Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any system as large and complicated as this one will have failures. Our job is to learn from the past and try to prevent it from happening again in the future.
That's engineering for you. Examine the failure modes, and try to design the next system so it can't fail in any of the known ways. In fact, that's what the authors of the Constitution were trying to do...
What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
71–80 of 215 posts
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's actually the best hope for America, the expectation that we should do good, do the best we can.
I don't see how perpetuating the myth helps with achieving that.
There's a limit; This is the same argument made by moral crusaders who're against sex education, and that ultimately causes harm. But it's the argument ignored by the D.A.R.E. program organizers, and that has a storied history of being shown (sometimes) to increase drug use[1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Abuse_Resistance_Educatio...
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#73[deleted]
If you want to destroy HN as it exists today, turn it into a political vehicle.
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#74[deleted]
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#75[deleted]
I don't think it has enough wherewithal to bootstrap something like a new political party.
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#76It continually amazes me that Americans can perpetuate the myth that their government is a democratic, moral force in the world given everything they have done, and are still doing...
"Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time." - Winston Churchill
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#77That should sadden you, as it saddens me.
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#78It continually amazes me that Americans can perpetuate the myth that their government is a democratic, moral force in the world given everything they have done, and are still doing...
As compared to exactly which other government? Anywhere?
The point is people erroneously "believe" in their government. That it does only the most necessarily evil and then only to bad people. Such beliefs are manifestly dangerous. They result in things such as Drug seizure laws, PATRIOT act, militarization of police, demonizaton of whistle blowers.
DON'T trust authority, DON'T give authority powers assuming they will only be used for good, DO assume authority is lying, cheating, and evil.
Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#79 The FBI's campaign to destroy Dr. Martin Luther
King began in December 1963, soon after the
famous civil rights March on Washington. It
started with an extensive -- and illegal -- electronic
surveillance of King that probed into every corner
of his personal life.
Two weeks after the march, the same week King
appeared on the cover of Time magazine as "Man
of the Year," FBI agents inserted a microphone in
King's bedroom. ("They had to dig deep in the
garbage to come up with that one," FBI director J.
Edgar Hoover said of the Time cover story.) Hoover
wiretapped King's phone and fed the information to
the Defense Department and to friendly
newspapermen.
When King travelled to Europe to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize, Hoover tried to derail meetings
between King and foreign officials, including the
Pope. Hoover even sent King an anonymous
letter, using information gathered through illegal
surveillance, to encourage the depressed civil
rights leader to commit suicide.
"The actions taken against Dr. King are
indefensible. They represent a sad episode in the
dark history of covert actions directed against
law-abiding citizens by a law enforcement
agency," a Senate committee concluded in 1976.
[…]
History reveals that time and again, the FBI,
the military and other law enforcement
organizations have ignored the law and spied on
Americans illegally, without court authorization.
Government agencies have subjected hundreds of
thousands of law-abiding Americans to unjust
surveillance, illegal wiretaps and warrantless
searches. Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King
Jr., feminists, gay rights leaders and Catholic
priests were spied on. The FBI used secret files
and hidden microphones to blackmail the
Kennedy brothers, sway the Supreme Court and
influence presidential elections.
http://www.politechbot.com/p-00660.htmlRe: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals
#80[deleted]
What would be the benefit of being a political party? If we want HN to become a political power (and I am not saying we do), then it seems like a more productive approach is to become a lobby like the EFF/ACLU/NRA/etc. Becoming a political party means that we would need to have a stance on every issue. Being a lobby means we can focus on the issues that we know about and care about.
Isn't that the reason? We may need a lobby too.