Nowadays the dominant picture is of a small occupied people rising up against a powerful occupier. David and Goliath in reverse.

The practical side of me when I can’t figure out what government is up to tends to ask who profits and who loses---where the money goes.

As with any radical revision of human relations, the initial promise was overblown, the downsides minimised and the reality is likely to be more mundane than the prospectus painted.

Consider the case of Richard Olney, President Grover Cleveland's Attorney General. In the mirror of morality, he's a John Ashcroft look-alike. In other words, a bloodless scoundrel.

The "hacker-badboy" image would have to be modified at least in substantial part to hacker-as-useful-simple-common-open-system-architect.

My words have been a search for meaning, but paradoxically, the only time I feel close to the mystery is when I have nothing to say.