Let the flame wars begin! Everything is political, even programming languages. So why not discuss it?

I came of computing age in the early 90s in the Bay Area when the WELL was still a big thing (granted I never got on the [I|i]nternet proper until '95 and stuck only to BBS networks). Back then there was still a strong whiff of hippie counter-culture around. Though I never met the man and know next to nothing about him personally, it's fairly obvious that Larry Wall is a product of that culture and the guiding light behind Perl culture in general. I could be wrong (and I'm not well versed on this topic so I may very well be), but my impression is that his guiding philosophy is part of the same mindset spawned by Stewart Brand and the WELL network Brand helped to found.

As younger coders come along, I get the strong sense there is a distinct shift away from these roots and toward a more Ayn Randian philosophy, largely adopted by younger Silicon Valley venture capitalists which appears to be trickling down to its workforce. This adoption of Randian politics has been noted in the press such as this article.

This post is not meant to be a criticism of this change, but more of an observation (with a disclaimer that being a very early 70s born gen-xer, I definitely have more sympathies with the hippie culture). Being a lone wolf, I don't come into any contact at all with other programmers so I don't get to see any of this firsthand. So I'm wondering how others more steeped in Perl culture worry–or not worry–about this change and I also wonder just how large of a change there is, especially within the Perl community. How much do you think Perl's success is owed its founding culture and what happens to Perl as the older programmers fade away? Does Perl stand a chance in a culture where only alpha dogs matter?

$PM = "Perl Monk's";
$MCF = "Most Clueless Friar Abbot Bishop Pontiff Deacon Curate";
$nysus = $PM . ' ' . $MCF;
Click here if you love Perl Monks

In reply to Ayn Rand vs. Stewart Brand by nysus

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.