Social, Economic, and Political Influences on Dozenism

One of the benefits of this dozenal forum compared to another one is that this Base Dozen Forum may permit a greater extent of freedom of expression on controversial views relevant to dozenism, whereas another forum may discourage political sentiments as a banning offence.

I myself am interested more in the mathematical discussion around dozenism, have not engaged in overt political expression on Dozens Online, and I can understand how to some of like mind, political expression may be off-putting. Not everyone has the same degree of freedom of expression, due to the potential effect of political statements on such direly essential interactions to life as affiliations, business, and employment. Some people who may have views on issues relating to dozenism may be reluctant to become involved because they feel inhibited by the impact of perceptions. Partly for this reason, I am creating this topic here so that anyone who wants to can argue about political aspects surrounding dozenism without invading the academic topics of science and rational enquiry.

Because I lack political involvement, I am in a privileged position to observe and remark upon this subject in relation to dozenism as an objective outsider. Much of the heated rows in dozenism have centered around the possibility of cultural patriotism leading to preference for approving of one side or another in the battle about metrological systems, for example. Some have noted that the major dozenal societies belong to the English-speaking nations in Britain and America, and see the argument for retention of Imperial and Customary measures as rooted in rejection of the decimal metric system originating in continental Europe. I think that dozenists need to be honest about addressing these concerns by being able to openly counteract and comment on reasons for why some people may be afraid to associate with dozenism as though it were connected to ideologies to which not everyone is a proponent. While for me, dozenism is just a mathematical idea unconnected to ulterior motives, I would like to enable the debate on historical and current factors possibly promoting or hindering dozenism. By elucidating these matters, it may be possible to dispel fears people may have had regarding dozenism and also understand divisive behaviour threatening our academic freedom for sharing insights in mathematics and science.

I can see how some influential dozenist may want to avoid any mention of political interests in public dozenal discourse to protect dozenism and maintain relevant content to the dozenal topics, but the reality is that the majority of visitors and members to another dozenal forum defending views contrary to a kind of fake consensus have been vigorously attacked and ejected from that forum through a number of measures such as long-term banning, removal of on-topic comments and replies to "off-topic" threads to which they bear no relation in subject content, and provocative ad hominem assaults that are supposed to be against the rules of the forum, though apparently not applicable to every offender.

Historical Origins of Dozenism
While there are abundant instances of dozenal divisions and aggregations for units of measurement and commercial quantities historically and persisting, evidence for the number twelve as the general base of mathematical notation socially has either never existed or has not been preserved in the historical records. We can for this reason confine the historical discussion to metrology without dealing in substantial detail with the intricacies of the mathematics and symbolical design considerations arising from base twelve.

In essence, as far as history known to us is concerned, the mathematical base in calculations was always decimal, or at least not dozenal, despite the concurrent use of dozenal increments in metrology in the same societies. Yes, it is true that the Romans extensively used dozenal divisions for named units of measurement, yet their notation was based on ten rather than twelve. The Babylonians had many divisions by multiples of twelve, but their system of notation was a type of sexagesimal resembling a truncated form of decimal, and not dozenal. In other cultures the pattern was similar: while there were dozenal multiples and divisions in metrology, the method of counting by words or symbols was founded on decimal. This fact is a great disappointment for dozenists who look back to the past for assurance from the authority of tradition. It is perhaps a point that is not being admitted and advertised as readily as the several instances of the number twelve between named metrological units.

It seems therefore that the origins of the debate for dozenal are to be found not in the remote past or antiquity, but rather more recently as inherited from the time when attempts began to amend the mismatch between mathematical base and base of the units of measurement by reform of the metrological system. I am of course referring to the instigation of the decimal metric system. Its introduction is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment but also the French Revolution. It is tempting therefore to draw the conclusion that to the minds of those in countries that had not yet adopted on a legal basis the decimal metric system it was viewed as foreign, from an adverse political opponent on the continent, and even possibly contrary to monarchism, the establishment of religion and its official endorsement by the state, an aristocracy, and anything else overthrown by the revolution. In effect, the metric system may have a propensity to be assumed to be against the establishment and unconservative! The political ramifications of this conclusion can hardly be denied to subliminally influence political attitudes to dozenism even in our present times.

In a following chapter, there is to be discussed the sphere of American Imperialism and the British exit from the European Union.