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