Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: metaphors (Anti-Microsoft sentiment)

Author:David McCusker
Posted:9/16/2000; 8:26:08 PM
Topic:Debunking the OSS Bazaar?
Msg #:21420 (In response to 21418)
Prev/Next:21419 / 21421

I'm trying to patch things up between us (in case I mucked it up somehow), so I'll focus on a small but critical part of the prior conversation.

Josh Allen: I pointed out that sports vs. war could be considered an inadequate analogy, since I see the fundamental difference between sports and war to be whether people die (and war has rules by the way).

So what I should have done was say how I thought sports differed from war. Ouch, that's a burden, and a main reason why I dodged it. :-) The other reason why I dodged it is hard to explain (and perhaps offensive, unintentionally).

The other reason is because I expect intelligent writers to use smoke screens when they want to confuse an issue. This practice partly erases the conversation in an audience's mind, because it buries ideas under details, rendering them safe. But I'm always trying to waken and sharpen audiences.

Okay, now I'll address sports and war. I don't think the issue of killing is central. But a related effect is important, and this is that killing is final. People and things are truly diminished when ended permanently. This is why murder is such a big deal, compared to battery.

So the problem is finality, and not people dying. In sports, there are more games. But war loss is final. The issue of finality applies in business even if folks are not being killed. The problem concerns whether businesses or technology are stopped permanently, and whether this is the goal of play in another business. (And intention counts, thus "attempted murder" matters.) This is what I meant by "playing for blood." Obviously I did not mean literally killing people, right?

Now, war has notably few rules. In fact, introducing any at all by such venues as the Geneva convention has had less than perfect results. Folk sayings posit that all's fair in love and war, and this is obviously meant in contrast to normal games. There's a reason for this. It's about passion that can take an actor beyond honor.

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