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 techno

brain,ever take a look behind the eyes or the hacker? Did you ever

wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped moulded him, what may have

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 ofoutsmarting you, something that you will never

forgive me for. I am a hacker, and this ismy manifesto. You may

stop this individual, but you can't stop us all

...after all, we're all alike.

-Hackers Manifesto / The Mentor-

Portwolf