Eeyores vs. Tiggers

Derek Slater had an extensive post On Bunner, where he remarked in a passage:

Seth "Eeyore" Finkelstein (who's been posting a lot about Bunner) and I discussed this awhile back. ....

The reference caught my eye, in an amusing way. Hmm, I thought, wasn't Lessig also Eeyore?

That inspired me: Forget Liberals vs. Libertarians or Geeks vs. Suits. An unexamined divide is Eeyores vs. Tiggers.

Especially when I saw this quote from Eeyore, which sums up much:

'Sometimes he thought sadly to himself "Why?" and sometimes he thought "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought "Inasmuch as which?" - and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.'

Remember the Tigger is described as:

Their tops are made out of rubber. Their bottoms are made out of springs. They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun!

Unfortunately, there is not just only one (link omitted out of self-preservation). Anyway, it's fun to be a Tigger. (fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!) You get to be bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy. To sing of "Emergent Pundocracy" and "Smart Snobs", go on about "The Second Soupy Powder". Who wouldn't want to live in "Cyber's Place", the new home of wunderkind?

By contrast, being an Eeyore is indeed pretty gloomy. It's no - fun - at - all. Copyblight and shrinking-wrap and trade-bleakness and De-'Em-See-Away. Lawsuits and lawyers and liability and losing.

However, the Eeyores tend to be right, while the Tiggers get to be popular. But to quote Eeyore,

'Pathetic. That's what it is. Pathetic.'

Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)