Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!ucsd!sdcsvax!beowulf!schraudo
From: schraudo@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: I'm pro Russian
Summary: link would give MUTUAL education & benefit
Keywords: soviet, usenet
Message-ID: <5569@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: 29 Nov 88 10:59:20 GMT
Sender: news@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU
Reply-To: nschraudolph@ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph)
Followup-To: comp.misc
Organization: what, organized - me??
Lines: 53

Here are my 2c as a European who has been following this discussion:
The upshot of all this seems to be that everyone agrees that the proposed
usenet hook-up to the S.U. would help Soviet users - the disagreement is
mostly about whether you want to help them at all!

Get real guys! No one is going to obtain any sensitive information through
the public net - and if you don't want to help a perfectly ordinary Soviet
citizen with everyday problems go see the shrink about your paranoia! You
don't even realise that you are just as much a victim of OUR propaganda
machine as they are of theirs - in fact the Russians are in my experience
the better educated and politically open-minded people!

You heard right, yes, our propaganda machine: we do have it, it is only
better concealed in the private media. Basic computing theory should even
tell you that ours (decentralised control, highly parallel) is likely to
be much more powerful than theirs (central control, highly sequential).
The proof is right here in the enormous volume of preconceived, biased,
even naive views of life in the Soviet Union that that have been voiced
in this discussion.

I admit I am not immune to infiltration by the media - there is an antidote,
however, that I like to use: frequent exposure to other cultures - travel!
The more places I've been to, the more I realise that people are people,
politicians are mostly corrupt, and military should be dumped in outer space
wherever you find them, including both in the U.S. and the S.U.!

All you have to do is travel to Europe, and the distinction between OUR
rockets and THEIR rockets is meaningless: my West German hometown, for
example, would in case of nuclear warfare be destroyed by a FRENCH warhead
- does that mean that I should consider France an enemy? I have friends in
places aimed at by French, British, American, Russian, Chinese missiles.

Have you ever thought about how YOU (sorry about the generalisation) could
benefit from this link? Like, getting some better idea about how life in
the S.U. really is (as opposed to the picture Hollywood has installed in
your brains)? Omigosh, you might even learn something from their scientists!
Did you know that the Russians are world leading in mathematics, laser eye
surgery, therapy for autistic children, to name but a few? I bet you were
surprised that they got ATs over there (all smuggled in from the U.S. by
KGB [sic] spies, of course :-)

Sorry about the length and semi-flame nature of this, but I have silently
endured the glorious ignorance the majority of Americans exhibit when it
comes to international affairs for half a year now: ever since I moved
here. I just had to get this off my chest now.

--
   "Language is a Virus from Outer Space"  -  William S. Burroughs
#####################################################################
#  Nici Schraudolph                          nschraudolph@ucsd.edu  #
#  University of California, San Diego       ...!ucsd!nschraudolph  #
#####################################################################
Disclaimer:  U.C. Regents and me share no common opinions whatsoever.