Re: [ox-en] What do we mean by Politics
- From: Graham Seaman <graham seul.org>
- Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 17:55:46 -0500 (EST)
Hi Martin
On Wed, 3 Mar 2004, z3118338 wrote:
Mako et al
I have read this a couple of times. I don't agree with it all but I
think she makes some good points about what is and what is not politics
in the current time and place we find ourselves.
It might be a useful start to a conversation about what could be a
politics of Floss ...
Politics and Passions: the Stakes of Democracy
http://www.wmin.ac.uk/csd/Politicsandpassions.pdf
In what way? You can have a politics of FLOSS versus the rest of the
world and a politics of inside FLOSS, which do you want to talk about?
I'm guessing it's the inside one.
But I don't see how the paper helps.
First it's complaining about about the attempted flattening out of
political differences in the world as a whole. Which means in the
interests of the powerful. No-one inside FLOSS has that sort of power;
no-one can order up an army or decide to starve a country. So the
analogy doesn't hold very well.
Second, I just can't relate to an approach which says 'one cannot
understand democratic politics within acknowledging passions as the
moving force in the field of politics'. No, material interests are
the moving force once you get to the scale she's talking about. Bill
Gates doesn't decide the UK's policy on software in education because
he's more passionate than anyone else.
But keep 'em coming, every one of your links today was well worth
reading :-)
Graham
Martin
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