Free as in Freedom in Russian: Chapter 1. Fatal Printer

Free as in Freedom in Russian: Chapter 2. 2001: Hacker Odyssey

Free as in Freedom in Russian: Chapter 3. Portrait of a hacker in his youth

Debunk God

A tense relationship with his mother did not prevent Richard from inheriting her passion for progressive political ideas. But this did not appear immediately. The first years of his life were completely free from politics. As Stallman himself says, he lived in a “political vacuum.” Under Eisenhower, most Americans did not burden themselves with global problems, but only tried to return to normal human life after the 40s, full of darkness and cruelty. The Stallman family was no exception.

“Richard’s father and I were Democrats,” Lippman recalls of their family years in Queens, “but we were almost not involved in local and national political life. We were quite happy and satisfied with the existing order of things.”

Everything began to change in the late 50s, after Alice and Daniel Stallman divorced. Returning to Manhattan was more than a change of address. It was a farewell to a quiet way of life and a reinvention of oneself in a new, independent way.

“I think what contributed to my political awakening was when I went to the Queens public library and could find only one book on divorce,” says Lippman, “these topics were strictly controlled by the Catholic Church, at least in Elmhurst, where we lived. I think that was the first time my eyes were opened to the forces that control our lives.”

When Alice returned to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, her childhood neighborhood, she was shocked by how much things had changed in the past 15 years. The frantic post-war demand for housing turned the area into a field of fierce political battles. On one side were business developers and concerned officials who wanted to almost completely redevelop the area, turning it into a large residential area for white collar workers. They were opposed by the local Irish and Puerto Rican poor, who did not want to part with their cheap housing.

At first, Lippman didn't know which side to choose. As a new resident of the area, she liked the idea of ​​new houses with more spacious apartments. But in economic terms, Alice was much closer to the local poor - the minimum income of a single mother would not allow her to live next to office workers and employees. All neighborhood development plans were aimed at wealthy residents, and this outraged Lippman. She began to look for ways to fight the political machine that wanted to turn her area into the twin Upper East Side.

But first we had to find a kindergarten for Richard. Arriving at a local kindergarten for poor families, Alice was shocked by the conditions in which the children were. “I remembered the smell of sour milk, dark corridors and extremely meager equipment. But I had the opportunity to work as a teacher in private kindergartens. It's just heaven and earth. It upset me and pushed me to action.”

It was 1958. Alice headed to the local Democratic Party headquarters, determined to draw attention to the terrible living conditions of the poor. However, this visit brought nothing but disappointment. In a room where a smoke could hang an ax, Lippman began to suspect that the hostility towards the poor could be caused by corrupt politicians. That's why she didn't go there anymore. Alice decided to join one of the many political movements aimed at radical reforms in the Democratic Party. Along with others in a movement called the Woodrow Wilson Democratic Reform Alliance, Lippman began attending city meetings and public hearings and pushing for greater political participation.

“We saw our main goal as fighting Tammany Hall, an influential group within the Democratic Party of New York, which at that time consisted of Carmine de Sapio and his henchmen. I became a public representative on the city council, and was actively involved in creating a more realistic plan for transforming the area, which would not be reduced to simply developing it with luxury housing,” says Lippman.

In the 60s, this activity grew into serious political activity. By 1965, Alice was an outspoken and vocal supporter of politicians like William Fitz Ryan, a Democratic congressman who was elected on the strength of his strong support for such party reform movements and who was one of the first to speak out against the Vietnam War.

Very soon, Alice also became an ardent opponent of the American government's policies in Indochina. “I was against the Vietnam War ever since Kennedy sent in the troops,” she says, “I read reports and reports about what was happening there. And I was firmly convinced that this invasion would drag us into a terrible quagmire.”

This opposition to the American government also penetrated into the family. In 1967, Alice remarried, and her new husband, Maurice Lippman, an Air Force major, resigned to show his views on the war. His son Andrew Lippman studied at MIT and was exempt from the draft until the end of his studies. But if the conflict escalated, the postponement could be canceled, which ultimately happened. Finally, a threat also hung over Richard, who, although he was still too young for service, could well end up there in the future.

“Vietnam was the main topic of conversation in our house,” Alice recalls, “we constantly talked about what would happen if the war dragged on, what we and the children would need to do if they were drafted. We were all against the war and conscription. We were adamant that it was terrible."

For Richard himself, the war in Vietnam caused a whole storm of emotions, where the main feelings were confusion, fear and awareness of his powerlessness before the political system. Stallman could hardly come to terms with the rather soft and limited authoritarianism of a private school, and the thought of army training completely made him shiver. He was sure he couldn't go through this and remain sane.

“Fear literally devastated me, but I didn’t have the slightest idea about what to do, I was even afraid to go to a demonstration,” Stallman recalls of that birthday on March 16, when he was handed the terrible ticket to adulthood. go to Canada or Sweden, but it didn’t fit in my head. How can I decide to do this? I knew nothing about independent living. In this regard, I was completely unsure of myself.” Of course, he was given a deferment to study at a university - one of the last, then the American government stopped giving them - but these few years will pass quickly, and what to do then?

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Source: linux.org.ru