[Osmf-talk] Question to Board Members - Taking Responsibility
Frederik Ramm
frederik at remote.org
Sat Aug 25 14:39:29 UTC 2012
Hi,
On 25.08.2012 16:25, Steve Coast wrote:
> Is it really necessary to compare having an osmf which hires people to voting for hitler?
No.
But the discussion was not just about hiring people, it was about
"giving them trust" (read: power) "rather than having to gain consensus
on every detail" (read: allow them to do unpopular things), and that
this would "ruffle ... feathers" (read: they would be doing REALLY
unpopular things). And it was justified by pointing at the (perceived)
current inability to make decisions.
I'm sorry but if you go to school in Germany, which I have done, you are
taught exactly this almost every year in some different curriculum.
You're constantly told that yes, people do occasionally yearn for
someone whom they could just hand the keys to the castle and then that
person or persons would magically cut all the Gordian knots that have
kept you from making decisions, that person or persons would magically
do the best possible thing and not be bound by eternal squabbling in
parliaments or other democratic institutions, that person or persons
would somehow through their greatness or throgh the powers concentrated
in their hands make everything better... and you are taught to spot this
kind of thinking and connect it to the "Ermächtigungsgesetz". I can't
help it - this education has worked on me, and I think
"Ermächtigungsgesetz" whenever I hear some OSMer call for a tagging
czar, for a "benevolent dictator", or whatever.
It is obvious that dictators can make swifter decisions than committees.
But swifter decisions are not *all* we want.
Bye
Frederik
--
Frederik Ramm ## eMail frederik at remote.org ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
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