Chomsky on Intellectual Property

Re:Chomsky on Intellectual Property by danssig on Thursday March 17, 2011 @04:58AM (#2335498)

There's always someone trying to make everyone out to be a hypocrite. It is not a conflict to both have a belief and not act within that belief. If the world suddenly started working the way he described and he still tried to sell things he expected others to give away then it would be hypocritical behavior.

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Re:Chomsky on Intellectual Property by numeromancer on Thursday March 17, 2011 @09:23AM (#2335997)

There's always someone trying to make everyone out to be a hypocrite. It is not a conflict to both have a belief and not act within that belief.

It is only not a conflict if you are, in fact, a hypocrite, and do not bother to judge yourself by your own standards.

If the world suddenly started working the way he described and he still tried to sell things he expected others to give away then it would be hypocritical behavior.

This is the shelter that most hypocrites hide under, claiming that they can't possibly be expected to live by their own high ideals until all men are good and fair and wise. It is the claim of every communist dictator who hoards the wealth he denies his citizens, and every capitalist who colludes with government for protectionism and corporate welfare while crying for free-markets, and every cheap preacher who slinks around with prostitutes while bleating about the sexualization of our culture.

If you dedicate yourself to high ideals, then dedicate yourself to them, and show the world that they are ideals that humans can live up to. If you are too enamored of worldly ways to do so, then be willing to forgive others of the same.

The great Oz has spoken.

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Re:Chomsky on Intellectual Property by nooneelse on Thursday March 17, 2011 @12:53PM (#2336862)

One can easily believe "X is good." without believing "X is what everyone should do in all situations." So to, one can believe "it would be better in numerous important ways if everyone did Z all the time." without believing "it would be better in all situations on all important measures if one more person did Z." You are advocating we judge others using a simplistic abstraction of what principles are. Good rhetoric perhaps, but not good thinking.

Put another way, it is untrue to think that principles can only be beliefs without conditionals.

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Re:Chomsky on Intellectual Property by danssig on Thursday March 17, 2011 @12:33PM (#2336747)

I disagree with this bit of hyperbole. You only live one time. Living the life of a pauper because of some ideals if just not practical. Most people will never hear of your sacrifice and those who do will write you off as a nutter. Chomsky is doing what he can by delivering his message to the youth, the future. He wouldn't be in a position to deliver that message if he were off trying to start a one-man revolution.

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