Re: On, and on, and on... was: Mechanism, not policy [was: Attribute uniqueness...]

On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, David G. Durand wrote:

> We already had a vote of the membership, which is the usual way to 
> resolve an issue when consensus is failing due to disagreements in 
> principle. It's rare that anyone can happily compromise on their 
> principles, and that's why voting is available: to decide the 
> question when someone simply has to lose the argument, and a decision 
> has to be made. We could also have an autocratic resolution, where a 
> choice is simply imposed from the top-down.

As I have said before: when consensus methods fail, there are four
choices: autocracy, oligarchy, democracy, or apathy.

-- 
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
	"You need a change: try Canada"  "You need a change: try China"
		--fortune cookies opened by a couple that I know