[Foundation-l] Reflections on the recent debates

[Andre Engels]

On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 7:10 PM, Mike Godwin <mnemonic at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> So instead we just give in to them? We get attacked and decide to just
>> sit up like a good dog?
>
> No one is acting "like a good dog." Bad metaphor. When your village is
> attacked and subject to future attacks, you build defenses. (Better
> metaphor.) All defenses compromise your ability to do something besides
> defend yourself -- that's the economics of biology. But we can't change the
> way the world works by denying it.

Defending means lessening the chance of the opponent to succeed. If
you throw all the riches that are demanded and then some over the city
wall, that's not defending, that's capitulating.

>> but to me, our own ideas and values ... should not be sacrificed to our
>> popularity with a part of our audience.
>
> I agree and posted nothing to the contrary.

Not implicitly, no. But you were defending actions that in my eyes did
just that, namely by deleting material apparently using the criterium
"what might Fox object to?" rather than using the criterium "what does
not in any way add to our mission of spreading knowledge?"


-- 
André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com