On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 3:05 AM, Robert Munn wrote: > > You should attempt to influence what they perceive about you in order to > influence their actions in your favor. In diplomatic terms, this means > having a diplomatic corp that is able to build trust with their counterparts > around the world, using personal relationships to influence reality.
Every bit of information is like a chess piece. I'd argue that perhaps more important than the piece itself, is the strategy/"spin" (quite often at least-- only a horsie can move like /that/, ja know!). It's no fun having to abandon a strategy that a lot of work has gone into, but perhaps, in this case, if we were "really" building trust and whatnot, the "behind the scenes" communique would have reflected that, and done nothing but strengthen that trust. Of course it's really this big game of intrigue and whatnot-- folks *love* drama, really (seems to be an integral part of us), so... well, hell, makes life interesting. > Controlling electronic assets such as diplomatic cables is a part of that > effort. Releasing them wholesale threatens a lot of hard work put in by a > lot of people to influence relationships around the world, and it provides > operational knowledge of military and diplomatic assets to our enemies. Yeah, I don't like to see information that puts folk's lives in danger released, for instance (even though *any* information has the potential to do that, regardless, because humans are funny ass animals). On the other hand, it's healthy to bring some stuff to light. Sometimes disclosing "secret" information *saves* lives, you know? Like, there's that story about the that troop carrier, where the field tests were doctored up, but they were trying to push them into production (because of money, which is apparently a *huge* motivator for a *lot* of people). Hell, there's many stories like that. The HIV in the blood-clotting medication and the coverup between the CDC and the manufacturer (that one made me sick)... Mad Cow over in the UK, yadda yadda. I particularly think it's lame when it's for political gain though, like the Plume deal. Humans are fucked up though. If things seem to line up with their agenda, well... I don't know, seems like principle can be opportunistic more often than not. Which I personally think has to do a lot with a lack of self-reflection/deep thought and whatnot (though it doesn't seem to do me much good, as I'm as much of a sucker about stuff as most anyone =]... still though, critical thinking should be pushed harder). > Your foes breathe a sigh of relief at night that you do not have foes. ;-) I wonder if the computers from the future (that might be communicating with us "now" (it's possible!)) get (will get? got?) stuck in a loop when confronted with these statements. =)p :Den -- The wildest colts make the best horses. Plutarch ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:332693 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
