[Freedombox-discuss] Fwd: Translating expressions...

[James Vasile]

On Tue, 24 May 2011 22:27:00 -0400, Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg at fifthhorseman.net> wrote:
> On 05/24/2011 03:31 PM, James Vasile wrote:
> > On Tue, 24 May 2011 16:05:04 -0300, Nicolás Reynolds <fauno at kiwwwi.com.ar> wrote:
> >>> First of all is the use of "Free World"[0] to refer to a certain sector of
> >>> the world. As the Wikipedia reference says, it was coined during the Cold
> >>> War to refer to US and other non-communist countries. In case you don't
> >>> know, during those times the US government and it's agencies[1] not only
> >>> promoted unfreedomness in Latin America and other countries, but also
> >>> supported and trained dictatorships that tortured and murderer people por
> >>> political reasons (Argentina, for instance, has 30.000 missing persons and
> >>> 500 kids that were illegally adopted by military officers, but only 100 of
> >>> which were returned to their families during the past 26 years). So "Free
> >>> World" actually doesn't mean anything like it to us.
> > 
> > When Eben speaks of the "Free World", I take him to mean "the community
> > of people who so love freedom that they love free software and the
> > culture of sharing".
> 
> If this is what he means, he must realize that he's making an allusion
> (probably humorous) to the concept the OP refers to.  I can see why such
> an allusion wouldn't translate or internationalize well, unfortunately.
> 
> There's a lot of political and cultural baggage in the phrase "the free
> world", even within the USA (it evokes Ronald Reagan for me; not exactly
> a non-polarizing figure).  It's probably a good idea to think through
> how this sort of language would play out globally before deciding that
> we really want to commit to using it.
> 
> 	--dkg
> 

My view is that by referencing the Free World and all its negative
connotations, he highlights what we're building by comparison: true
freedom.  The kind of bottom-up power that makes it harder for
governments to abuse and hegemony to form.

I do take your point and I'll pass the feedback to him.

-James