Anthony Towns asks, > Is there any reason why grammar, porn and spam debates > are attracting so much traffic? There is a reason, I think. Characterizable visions fundamentally conflict. Although innumerable subtle shadings of viewpoint are found, one does notice that, by and large, the same people tend to come down together on the same sides of such issues. Lacking distinctive uniforms, we nevertheless divide ourselves roughly onto two opposing sides: the left and the right. With reference to the three specific topics listed---grammar, porn and spam---and at the risk of inadvertently choosing inapt words, one might illustrate the two conflicting visions as follows. Left: grammar should not discriminate; porn offends some people but so does bible-kjv; censorship is evil. Right: grammar should not mangle the ancient tongue; pornography is evil; community demands standards of behavior. There are three statements on each side, and if on the surface you can agree with all six statements then you stand in good company. But what the words mean to you may not be quite what the same words mean to the guy on the other side; and even when the words do mean the same, the emphasis differs critically. Such conflicts of vision are no new thing under the sun. For the two sides even to discuss the specific issues sensibly is very, very hard. Each side finds the other not only incorrect but inherently unreasonable. Each tends to talk past the other, as it were. Frustration simmers. Agreement is not found because the topic discussed on the surface is seldom the real topic: it is proxy for a deeper matter of the heart. What the two sides agree on, in this venue, is the great principle of software freedom. On such an honorable common ground slumbers fitfully the long, uneasy truce. -- Thaddeus H. Black 508 Nellie's Cave Road Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA +1 540 961 0920, t@b-tk.org
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