The man who, in 1994, made the first unsolicited commercial mass message on the Internet by posting an immigration law advertisement to every Usenet newsgroup (from alt.fan.star-trek to comp.sys.mac.system) doesn't think today's proliferation of spam has anything to do with him:

What actually existed on Usenet was a far cry from what is happening today with e-mail spam. It wasn't really invading anybody's private domain. The Usenet, to my way of thinking, is very different than e-mail because it's not something that's just coming to you. You're going to these message boards for whatever reason, and although it may be true that mass posting to every Usenet group in sight wasn't good, I still don't see how it is nearly as intrusive as receiving 300 pornographic e-mail solicitations every day.

I spent most of 1994 learning about personal responsibility. Maybe I was the only one.