Random musings on random stuff.
This is a reply, basepost
Nice analysis. This dichotomy (faith in/fear of human nature) shows up in a bunch of places, and makes me think of George Lakoff's analysis of (American) "liberal" and "conservative" modes of thought in his Moral Politics book. Basically, the overall framing metaphor for American conservatives is that government is like a strict father to rule over a populace that can't be trusted, while liberals think governmental power should come from a nurturing parent. I had never consciously considered the GPL to be little-c conservative in that way (well, authoritarian, really), but you certainly go a long way towards articulating my gut-level mistrust of that range of licenses.
-Adam Lindsay ( http://mediadescri.be/ )