Oh, how soon we forget!
“The [Nazi party] should not become a constable of public opinion, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of the masses, but their master!”
Adolf Hitler
“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong”
Voltaire
Editorial comments regarding the latest Mr. Van Dusen commentary:
I believe that the CFC president Van Dusen owes me an apology for his latest spurious remarks on the CFC message board www.chesscanada.info/forum.
The above quotation by Adolf Hitler was never intended nor directed towards Mr. Van Dusen’s person, nor was an attempt to do so by association, but rather was posted by me as I considered it a particularly relevant observation given the direction that the interesting dialogue between Mr. Craft and Mr. Van Dusen had taken on the above message board.
Mr. Van Dusen’s position in the debate centred around what I consider an inflexible, arrogant and self-righteous bias:
” It is my opinion that the CFC needs to have a policy on public posting…Much of what passes for comment on public boards brings the Chess Federation of Canada and chess in Canada into disrepute….The policy will be developed and approved by the governors.”
Mr. Craft’s position was contrary to the president’s … one of defence of free speech and stressed: ”Any way you slice it this is an attempt, upon the recommendation of the President, to stifle debate, censor and censure criticism.”
The theme of what constitutes public opinion, free speech and the role of self appointed organizations to monitor that right is important not only in the preservation of democracy, but in the actual practice of that democracy.
Hence the quotation by Hitler is particularly relevant , and this was my first attempt to wade into this heated discussion.
That my contribution should be misinterpreted as a personal attack is Mr. Van Dusen’s right and privilege. Taken together with his prejudiced comments of yesterday about my blog, I leave it to the readers to judge for themselves his integrity and his motives.
I leave this editorial with the insight that Mr. Van Dusen does not speak on hehalf of any of the CFC members’ rights as citizens of a free and democratic country, but that he is instead a lowly and unimportant president of a poor, little known and ineffective chess organization, going thru painful financial and restructuring convulsions…Mr. Van Dusen should better use his energy on the task he was elected to do rather than wade into deep waters where he will surely be swallowed by fish much bigger than himself!
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS