Re: Need of ‘stubborn governance’

[Dmitry Alexandrov]

Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support> wrote:
> Somebody mentioned first "stubborn". In my opinion word stubborn in relation 
> to RMS does not describe his character well, as stubborn is according to 
> Wordnet dictionary: tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious 
> unwillingness to yield -- while other synonyms could maybe fit better, maybe 
> such as "uncompromising" or others, I cannot find better word. Stubborn is is 
> not accurate enough.

I am not able to judge about subtleties of word meanings in English, yet I used 
the phase ‘stubborn governance’ above, and thus have to clarify how I 
understand it and why ‘uncompromising’ is not the same.

They are not the same, because they belong to different axes: ‘uncompromising’ 
is about what to position to have, whereas ‘stubborn’ is about how to make it 
accepted.  For instance, authoritarian leadership might be uncompromising as 
well.

The key pattern for a ‘stubborn’ leader is to repeat the arguments in every way 
and at every occasion over and over until the opponents start to see the point 
in them or are just tired and decide that their position is not really worth be 
argued for any longer.  Not as effective and prompt as authoritarian way, but 
if evade the discussion is not an option, it usually works.

I am not sure, how well it describes RMSʼs way to handle things, but such a 
manner of steering is often necessary to successful lead a volunteer-based 
organization on a long distance, since it always permit those who yielded to 
save face — they were not coerced, but persuaded.

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature