Tantek's Thoughts — 2006 September

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  1. 8/5 9am-6pm WordCamp at San Francisco (u)
  2. 8/5 7-10pm - Game Night at Coffee To The People
  3. 8/5th 10-5am - Sensuelle at 415 Jessie St. @ 6th st.
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  6. 9/13th 2-2:45pm Future of Web Apps: Best practice with Microformats at Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco
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    The offical Future of Web Apps Summit party, sponsored by Google.
  8. 9/14 8pm-???? invite only after summit party at well-worn Atherton location
  9. 9/20 5-11pm Sööperqoöl: The Lovefest Edition at 111 Minna
    Qoöl is already a lovefest, but we're making it official tonight. As the official LoveWeek kickoff party for the San Francisco Lovefest, we've got a most sööper line-up for you. Momu (live), DJ Prana, and Alain Octavo will be joining Gil, Scott Carrelli, Jerry Bonham and Jondi & Spesh. Love-ly!
    Lineup: 5-6pm Momu (Live!) 6-645 pm Gil, 645-730pm DJ Prana, 730-815pm Alain Octavo, 815-9pm Scott Carrelli, 9-945pm Jerry Bonham, 945-11pm Jondi & Spesh
    $5, 21++
  10. 9/23 11:30am-2pm San Francisco Lovefest parade at 2nd St. between Market and Howard to Civic Center Plaza (about, more events)
  11. 10/9-11 CSS WG f2f - at Mozilla Corporation, Mountain View
Posts
1. Fight bad ideas not people
  created
  9/11 10:46 PM
  
  content
  tags:
  - war
  - fight
  - idea
  - ideas
  - people
  - pawns
  - science
  - superstition
  - freedom
  - fascism
  - hope
  - fear
  - love
  - hate
  We are not at war.
  
  Ideas are at war. We are merely their pawns and canonfodder.
  
  Fighting a war by fighting people is merely attacking symptoms rather than causes.
  
  In the long run, fighting a war by fighting people is only as effective as fighting a disease by fighting the people that have contracted it rather than fighting the disease itself.
  
  But there is no equivalent to antibiotics for ideas. You cannot kill an idea.
  
  Several approaches have been attempted to fight ideas.
  1. Deprive them of hosts and transmission vectors, by quarantining people that have contracted them, e.g. as McCarthyism attempted. Or worse, what Stalin did with purges etc.
  2. Refute them openly, logically, rationally. This tends to work in science, mathematics, and philosophy. It also works to dispell children of simple mythological constructs such as Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. More complex mythological constructs have for the most part evolved immunity to reason and logic. This doesn't mean you should stop trying (hat tip: Mike Linksvayer).
  3. Replace them by developing better idea(s) which outpropagate, overwhelm, and ideally displace the idea(s) you are fighting. This is how science could defeat widespread superstition. How freedom has a chance at defeating fascism. How hope can defeat fear. How love can defeat suicidal hate.
  Which approach do you think is the most effective?
  
  There is a fourth approach which AFAIK has never been attempted by design though instances have clearly evolved in the wild.
  
  Whatever method(s) you choose, the larger choice is clear. Will you stand up to fight the bad ideas? Or will you waste your time fighting the people?
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