The "no laptops" rule has been roundly ignored, as far as I can see…
Isn't it a bit like asking we journalists not to use our notebooks? Nonsensical.
And now he'll probably make history again by saying "a blogless man is not a human"
2006-12-12EST09:26:35+00:00
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It was all a but "the grown ups are coming" - fun's over - don't show us all up. I kept my laptop open - neither Peres nor his body guards seemed that offended.
2006-12-12EST10:01:01+00:00
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hehe - I agree, but don't you think Peres had an interesting picture of the power of blogging and the Internet?
2006-12-12EST16:28:31+00:00
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The laptop in the conference room has a very valid purpose - a bullshit detector. I wish that every time a politician spoke they were in a room filled with bloggers at laptops to totally fact check their ass.
The "grown ups" attitude was patronising.
2006-12-13EST15:55:45+00:00
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The "grown ups" attitude was patronising.
Got here by following a link from Bruce Sterling; sorry if this seems out of the blue.
But really, Shimon Peres, one of the most astounding visionaries outside of Science Fiction, the Duracel man, the eternal loser of Israeli politics, the man who made our tiny nation a nuclear power, the Dave Winer of international Statesmanship, and you rag on about something about "God" and "Soul"? First time I ever heard that quote, and I find it odd that it gets under your skin.
Surely this is some miscommunication here;
When Peres says "Soul", he's not talking about something that defines your humanity; it's probably an extra quality, something that's good to have but not crucial, like "class" or "taste" or "conscience" or "sense of humor"; And when he refers to "god", I believe he's not trying to offend atheists, he's just tended to take our votes for granted, and therefore we're supposed to read this as the despised-but-necessary (obligatory, even) ass-kissing of religious parties.
Peres, unlike 99.999% of bloggers, has been building coalitions with people who hate his guts for longer than most of us have been alive. Cut the man some f***ing slack.
2006-12-16EST20:42:54+00:00
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But really, Shimon Peres, one of the most astounding visionaries outside of Science Fiction, the Duracel man, the eternal loser of Israeli politics, the man who made our tiny nation a nuclear power, the Dave Winer of international Statesmanship, and you rag on about something about "God" and "Soul"? First time I ever heard that quote, and I find it odd that it gets under your skin.
Surely this is some miscommunication here;
When Peres says "Soul", he's not talking about something that defines your humanity; it's probably an extra quality, something that's good to have but not crucial, like "class" or "taste" or "conscience" or "sense of humor"; And when he refers to "god", I believe he's not trying to offend atheists, he's just tended to take our votes for granted, and therefore we're supposed to read this as the despised-but-necessary (obligatory, even) ass-kissing of religious parties.
Peres, unlike 99.999% of bloggers, has been building coalitions with people who hate his guts for longer than most of us have been alive. Cut the man some f***ing slack.
Dotan: thanks for the comments. I said that I was initially put off by this comment. Combined with the "close your laptops, we've got an IMPORTANT person here" attitude from Loic, I was predisposed to dislike Peres.
In fact, his speech was one of the few really good ones. This was a live-blog, remember.
I reject your semantics - the word soul was not even used. The phrase was "A godless man is not a human being". I mention it because it is important. But I didn't rely on it - we have all said stupid things from time to time. And, as I said, Peres did turn out to be one of the best speakers at Le Web.
2006-12-16EST21:17:27+00:00
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In fact, his speech was one of the few really good ones. This was a live-blog, remember.
I reject your semantics - the word soul was not even used. The phrase was "A godless man is not a human being". I mention it because it is important. But I didn't rely on it - we have all said stupid things from time to time. And, as I said, Peres did turn out to be one of the best speakers at Le Web.
Tom, I apologize for my rudeness - I know how odd it feels when strangers show up on your blog and shout at you, so to speak; I just saw your line and jumped in, got a bit carried away with my rantiness. I'm glad to hear that your impression of Peres improved after this.
Cheers
2006-12-17EST00:30:42+00:00
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Cheers
No need to apologise. Unlike some of the other folks who are involved in the Le Web 3 controversy, I'd rather have a rigorous conversation about it with the gloves off.
Thanks again for commenting.
2006-12-17EST09:26:55+00:00
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Thanks again for commenting.
