Thank you.

[Pres. Screwb]

When I read this, I almost cried. Thank you.

-----------------------------------------

 

 

 

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager arrested in computer crime scandal", "Hacker arrested after

 

bank tampering"... damn kids. They're all alike. But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's techno brain,

 

ever take a look behind the eyes or the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped

 

him, what may have moulded him? I am a hacker, enter my world... mine is a world that begins with

 

school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me... damn

 

underachiever. They're all alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to the

 

teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it.

 

"No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..." damn kid.

 

Probably copied it. They're all alike. I made a discovery today.

 

I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what

 

I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it

 

up. Not because it doesn't like me... or feels threatened

 

by me... or thinks I'm a smart ass... or doesn't like

 

teaching and shouldn't be here... damn kid. All

 

he does is play games. They're all alike. And

 

then it happened... a door opened to a

 

world... rushing through the phone

 

line like heroin through an addicts

 

veins, an electronic pulse is sent out,

 

a refuge from the day-to-day incompetence

 

is sought…a board is found. "This is it... this is

 

where I belong..." I know every one here... even

 

if I've never met them, never talked to them, may

 

never hear from them again... I know you all... damn

 

kid tying up the phone line again. They're all alike... you

 

bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food

 

at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did

 

let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated

 

by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach

 

found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert. This

 

is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud.

 

We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap

 

if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore… and you call

 

us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin colour,

 

without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage

 

wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

 

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not

 

what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for. I am a hacker,

 

and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all,

 

we're all alike

[Absurd]

Please summarize.

[Mafia_Jabba]

thats bull****, you still shouldn't tamper with banks even though you are "curious" go [edit] if your "curious" don't brake the law idiot. I'm happy they arrested the moron.

[DS ChAoS]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[OnlyOneCanoli]

I'd have to agree to some extent about not being understood by the adults or thought of as inferior for his age. I feel the same way quite frequently.

 

But the bottom line is that he is rationalizing a crime that he should not have committed. He broke the law, and he is subjected to that punishment. He is not a special case just because he thinks he's intelligent.

[whitedragon]

thats some pretty deep stuff and it dose have a strong message though im not sure i agree with him

[TheJackal]

The writer of that "manifesto" obvioulsy needs attention. I'm sure he wont admit it (nobody does). But he really wants attention.

 

Like he said: he was soon fed when he was younger. Some real peace of meat. And now he is given slack to live his own life and he's rebellion against the lack of attention they are giving him. If he's bored in school apply in thougher and more advanced classes. If you are at the top allready, change to a HARDER school. Or maybe skip grades!

 

Do something productive, not counter-productive.

[matt--]

That's the Hacker's Manifesto, written by the Mentor back in the day.

 

When you say switch to harder classes, you should realize that it isn't always an option. I was one such student coming into high school. Because I came from a slightly different curriculum I was denied access to higher classes. I had to go through the year in the average classes. I did not one days work the entire year, and I got straight As.

 

I requested testing over the summer when I was denied, but my request sent me on a wild goose chase.

 

The point of the whole thing is that a small class of people choose to learn via unconventional means. They don't really need classrooms at all. Give them information and they'll learn on their own. For us, school is a waste of time. Nothing more than a place to watch time tick by, when you could be doing more important things.

[Pres. Screwb]

I agree with mat.

 

And also, i wasn't crying because of the crime thing, I was crying because everything else he said was true. The board, tying up the phone line, the one good teacher every once in a while, those are all my experiences. And being in that degraded position in school leads to lack of motivation, digging myself into a deeper hole. School is oppressive. School is totally biased toward liberalism (at least where i live).

 

I see people that would be republicans 'converted' because their idiot history teacher with a masters degree preached liberalism in her classroom.

 

Teen years are identity finding years. School doesn't let you find your own, unless you've already done it.

 

And back to the oppression: All school has done for me has slowed me down, put unneccesary strain on my family and me, and provided an environment for which bullies could ruin me psychologically.

 

In kindergarten, I was active in math and science. I knew everything there was to know, up to a seventh grade level. But once I hit first grade, the work load stopped my studies, and I just sat along for the ride for the next 6 years. Then, after six years of that attitude, I had to go back to actually trying. I wasn't ready to! 6 years is a long time to feel on top...but then I was squashed.

 

Not one friend did I have until 7th grade. I just happened to meet two. A dislexic (spelling?) hacker with a bad attitude, and another smartass that had my same problem. The difference is, he dug himself out of his hole a year before I did. I barely made it into high school. This year, I'm taking physics, chemistry, environmental systems, and algebra ii. I'm back.

 

But it hurts watching smart friends of mine get 'dumbified' by the school system--a system that ruins the lives of smart people, and glorifies mediocrity. Even if those friends make it almost to the end of school, they still get dumified. I hope me and my other 2 friends don't get dumified, I can only hope--Sooner or later they'll wear one of us down. School is an example of socialism. Everybody at the same level, no matter what. And it really is pissing me off. I'm not even going to get started with PE. (I'll just say that it is unconstitutional.)

 

I had better stop ranting before I say something I'm going to regret, but know that I have only shared a miniscule depth of my feelings about this with you.

[Kstar__2]

did you read that in my sig?, yeah, i felt the same

man, you are so expressing my feelings i also reconised al those things

 

for TheJackal: I am already on the hardest highest school, FSOL

 

so don't asume the things you don't know

 

(btw, i didn't write it)