Hello, folks.

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 12:05:57 -0600, Alfredo Rego wrote:
|Oops, I am using the word "think" too much.  This is a serious problem.
|Independent thinkers are obsolete.  I think you are one of the few left.
|May God take good care of you.  Fortunately, there is a precedent in
|Galileo, who did whatever the Church told him to do, but still uttered (in
|a subtle way), "regardless of what the majority believes, the Earth
|moves..." (or words to that effect).
|
|Just an idle thought, inspired by a conversation I had this morning (which
|was the fuel that got ignited with Tony's spark):
|
|"Why are you buying a PC instead of a Mac?"
|
|"Because there are more PCs."
|
|"Really?  Not because PCs are BETTER than Macs?"
|
|"Really; I know that Macs are better than PCs, but that's not the point."
|
|Interesting.  I would have felt much better had the person said, with
|passion, that PCs are better than Macs.  I would have also respected the
|person much more.
|
|Oh, well...

This reminds me very much of a decision I made 4 years ago and which I still
believe to be the correct decision, even though I know it is completely
futile for the short term.  I decided in 1992 that I would stop voting
*against* one of the major two candidates by voting for a lesser evil in the
other major candidate, in particular in presidential elections.  Because
that is what everyone I have ever spoken to about it winds up doing.
Instead, I have only vote *for* the person whom I believe to be the best
person for the job, regardless of their political affiliations or, in some
cases, because of them.

#pragma personal-political-views enabled
In 1992, I voted for Perot as a compromise between having a chance, though
remote, of winning and being someone who would bring changes that I think
are needed.  This year, I expect to vote for Harry Browne, a Libertarian,
because I believe his views make the most sense and describe a country I can
begin to believe in again.  Not that I don't think the US is one of the best
places to live on Earth, but it's not what it could be or even has been in
the past.  And I know that the odds of him having a substantial percentage
of the vote is astronmical.
#pragma personal-political-views disabled

It occurs to me having written that last paragraph, that there is a parallwl
to people and organizations who struggle to decide between the major OS
candidates (Unix vs. NT) and refuse to consider that there could be a better
choice in something less well known, such as MPE of course.  The good news
in OS selections is that the whole country doesn't have to live with the
choice of the majority, or whatever approximation of majority we get from
the now bizarre legacy application known as the Electoral College.

Strive for sanity in an insane world.
--
Jeff Woods
[log in to unmask] at Unison Software
[log in to unmask]   at home
Native American proverb:
We did not inherit the Earth from our parents, nor they from theirs;
We are borrowing the Earth from our children, just as our parents did from us.