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great coinage, and i love the concept... it's at least a relatively harmless form of activism, at least in this case. it's hard not to chuckle at a virus that puts a marijuana leaf in your systray =) beats a suicide bombing by a long shot. (so do pot legalization activists perform suicide bonging??
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Activists in general, and hacktivists in particular are arrogant idiots. Remember the activists of the sixties who had all the answers to everything. How come they accomplished so little? The bottom of the URL site had a dictum that viruses are the new graffiti. My favorite uncle had a saying: "His ambition is very small who writes his name on the s... house wall." And the malicious hackers are not brave enough to append their names to their creations.They hurt a lot of people and accomplish nothing.They are in the same class as drive-by shooters.
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Activists in general...are arrogant idiots
Of course we'll never really know if we (US'ns) would have gotten out of Viet Nam alive without the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s or whether we (US'ns) would have achieved some sort of independent political existence (see Canada) from England without the activists of the 1770s and 1780s.
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Undoubtedly there were activists who were well informed and well motivated, and did not commit stupid excesses. Unfortunately the idiots made the most noise and caused the most trouble and got all the headllines. But too few were willing to take the trouble of becoming involved in the slow process of acquiring qualifications and backing for public office where they could help shape legislation.
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Right, Max. I think Faldage was alluding to that act in his elliptical way  . In any case, I agree with y'all that without "activists" we wouldn't have much change. (lemme see... there was Lilith, Noah, Buddha, Solomon, Jesus, the Crusaders, Martin Luther, the Luddites, the 1960s activists [of whom I was one, thankyouverymuch Dr Bill], Amnesty International, Bill Gates). OK, that works for me. Y'all please fill in the missing personages/groups. (now to check out that 'hacktivist' link...)
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"And don't forget those arrogant idiot activists back in Dec. '73, who thought that dumping tea in Boston Harbour
would change anything."
It seems possible that some of the solid citizens were involved in the Tea Party. But in the Boston Massacre, there were a lot of less commendable agitators. Boston really had some unadmirable hoodlums more interested in having some excitement than doing anything constructive.
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arrogant idiot activistsAnd don't forget that lowlife agitator, Thomas Paine, and all those upstart underground pamphlets he was publishing and distributing like "Common Sense"...pure pond scum, he was! And damn those abolitionists in the 19th century!...Imagine wanting to free the slaves!...Who did these ingrate rabble-rousers think they were? (And John Brown was a nut by anybody's standards, so don't bring him up as the poster boy for the abolition movement). And let us not forget those utterly obnoxious Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)!...Imagine having the unmitigated gall to try to save peoples' lives just because you lost a child in a drunk driving accident? What creeps, huh? To paraphrase Jackson Browne..."Doctor, my eyes..." I always want to give everybody the benefit of the doubt, but here I'm doubting your benefit. What gives? 
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AnnaS may i call you AsP, in tsuwm's absence? confesses: "the 1960s activists [of whom I was one, thankyouverymuch"Ohhhhh, *do* share photos, would you dear?
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Dear WO'N: There are too many "activists" like Timothy McVeigh. I was thinking of the wild-eyed adolescents who know a lot of things that are not so, but with time become quite conservative.
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Oh, Dr. Bill, you had already managed to insult at least half the regulars on this board, but when you imply that there is some sort of commonality among T. McVeigh and activists, you extend a really deadly insult to the ones you missed.
But it's OK. Speaking for myself (I can't speak for the rest of the activists and activist-sympathizers [Act-symps ? to borrow a usage from the people we used to protest against]} I forgive you. Like one of those old activists, I assure you that while I don't agree with what you say, I will maintain to the death your right to say it, however offensive. verb. sap.
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Gee! what an ants' nest I stirred up with this one! Think I may have to change my name from maverick - I seem to fit into the conventional view *far too easily amongst this gang of libertarians Keep it up, though, Bill, if that's your honest opinion. That's the very liberty that generations of activists have won for us. ~ and no one has yet mentioned Galileo Galilei, who for me epitomises the start of the time when the power of The Truth became subordinate to the process of reason, marking also a shift in the axis of cultural power from the catholic south to the protestant north of Europe...
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Don't shoot fellas. I'll come down. Partly I wanted to liven things up, and partly I am so disenchanted with so many of the less admirable type of activists I overstated my case.
P.S. TIME for July 16 has a story about The Earth Liberation Front firebombing a research project they disapproved of , and doing $5 million dollars damage. They boast of having done $40 million dollars damage elsewhere.
