[odf-discuss] Request for Digg help

[Ian Lynch]

On Mon, 2007-05-28 at 11:57 -0700, Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> 
> On 5/28/07, Ian Lynch <ian.lynch at zmsl.com> wrote:
>         
>         We teach children through the certification what ISO standards
>         are, why
>         they are important and use ISO 26300 as a specific example. If
>         you want
>         the next generation to understand the issues teach them in
>         school. If 
>         you want to make sure it is taught in school make it part of
>         the
>         national qualifications framework.
> 
> Yes, this is brilliant!  We certainly need this in the US.  I can't
> tell you how awful certain aspects of life in the US are.  There is
> such a feeling in the US that events outside our borders are only a
> hindrance to the US spreading its message of liberty to all rational
> peoples around the world.

Depends on whose version of liberty you believe. If you are free to be
poor, it doesn't seem much of an advantage ;-)

The one thing that transcends the politics is education. I recently had
a dialogue with RMS and had difficulty convincing him that we should not
be in the indoctrination business but should provide multiple
perspectives irrespective of our own personal beliefs. We need to
educate so people have a balanced and informed understanding from which
to make decisions. To me that is the real power of the web and its
potential to provide free uncensored education to everyone. Freedom of
access to understand all knowledge. That is real freedom.

>   That is the politically conservative point of view, though.
> Liberals, of course, have long looked to allies internationally. 

Its a globalised world so in the end the only way parochialism will
prevail is by taking over bigger and bigger sections of the rest of the
world and that is unlikely to be a successful strategy for a whole host
of reasons in the modern setting. Nationalism is in practice superseded
by internationalism particularly at an economic company level. Its why
ISO 26300 is worth fighting for at an international level but even if
that battle was lost, its only a relatively small part of the overall
war against imperialism in general. And that war is much better fought
on the fields of education and political debate than it is with tanks
and bombs.

>  In fact, one of the key points of disagreement in the US between
> liberal and conservative is the view abroad.  I guess that is true of
> most nations, though.  Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Bush, all of them
> regard foreigners with suspicion, at least in their public statements
> to their conservative constituencies.  Ironically, though, at least
> with Bush, there is a great deference to his buddies who run
> multinational corporations and which keep their assets in tax-free
> off-shore tax havens.

But Bush is a minor transient coming to the end of his sell by date as
is Blair. The worry is not so much in the current politicians but in
whether the future ones have learnt any lessons from their predecessors.
We have to keep campaigning and fighting for the intellectual high
ground. We should not be put off by setbacks, they will occur. In the
end we have to believe that things will improve and if wer are right,
right will prevail.

Ian
-- 
New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications
www.theINGOTs.org

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