[Fsuk-manchester] Overcoming Social Inertia,,by Richard Stallman

[Nigel Rolland]

Excited by the forthcoming visit to Manchester by RichardStallmanb I 
have been reading some of his writings,particularly in the philosophy 
section of the GNU site, You may already be familiar with this article 
but I thought I would share it with the group because for me the term 
"Social Inertia" paraphrases so well the prevalent conservatism in 
contemporary western society and the total resistance to any new 
progressive ideas including free software.
You can find the article at 
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/social-inertia.html

In solidarity
Nigel Rolland

Overcoming Social Inertia

by Richard Stallman

15 years have passed since the combination of GNU and Linux first made 
it possible to use a PC in freedom. During that time, we have come a 
long way. You can even buy a laptop with GNU/Linux preinstalled from 
more than one hardware vendor, although the systems they ship are not 
entirely free software. So what holds us back from total success?

The main obstacle to the triumph of software freedom is social inertia. 
You have surely seen its many forms. Many commercial web sites are only 
accessible with Windows. The BBC's iPlayer handcuffware runs only on 
Windows. If you value short-term convenience instead of freedom, you 
might consider these reasons to use Windows. Most companies currently 
use Windows, so students who think short-term want to learn Windows, and 
ask schools to teach Windows, which they do, thus leading many other 
students to use Windows. Microsoft actively nurtures this inertia: it 
encourages schools to inculcate dependency on Windows, and contracts to 
set up web sites, which then turn out to work only with Internet Explorer.

A few years ago, Microsoft ads argued that Windows was cheaper to run 
than GNU/Linux. Their comparisons were debunked, but it is worth noting 
the deeper flaw that their arguments reduce to social inertia: 
“Currently, more technical people know Windows than GNU/Linux.” People 
that value their freedom would not give it up to save money, but many 
business executives believe ideologically that everything they possess, 
even their freedom, should be for sale.

Social inertia consists of people giving in to social inertia. When you 
give in to social inertia, you become part of it; when you resist it, 
you reduce it. We conquer inertia by identifying it, and resolving not 
to be part of it.

Here is where the philosophical weakness of most of our community holds 
us back. Most GNU/Linux users have never even heard the ideas of freedom 
that motivated the development of GNU, so they still judge matters based 
on short-term convenience rather than on their freedom. This makes them 
vulnerable to being led by the nose, through social inertia.

To change this, we need to talk about free software and freedom — not 
merely practical benefits such as cited by open source. Thus we can 
build our community's strength and resolve to overcome social inertia.

--
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