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Re: [ox-en] hackers v 'politicians'



Hi Chris and all!

Last week (8 days ago) Chris Croome wrote:
Really? I guess you haven't met many people from the UK
Trotskyist and associated left... I have tried to engage
people here about stuff and they generally don't get it at
all. They don't even come up with the aruguments that
Raoul deals with so well in his "Free Software and Market
Relations" text [1], so I don't get a change to have a
debate with them.

Also there seems to be very little interest in even using
the internet to it's full extent -- for example they are
all afraid of having open archives of their lists in case
people from the outside can read what they are discussing,
and this is not a made up qoute:

  The problem with having archives on view to the outside
  world is that it does not actually encourage visitors to
  participate- it encourages a them and us mentality- in
  which voyeurs watch us list members performing like
  baboons at the zoo!

Yes, yes, yes! This is a *very* good example of a fundamental cultural
difference. People involved in Free Software and similar cultures are
completely used to acting in public. From the start Oekonux as one
example - as soon as we had the web site - was as publicly available
as by any means possible. I remember a mail on the German list long
ago which warned for state spies - in Oekonux list! I did not know
whether laughing or crying was the right thing to do on this...

And BTW what does it mean acting in public? In general just nobody is
interested. The millions of web pages getting (next to) no hits are a
good example for this. And these people above worry for being watched?
Ridiculous! They *hope* they would be watched because that raises
their importance...

I for one noted an additional important change in culture which seems
to be one aspect of the above quote: If you are not used to acting in
public every public addressing has the nature of an official
declaration. This includes you are using a style and content you can't
be attacked for. You weigh each word carefully and rarely would
present anything which is only an idea.

However, if you are used to acting publicly you quickly loose that
habit (well, you should...). You can not be creative when you are busy
preparing official declarations. If you are creative you *need* to add
half-thought things to the general flow. You need to know that you are
*not* attacked for a half-ended thought or even saying something
silly. This is a culture which in leftist groups in my experience is
rarely maintained even internally. So in a way it all fits together
very well...


						Mit Freien Grüßen

						Stefan

_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/



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