openpolitics.com

Larry Wall Interview

Let me distinguish two different kinds of joiners. You have people who will join a movement and be totally gung-ho about it. That’s great. We need the cheerleaders.

But that’s merely a form of tribalism. What we also try to encourage are the kind of joiners who join many things. These people are like the intersection in a Venn diagram, who like to be at the intersection of two different tribes. In an actual tribal situation, these are the merchants, who go back and forth between tribes and actually produce an economy. In theological terms we call them peacemakers.

But in a sense I am still a missionary. I kind of consider myself an apostle to the hackers.