Topic change: ethics; was Sysadmin job opening up at my company inWoburn, MA

[Matt Shields]

I haven't checked out CPSR, so I don't know what they are, but you
can't enforce your beliefs on others.  This comes down to personal
choice and where you want to work, or maybe working for the government
is the only available choice at the time.  Some people have no problem
working for the government.  If you want to change how the government
works because you don't like what they're doing, you elect officials
to change policy and petition those officials to change things.  You
don't come up with a society that boycotts working for the government
because there's plenty of other people willing to take the job.

Matt

On 5/2/07, Mark Richards <mark.richards at massmicro.com> wrote:
> >
> >>> -Must be able to obtain Secret security clearance
> >
>
> Before applying our brainpower to something, we might wish to consider
> what it is we're building.
>
> A few years ago, given the proliferation of complete lawlessness I was
> observing in the US government, I had asked the question of CPSR
> (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) if their code of
> ethics covered working for US agencies, either directly or as part of a
> far-flung support apparatus.  Not all agencies mind you, for some of
> them are at least trying to do some good, although these days the whole
> of national government is in my view subverted.  EPA has been squashed
> and its enforcement power practically made mute; FDA is basically a
> pharmaceutical company clearinghouse, although new legislation would
> give it back some legs.  The Forest Service basically provides maps and
> saws to logging interests.  Social Security has turned out to be a war
> chest.  Other agencies that are supposed to put citizens first in time
> of need are staffed with incompetents and hacks resulting in, for
> example, the sloth, waste, abuse and criminal negligence surrounding
> Hurricane Katrina.
>
> And then there's stellar agencies like FBI, CIA, NSA, DOD, and a host of
> other cutesy acronyms that comprise an even darker soup.
>
> Well, it turns out CPSR has no platform as such.  Pieces in the code of
> ethics (they come in one form that is irritatingly titled "10
> commandments") cover a few basics.  Yet in my view not strongly enough.
>
> I will dig potatoes before assisting a lawless government to spy,
> kidnap, torture, bomb, harass its own citizens, and take over the
> planet.  I would think that others, who understand the full measure of
> how their good work and toil are being used, might reconsider.
>
> My suggestion to CPSR was that there be a place where computer
> scientists, technicians, and others with the kind of knowledge and
> skills which make the current US mal-administration's wild ramblings
> tick might have to go in order to share their common ideals and develop
> a platform that attracts others.  It doesn't exist.  It seems that these
> decisions are quite individual (as they should be), but that there may
> well be a need for something to be organized.
>
> Now I am waiting for a reply to this which says in-re a "place to go",
> "to hell", or apologetic around "national defense", or supporting our
> "way of life", etc.  It's not my intention so much to enter into a
> political debate, although in this day certainly politics swirls around
> almost every topic.  I recognize my argument will claim to be ethical
> while not weighing the good against the not so good.  It is also
> simplistic and undeveloped.   And a goal to organize such a stand may be
> quite unpopular.
>
> It would be a difficult "coming out" for professionals who choose to
> live out their world-view and wish to influence others, but I should
> think it would be worth it and there might well be plenty of others who
> share, and live out, the same views.
>
> Thoughts here?
>
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