On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 01:39:30PM +0200, Richard Hartmann wrote:
> On a more positive note, I hope we can all agree that no one should be
> discriminated against based on their characteristics and that respect
> towards them should be based on their character and merits.
I've just stumbled on this bit that seems relevant to me:
* Insist on using objective criteria
The final step is to use mutually agreed and objective criteria for
evaluating the candidate solutions. During this stage they encourage
openness and surrender to principle not pressure.
(http://www.wikisummaries.org/Getting_to_Yes)
I find the concept of "pressure" very relevant, and I like the idea of
discussions being guided by content rather than pressure.
I'm exploring the idea of filing under this concept of "pressure" most
of the things described in code of conducts, and I'm toying with looking
at gender or race issues from the point of view of making people
surrender to pressure.
In that context, most code of conducts seem to be giving a partial
definition of "pressure". I've been uncomfortable at DebConf this year,
because the conference PG12 code of conduct would cause me trouble for
talking about what lessons can Debian learn from consent culture in BDSM
communities, but it would still allow situations in which people would
have to yield to pressure, as long as the pressure was done avoiding the
behaviours blacklisted by the CoC.
So, pressure, in this discussion, stirs my interest more than
discrimination. Pressure could be the phrase "you are wrong" without
further explanation, spoken by someone with more reputation than I have
in a project. It could be someone with the time for writing ten emails a
day discussing with someone with barely the time to write one. It could
be someone using elaborate English discussing with someone who needs to
look up every other word in a dictionary. It could be just ignoring
emails from people who have issues different than mine.
I like the idea of having "please do not use pressure to bring your
issues forward" written somewhere, rather than spend time blacklisting
all possible ways of pressuring people[1].
However, I also find it hard not to fall back to using pressure, even
just for self-preservation: I have often found myself in the situation
of having the responsibility to get a job done, and not having the time
or emotional resources to even read the emails I get about the subject.
All my life I've seen people in such a situation yell "shut up and let
me work!", and I feel a burning thirst for other kinds of role models.
A CoC saying "do not use pressure" would not help me much here, but
being around people who do that, learning to notice when and how they do
it, and knowing that I could learn from them, that certainly would.
Enrico
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Being_Right
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GPG key: 4096R/E7AD5568 2009-05-08 Enrico Zini <enrico@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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