W3C Internationalization Workshop Eric Brunner-Williams
Statement of Position wampumpeag, llc
January, 11 2002
Universalism Considered Harmful
<w3c-i18n-ws-ebw-sop-00.txt>
Introduction
Since the IAB Character Workshop in 1996, the IETF has attempted to
substitute one abstract character repertoire for text-based protocols
with another, while maintaining universal scope. Whatever the
advantages and failings of ASCII, or UNICODE, this approach is
consistently "universalist". Universalism is not without problems,
and it is worth sharing something well-known to legally educated
American Indians, and lifted in-bulk from its source [Algebra]:
The Pope and the Mongols
On August 15, 1246, an assembly of the loyal subjects of the greatest
empire the world had known -- greater than even that of Rome in its
Imperial Age -- gathered on a plain in central Asia called the Golden
Horde by its Mongol Lords.
One of the few Westerners to witness this grand event, Friar John of
Plano Carpini, has provided us with a partial roster of those in
attendance;
"Duke Jerozlaus of Susdal in Russia and several chiefs of the
Kitayans and Solangi, also two sons of the King of Georgia, the
ambassador of the Caliph of Baghdad, who was a Sultan, and more
than ten other sultans of the Saracens."
Besides these notables, Friar John also recorded the presence of four
thousand envoys, all carrying tribute and gifts of gold.
This throng had gathered under a gigantic tent, "supported by columns
covered with gold plates and fastened to other wooden beams with
nails of gold," to witness the coronation of the newly-elected Great
Khan of the Mongol empire, Guyak, grandson of Ghengis Khan. At the
time of Guyak's enthronement the empire of the Mongols stretched from
the shores of the Pacific in China, across Asia, to the very borders
of Western Christendom.
Imagine Friar John's awe and trepidation as he dwelled upon this
spectacle, thinking of the gruesome trail to Guyak's camp consisting
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of the "many skulls and bones of dead men lying on the ground like
dung." Such sights must have weighed heavily upon John's mind as he
contemplated his portfolio as the ambassador of Western Christendom.
John had been selected to deliver two "gifts" in the form of letters
written by Pope Innocent IV to the Great Khan of the Mongols. These
letters, at least in the mind of their author, contained messages of
utmost importance to both the Christian and Mongol empires.
Christian Europe had grown increasingly alarmed at the rapacious
advance of the Mongol armies toward its borders. Moscow, Kiev, in
fact virtually all of Christian Russia had fallen under the brutal
yoke of Mongol domination. Worse, brief but decimating forays had
been staged into the soft underbelly of Western Christendom --
Poland, Moravia, even as far west as Austria and Hungary. Their
advance had only been halted by the death of Ugedy Khan and
subsequent rivalry between Mongol princes. The succession of Guyak
to the position of Great Khan, however, had ended all dissension in
the empire for the immediate future. In addition, Christendom was
particularly vulnerable at this time due to the divisive feud within
the Holy Roman Empire between Innocent and the Emperor, Frederick II.
The Pope indeed had justifiable cause to worry about the Great Khan's
future intentions towards the West. His letters were intended to
discover those intentions, and to inform the Khan about the Pope's
own thoughts towards the Khan and his subjects.
Innocent's letters informed the Great Khan that before "rising from
the dead and ascending into Heaven" the Creator had selected a vicar
on earth, to whom the Creator had "committed the care of all souls."
As successor to this vicariate, Innocent was bound to assure the
salvation of all men, including the Great Khan, and to lead those in
error into the way of truth. Therefore, the Pope had made available
Friar John, the bearer of this message, to further inform the Khan of
the truth of the Christian faith. Innocent further informed Guyak
that the Mongol's warring and plunder had violated the divine natural
law by which the human race is united with the very elements "which
go to make up the world machine." Innocent enjoined the Khan to
desist in "breaking the bond of natural ties" by ceasing to persecute
Christians, and "to conciliate by a fitting penance the wrath of
divine Majesty."
Guyak listened politely to the Pope's message, and then gave Friar
John a response to return to Innocent. The Great Khan's letter
commanded the Pope to "come at once to serve and wait upon us. At
that time, I shall recognize your submission." As for Innocent's
claim that he was God's representative on earth, Guyak replied that
"the eternal God has slain and annihilated these lands and peoples,
because they neither adhered to Ghengis Khan, nor to the Khagan (the
Supreme Ruler), both of whom have been sent to make known God's
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command." According to the Khan, the Pope could not be certain he
was God's agent on earth, given that the Mongol's successes at war
could not have occurred if "contrary to the command of God."
Innocent's response to Guyak's command is contained in a follow-up
letter that warned the Khan that the Pope was now even more upset
about the condition of the Mongol's souls. Having heard the truths
of Christianity, they could no longer plead ignorance of the true
faith when God called them for judgment. And history records that
neither's armies were provided the chance to test these opposing
visions of truth.
MYTHOLOGIES
As legally educated American Indians know all too well, for nearly
one thousand years, European-derived legal thought has steadfastly
adhered to a highly systematized mythological structure in
confronting its experience of normatively divergent peoples. The
foundational premises of this structure have always assumed first,
the immanence of the European's worldview, and second, the rightness
and necessity of subjugating and assimilating other peoples to that
worldview. Admittedly, the first premise has been shared in varying
forms by all great cultures. Only the European, however, has sought
to enable himself to actualize the second premise on a world scale.
CONSEQUENCES
This "feature" isn't restricted to theology, but extends to encoding
standards, as any informed observer of national and vendor coding
standards, particularly Asian coding standards, is aware. Over the
past five years, the IAB has attempted to engage itself, the IETF,
and the IRTF in a series of recommendations. Of interest to the
participants of this W3C I18N Workshop, are these three (unmet)
recommendations from [WR]:
C: The IAB should trigger the production of a perspectives
document on the character set work that has gone on in the past
and relate it to the current framework.
D: Full ISO 10646 has a sufficiently broad repertoire, and scope
for further extension, that it is sufficient for use in Internet
Protocols (without excluding the use of existing alternatives).
There is no need for specific development of character set
standards for the Internet.
E: The IAB should encourage the IRTF to create a research group to
explore the open issues of character sets on the Internet. This
group should set its sights much higher than this workshop did.
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Participants are noticed that in the past two years, the IDN WG has
attempted to apply the Universal (Euro-centric) Truth of Unicode, and
its HAN Unification and other warts to the problem of domain names
currently being restricted to a subset of ASCII. As this WG has
trenched its way into its over-due unmarked grave, it most recently
"solved" the problem of Simplified to Traditional Chinese
equivalences by ignoring the Chinese.
Revisiting Friar John's ass.
PROPOSED AREA OF WORK
Very simply, we abandon the illusion of Universalism, and attempt to
discover, negotiate, and accomodate, normative variation. The work
will not be easy, but we will obey national speed limits, and other
limits to European ambitions.
References
[Algebra] Robert Williams, Jr., The Algebra of Federal Indian Law:
The Hard Trail of Decolonizing and Americanizing the White Man's
Jurisprudence, 1986, WIS. L. REV.
[WR] Weider, C., Preston, C., Simonsen, K., Alvestrand, H, Atkinson,
R., Crispin, M., and P. Svanberg, "The Report of the IAB Character
Set Workshop held 29 February - 1 March, 1996", RFC 2130, April 1997.
Author's Address
Eric Brunner-Williams
wampumpeag, llc
1415 Forest Ave.,
Portland, ME 04103
Email: brunner@world.std.com
Status of this Memo
This document is statement of position and is covered by the W3C
INVITED EXPERT AND COLLABORATORS AGREEMENT.
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