thought I had a pretty good imagination and felt that I could come to understand a lot of attitudes and behavior that I don't actually share"
very true
and its
those fucking hidden
demonic value road blocks
that often
stop this necessary process of
sufficiently
otherizing your totalization
Posted by op | June 26, 2012 11:22 AM
Posted on June 26, 2012 11:22
drunk , both are poking an eye out , said the fish ..
Posted by anne shew | June 26, 2012 11:29 AM
Posted on June 26, 2012 11:29
"The indignation can get pretty competitive on the left."
how true how true ....
christ Al
without that peculiarly hyper motiving passion
SMBIVA would by a ghost site today
". The end phase of the contests is a condemn-a-thon, in which everyone is invited to condemn an atrocity; or be proved indifferent and perhaps complicit... "
the 48 hour condemnathon
core venue at the pinko digital olympiad
the names of each olympiads medaling indignados
are inscribed
on the entablature
at the entrance to
the temple to the pink goddess
of righteous rage
Luxiana
Posted by op | June 26, 2012 11:32 AM
Posted on June 26, 2012 11:32
Happy Jack, I am happy to stick it to the libs re Tebow --- that aspect is beautiful. I can't get enough of it. But can he throw a football?
An inquiring Jets fan wants to know.
Posted by chomskyzinn | June 26, 2012 12:07 PM
Posted on June 26, 2012 12:07
If I may be allowed a non-SMBIVAn comment, and one that's irrelevant to this post: I think it would be a riot if Charles Barron won his Bklyn-Queens congressional primary today. For those who don't know, Charlie is a "wack job" and "nut case" who says "crazy" things like Gaza is a concentration camp and free trade screws the working class. Oh, and kids should get free bus passes to get to school.
Posted by chomskyzinn | June 26, 2012 12:25 PM
Posted on June 26, 2012 12:25
"drunk , both are poking an eye out , said the fish .. "
LOL... well I suppose so. Generally speaking tho, we think less ill of those who catch some fish for the frying pan than we do of those who run around poking their neighbors eyes out with sharp sticks.
YMMV.
Posted by Drunk Pundit | June 26, 2012 4:30 PM
Posted on June 26, 2012 16:30
so what you are saying al, is you denounce denunciation?
Posted by LeonTrollski | June 26, 2012 11:47 PM
Posted on June 26, 2012 23:47
Not me, Leon! No! No Indeed. I applaud denunciation, but have become convinced that its finer, perhaps more recherche points are best handled a properly constituted authority. However, I'm willing to denounce denunciations of my improved condemnation scheme. To do less would be tantamount to complicity.
Posted by Al Schumann | June 27, 2012 12:08 AM
Posted on June 27, 2012 00:08