COMM: Re: [Sigia-l] community

[Chris Chandler]

"CD Evans" wrote:

> We're not a bunch of idiots. We'd just like to make better systems. We
> all have our own specialization, but as we have found they can
> sometimes be at odds with each other. That doesn't mean we have to
take
> sides though. We can act like adults and, perhaps, keep topics to
> 'plain-english'?


In plain english,  "community" doesn't mean everyone gets along.

When I studied Urban Planning, the radical elders of my school preached
the virtues of "community-based planning" (a distant relative of UCD) as
a correction to the long history of technocratic arrogance in the field,
which, to a large extent was valuable and made sense.

However, as I began to have direct experiences with local community
organizations throughout southern california, I came to appreciate the
"darkside" to the myth of community.

The communities, which were supposed to guide the planning process, were
fractured and fractious no matter how you drew the boundary: those who
lived in a particular area; those who came together to support or oppose
a particular issue; local planning boards; the community of the school,
etc etc at whatever scale you happened to examine -- there were
political divisions between group members. They bickered constantly
amongst themselves, and often IMO, mis-represented the opinions of the
most vocal or forceful among them as the unified voice of the
"community."

Looking at it another way: My mother lives in Greencastle Indianna. She
loves her small town community, but she dislikes some of her neighbors,
hates the gossiping in the checkout at the grocery, and disagrees
vehemently with the town's policy of cutting down old trees.

In plain english, "community" also implies being stuck together with
people you may not like. This is not a bad thing!

Perhaps because I've spent a lot of time recently in Celebration
Florida[1], I would much rather put up with a bit of bickering and
honest disagreements, than I would limitations on people's speech.

I do think that it is not only polite, but beneficial to the community
for people to add metadata to the Subject line giving an indication of
what lies within. Based on your message, I propose that messages about
the list be prefaced COMM, for community.


-cc


[1] http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Celebration,%20Florida