Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Walking around amsterdam
Author: Paul Snively Posted: 5/16/2000; 10:01:22 AM Topic: Walking around amsterdam Msg #: 17343 (In response to 17341) Prev/Next: 17342 / 17344
Doug Hacker: What I'm saying is that they don't "deserve" to be attacked simply for doing something foolish. That's a sort of snide hacker mentality that just doesn't do it for me.Perhaps you're taking the "hacker mentality" a bit personally. ;-)
More seriously, I was, of course, engaging in hyperbole. That hyperbole is founded, however, upon a multi-decade-experientially-based belief that, in far too many cases, having the most awful consequences of whatever stupid action is taken occur is the only way that most people will learn. In this context, "deserve" ceases to have its unfortunate punative connotation and takes on more of a "so they'll learn from the experience" connotation.
At least that was the intent of my comment, although I must acknowledge that I was fully aware of how the comment would be interpreted--that is, I accept some responsibility for your interpretation of my post. Besides, one of my goals was to initiate precisely this kind of dialog.
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