Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 10:57:23 -0800
From: Joshua Houk <jlhouk-AT-mindspring.com>
Subject: Agent Zero, Tad Kepley, and nominative prefixes





Chuck0 wrote:
 
> "Brian J. Callahan" wrote:

[snip]

> > Oh, and let's not forget how he ripped off the infoshop...
> 
> No, let's not forget that ugly incident.

And let's not forget how he ripped off a certain beret-wearing ex-lister out
of $300 or so.

I think there is such a thing as penance, so maybe the incident concerning
the, uh, disturbed MD youth makes up for the one regarding the infoshop...
even if it happened in the wrong order...

Silliness aside, let me take this chance to comment on a disturbing trend here
and elsewhere regarding the "bad boys" of our lil' culture. Seems like every
post or response to a post concerning Kepley *has* to mention the infoshop
incident or his drug use, and every post or response to a post about Bob Black
*has* to mention him ratting out Jim Hogshire or his nasty feud with the
Processed World crew.

Permit me to suggest the shocking concept that we've all done some pretty
shitty things in our lives.

I know that I've done some bad things, and I don't think I'm even stretching
to state that I'm sure everyone else on this list has done some pretty bad
things, too. Does this somehow negate what we've contributed to our community?
Do we bring up each other's bad histories whenever we discuss politics?

If it weren't for Bob Black, I'm not sure I would've discovered anarchism at
all, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that Black was the catalyst for the
greatest influx of american anarchs since the days of punk.

It was true for me, and for two friends of mine in college (one of whom still
has my copy of _The Abolition of Work_). You may say that he's not a nice
person, but his writing opened up a new way of thinking for me that has
immeasurably enriched my life. Bad people can still make good happen.

As far as Tad goes, I've read some of his posts in the archives and while
there's some things there I don't agree with, there's also some things I agree
quite strongly with. Sure, a shame that he's ripped people off, but just
because he has problems does not invalidate his thoughts, and to constantly
intone "drug user" and "scam artist" is little more than another way of saying
"your thoughts don't count 'cause you're a bad person". Very hypocritical,
since we're all bad people, we all have had problems, and we all *still* have
problems.

Just my thoughts, but I think I'm right.

All I have to say on the "Is Agent Zero Tad Kepley?" debate is that if Zero is
Tad, then I wish Zero would start writing like Tad.

Joshua H