On 2/3/2011 11:17 PM, Darren New wrote:
>> At what point do you stop? Or, more to the point, at what point do you
>> bloody stop and think, "Heh, you know.. it might just be a good idea
>> of this *never* hits the market for the average person." Somehow,
>> these things never get thought of until *after* something happens.
>
> OK. Consider Mexico. It's not like their aren't criminal gangs running
> around with tanks and planes of their own.
>
> I'm not saying everyone needs nuclear railguns. We already have a bunch
> of things that never hit the market for the average person. Hand guns,
> however, are not them. Indeed, it's that whole "never hit the market for
> the average person" that a few posts ago you were arguing were the
> reason that guns would be useless in a revolution to start with.
>
Not sure that Mexico is exactly a good example to use. Half the 
"government officials" are either bribed, owned, or working for, the 
criminal gangs that run around with tanks and planes of their own. And 
yeah, I am sure, right now, with badly ineffective power systems, a 
railgun would be "so" helpful, at least until it occurred to the 
oppressors to simply shut off the power grid before showing up... Not to 
mention, one bomb, precision or otherwise, and you don't have to worry 
about the railgun the guy built in his basement any more.

If "successful defense" relies on, "It will be successful in 50-100 
years, when we are finally on equal footing!", its not very successful. 
Right now, they wouldn't be, in the past, they could be, since the 
disparity was never as much as it is now. In places like Mexico, you 
can't tell apart the supposed "legit" and "non-legit" agencies, so its 
fairly meaningless to talk about citizen resistance. They won't be the 
ones resisting, it will be which ever gang happens to be in the area. 
And, invariably, if the disparity grows smaller, its still going to be 
government, or corporations, or someone else with money to burn, who 
will have the armies, private or otherwise.

What makes a successful revolution isn't what you are armed with, its 
that a large enough number refuse to acquiesce to the demands of the 
lunatics, even if they don't even have one weapon, and the would be 
dictator finds themselves in a position where a) they lose more than 
they gain, or b) more people will side with the defenders, if they act 
to end them, meaning they lose even more in the process of suppressing 
the revolt. An idiot tries to control people with guns. The smart ones 
try to do it with words. The really stupid ones try to do with with 
lies, then with guns, and find a hornets nest.

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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