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2003-10-28

Mohammedism

Little-known secrets about the founder of Islam.

I thought I blogged about this earlier, but dizzyd says I didn't. Anyway, Eric Raymond has a fascinating post entitled "Mohammed was a Christian?". The links are especially enlightening. It seems that much of the Qur'ān does not make sense unless one understands that many of the words used therein are either borrowed or translated from terms in the Syriac dialect of Aramaic. This would not be so significant if it were not for the fact that Syriac was spread mainly by the community of Near Eastern Christians (among which were both Nestorians and Monophysites). Indeed, Christoph Luxenberg (a pseudonym, for obvious reasons) argues that:

1. The term "qur'ān" derives from the Syriac word for the fixed Biblical readings used at the Divine Liturgy
2. The Qur'ān itself claims to be a clarification of an earlier text, the only candidate for which is the Peshitta, i.e., the Old and New Testament in Syriac
3. Therefore, in all likelihood Mohammed was a Syriac Christian!

Radical stuff.

Posted on 2003-10-28 at 22:13. File under society.

~ link ~

Meeting City

Progress on the Jabber front.

Both the JSF Board and the Jabber Council held meetings today. The Council meeting was especially productive in helping us determine who we are and where we're going (notes are here).

Posted on 2003-10-28 at 21:43. File under jabber.

~ link ~

Women for Freedom

Alternative approaches to societal change?

Allison Brown has an interesting article about female libertarians over on LewRockwell.com. Since she asks for feedback, I emailed her with some thoughts on the topic (not neglecting to mention that, while I'm a female chauvinist, I'm also happily married!). Allison mentions that women tend to be less confrontational and more cooperative than men (in general: of course there are exceptions, everyone is an individual!). It strikes me that people who are cooperative rather than combative could best serve the cause of freedom by pursuing what I'm calling "civic activism". Rather than getting involved in the rough-and-tumble of political activism, perhaps women might be more attracted to cooperatively building alternatives to traditional political structures. So rather than fight city hall or testify before legislative committees or run for office (etc.), it may be time (in the finest anarchist tradition) for non-confrontational people to build homeschooling networks, charities that can replace government programs (oh, let's say, a fund to help pay the heating bills of people who are down on their luck), exchange programs to bring freedom-oriented young people together, and in general initiatives that will build a strong civil society (thus reducing dependence on government). Indeed, I think that doing this is critically important to building a free society (it's not called a free polity, after all).

Posted on 2003-10-28 at 21:40. File under politics.

~ link ~

2003-10-27

Docs

Updating some Jabber documentation.

I just updated the What is Jabber? page on jabber.org as part of a new cleanup of Jabber documentation. Will Kamishlian and company are doing good work over at jabbedoc.org, and I plan to streamline the Jabber User Guide here soon as well. After that, I hope to write in-line help for a few Jabber clients (AurigaDoc might make that easier), as well as a developer guide for writing Jabber components using the Twisted project (to which dizzyd has recently added Jabber support). So things are moving on the documentation front!

Posted on 2003-10-27 at 22:11. File under jabber.

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The Anglosphere

A new civilization?

Thanks to Jay Manifold, I just found a fascinating essay by James Bennett on what he calls the Anglosphere: that offshoot of Western civilization which is deeply informed by the English tradition of freedom, individualism, common law, a market economy, industrialism, scientific inquiry, and a strong civil society. The core countries of the Anglosphere are England and the U.S.; less central countries are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa; and the frontiers (verges?) of the Anglosphere lie in the Caribbean, India, Africa, etc. I'm not quite convinced yet that the Anglosphere is a distinct civilization (it strikes me as simply part, albeit the most dynamic and successful part, of Western civilization), but Bennett argues persuasively that there is something different about the Anglosphere in comparison to other areas of Western civilization. One difference that is bound to become more pronounced over time is that the population of the Anglosphere continues to grow, whereas countries like Italy and Germany are experiencing negative population growth. Since a growing population provides a spur to dynamism, the future does not look bright for much of continental Europe (nor for Russia or Japan). The books that Bennett cites at the end of his essay look like fodder for further thought on the subject, too (inter-library loan, here I come!).

Posted on 2003-10-27 at 20:00. File under society.

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FSP-NYT

Some news fit to print.

Today's issue of the New York Times has a balanced article about the Free State Project. I wonder when the Boston Globe will cover the story, given that New Hampshire is right in their backyard. (That's backyahd to you...)

Posted on 2003-10-27 at 19:45. File under politics.

~ link ~

2003-10-26

Unschooling

More thoughts on learning.

I just found this essay on "unschooling". I especially like this sentence:

The traditional curriculum is based on the assumption that children must be pursued by knowledge because they will never pursue it themselves.

