This is another non Red Plan related post. I am reading an interesting NY Times story on the most nihilistic abusers of the Internet, folks who are called and call themselves “trolls.” They “experiment” by using the Internet to attack and torment people they deem unworthy. One well publicized case of trolling led to a girl’s suicide. Bloggers are apparently high on the list of people who the Trolls disdain. The story has this paragraph about tolerance that struck me:
“One promising answer comes from the computer scientist Jon Postel, now known as “god of the Internet” for the influence he exercised over the emerging network. In 1981, he formulated what’s known as Postel’s Law: “Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others.” Originally intended to foster “interoperability,” the ability of multiple computer systems to understand one another, Postel’s Law is now recognized as having wider applications. To build a robust global network with no central authority, engineers were encouraged to write code that could “speak” as clearly as possible yet “listen” to the widest possible range of other speakers, including those who do not conform perfectly to the rules of the road. The human equivalent of this robustness is a combination of eloquence and tolerance – the spirit of good conversation. Trolls embody the opposite principle. They are liberal in what they do and conservative in what they construe as acceptable behavior from others. You, the troll says, are not worthy of my understanding; I, therefore, will do everything I can to confound you.”
“Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others,” is a good principle for life in general. In political terms it could read: Be a Republican in your personal life but a Democrat toward others. Of course, in this day with Dittohead Republicans extolling the virtues of torture I’m not so sure that being a Republican and a conservative are all that synonymous.
