Dear Euric, Han, Ezra, and All,
So often we think of metrication as a simple technical process, where all we
have to do is to convert some old measures into their metric (preferably SI)
equivalents, and the job is done.
What Euric, Han, and Ezra have shown, in their contributions below, is that
metrication has many dimensions in addition to technical issues.
I have said before, and no doubt I'll say again, that the technical issues
are only part of the metrication struggle: There are also:
1 Moral issues
Is it OK to say tell a work colleague that your cousin is 1.2 metres tall,
or would your listener insist on back conversion to old units, because old
units are the 'right' (morally right) units for human height.
2 Emotional issues
As Euric pointed out, below, perhaps a lot of the resistance to metrication
in the UK is a reaction to a loss of empire (many old units were called
'imperial' units remember) and many people still feel strongly about this
loss.
3 Political issues
Politicians will, as is their nature, leap onto any bandwagon that will give
them public notoriety and press coverage. The use of the 'metric martyrs'
issue by English politicians was a dramatic example � I doubted then, and I
doubt now, that these politicians really cared much one way or another what
units were used to manufacture their cars (all metric) or to build their
homes (all metric) as they spoke out against the metric system.
These three issues, perhaps among many others, are all operating strongly
whenever you mention or try to apply metrication. You might be focused on
the technical conversion issues but many other forces are also operating
(and these operate in an unsaid way as a background to the technical
conversion).
Also keep in mind that all the issues that impinge on a metrication process
operate on individual, group, company, industry, national, and international
levels.
For example, say an individual primary school teacher decides to convert
some area measures from square feet to square decimetres, what are the
implications of her decision on her students (individuals), group (school),
company (group of local schools), industry (state school system), national
(USA), and international (the rest of us). Are others going to see her
decision as right (Moral issues)? Will they feel good or bad about her
decision (Emotional issues)? Or will they regard her decision as politically
correct � is it right for the nation and the world (Political issues)?
When you are planning your next metrication campaign, you might like to
consider it in some sort of grid, perhaps like this:
technical moral emotional political
individual
group
company
industry
national
international
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Geelong, Australia
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication
matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words
subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
on 28/3/04 2:51 AM, Chimpsarecute at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Han,
>
> I don't think economic status is the reason for achievement or lack of it.
> It has more to do with arrogance and attitude. The so-called poor nations
> were colonies of the so-called rich nations. Metrication of former colonies
> was seen as an attitude of independence. The colonizing countries were
> empires and their arrogance dictates that their ways are the best and
> everyone must follow them.
>
> Many in the UK still think of them selves as being part of the empire and as
> rulers. They hate the EU and metric because it means that others are
> telling them what to do instead of the other way around. Metrication is a
> symbol that their ways are no longer the best and no longer accepted. They
> are being forced to adopt the ways of former enemies and rivals. This is
> something they can not bear.
>
> The US is now where the UK was just prior to WWII. The neo-con masters are
> trying to establish a new world order based on US domination. The Iraq war
> was meant to secure gulf state's oil under the dollar hegemony. The
> creation of the euro and the strong stability of the euro has threatened the
> dollar hegemony and has forced the neo-cons to accelerate their
> globalisation efforts. By globalisation, I'm not speaking of world trade,
> but neo-con control of the of the world and its economy.
>
> The neo-cons in an effort to secure vital assets under their control are
> putting into practice the means to limit democracy and to turn the US (and
> the world) into a police state under their control. If their agenda is
> pro-metric, then shortly after they assume full power, they will under force
> of severe punishment or death, metricate the US. If they are anti-metric,
> or neutral, then no enforced metrication will take place.
>
> Can you imagine being sent to a concentration camp for being a supporter of
> metric or even an opponent? It can happen and it will. See:
>
> http://www.angelfire.com/music2/fullcircle/con1.html
>
> http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/fema.htm
>
> Americans who have been so conditioned to believe that they live if the land
> of the free and home of the brave, and that their democracy is written in
> stone, will be the easiest people to enslave. While they are being lead by
> the tens of thousands into the camps, they will be shaking their heads in
> disbelief, because something this sinister just can not happen in the USA.
>
> How will they achieve this? By labelling all crimes as terrorism, and
> charging every criminal (in their eyes) as terrorists. If the neo-cons are
> in fact anti-metric, we could right now be on their list as a terrorist
> group and the USMA may be labelled a terrorist organisation. At least you
> Han, living in the EU would be immune from their control for a short time.
>
> Euric
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Saturday, 2004-03-27 06:47
> Subject: [USMA:29313] Re: Canadian metric muddle evident
>
>
>> This is exactly the reason why I do not believe in 'democracy' in such
>> cases. It leads to muddle and endless confusion for decades. I hope that
> it
>> will work in the USA, where many people are suspicious of what the
>> government does. It evidently does not work in Canada and Britain, and it
>> did not work in many nations that went metric in the past.
>> Many nations tried the voluntary approach, but as soon as metrication
>> reached the retail trades, trouble started and this is what happened in
>> Britain and Canada. In France it almost destroyed the metric system. Only
>> strict laws that forced trade (not private citizens!) to use metric ended
>> the muddle.
>> In Canada some conservative politicians thought of the ballot box and
>> climbed the anti-metric bandwagon, with this madness as a result.
>> I am glad that we have not adopted the euro the 'democratic' way. We would
>> have double pricing and double currencies for decades. On all other issues
>> we are democracies.
>> Years ago I read a Letter to the Editor in the Guardian, where a British
>> person reported that the street markets in Kenya went metric almost
>> overnight with no difficulties whatsoever, no consumer and traders
>> resistance. This also seems to have been the case in other Third World
>> countries. Why can these poor nations achieve what some rich nations
> cannot?
>>
>> Han
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Ezra Steinberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Sent: Friday, 2004-03-26 23:14
>> Subject: [USMA:29310] Canadian metric muddle evident
>>
>>
>>> Someone posted recently an article from a newspaper in the prairie
>> provinces arguing against the current Canadian metric muddle and
>> recommending going back to Imperial or completely forward to metric. (Hard
>> for me to see how they can go back given all the current investment in
>> metric, like speed limit and distance signs, and the fact that the last
>> hold-out, the USA, is inching -- yes, that's deliberate on my part ---
>> towards conversion.)
>>>
>>> I saw this quite clearly on the Science Channel last night on a program
>> that talked about monster trucks. (No, not what you see at the speedway on
>> Saturday night, but the huge multi-million dollar trucks that are used in
>> mining, etc.) They shot the program in Canada, and the engineers and other
>> folks interviewed kept bouncing around from metric to Imperial. The
> pattern
>> I thought I discerned was that they used metric for short distances
> (metres)
>> , liquid quantities (litres), and temperature (degrees Celsius) and
> Imperial
>> for longer distances (miles).
>>>
>>> Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like what most Brits seem to be
>> doing these days, n'est-ce pas? Don't they have a muddle there, too?? ;-)
>>>
>>> Still, there miles ahead of US! (Still deliberate ... )
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
