Quantum Forest

I am a big fan of Splus and R and I am often recommending these systems to colleagues. One of the many reasons I like the programs is their very active users’ communities. If one runs into trouble, there are always other users willing to help. Nevertheless, a while ago I started noticing a disturbing trend: one of the Splus/R language demigods was becoming increasingly arrogant—and rude—in his replies to fellow posters. What was even more surprising is that nobody seemed to care. As Eric Hoffer said:

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.

I was uncomfortable, but the situation was below my ‘annoyance threshold’ until this reply to this post. I was so annoyed that submitted this message, which generated an interesting discussion that resulted in a ‘lawyer-style’ apology from the offender. The interesting thing is that—after my post—I received several personal emails from people that where equally uncomfortable with the situation, but felt uneasy challenging the ‘powers that be’. This seems to be yet another example of the issues faced by internet communities, where a few individuals can easily damage the quality of communication in a forum.

I think that after this experience we will go back to a much more respectful and welcoming email list, so people are not afraid of posting simple questions and being flamed in the process.

Walking in town last weekend there was a member of Green Left selling ‘The Green Left Weekly’, a paper published by this group of Stalinist loonies. Please note: do not confuse this group with The Greens, which look like a bunch of right wingers compared to these guys. For an example of ideological blindness in this ‘newspaper’ have a look at Food, poverty and ecology: Cuba & Venezuela lead the way.

Although I consider totalitarian views like nazism, fascism and communism as expressions of the same underlying controlling philosophies, some people claim that they differ on their aims. Thus, communism is more acceptable, because it aims for an egalitarian society, while Nazism does not. Of course this implies that an egalitarian society is a desirable utopia—although I don’t think that is the case. Yes, there have been a few ‘glitches’ with the implementations (some of these countries, for example), but never let real life interfere with a beautiful theory.

If one looks at all attempts to achieve egalitarian societies, there has never been a successful example. A quote frequently attributed to Albert Einstein defines defines ‘Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. One may question that if all implementations fail there may be something wrong with the idea. This thought does not cross the minds of the Green Left’s true believers. It may well be that John Dryden was right when writing in ‘The Spanish Friar’:

There is a pleasure sure
In being mad which none but madmen know.

By the way, I equally despise right wing totalitarian regimes.