School and I never got along, and I always learned more outside of school (reading, working, playing music, etc.) than I ever did in the structured world of classes and quizzes. I think I've always been an unschooler, but I never knew it until now.

Posted on 2003-10-26 at 21:33. File under society.

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Reaping What We Sow

Against the Iraqi occupation.

It's come to this: the army of the U.S. government is destroying crops and livelihoods in Iraq for the sake of -- what? Power? Control? Saving the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein? Reading stories like this makes me ashamed to be an American.

America began as a people dedicated to peaceful relations with all nations. Now America is ruled by a government dedicated to permanent (and, increasingly, total) war.

Yes, I am a non-interventionist. Some brand this position as isolationist, but it is not that: I am all in favor of the ties of friendship, commerce, and cultural exchange. What I am decidedly and irrevocably opposed to is American intervention all over the planet. But shouldn't the American army free the oppressed Iraqis, the decimated North Koreans, the long-suffering Cubans? No. Not only is it wrong for the U.S. government to intervene in the affairs of such countries, it is even wrong for it to maintain a standing army in time of peace (where "peace" is defined as an absence of hostilities within the borders of the several states). (Indeed, it's even possible that the very notion of government-sponsored national defense is a myth.)

Abstaining from foreign intervention may seem overly harsh, even cruel. And in one sense it is, because it leaves the fate of Iraq in the hands of the Iraqi people (and similarly for all the other hellholes on this planet: North Korea, Cuba, Libya, Syria, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, and all the rest). But you know what? America is not the world's policeman, nor is it the world's social worker. I'm sorry if that upsets your view of the world. You'll have to get over it.

Posted on 2003-10-26 at 21:12. File under politics.

~ link ~

Friendship

First thoughts on a new research interest.

Speaking of individualism, I've been reading some fascinating essays on the topic of friendship. Recently, someone emailed me out of the blue about contributing to a projected volume of essays on Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. I'm not a big fan of that novel any longer (nor of much of Rand's output, since I find it too strident and vitriolic for my taste), but there are aspects of it that I appreciate. One such aspect is the strong friendships to be found therein, so I've chosen as my topic "Friendship in Atlas Shrugged" (though I'll make reference to Rand's earlier novels as well). So I've begun researching the topic in earnest. One of the essays I've read in the last few days is a feminist philosopher's perspective on friendship (Marilyn Friedman's "Feminism and Modern Friendship" in Friendship: A Philosophical Reader, edited by Neera Badhwar). The essay begins with a critique of atomistic individualism (which I think is a strawman); but what I found interesting about the essay is its critique in turn of communitarianism, which the author argues is too tied to "communities of place" (family, neighborhood, etc.) and does not give enough space to "communities of choice" (clubs, volunteering, etc.) and to personal friendship. Indeed, many philosophers and philosophical traditions find friendship problematic: the Stoics feel it threatens one's spiritual independence, the Kantians think it is too particular (since it violates the Kantian principle of universalizability), the Christians find it too exclusive (agape should always trump philia), the utilitarians doubt that it conduces to the greatest good for the greatest number, collectivists of all stripes argue that it saps energy that should be devoted to "the cause" (after all, the personal is the political, or should be), the logical positivists can't be bothered with something so merely human, etc. The only two traditions that wholeheartedly embrace friendship are, despite their differences in other matters, Aristotelianism and Epicureanism.

Look for more comments on this topic in the coming months....

Posted on 2003-10-26 at 20:04. File under philosophy.

~ link ~

Twenty Days

A blogging hiatus.

Wow, it's been twenty days since I last blogged. There are three main reasons for that state of affairs: I've been working hard on the XMPP Internet-Drafts, I've been watching a lot of baseball games, and I've been spending time conversing with people one-on-one rather than writing for public consumption. However, at least two of these factors have been removed from my life: earlier today I submitted draft-ietf-xmpp-core-19 and draft-ietf-xmpp-im-18 after weeks of addressing and incorporating Last Call comments, and the World Series is over (yes, the best team won). I'm not sure the third factor will change much, since I've been enjoying the conversations I've been having with people of late. My preferred conversational style is talking with one person at a time; I find that the results are more productive of light than the heat of argument one usually finds in larger groups. But then again, I am a radical individualist. :-)

Posted on 2003-10-26 at 19:43. File under personal.

~ link ~

2003-10-06

LA Story, Parts II and III

More Libertarian Alliance publications.

The Libertarian Alliance in London has published two more of my essays: "Hugo, Rand, and the Purpose of Art" is Cultural Notes #48 and "The Art of Friendship" is Cultural Notes #49. I especially like the images that Nigel Meek added to the PDF versions.

Posted on 2003-10-06 at 19:57. File under personal.

~ link ~

Music of Hawaii

More to explore.

