Deposing Dictators

[David C. Ullrich]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2001 14:05:34 +0000 (UTC),
<margg at ux-ma160-18.csv.warwick.ac.uk> wrote:

[...]
>2) The level of dissent required to change the opinion of the BDFL
>perhaps calls into question the 'B'.  

Nonsense. Without saying anything about who's right and who's
wrong, or about whether the D is B or not: To be "benevolent"
towards someone is to act in a way consistent with that
person's best interests. This is not the same thing as
giving the person what he asks for, not by a long shot.

(My opinion is if he wants to keep his position he
should give _everyone_ exactly what they want. Of course
this would require several thousand different versions
of Python...)

Why in the world should "level of dissent" have any
bearing on anything? Deciding moral issues by taking
a vote is one thing - deciding what's best on a 
technical issue by taking a vote is silly.



David C. Ullrich