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Verisign and Bush
by Decius at 11:30 pm EDT, Sep 25, 2003

Rattle just observed to me that Verisign's actions toward the Internet community were sort of like Bush's actions toward the UN. There may be more to that then you think. The moral standards of acceptable behavior are set by the leadership. If the leader says its ok to do a certain thing, then people will rationalize away any natural inhibition that they might have toward it. "He thinks its ok to do this and he is obviously smarter then me, so I'm going to ignore that nagging little voice and go ahead..."

The way we've been throwing our weight around and doing things that are of dubious responsibility simply because we can and the people who ought to check us really aren't in a position to do that.... Well that rubs off. A manager thinking of doing something this dramatic might have thought twice about it in a time when one feared reprisals from millions of angry people. That fear is the heart of democracy. You can't screw the people because they are collectively more powerful then you. You respect them.

I think we are in the process of loosing that fear.

Today, you take it when you can, and if millions are angry, fuck 'em, unless they have the power to do something about it, and you'll push back every step of the way. If you really are in a better position they are going to have to back down at some point...

Verisign is going to ignore new RFCs. They are going to ignore and fight ICANN rulings. They are going to push this and push this and push this.

Ultimately, unless some court orders them to put up, they will leave the engineering community with the choice of accepting their positions as owners of the internet, or fragmenting the internet so that no one can control it.

Verisign is betting that fragmentation is worse then authoritarian rule. It probably is in this case.

We just went through the new age of "boom," where everyone forgets that booms always bust. Now we begin the new age of empire, where everyone forgets that empires are always violently overthrown.

The reason we still have wars is that greed is more powerful then reason.

RE: Verisign and Bush
by Rattle at 12:44 am EDT, Sep 26, 2003

Decius wrote:
] Rattle just observed to me that Verisign's actions toward the
] Internet community were sort of like Bush's actions toward the
] UN. There may be more to that then you think. The moral
] standards of acceptable behavior are set by the leadership. If
] the leader says its ok to do a certain thing, then people will
] rationalize away any natural inhibition that they might have
] toward it. "He thinks its ok to do this and he is obviously
] smarter then me, so I'm going to ignore that nagging little
] voice and go ahead..."
]
] The way we've been throwing our weight around and doing things
] that are of dubious responsibility simply because we can and
] the people who ought to check us really aren't in a position
] to do that.... Well that rubs off. A manager thinking of doing
] something this dramatic might have thought twice about it in a
] time when one feared reprisals from millions of angry people.
] That fear is the heart of democracy. You can't screw the
] people because they are collectively more powerful then you.
] You respect them.
]
] I think we are in the process of loosing that fear.

] We just went through the new age of "boom," where everyone
] forgets that booms always bust. Now we begin the new age of
] empire, where everyone forgets that empires are always
] violently overthrown.

Indeed.

] The reason we still have wars is that greed is more powerful
] then reason.

What? Did you say something about SCO?

RE: Verisign and Bush
by Decius at 3:06 pm EDT, Sep 27, 2003

Rattle wrote:
]
] What? Did you say something about SCO?

No, but I thought of them right after I wrote this. It was like that little moment when you solve a rough equation and then you work the proof and you realize your answer is correct! SCO is under the influence of exactly the same social effects. I wonder who is next.