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From: hinsenk@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA (Hinsen Konrad)
Subject: Re: talk & travel
In-Reply-To: livesey@solntze.engr.sgi.com's message of 18 Feb 1995 23:36:12 GMT
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Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 22:41:29 GMT
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In article <3i609c$m7f@fido.asd.sgi.com> livesey@solntze.engr.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) writes:

   I just happen to have this touching faith that when you leave people
   to run their own affairs, they will eventually recognize and correct
   their own mistakes.   

I do not share that faith. Learning from one's own mistake requires
a certain level of intelligence, which not all people have. And
for groups of people (instead of individuals), it is even worse.
Of course this has nothing to do with languages and the EU.
DISCLAIMER: This is my own opinion and not the collective faith of
Esperanto speakers.

   Now, if people like Mr Hinsen and Mr Rinson don't trust ordinary
   people to know what languages they wish to speak, and how to vote

I never said that. What they wish is, by definition, their personal
affair and no one could decide for them (but of course there are
ways to influence such wishes!).

I do claim, however, that most people do not have sufficient
knowledge to form an informed decision about international language
use. Just as most people do not know enough about economics to
decide about economic policies, although they may be perfectly
capable of administrating their household budget.

   their privilege.   After all, as we have been told, Esperanto fans
   "know more" about language than us plain folks.   

On average, Esperanto speakers know more about languages and their
international use than the general population. There are, of
course, other people with a higher-than-average knowledge in this
field. What's so surprising about this?

   But I think that they are idiots, because I think they have forgotten
   than the lesson of history seems to be that there is no such thing
   as a limited amount of benevolent dictatorship.

Who has ever proposed something like that? Certainly not me.
Asking the EU (or any government) to do something is by no
stretch of imagination a form of dictatorship. It is something
that happens every day in all democratic countries. Even in a
direct democracy without any government nothing can be decided
unless someone proposes it.

--
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Konrad Hinsen                     | E-Mail: hinsenk@ere.umontreal.ca
Departement de Chimie             | Tel.: +1-514-343-6111 ext. 3953
Universite de Montreal            | Fax:  +1-514-343-7586
C.P. 6128, succ. A                | Deutsch/Esperanto/English/Nederlands/
Montreal (QC) H3C 3J7             | Francais (phase experimentale)
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