the appeal to democracy is well intended but in my opinion misleading. yes,
people that are not citizens of one country generally cannot vote for
representatives of another. some countries require its citizens to vote.
in others there is an obligation as an expression of loyalty but no legal
requirement.
in a social network whose participation is voluntary if not flighty,
democracy is not a good metaphor for running a list. for once, nobody
represents anyone else. everyone can withdraw and found or join another
list if it does not satisfy her or his needs. everyone who cares to speak
up should be heard by everyone else. those who choose to be lurkers are
silent until they speak up.
i prefer to apply common rules of conversation to what happens on the list:
dialogical equality. publicity, i.e., everything said is public, to see by
everyone who cares (no off list talking about matter of interest to the
list), mutual respect for the individual contributions made, which entails
the commitment to stand behind what is being said, which entails revealing
one's identity. etc. unlike in ordinary conversations, on a list it is
virtually impossible to police the identity of a source -- as long as it is
internally consistent and respectful of everyone else (politeness). if
these basic tenants of conversation are preserved we can focus on the
contribution, not on the persona behind it.
i think the leadership of the list should apply conversational rules to
their own conduct and see their job as facilitators of the conversation,
merely preventing basic conversational rules from being violated.
klaus
----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and
related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Gunnar Swanson
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2004 1:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: a proposal for running the list in 2005 Re: leadership and
judgement
On Dec 19, 2004, at 9:05 AM, Rosan Chow wrote:
> the problem is that i don't agree with what you think was proper
> process.
[snip]
> separation of rule making and administration is a form of democratic
> goverance that we should adopt for this list.
Rosan,
<last rant on this subject>
Democracy as we generally think of it requires exclusion and inclusion.
Citizens can vote because they are a separable set from non-citizens.
Residents can vote because they are clearly not non-residents. High
school prom committee members can vote because they are clearly not the
people who are not on the committee. Irishmen living in Kansas City,
Missouri cannot vote for Kiev city council and Palestinians living in
Gaza cannot vote for the California Coastal Commission.
Democracy on a list such as this--where populations vary constantly and
arbitrarily (for various reasons including people getting bored or
angered by endless and useless threads) and where there is no mechanism
to both identify who is to be included or excluded and to allow equal
participation in decision making--is beyond merely problematic. For the
"group" to decide in the manner you seem to desire would require that
the group be more clearly defined than I suspect is possible.
Talking until one view has prevailed would not be democracy. It would
be yammerocracy.
I would submit, however, that the discussion has made clear to anyone
who is still awake that the use of a false identity (or at least the
use of a false identity followed by being honest about having done so)
will have a series of bad results, some "official" and most not. The
social pressure to avoid these results is great. Whether such social
pressure is democratic or in what sense it is democratic may be
debatable but it is the closest thing to democracy that is plausible on
this forum so calls for Official Rulings are de facto anti-democratic
demands.
</last rant on this subject>
I hereby join the ranks of those who have sworn to avoid Cindy-related
threads including "What we should do since Cindy's untimely death in a
horrible train accident and what sort of flowers are appropriate"
threads. I invite you to join us.
Gunnar
----------
Gunnar Swanson Design Office
536 South Catalina Street
Ventura California 93001-3625 USA
+1 805 667-2200
[log in to unmask]
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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