[OT] Bush vs. Gore - Was: [Sussex] Linux is capitalism, Microsoft is communism?

[John D.]

On Monday 25 Oct 2004 23:26, Geoffrey John Teale wrote:
> > I can't imagine that the US Supreme Court would have tolerated any kind
> > of electoral fraud.
<mega snip>
>> Each to their own... ...one last thing.  I don't think Kerry is whiter
> than white, I know he has sold his soul to corporate America a millions
> times over, just as Bush has, but as the only alternative on the plate
> he has the undeniable lure of four years of things not getting any
> worse, and from where I'm sitting that's a lot better than the
> alternative.
</mega snip>

Currently standing at Geoff 1, Steve W 0 :-P

Ha, my view is rather different (as you might expect!). If you had watched the 
last weeks edition of "The Power of Nightmares" you may have seen another 
reason as to why I, for one, could never follow the reasoning behind the 
conservative/republican ethos.

The narrow view of "self interest" is one that I find abhorrent. Yes I agree, 
theres an element of self interest in all of us i.e. the "human nature" 
element, but I prefer my self interest diluted with a good splash of 
altruism.

And no, not because I suffer from "rose tinted spectacles", but I don't 
believe that people are inherently evil, but society makes people (well some 
anyway) like that.


As for Marks' original question, surely it doesn't matter which way round it 
is when comparing software and political ideology. It's fair to say, that in 
the real world, one of (if not the) most successful communist states is Cuba. 
Though I seem to recall that on more than one occasion, Senor Castro has 
admitted that communism needs capitalism.

Plus even though I read Marks' entire post, (and yes it made sense, even if I 
didn't necessarily agree with it) I don't always see analogies of this type 
as particularly good examples. Afterall, isn't it just a "snipe" at the likes 
of Steve Ballmer and invertion of his well documented comments that all linux 
users are "software commies" ?

So, for the moment I'll continue too look for an acceptable (to me) form of 
liberalism (they may be a bit "wishy washy" but at least they tend to make 
decisions by consensus and not diktat).

regards

John D.

p.s. Power to the People, The only good tory is a dead 'n and at the next 
local election, vote for Green - i.e. if it's impractical to demolish 
villages to make way for motorways, then paint 'em GREEN. 

Up the Tooting Popular Front and the PRB&H (Peoples Republic of Brighton & 
Hove)  ;-P

-- 
I'll get me coat then.