Re: Leaving (was Re: Stack; Abnormal termination of MeNu frames; the Escape key)

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "M.C."  on Wed, 04 Feb 2004 14:06:54
+0100

Manuel:

> The problem with current computer users you outline is a general
> education problem. This world creates people with no control over their
> lives. It is better for the masters of this world (Bill included). In my
> activity as a teacher I have seen the evolution of people towards being
> completely unable to take their own personal freedom seriously. I am not
> going to philosophize but it's a big question.

I could not agree more. I often think of this in connection with slavery.
America has a "Public Broadcasting System" TV network which is largely funded
by corporate grants, although there is a small window-dressing contribution
from taxpayers and individual subscribers. The corporate sponsorship ensures
that there are no exposés of GM food (since the biggest corporate farmer in the
USA is a major donor) or of computer component toxicity (same reason). In
short, "PBS" isn't the BBC or even Deutsche Welle, much less the wonderful
Nuntii Latini (News in Latin from Finland --
http://www.yle.fi/fbc/latini/index.html). Still, it's the best TV America has
to offer: "sensitive" "thoughtful" and pretty uncontroversial, with a few
exceptions (e.g. Frontline, Bill Moyers). They aim a chunk of their
programming at black audiences; and a lot of _that_ talks about the conditions
and consequences of slavery. You come away from those programs with the sense
that American slavery was the worst thing that ever happened (and, indeed, the
brand practiced in America could be very vicious).

I'm a little reticent to talk about this, because -- well, I don't know why, it
isn't PC ("politically correct"). But for a year, I lived in a real, existing,
nowadays, slaveholding society, on an island in eastern Indonesia (east Sumba).
Technically (i.e. in Jakarta), it's illegal -- but if you've ever been to
eastern Indonesia, forget technicalities. Tradition rules. I lived under the
patronage of a local "king", and, in accordance with hospitality and
practicality, I was assigned several of his (several hundred) slaves as
helpers. In east Sumba, there are two kinds of slaves: "life slaves", or
hereditary slaves, born into it, and high status; and "captive slaves", war
booty (war with regional enemies being the constant condition in the old days),
low status. I don't think I need to add (but will anyway!) that when you're
doing anthropological research, you don't question the system; you just try to
understand it, and insinuate yourself within it as much as possible.

On the one hand, the owners truly held the power of life and death over these
slaves. Until very recently, at the funeral of a great noble, several captive
slaves might be crushed by a funerary stone, as a blood sacrifice to the earth
to ensure fertility (East Sumbanese are animists). I'm glad I didn't see that;
but I did see a ritual reenactment of "war" (on the occasion of a certain kind
of crab crawling en masse out of the sea, usually in February-March), during
which a couple of commoners were grotesquely injured, one mortally, after
clashing on horseback.

But mostly, what I noticed in this very hierarchical society was that
everybody, without exception, had a role to play, and was (in a sense) enslaved
by that role. They just accepted it, never questioned it. The "life slaves"
were often extremely powerful individuals, acting as they did as the agents and
"voices" of nobility. They'd push the freeborn commoners around, and
occasionally abuse their powers (or so it seemed to me). The "captives" mostly
did hard work, but, well, everybody except the highest nobles did hard work.
Everybody was reasonably healthy and well-fed. (I'm reporting, not defending.)

I had two slaves: an old woman, descendent of "captives", who cooked and
washed; and a male "hereditary", 25, who served as my guide and helped me learn
the language. We had a happy household, I gave them salaries (normal), and I
learned an immense amount from them, after they became comfortable with me and
realized I wasn't a threat. In general, the lives of slaves seemed little
different, to me, than those of any other rural Indonesians (I lived in
Indonesia for many years, speak near-perfect Malay, etc).

Ever since, I've been thinking, a lot, about slavery. It's been a common
component of society for thousands of years. There are _many_ different kinds
of slavery, some brutal (Arabia, east Africa, Spain and Portugal in the
15th-16th century when they killed 150 million in the Americas), others
voluntary, and every degree in between. Obviously, post French Revolution and
1848, the chattel sort of bondage, with legal ownership of persons, became
insupportable. So the institution "changed with the times". It is no accident
that somewhat earlier, English peasants began to notice a new kind of person in
the neighborhood. He didn't do anything tangible -- didn't tend fields or
sheep (or magnificent Scottish Highland cattle like I run on my farm) -- but
damn! he sure seemed "busy". WHAT was he doing? Thus arose the (derisively
termed) busy-ness man. Great instincts, those peasants. Little did they
realize that the businessman was the new slavemaster, and that they'd soon be
"working" for him.

Today, 99% of everybody is a slave. The job, the 40-hour week, the corvee
extracted by governments (taxes in lieu of labor, which is then purchased from
other contractor-slaveholders), the slavery of debt, the indoctrination of
compulsory state-guidelined education, etc etc. If you don't voluntarily enter
an indenture agreement with an "employer", you don't eat. They "employ" you as
they please, mostly for their gain, of which you receive a miniscule portion.
(And most of "them" are employees too! It's stunning.) So, Manuel, in my
opinion, when you say "I have seen the evolution of people towards being
completely unable to take their own personal freedom seriously", I think that
you are greatly understating the real catastrophe. Almost NOBODY thinks about
it; they aren't even aware of it. One must be ferociously committed to
personal freedom to avoid complicity (or captivity) in modern slavery.

> About the printers issue: I don't purchase a printer without Postscript.
> It's the only advice I can give everyone to avoid problems with
> compatibility.

Extremely good advice. There isn't a better solution.

Also, you say "The problem with current computer users you outline is a general
education problem. This world creates people with no control over their lives."
I have said many times that when personal computers first appeared, the
explicit premise was that users would make computers do what they wanted. Lots
of early software was focused on general purpose "application development".
You decided what you wanted the program to do, and then you developed it. That
whole ethos has vanished. Now you take what you get.

Your words are very generous, Manuel. I've enjoyed working with you (its
always fun, but rare, to have smart collaborators).

R.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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