Wednesday, May 09, 2012

It's Mine and Mine Alone

My opinion regarding the proper approach to comrades who, under coercion, assist the state, that is.

This post is also mine and mine alone. I sought no permission or approval from anyone before writing or publishing it.

The reason I am writing and publishing it is to dispel any false impressions that might arise from reading comments like this:


I will never trust anything associated with [the Center for a Stateless Society] again after watching so many of you choose to retain such a liability in your midst.

For the record:

  • Yes, the person in question has been associated with the Center for some time.
  • Yes, the matter of the person's continued status with respect to the Center is under discussion and some kind of statement will almost certainly be published once that discussion has ended and any actions resulting from it have been taken. If commenters like the one above know the outcome already, they have bright futures as TV psychics.
  • No, I am not going to divulge particulars of that discussion at this time, except to note that my particular positions on the subject seem to be very much in the minority (some particulars more than others, different particulars resonating or dissonating with different people). In other words, not only do my public writings on the subject not represent the Center's position, the Center's position when fully formed will likely not greatly resemble those public writings.
  • No, that person's association with the Center never has been of such a character that it constituted or constitutes a "liability" of the kind the comment implies, if for no other reason than that none of the Center's activities are of a character that could be informed on (we fly our black flag in the open) and that even in the very limited sense in which the Center handles any confidential information (donor lists, for example), she has never had access to that information.
This is the place where I stop before I'm tempted to get mean, and ask those who are interested in the matter and the Center's response to it give us a little time to arrive at that response. Keep in mind that when this matter came to our attention and yours, the people who brought it to that attention had known about it, and had been considering their responses to it, for weeks or months. It's not unreasonable for us to take a few days on it ourselves.

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