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.