[oclug] [RANT] Wither Free Software?

[Pat Gilliland]

Not quite OT 


Read Christopher R. Browning’s "Ordinary Men"

Synopsis: A study of a German Police battalion that carried out exterminations.
 It was composed of older men mostly of civil police background.  No special
anti-semitic training.  About average party membership.  Basically a group of
solid law-abiding citizens with no special indoctrination who knowingly engaged
in out-right murder.   This is the true horror.  The "German" part is scarcely
relevant.  My grandfather replied to the statement  "The Holocaust would   _Never_
 have happened  in Britain" with "B*gger that, give me half an hour down the
pub and I can get a dozen stormtroopers!"

Fanaticism is not restricted to any race, culture, editor or operating system.
 It is not right that "The sins of the father(land) should be visted upon the
sons unto the seventh generation".  The lesson or "take away" (the current most
odious buzzword of the week), is how terryifyingly simple it is to fall into
the mind set exemplified by, but not restricted to, early/mid-twentieth century
Germany.

For the not OT part: To draw the parallel further, there are hundreds of thousands
of "IT Decision Makers" who honestly believe Microsoft is the way to go.  There
are also many who believe FLOSS is the one true path.  Both views taken to extreme
will lead to a one party dictatorship.

Finally, while Francis is the Bass-o-matic of trolling, I believe it is important
that the expression he used and others of its ilk be kept in context and not
taken lightly.  Not to flog one group in perpetuity, but to keep alive the awareness
of how easy it is for these mindsets to take hold.  We have seen the rise of
extreme philosophies in many parts of the world.  We as a society need to be
on our guard against extremism of any form.

Note I didn't say right/left, Israeli/Palestinian, American/Axis-of-evil-for-today,
MIF/MIL, SPI/TAHGC, LINUX/Windows, Vi/EMACS just extremism    

There and I didn't say "Nazi" once .....  Dammit, Dammit Dammit.

Pat
 

>
>On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:23:28 -0400
>Christian Mautner <oclug at mautner.ca> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 01:16:48PM -0400, Shad Young wrote:
>> > On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 12:46:59 -0500
>> > "Pat Gilliland" <patrick at inkpotproductions.ca> wrote:
>> > 
>> > 
>> > > 
>> > > So instead of "RTFM" we say "Arbeit Mach Frei"?  NOT the
>> > > propaganda parallel we want to draw.
>> > > 
>> > > Pat
>> > 
>> > And what parallel will that be?
>> 
>> "Arbeit macht frei" was inscribed at the gates to concentration
>> camps. And "Auslaender raus" is a quite far-right slogan, opposing
>> immigration (to put it nicely).
>> 
>> Both have in my ears (I grew up in Austria) terrible conotations,
>> and I would rather see neither even remotely associated with FLOSS.
>> 
>> chm.
>
>Yes, I know. It was more of a rhetorical question. I was just wondering 
>how much longer Germans everywhere will have to pay for the mistakes of
>a few crazy men in a crazy time.
>
>Shad
>
>
>
>
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux)
>
>iD8DBQE+8KULaSD9awytjmURArIDAJ98SeWCKp2jIWCeIdshi6GYGp2R7ACgpYk3
>UprPI1qutlwaXj7OgEC3n3M=
>=r2Kj
>-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>-- 
>OCLUG general discussion list
>OCLUG at lists.oclug.on.ca
>http://www.oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/oclug
>
>


Sent using cyberus.ca WebMail - http://www.cyberus.ca/