Why said:
This is not the first time an arguement breaks out about whether a
piece of software is freeware. My observation is that as long as you
mention something non-freeware, all those "regular guys/gals" (who are
like jealous freeware protectors or warriors) will pounce on you with
insults and abuses -
The culture we live in, or rather are trying to abolish, creates very
convinced minds.
The type of conviction varies, some are mormons, some are reggae music
fanatics, some are libertarians, some are pure freeware fanatics, but
they all take every opportunity to express their very strong
conviction.
They do not experience the world around them directly, they see the
world through a mind filled with convictions, anger, love, hate, a lot
of good and a lot of evil which they have to keep in balance.
In my country a big news item is the perfectly normal husband and
father of little children who was revealed as a serial rapist and
killer of young girls.
It took 6 years to find him because he lived a perfectly normal life
except when he sneaked out at night and raped and killed young girls
now and then.
Criminologists explained that this is not uncommon at all, many serial
killers or serial rapists live perfectly normal lives for most of the
time. They very often have very good social skills and can fool their
victims into following them practically anywhere before they suddenly
turn into sadistic madmen.
So what we call "normal" is maybe defined as being able to balance very
big amounts of love and hate, and this gives people social strength and
social competence.
Like the leaders of a bully gang in a school yard. They know everything
about being devious, being very sociable and nice when they want to,
torturing their victims without any regards for human feelings when
they want to.
We live in a superhuman culture, women look up to "dangerous" men and
despise weak "boys". To become a man you have to go through an
initiation procedure, become determined, store up anger enough the gain
respect.
All the stored anger and determination you need for social success
creates strong convictions. This causes a lot of problems for the human
race, and it has been going on for thousands of years.
This is a gigantic cultural problems, which causes terrorists to crash
aeroplanes into scyscrapers, it causes religious fractions to fight
each other with all the weapons they can get their hands on, it causes
people to get drunk on alcohol or get extremely fat, or beat their
wifes, or jump on people with the wrong views in newsgroups.
There are solutions to this cultural problem, but people are too
occupied expressing their own conviction and balancing evil and good in
their minds to even listen to serious discussions about this problem.
They prefer talking about anything else, football, fishing, eulas,
music, whatever as long as it doesn't disturb their convictions and the
delicate balance between good and evil in their minds.
So they avoid discussing the most serious problem of all, how we can
free the human mind from these obsessions and convictions, how we can
free the social reality from all kinds of opression and stress, how we
can build a better world.
It disturbs their current state of mind to discuss such serious
matters. They prefer talking about golf, or boxing, football, detective
stories, porn, dissections, food, legal terms, wrestling, etc..
Now, what's wrong with that picture? It reminds me of SOME of those
extreme environmentalists who believe only they know how to protect the
environment.
They are all totally convinced that they and only they know all the
answers, that is because conviction feels like intelligence, just like
some drugs make you feel infinitely wise, all seeing, omnipotent, but
if they try to express that enormous intelligence in writing and in
discussions with others it all turns out as a lot of foul language and
invectives.
That's the problem with a religious culture, it makes men feel like
gods, but they cannot express their infinite wisdom without using their
fists and guns and a lot of shouting, or writing millions of totally
useless and incomprehensible texts in newsgroups.
