[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Board Elections

[James Hare]

"So much for political discourse..."

And sticking to not violating Godwin's Law, Mr. Snow! Congratulations!

On 9/20/06, Jeffrey V. Merkey <jmerkey at wolfmountaingroup.com> wrote:
>
> Michael Snow wrote:
>
> >I'm not sure how "direct" a concept of democracy you have in mind, but
> >Hitler was *appointed* Chancellor. After Hindenburg's death, he declared
> >himself Führer. Thereafter, he rushed through a vote to ratify this
> >action, but if that's democracy, so was Saddam Hussein's last election.
> >If you mean that he personally was democratically elected, I don't see
> >it. If you simply mean that he became politically powerful enough to
> >turn a parliamentary republic into a totalitarian state, that too is a
> >cautionary tale, but this is an odd way of expressing that.
> >
> >I don't think an argument about different electoral formats is getting
> >at the right issue, anyway. The concern about elections in a Wikimedia
> >context is primarily an extension of the difficulty that the right to
> >vote in our elections corresponds only rather inexactly to anything that
> >could constitute citizenship. It might be possible to address that with
> >a membership model, but as I've pointed out before, membership has its
> >own problems.
> >
> >--Michael Snow
> >
> >
> Your comparison is accurate and to the point - with one exception.
> There are no
> individual rights of any kind in the Wikipedia "Society".  You can be
> banned (digitally killed)
> by any "mob" currently in power.  There are no guarantees of individual
> rights, bill of rights,
> or any other instrument to guarantee equality and rights for any member
> of this community
> to protect their fundamental rights to exist.
>
> It's not even close to democracy, as I said before, it's more like a
> Roman Senatorial Forum with a primitive
> form of democratic representation, along with an "Emperor" and it
> exhibits all the same
> views towards individual rights as the Roman Empire -- it you tread on
> the wrong toes, you
> are summarily crucified (digitally).   Wikipedia is the closest to an
> actual "society" that exists
> on the internet, but it has a long way to go to claim the honorable
> label of "democracy".  Like
> all evolving civilizations and societies, it seems to need to repeat the
> long march through history
> to evolve to that point -- if it ever gets there.
>
> So much for political discourse...
>
> :-)
>
> Jeff
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>