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Don't worry, Dr. Bill... the gun's not loaded!  Just had to tweak the harshness a little bit. And, yeah, I comply with your right to say anything you believe! As well as the right to rebuttal. Mav really gets some intense threads going, doesn't he? And so as not to pay the price of having overlooked this important force of activist energy:
And what about those obnoxious Suffragettes? Imagine giving women the vote! Next they'll want to go to work, or something!
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i HTLU "eppur si muove", so in case any of you folks do as well, you might want to check out this link. wholly unrelated, but i found it a fascinating read. http://www.webcom.com/zurcher/furedy/eppur16.html
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Dear tautology sensitive caradea: Thanks for the link. Political correctness is not the only problem such organizations have trouble with. There is a considerable problem with the "old guard" stifling new ideas from younger members. Look how long it took for continental drift and plate techtonics to be accepted. And the nasty turf battles such as the hostility to Prof. Edward O. Wilson.
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~Galileo Galilei, marking also a shift in the axis of cultural power from the catholic south to the
protestant north of Europe...
" It didn't move! "
Dear Max: I have seen it stated repeatedly by competent historians that scientific advance in Italy came to a standstill with Galileo's punishment, and science in northern Europe became and remained pre-eminent.
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Max,
I* saw it and fully appreciated your subtle wit.
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eppur si muoveThanks for the link, caradea! A fascinating and disturbing read. I mailed the page to my best friend's wife, a biogeneticist...eager to hear her reaction!
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All this discussion reminds me of a quote of Gandhi's which was incised in the stone next to the front entrance door of the India Pavillion at the NYC 1964-65 World's Fair. Imperfectly remembered but the essence is there. "There go the people. I must hurry and catch them up, for I am their leader." link to a description of the Pavillion. http://www.peacethroughunderstanding.com/6465/international/intpav18.shtml
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Another link about Gallileo, by a Catholic history professor. I think he is understandably a bit biased. For instance he refers to Gallileo's protracted house arrest as "discipline". Perhaps other board members might be interest to read his arguments, and judge their fairness. http://wwwacn.cornell-iowa.edu/~wcarroll/eppursi.html
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Max--again I am in awe of your capabilities, Dear One.
Please keep "attempting" your humour, and perhaps I'll eventually become knowledgeable enough to catch on to it before someone has to lay it out for me like they would to a kindergartener.
People--if I may: I am just now being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel in my catching-up on reading new posts. The tone of parts of this thread was disturbing to me, and I would like to point out with all due
respect, that it is possible to incite a lively discussion without creating rancor in the ranks. Thank you.
One more category to go! (If I don't count Weekly Themes,
or any of the categories "below the equator", that is; it's been so long since I've had the time to read even the WAD that Weekly Themes would no doubt leave me at a loss.)
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Jackie > it is possible to incite a lively discussion without creating rancor in the ranks. Thank you.
Seconded. Thank you, Jackie.
Now, to get back to "Hactivist" word ... it occurred to me that it is a good example between written and spoken words. As a written word it is easy to infer the meaning from context, but given the various regional accents --in just US -- it is problematical as a spoken word as it requires a strongly asperated "h" .... would not the spoken Hactivist often be heard as Activist?
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would not the spoken Hactivist often be heard as Activist?well, in the singular form it'd be easy to understand because of the a/an that would precede it. ~~~~~ and jackie...you are an angel
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jackie...you are an angel Oh, yes--that rustling sound you hear is the wind in my wings... Thank you, too, wow--you're great, you know that?
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Ohhhhh, *do* share photos, would you dear?That would be the side and front views with you holding the number, right? But I would maintain there is a big distinction distinction between Activism and Terrorism. Activism does not normally include illegal actions, or only at the civil disobedience level. Activism can include petitions, demonstrations, and organising enough people to vote for particular motions in any organisation. Activist (like pedant) is a pejorative term from those who aren't and a word of praise to those who are. My activism was restricted to Anti-Apartheid marches in the 60s in UK, telling some other country how to run things (like we Brits always did until the US took the task over from us ). I did march all the way (66 miles) from Brighton to London alongside Thabo Mbeki. I can have strong and firmly held opinions and I do articulate them, but I rarely try actively to persuade other people to feel the same way, or feel that a strong action on my part would help rather than hinder. I tend to support the causes financially nowadays and leave the activism to those more temperamentally suited to the task. [/philosophical rambling] Rod
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