A common comment in any debate involving computer science or software or technology is, “Let’s leave the politics out of it.” More than often, it is the losing side that makes this comment.
Over time, I have learnt that there is no such thing as a “non-political” decision. Every decision is opinionated (opinionated by the decision-makers). Every decision has a reason behind it – people don’t just take them randomly. Now while you may say that a decision was objectively taken to fit certain criteria, who guaranteers that the criteria to begin with are themselves non-opinionated?
I’m not trying to lecture in some kind of patronising holistic manner here. I’m speaking out of experience. Till about two years ago, I lived in my own virtual shell where I believed there is no politics. I believed there can be places where people work purely towards altruistic goals. Over time I realised that my views were not necessarily mutually-exclusive. Altruism requires politics. Mohandas Gandhi (for those who may disagree with his Mahatma status) may have been altruistic, but you don’t get independence without laws, and a government. You don’t rally people towards a common cause without being political.
“Open Source”, “Freedom”, “Copyrights”, “Usability”, etc. is all politics. That doesn’t mean either that being politics makes it bad, or that it’s not important or necessary. But you need to factually accept the fact that we live in a world with passions, whims, opinions, and egos.
And you know what? That’s what makes the world so great! Richard Stallman firmly believes in his altruistic vision where software shall be free. To come and tell me that he’s not a political guy would make me lose all respect for him. Of course he’s political. Of course he’s passionate about what he feels. On the other hand, I also know people who have been ruined by opening up their ideas and others making money out of them. Therefore there are people who passionately believe in intellectual property rights. Afterall, it takes hard work to publish a paper and if you’ve ever studied in the University of Pune, you’d know just how valuable “intellectual property” is. The value is as complex to measure as the intellectual property itself. Many a student has been harassed, tortured and abused before they could do anything productive. That’s the “price” of intellectual property, and it certainly doesn’t come cheap (let alone free).
It’s important to separate the election-oriented party-politics from politics in general. If we didn’t have passions, if we didn’t have opinions and if we didn’t have beliefs, humanity would have been lovable, cute, adorable and ultimately inconsequential pets of some alien species.
So think again before you try “taking the politics out of computer science”.
