Hackers Manifesto -
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
technobrain, ever
take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever
wonder what made
him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded 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
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 ***...
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 addict's veins, an
electronic pulse is sent
out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is
sought... a board is
found.
"This is it... this is where I belong..."
I know everyone 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 *** 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 color, 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.
+++The Mentor+++

This poem was very touching.

Let this thread die.

The Hackers Manifesto was wrote by Loyd Blankenship, aka The Mentor in 1986 shortly after he was arrested. This has since become known as the Hackers Manifesto.

wow expository writing combined with poetry, this is cool. blunt and symbolism. this is definately an ineteresting piece.

Do any of you here...even know what this sugguests? A revolution of ideas and way of life is a hacker's truth...least thats what this poem...but i would more wise say this is a ...ode to the hacker's way...or mission statement even. I say it's right...But when achrived-accepted....what comes after...I ask this Mentor. Cause in truth...is it about our own ends...or all of ours...Sorry i went deep. Merry Christmas!

~Katz

Hey! It's the story of my life. Maybe I wrote this in a former life...
~Liz

This is one of the most profound things I have read in a long time. Most of the time it's always "hackers are just curious" but it usually isn't said in poetry that nicely.

I dont know who wrote this, but whoever did, i can relate.

Who wrote this?
I liked it a lot and think a lot of people, especially on this board as well as other boards, can relate.