Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 Fluke 8/7/84; site fluke.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!fluke!moriarty From: moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics Subject: Re: Bastille mentality (and moriarty's ?naivete?) Message-ID: <13@vax2.fluke.UUCP> Date: Fri, 9-Nov-84 11:30:09 EST Article-I.D.: vax2.13 Posted: Fri Nov 9 11:30:09 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 11-Nov-84 20:53:26 EST References: <3@vax2.fluke.UUCP> <268@we53.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA Lines: 44 >So maybe you thought people had CHANGED in all these years? Gosh, what a really well-thought-out, concise, point-oriented reply! Sure showed me! Yep, nothing decides an argument like a single cynical statement (especially one that isn't signed). Guess that'll put me in my place... Do I think that people, as an animal, have changed in the last 100 years? Not one heck of a lot, though we're a little taller, as a rule. However, what I do think is that, in the last 200 years in America, many (hopefully most) of us have tried, to varying degrees, to create a civilized atmosphere for ourselves, our friends and our family. We like to live in such an environment, and so try to uphold it in our decisions, in our economic contributions, in our political practices, and most of all, IN OUR BEHAVIOR. This is what I call being mature. So when I see people treating the killing of a person by the state (which means BY US) like a prep rally, I am a little disgusted. Celebrating the execution of someone is the mark of either a barbarian or a cretin. I think that one's opinion of the death penalty should not interfere in this -- people I know who support look on it as a neccesary evil, but they are not exultant in instances when it is carried out. When I see people like this on the tube, I want to tell my nephew "These people are wrong to act like this. This is not something people should do." I do NOT tell him, "Well, Philip, people haven't changed in 200 years!" As to my naivete, yeah, I am still -- have been all my life. I have aquired something of a cynical shell over the last few years (cynicism is the mark of a failed romantic), but I haven't let it get too deep yet. I find that a touch of romanticism and naivete make the world somewhat pleasanter place to live in. "Pfui. More people saying what they believe would be a great improvement. Because I do I am unfit for common intercourse" -- Nero Wolfe, "Blood Will Tell" Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA