quote

Igor Chudov contributed a quote from some government manual:


>These anti-government  extremists and  supporters  are  convinced
>citizens  are  being  systematically  oppressed  by  an  illegal,
>totalitarian government.   They  believe the time for traditional
>political reform  has passed,  that their  freedom will  only  be
>secured  by  resistance  to  the  law  and  attacks  against  the
>government in several forms.
>
>Members of these groups bond to one another and lose contact with
>other people who hold different opinions.  The isolation works to
>reinforce their  views, which  in turn  gives them  new  purpose.
>This new purpose may take ordinary ideas to extremes, rationalize
>their problems  into blaming  government, and  cause  members  to
>compete with each other to make stronger statements.



Couldn't've said it better myself.


I see the same pattern in cypherpunks and in my non- (or 
barely-) 'Netted extremist friends of the right, the 
libertarian, and the left varieties.


I've argued with myself for years about whether the spread of 
the Net would connect these people back to their fellow humans,
by offering uncensorable, violence-free communication channels,
or whether it help them to make virtual communities consisting
solely of people who reinforce their own beliefs.


I'm still hoping for the former...


Z, hopeful cynic

Zooko Journeyman wrote:

> I've argued with myself for years about whether the spread of 
> the Net would connect these people back to their fellow humans,
> by offering uncensorable, violence-free communication channels,
> or whether it help them to make virtual communities consisting
> solely of people who reinforce their own beliefs.

> I'm still hoping for the former...

um, i don't understand why you think these are 
mutually exclusive. it pretty obvious that 
people with similar interests will get together 
and form virtual communities based on common 
values rather than physical proximity when they 
have access to a communication 
infrastructure like the net. 

accidental and arbitrary interactions is the darker 
side of brick-wall reality, the internet is the tech 
to transcend it. when people have the tech they use it. 

best,
vipul

-- 
Powell lingered. "How's Earth?" 
It was a conventional enough question and Muller gave the 
conventional answer, "Still spinning."
				      -- "Reason", Asimov. 
==================================================================
Vipul Ved Prakash                 | - Electronic Security & Crypto 
vipul@best.com 	                  | - Web Objects 
91 11 2233328                     | - PERL Development 
198 Madhuban IP Extension         | - Linux & Open Systems 
Delhi, INDIA 110 092              | - Networked Virtual Spaces