Ubuntu & the underdeveloped world

[Eric Dunbar]

cc: SOUNDER LIST

On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 11:20:30 -0500, Giovanni Sce <giova at digitalright.org> wrote:
> I thought we shouldn't talk about politics and similar
> on this list, but... luckly... I guess we are all interested
> in the subject, so, I'll throw in my observations too.
> 
> I thought too Americans in general were not responsable of
> the nasty actions of their governemts (infact the current one
> is not the only bad one).
> ... but... I changed my mind (both opinions formed while living
> in US).

Yes, and no. Yes, they do elect them, but it is only a tiny portion of
the population that participates actually makes that call.

A MAJORITY of the US electorate is (usually) either alienated by the
Demopublican Party (in many situations R & D are effectively the same
party) or they are demoralised because all they see is Democrats or
Republicans (and, the irony of it is that Republicans seem to be worse
fiscal conservatives than Democrats), and know that any other
politicians or parties don't stand a snowball's chance in hell!

> Americans elect their government as well as their representatives
> in the congress (and we saw who the elected in the last elections,
> and we saw how representatives standed about Gore-Bush recount in
> 2000 and on Iraq invasion case).

What *is* scary about the US is the extreme level of intolerance that
is demonstrated with regard to dissent. The US and the rest of the
West are similar in many ways -- people are able to criticise
government and governmental policy the same, _but_ where they two
nations iverge is in the acceptance of the right to criticise and
question. In most countries this is socially protected and tolerated,
regardless of the messenger. It is the message that gets shot, not the
messenger. In the US it appears fundamentally different -- it is the
messenger that gets shot and socially driven censorship is perfectly
acceptable (Clear Channel; Dixie Chicks; Saving Private Ryan; any
"Religious Right" boycott).

There are people in that country who celebrate McCarthy as if he was a
hero and aspire to replicate his success in the 2000s. The kind of
language and behaviour that you see SOME Americans using against their
own is what you'd expect of an Ayatollah of the unbelievers. But,
although it is not even a majority of Americans that believe these
things, the thing is that such intolerance is _tolerated_ and not
_condemned_ by that majority. Freedom to hold intolerant beliefs is
fundamental to freedom of conscience, however, NO ONE has the freedom
to put these beliefs into practice and _that_ is where the US as a
whole fails its citizenry and any affected by their foreign and/or
domestic policy.

Anyway, time for dinner.

PS Have we all moved this to SOUNDER yet?