> The article misses the fact that computer professional tend be more
> conservative than most other professions - a fact that I attribute to
> two factors.
> First is cognitive makeup required for programming. Contrary to the
> frequently expressed claims to creativity - computer programming
> involves meticulous following of conventional rules to the letter, and
> routinization of every task. The cognitive skills required to do that
> are not only antithetical to freewheeling creativity, but they are also
> the main building blocks of the conservative mind-set. Second, is the
> programming subculture - which is prediminantly white and male and
> success oriented, and thus tends to be inwardly promiscuous and
> outwardly conservative (i.e. the "our guys can do what they want, but
> everyone else must follow the rules" thing).
Do you have any stats on this? It's been my experience that many computer geeks are left libertarians. And since the dot-com crash and the closing of Napster, there seem to be even fewer right wing libertarian computer geeks.
There was this one case several years ago of a right wing libertarian geek who frequently flamed the left libertarian and anarchist geeks. Well, the guy finally left college and got a job in some cubicle farm. Needless to say, getting out into the real world of computer work tends to have a radicalizing effect on programmers. We should also keep in mind that the open source/free software is pretty much dominated by techies with a left libertarian bent.
Chuck0
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