Raise-consciousness-howto (was Re: valinux goes propietary?)

[MJ Ray]

Giovanni Biscuolo <giovanni.biscuolo at libero.it> writes:

> Maybe the best thing we should do is to talk to as many people as
> possible to try to explain our point of view (hoping we have well
> understood and share Free Software philosophy, you know: "Sometimes we
> can be our own worst enemies. I know I am.").
> If they are willing to hear, there is a chanche for us to raise
> consciousness.

That is quite the point I was trying to make.  Yes, we need to talk to
people, but we also need to know how to persuade people.  There's no
point in talking to people if we're going to each individually make
the same mistakes over and over again as we learn to talk about
software freedoms in a language that people can comprehend, then we're
probably going to fail.

Remember that one piece of bad persuasion usually outweighs nine
pieces of good (roughly like the saying "a happy customer will tell
one person... a bad one will tell anyone who will listen").  We can't
afford to each add several pieces of bad persuasion before we start
adding good ones.  It's painful to watch, too.

> It is not possible to have an effective "Raise consciousness HOWTO".

Not in the sense of an exact plan, no, but I think there needs to be
something to set advocates off in a good direction rather than heading
out with flame-throwers, as many are inclined to do.  (Why do
fundamentalists like invoking fire and brimstone so much?  It always
seems that way.)