[WikiEN-l] The terrorists have won

[Ian Woollard]

On 07/07/2009, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hm. So if the terrorists do not make any demands about silence, it is
> our ethical duty to censor ourselves, as many wiser heads than mine
> have expounded about at length in many forums such as WikiEN-l.

Probably. Humans don't handle low risk, high fatality situations where
they have no control (terrorism, some trace chemicals in food) very
well on the whole; they like high risk, high fatality situations where
they have the illusion of some control (e.g. smoking, driving) a lot
more. If the press neglected to mention terrorist activities, there
would be a lot fewer, because there would be no point.

> But if they do make demands about silence, it is our ethical duty
> to... censor ourselves?

Yeah, why not? Just because your enemy want something to happen,
doesn't mean you don't want it as well. The enemy probably don't want
a planet killing asteroid to hit the Earth either; you shouldn't take
the contrary position just because of that ;-)

Not everything is a zero sum game. Just because somebody loses,
doesn't mean somebody gains, in lots of situations, everybody loses or
everybody wins.

> - --
> gwern

-- 
-Ian Woollard

"All the world's a stage... but you'll grow out of it eventually."