[107278] in Cypherpunks
Re: maginot line, er, Great Firewall, political spam (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Petro)
Fri Jan 8 11:34:49 1999
In-Reply-To: <199901080356.VAA12238@einstein.ssz.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 10:00:47 -0500
To: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>,
cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
From: Petro <petro@playboy.com>
Reply-To: Petro <petro@playboy.com>
At 10:56 PM -0500 1/7/99, Jim Choate wrote:
>Forwarded message:
>
>> Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 01:54:43 -0000
>> From: "Bloody Gorefest" <wrath@eudoramail.com>
>> Subject: Re: maginot line, er, Great Firewall, political spam
>
>> I am not suggesting anything of that sort. What I am
>> saying is that there is no religious freedom in China.
>
>Which is China's citizens business and not anyone elses.
Or it could be a desire to let others know exactly what their
trading partners (remember China's Most Favored Nations trading status).
Or it could be (as it was pointed out in one of the messages) a
desire to point out the governments hypocrasy where human rights are
concerned e.g. it matters in cases where there is oil (Iraq), but not where
we already have a marginally favorable government installed (China).
China has a right to do as the will, they just don't have the right
to my money to do, and IMO other people who value freedom should support
their position.
It is also obvious that there are people w/in China that would
rather things were different. Do you believe that the fledging Colonies
should not have asked the french for aid during the Civil War, or that
France should have said "That is an internal British Matter, we won't get
involved?".
Besides if you are an Anarchist, or are dedicated to the downfall
of statist ideologies (as you have come out several times as claiming) you
_don't believe in govenment_, and that includes China. (That phrase "don't
believe in is not used in the sense of "doesn't exist" as in "I don't
believe in God" would imply, but rather in the sense of "I don't believe in
socialist style governments" meaning "I don't believe they are right".
>> We can only
>> be thankful it's not as bad as in the Arab nations
>> - prime example : Saudi Arabia. In Saudi, you are
>> not even allowed to bring in philosophical books
>> with a religious flavour other than islam. All
>
>Which is their right as believers in Islam.
>
>A typical "Freedom for me, but not for thee" attitude.
That is exactly the idea you are espousing, that it is Ok for
people to believe that freedom is proper, but to complain that others
freedom is compromised is wrong.
I would not advocate that anyone be forced to be free, but nor can
I accept in good consciensous that others are being persecuted for desiring
freedom.
--
"To sum up: The entire structure of antitrust statutes in this country is a
jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance. It is a product: (a) of a
gross misinterpretation of history, and (b) of rather naïve, and certainly
unrealistic, economic theories." Alan Greenspan, "Anti-trust"
http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/antitrust.html
Petro::E-Commerce Adminstrator::Playboy Ent. Inc.::petro@playboy.com
