Preaching to the Choir?

At 7:44 PM 7/22/96, hallam@Etna.ai.mit.edu wrote:

>Your analyses are almost always junk because you only analyse one
>side of the argument and deny that there is another side. You are
>great at preaching to the choir Perry, problem is that you don't
>convert anyone who isn't already converted.

I think there is very little "converting" of those with well-developed
views, of whichever side. Thus, solid libertarians are not converted by
liberal/left arguments on this list, solid liberals are not converted by
libertarian arguments, and so forth. We've had Religious Right folks
(though not vocally in a long time), Greens, and several other flavors.

(We also have several professional lawyers, law professors, economists, and
the like, and I doubt the beliefs they have settled on in 10 or 20 or more
years of thought will be changed by our arguments.)

What _does_ happen is that people who have not given a lot of thought to
some issues get exposed to views and can decide for themselves. Many
student types arrive on this list with various half-baked ideas about the
role of government, the effectiveness of laws, etc.

_These_ folks are often influenced by persuasive points made here--they
usually recognize the "common sense" in the best arguments presented. (At
least this is what folks have told me, that they came to the list having
ideas that crypto-privacy was important, but not realizing the full
ramifications of the libertarian outlook until exposed to many people
discussing them here.)

So, I don't expect to convert David Sternlight to my views, nor to convert
Phill H.-B. Nor do they, I am sure, expect to convert me. But I _do_ hope
that the arguments here will have an effect on the thinking of many.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
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At 1:42 PM -0700 7/23/96, Timothy C. May wrote:

>What _does_ happen is that people who have not given a lot of thought to
>some issues get exposed to views and can decide for themselves. Many
>student types arrive on this list with various half-baked ideas about the
>role of government, the effectiveness of laws, etc.
>
>_These_ folks are often influenced by persuasive points made here--they
>usually recognize the "common sense" in the best arguments presented. (At
>least this is what folks have told me, that they came to the list having
>ideas that crypto-privacy was important, but not realizing the full
>ramifications of the libertarian outlook until exposed to many people
>discussing them here.)
>
>So, I don't expect to convert David Sternlight to my views, nor to convert
>Phill H.-B. Nor do they, I am sure, expect to convert me. But I _do_ hope
>that the arguments here will have an effect on the thinking of many.

Tim has it exactly right. And those who call names or try to suppress views
different than their own are simply acknowledging publicly that their views
are pretty weak, if not simple prejudice.

David