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Re: Turning GNU into a bottom-up organization


From: Jean Louis
Subject: Re: Turning GNU into a bottom-up organization
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 17:52:05 +0530
User-agent: Mutt/1.10.1 (2018-07-13)

* Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@gnu.org> [2019-10-24 16:11]:
> Agreed!
> 
> And that is where the social contract can help. While the Debian one
> does explicitly say that it wants to let Debian work also with non-free
> software, the GNU one can explicitly say that GNU contains only 100%
> purely free software, and does not even mention existence of non-free
> software (e.g. no firmware names in the Linux kernel).

I am very much sure that words such as "social contract" shall not be
introduced into GNU project.

See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract

"In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or
model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually
concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the
individual. Social contract arguments typically posit that
individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender
some of their freedoms and submit to the authority (of the ruler, or
to the decision of a majority) in exchange for protection of their
remaining rights or maintenance of the social order."

That rude people can be subject ot surrender some of their freedoms,
for example to be expelled from GNU project, is already clear. No need
for social contract there.

There is a lot of wisdom in the tolerance and intentional ignorance by
RMS.

A "social contract" would never be able to duplicate the wisdom,
tolerance, and intentional ignorance as it is conducted by RMS.

It would further divide community and impose new "rules" which were
not necessary for GNU project for decades.

When something is successful, you leave it so.

If mechanics is dirty, with dirty hands, but is repairing many cars,
you don't pick on dirty hands, you award him and leave him as he
is.

Finding wrong targets and introducing new ideas is common mistake by
people who try to take over any organization. It can easily damage
successful courses of actions.

-- 
Thanks,
Jean Louis



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