At 12:01 PM 9/18/2001 -0700, Randy Bush wrote:
Has anyone started to deny all traffic to/from Afghanistan ? It is my understanding that the free flow of ideas and discussion of same is detrimental to an extremist or dictatorial government. Such governments rarely (ever?) survive open discussions and flow of ideas.
so i guess we should not advocate cutting off that flow, eh?
Absolutely. When someone claims they are in power, or smarter than you, or just know better, and tell you to do something you think is a poor idea, or simply something you do not want to do, you should research and find out why. Do not just take their word for it. And the Internet is a darned good way of getting that outside information for many, many people. Of course, that opens a long discussion because there are obvious exceptions - parents and children, military personnel, bosses & employees. It is easy to see how someone could extend that to a government and its people. I do not believe it should be in most circumstances. Maybe I am wrong. But that is straying too far off topic even for me.
randy
-- TTFN, patrick