Brian Harvey scripsit: > In such a context, where there is no > principled basis for voting, no commitment to a common purpose, and no > right answers, but there /is/ a need to reach /some/ answer, simple > majority rule is the most practical system for reasons that, as you say, > the California budget process makes evident. > > I hope things have not reached that point among Schemers!
I think they have, with respect to goals rather than means. If we agreed on goals, then means would be a matter of engineering judgement. But in fact, the only major goal that all the electors seem to agree on is unity! Everything else is up for debate. "Christians agree that all Christians agree on the major points of their religion, and disagree only on the minor points. Which points are major and which are minor, unfortunately, is one of the disputed points!" > If we're going to look at real-world metaphors for decision-making, I > propose the Society of Friends (the Quakers). At a Friends' Meeting for > Business, decisions large and small are made on the basis that any change > requires 100% agreement. As a result, changes often don't happen until an > old generation dies off. Alternatively, they happen by split. Orthodox vs. Hicksite, Gurneyite vs. Wilburite, Beanite vs. Conservative, FGC vs. FUM vs. EFI. Sometimes the splits heal: the division of New York and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings into Orthodox and Hicksite factions in 1827 was repaired in 1955. But I don't think the Scheme community can wait that long. > P.S. "100% agreement" doesn't actually mean that everyone has to be > terrifically enthusiastic about the proposed new policy, just that > everyone has to feel comfortable with it. Quite so. The usual way to call the question in the IETF, which makes decisions by rough consensus, is "Is there anyone who can't live with this?" -- "Well, I'm back." --Sam John Cowan <[email protected]> _______________________________________________ r6rs-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.r6rs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/r6rs-discuss
