Re: History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes

[Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org>]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Tagliamonte <paultag@debian.org> writes:

    Paul> Hello, Debianites, Allow me, if you will, to talk a bit about
    Paul> something that's been on my mind a bit over the last handful
    Paul> of years in Debian. It's something that's pretty widely
    Paul> circulated in particular circles, but I don't think I've seen
    Paul> it on a Debian list before, so here's some words that I've
    Paul> decided to put together.

Paul, thanks for bringing this up.
I think we should employ caution in approaching something like this, and
I appreciate your dedication to Debian by encouraging us to carefully
approach the situation and not to focus too much on any specific
discussion.
    Paul> During World War II, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services)[1]
    Paul> distributed a manual[2] (the Simple Sabotage Field Manual),
    Paul> which was used to train "citizen-saboteur" resistance
    Paul> fighters, some of whom were told, not to pick up arms, but to
    Paul> confound the bureaucracy by tying it up with an unmanageable
    Paul> tangle of "innocent" behavior.

This is really interesting.
I don't have time to explore how this relates to my personal experience
now, and perhaps this is not quite far enough in the process to do that.
Do you think that we, here have the adequate authority to explore this?
Perhaps we should organize a committee of those interested--perhaps even
augmented by a few who still have some concerns-- to make
recommendations to the DPL on a group of individuals who could
adequately study these issue?
I want to make sure we pursue this at the right level and with all
appropriate deliberation.

I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist.
I am also considering your message in a more serious  manner, but I
don't have any quick thoughts there.

--Sam