Dermot McNally writes: > Not at all - I know of no form of democracy that distinguishes between > grudging acceptance or evangelical zeal. In particular, in direct > democracy such as a referendum, small groups always design the > question that will be put to the electorate, tuning it as required so > it will command the support of a sufficient majority while still > achieving the goal. > > If a sufficient majority votes yes (and this is often also referred to > as "supporting" the referendum), it is carried. If close to 99% votes > yes then it is common to talk of overwhelming support. Will some > voters be grumbling that they didn't like how the question was posed? > Sure they will. But the result is still binding, because that's how > democratic decisions work.
Silly Dermot, nobody voted. People who wished their edits to remain, or to continue mapping knowing that their edits will remain, accepted the license -- BECAUSE THEY HAD NO CHOICE. Let me say that again, because this isn't the first time or the first person who has misapprehended the situation: BECAUSE THEY HAD NO CHOICE. Let us not speak of democracy. Let us not speak of the mandate of the masses. Let us speak of a small group of people who control the domain names and servers, and let us point out that their choice means more than the choice of any ten times as many people. Let us not speak of majority rule. Let us speak of rule by the elite. Has it ever been otherwise? If you don't like this posting ... consider that you're probably one of the elite. :P -- --my blog is at http://blog.russnelson.com Crynwr supports open source software 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815 Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | Sheepdog _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
