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An Indian site, YourStory, has an unusually broad ranging interview with Richard Stallman. While much of the background and goals will already be familiar to SN readers, the interview is interesting not only for its scope but also that India is starting to take an interest in these matters.
To know Richard Stallman is to know the true meaning of freedom. He's the man behind the GNU project and the free software movement, and the subject of our Techie Tuesdays this week.
This is not a usual story. After multiple attempts to get in touch for an interaction with Richard Stallman, I got a response which prepared me well for what's coming next. I'm sharing the same with you to prepare you for what's coming next.
I'm willing to do the interview — if you can put yourself into philosophical and political mindset that is totally different from the one that the other articles are rooted in.
The general mindset of your articles is to admire success. Both business success, and engineering success. My values disagree fundamentally with that. In my view, proprietary software is an injustice; it is wrongdoing. People should be _ashamed_ of making proprietary software, _especially_ if it is successful. (If nobody uses the proprietary program, at least it has not really wronged anyone.) Thus, most of the projects you consider good, I consider bad.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday August 31 2017, @12:57PM
Well, as long as we're consistent I guess.
Personally I think capitalism is hands down the best system for meeting needs as well as wants. It rewards those who contribute more to society with more of the latter but, if not mismanaged by the government, it also meets the needs of everyone so long as they contribute, above a minimum threshold, to society.
I don't even have issue with people personally lending or giving aid to those who cannot contribute enough to earn their keep. I do have issue with the government being involved because everything they have they've had to take via force. If the "by force" situation changes, so will my opinion. I also have a lesser issue with giving or lending to those able but unwilling to contribute the minimum threshold of value to earn their own living; it is a waste of society's resources because those "helped", by definition, are choosing to be leeches.
Further, I have no issue with individuals collectively deciding that they would prefer to seek their way in life via socialism, so long as the government has no part in it. Voluntary socialism, on a small scale, works perfectly well within capitalist societies.
"Society", as used in the above context, is simply a means of addressing all concerned individuals. I vehemently do not believe it is a separate thing whose good should always be addressed above any individual's.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.