On 8/19/05, Ryan Delaney ryan.delaney@gmail.com wrote:
Skyring wrote:
I appreciate both positions, but in the meantime, we live in the real world where some parents and teachers and clergymen are going to apply pressure to stop their children or students or congregations from using an online encyclopedia that contains material that they consider objectionable, regardless of how sensitively it is presented or how much we might wish for there to be no censorship at all.
I really don't think that the best way to deal with closed-mindedness and dogmatism is to surrender to it. Of course, that carries its own special risk, because we might end up being dogmatic in our response. They key here, it seems, is to emphasize the Wiki philosophy of good faith, openness, and /respect/ that all people have it in them to be mature and responsible /without /having someone to tell them what they can and can't know and what they can and can't look at.
I'm certainly not advocating surrendering to narrow-mindedness. On the contrary.
We can't do a real lot about the attitudes of people whose minds are closed, but it is hardly fair on the children of such people to be deprived of a useful resource. I'd like to see some effort being made to reach these children. Trying to sway their parents with arguments that haven't worked in the past is not a strategy for success.