[bestbits] [governance] Whether to participate in NETmundial Initiative - RFC

[Norbert Bollow]

Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:

> Anriette expressed respect for the JNC position, as have many others.
> It would be good if this respect for differing opinions was
> reciprocated.

I would like to hereby express my sincere respect for all activists
and for all of organized civil society and for all others who work on
the basis of values of social justice, human rights, democracy and the
rule of law, and whose objectives include to improve the lives of
people.

However I do not think that such respect implies that all communication
must always explicitly express this respect, nor that it would imply
that pointed questions and a focus on aspects of criticism are not
sometimes warranted. While we may disagree in specific situations on
whether something is deserving of criticism, I think we all agree in
principle that there are situations in the world where things are
seriously going wrong and which can't be expected to improve in the
absence of criticism.

Of course it is important for such criticism to be expressed within the
boundaries of what is acceptable conduct in the context of democratic
discourse. (A reasonably good characterization of where these
boundaries should be considered to be in the context of an email
discussion list is expressed in the IGC's “posting rules”, which the
IGC unfortunately seems to be institutionally incapable of enforcing or
otherwise living up to -- this has been the case even when a serious
attempt to achieve that was made, as I did during my time as IGC
co-coordinator.) Criticism which violates these boundaries is indeed
incompatible with the principle of mutual respect even in the presence
of potentially serious disagreements.

Specifically, I do not think that the JNC position of “we think it
shouldn't be done, and we criticize those who do it” is any more a
disrespectful stance than a position of “we take note that JNC thinks
it shouldn't be done and we respect that but be still do it” which is
also not disrespectful.

Greetings,
Norbert
JNC co-convenor