From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JHgvn-0000wA-DX for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:50:23 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 5B8CDE051A; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:50:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: from rv-out-0910.google.com (rv-out-0910.google.com [209.85.198.190]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19D95E051A for ; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:50:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: by rv-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id b22so2411760rvf.46 for ; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:50:19 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=cigTQ6xVF9GlK/89dihvqdSjnRgt6B5MxjaE2ktmIrk=; b=NZprS5meqpIoTtASIYYO1WXGNGqZxMOIgkcH0SmG83XeZQrEAzbuJbuK6KPDj1MsnJOJUYvYU7ECoDkHMBF94kwa0IQ9H6qB0cGj0Zh5WiTyy/MPvA0UdRKZYQyy63SsS0pDlCpxjTc4HEig5uZkbPp8yWiYob4oNwp/7g25Nkc= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=bPR261AqvBL2GzNHMsAJ+4wkaAI3rt02dvSSbmT3AezHJMwQiRwrR2oX19GCmrIv0L58PP9nGbU2YXR2Di/jR5AmNmxtoKhLs3L0WKKcSqoRyFolhP/Ed3HA4Qc38TEGrTtIOESa7uOm711AYgeStAvuc7IqAmjy68cphR3jH/s= Received: by 10.141.27.16 with SMTP id e16mr6373472rvj.259.1201099819101; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:50:19 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.140.142.10 with HTTP; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:50:19 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <8b4c83ad0801230650i36d9c60ejed99ddcc7c77f4e2@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:20:19 +0530 From: "Nirbheek Chauhan" To: "Steve Long" Subject: Re: [gentoo-project] Re: Re: Plan, then communicate (no-list) Cc: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Project discussion list X-BeenThere: gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20080120215706.GA16357@redwoodscientific.com> <200801212018.23425.philantrop@gentoo.org> X-Archives-Salt: 77a6e619-aeae-4863-9095-6a76fddab7b9 X-Archives-Hash: f73bbabd087cb83387fb6bd77bab9e25 On Jan 23, 2008 7:23 PM, Steve Long wrote: > Wulf C. Krueger wrote: > > > On Monday, 21. January 2008 19:19:12 Steve Long wrote: > >> And when 90% say they don't like the way they get treated by Gentoo > >> devs, there is a real issue. > > > > "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with > > the average voter." - Winston Churchill > > > > s/voter/user/ > > > Churchill also said democracy is the worst form of government: apart from > all the others. > > He also questioned why anyone should worry about Arabs being gassed in > Mesopotamia, so maybe you can just speak for yourself; would you prefer to > live under Saddam, Amin or Hitler than a democratic government? These statements on governance are completely irrelevant here. They apply to large countries with populations in (at least) millions. For small communities of several thousand (very small countries ie), direct democracy works best. But even that is not relevant here, since the responsibilities of a country's leaders are very different from the "responsibilities" of a volunteer-run organisation. `Responsibilities` is in quotes because you cannot really "police" an organisation that works for free in it's free time. Hence, a combination of meritocracy and democracy is the best way to run these. The basic tenants of democracy of "equality" and "freedom" have no meaning whatsoever in this context. In fact, I'm tempted to invoke Godwin's Law at this point. This is a *completely* different situation, and one simply cannot make generalisations such as you have. -- ~Nirbheek Chauhan -- gentoo-project@lists.gentoo.org mailing list