[H-GEN] politics at Humbug

[Peter John McConnell]

On Fri, 06 Sep 2013 11:51:15 +1000
Rudolf Vyborny <rvyborny at iinet.net.au> wrote:

> [ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug
> and     ] [ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses
> will vanish. ]
> 

> I am of the strong view that professional societies should not become
> political forums and as societies should refrain from taking stands on
> political issues. There are long standing tradition in this regard for
> all professional societies I know of. I would regard  Humbug as a
> professional society although not all members belong to the same
> profession.  There are also good reasons for my position, membership
> of
> professional societies is varied and therefore any professional
> society
> has no rights to express a political opinion in the name of all its
> members. (Or give an impression that  an overwhelming majority takes a
> particular political view.) Regrettably, some of the most respected
> societies (e.g. British Royal Society) recently violated this
> tradition
> but all of it achieved was eroding  its own prestige. I could go on
> and
> on on this topic but let me give only one more reason, politics at  a
> professional society and in Humbug particularly  spoils the congenial
> atmosphere.

I was under the impression that professional associations were their to
champion the cause of their proffession to govern ment.

IE the AMA and institute of Australian engineers

The National Broadband a Net censorship are of direct relevance to
Linux Uses (and possibly freebsd users as well)

regards

Peter