One day, I am sure, the world is going to debate itself to death over the direction the top of a dog’s poo is pointing to. There will be a turning point when the last tremor of evolution comes to a grinding halt. From that point on, the world will stop circling around the sun and instead just circle around itself forever. People on said earth are going to circle around their individual selves forever. Better yet, there will be ‘group self circling’, fueled by the internet proudly acting as flame war superconductor. Forever.
The good news, of course, is that all the commerce suits will be happy forever. When the last brain cell has ceased to produce anything but shop-soiled dirt, the world will be heaven for those guys.
Why would we be different?
To be honest, it saddens me to see how much energy is wasted on territorial “boxing” behaviour. It’s probably just a law of nature. Entropy grows – there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Just imagine all this energy spent doing interesting things. Oh boy, we had probably colonized half of the known galaxy by now! [Editor’s note: Whether that is a Good Thing (TM) is debatable.]
I makes me wonder what the difference between a real war and a flame war is. Maybe it’s nothing more than cowardice to bash your opponent’s head with a mace. Maybe it’s just the fear to be the loser of a penis size comparison [look in your mailbox to find a cure for that].
The thing is, you’re not alone. That, dear reader, is a a fact you have to face. Now, if you look at somebody other than your mirror self, you might notice he or she looks different. From your mirror self, that is. What you might not notice is that he or she also *thinks* different. Now, what makes you think your own thoughts are more ‘right’ then his/hers? By what standard? Regarding what background? If you use that strange matter in your head for something else besides trying to defend your own useless boxed thinking you might realize you actually can’t answer that question.
At this point, I am quite sure, somebody from #gentoo-pr is going to add ‘(uncurable)’ to the note saying “frilled: esoteric”. Heh. Well, life’s a bit^H^Heach. Rest assured I appreciate your work a _lot_ .-)
Boxed thinking leads nowhere except to conflict. By defending your pretty little box you do not only deny your own chance of further development, you also provoke hostile reactions from other box-thinkers and cause major annoyance to the others.
You will not accomplish anything meaningful, though.
Now, for those barking “What the heck has this got to do with Gentoo?”, feel free to stab me on IRC if you can’t figure it out. Or by mail. Or, even better, in person. That, unfortunately, might require leaving your box for a minute. I’m (not really) sorry for that.
Brilliant post, man! Well said.
I dig your cynically inclined sense of meta-irony. (c8=
Beers!
I’d like to say I disagree. I’d like to say it, but I’m not sure I can, because I’m not sure I get the point.
Are you saying that we shouldn’t be “box thinkers”? Show me someone who isn’t, and I’ll show you a bigger box.
It certainly can be admirable when a person chooses to swallow his pride and to suppress his own opinion (for whatever reason, although such sacrifice frequently goes unnoticed).
Unfortunately the “infighting” problem seen with mature open-source projects is not just a matter of differing opinions. It’s a problem of rudeness. Animals fight to physically disable their opponents, but humans attack emotions (especially over the Internet, where the physical is inaccessible).
In my opinion, competition is a good thing for society and has its place. For humans that place should be intellectual debates, sports and games. If your goal is to win the game, do all you can within the rules to win, but if your goal is to forward (say, for example) the Gentoo project, then don’t beat down your opponent emotionally, because while that may make it harder for him to prove his point, it does nothing positive towards your goal.
Wolf, I understand how frustrating it is to lose time with senseless fighting. If that’s your point, then I wholeheartedly agree; however, not all fights are senseless. That’s my point.