The other day I checked George Winston's CD Plains out of the library. The two most haunting pieces on this disc come from Hawaii: a traditional tune called "No Ke Ano Ahiahi" and one entitled "Ike Ia Ladana" composed by Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani in 1887. Winston is devoted to the tradition of Hawaiian slack key guitar, and if these two pieces are a representative sample then I think I need to check into the tradition further. His favorite interpreters are Dennis Kamakahi, Keola Beamer, and Ozzie Kotani, as well as Gabby and Cyril Pahinui. So much music to explore in this world...

(And yes, I still support the cause of Hawaiian independence.)

Posted on 2003-10-06 at 19:49. File under music.

~ link ~

2003-10-05

PD Conversion

First the poems.

I've just converted all of my poems over to the public domain. Next step: the essays.

Posted on 2003-10-05 at 18:32. File under publicdomain.

~ link ~

IP and Identity

The power of publishing.

Recently, I worried about two things that might happen to works I've created:

1. Someone changes the name of the author and claims that they created the work
2. Someone changes the work itself and claims that the modified work is what I created

I now realize that such worries are overwrought. Sure, someone could do such a thing. But there is no strong reason to think they would. In any case, the best solution is to "publish early and publish often", to make my works public and to make their identity is a matter of public record (which is essentially what I've been doing with my website since 1996) -- so that if anyone attempts to hijack or modify one of my works, the attempt will be open for all to see as an obvious fraud (or, in the terms of open-source software, at least a "code fork").

With the evaporation of this last worry, I am ready to state my opposition to so-called "intellectual property" even more strongly than before, and to entirely cease speaking of "rights" to my works. So I've updated my copyright policy accordingly:

I assert and reserve no rights over any of my works (such as my music, essays, and poems). I believe that copyright laws are an attempt to seek by force a monopoly on publication and performance, and therefore I do not assert copyright over my works. Furthermore, I also assert no exclusive moral right to modify my works. Thus all of my works pass immediately into the public domain upon publication or performance. Feel free to copy, republish, translate, arrange, or make derivative works based on what I have created. I consider it polite for you to contact me if you do so, but my prior permission is not required if you would like to use my works in any way.

Posted on 2003-10-05 at 14:31. File under publicdomain.

~ link ~

2003-10-03

More Cool Apps

Jabber showcase on the way.

The cool apps continue to roll in. Here are some more I plan to add to the upcoming showcase:

• Jive Live Assistant
• CoAKTinG
• Mimir
• Jabber World Map

Posted on 2003-10-03 at 10:07. File under jabber.

~ link ~

A Quote From Thoreau

"A New Hampshire everlasting and unfallen."

In a journal entry dated June 22, 1853, Thoreau wrote:

I long for wildness, a nature which I cannot put my foot through, woods where the wood thrush forever sings, where the hours are early morning ones, and there is dew on the grass, and the day is forever unproved, where I might have a fertile unknown for a soil about me. I would go after the cows, I would watch the flocks of Admetus there forever, only for my board and clothes. A New Hampshire everlasting and unfallen.

Posted on 2003-10-03 at 06:49. File under politics.

~ link ~

2003-10-02

NH Bloggers

On-the-ground reaction.

There's been quite a bit of news coverage on the Free State Project's choice of New Hampshire (heck, someone at work mentioned it to me out of the blue, and a developer from Holland with whom I was Jabbering asked me if I'm moving to NH soon). Rather than consume more mass media, I figured I'd see what the local bloggers (not the big boys like Eric Raymond) are saying:

• Scrollbar and Gone East Too take note
• Every Tomorrow isn't quite sure about these libertarian ideas
• The Leading Brand doesn't like it one bit, thank you very much!
• Weekend Pundit and Mark Nozell seem sympathetic and say things could get interesting

Despite Dave Winer's call for New Hampshire blogs, it seems (based on some quick Google searching) that there aren't all that many bloggers in NH. Maybe they're too busy spouting off at their local town meetings. :-)

Posted on 2003-10-02 at 21:47. File under politics.

~ link ~

2003-10-01

NH

Free state deja vu.

New Hampshire has been chosen by the members of the Free State Project as the destination for 20,000+ liberty-loving individuals to effect peaceful change through the political process. As I mentioned in this space way back in December of 2001, I long ago (1991?) wrote something called "The Monadnock Proposal", which advocated precisely this result. I circulated it only among a few friends, though, and I haven't been able to lay my hands on a copy. Not that it really matters at this point. :-)

This may inspire me to do something productive with my monadnock.net domain (Monadnock is a famous mountain in southwestern NH, supposedly the second-most-climbed mountain in the world after Mount Fuji). I've had vague notions about converting the webzine I run there into a full-fledged publishing company, but obviously other commitments have kept me rather busy for the past four years. But that won't be true forever, I'd imagine.

Posted on 2003-10-01 at 19:44. File under politics.

~ link ~

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