From: "Tony Taylor" <tmtaylor-AT-grecian.net>
Subject: RE: AUT: Remove Scott from this list!
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 00:22:56 +0200


Gra, Harald and all

I'm not sure if I've much of a right to say anything at all. I'm a lurker,
who has got a great deal from the autopsy list, but who has failed to give
anything back. This is not just down to petit-bourgeois sloth {?}. I've
scribbled many a contribution to debates, but I'm slow and get bogged down
as I type my beautifully crafted response and thus it never sees the light
of day! Indeed one such abortive offering was written in response to Scott's
sloppy assertions about E.P Thompson and Cornelius Castoriadis from long
before Xmas. And, therefore, like others I'm pretty weary with much of what
Scott puts forward. Having been a Trot in the 70's and having had my last
flirtation with the seduction of its certainties during the 84/85 Great
Strike in England [ironically through the Workers Power Group, highly
thought of by Scott] I do know the litany pretty well. It's a bit like the
memories of my Christian upbringing. Give me the first line of the hymn or
the Transitional Programme and I can still sing the tune, rather eloquently
if I say so myself! The dilemma is whether the melody chimes with the
dissonance of reality. So I do find Scott's contributions frustrating in
their imposition of formulas upon an historical and contemporary process of
struggle, which does not obey 'scientific' laws.

This said, I am dismayed by the proposal that Scott is scum, who needs to be
thrown off the list. For what it's worth I'll say to Scott, "you need to
have much more sensitivity to a list that is clearly so opposed to the
classic Leninist programme. If you barrage people every day in the way you
do, you'll close down any possibility of dialogue. Make fewer postings,
listen more and who's to know? If you don't, people will just keep pressing
'delete'.

Tony Taylor [late of Wigan, which is close to Liverpool so I have fond
memories of exploring with Gra our past Trotskyist excesses and our present
state of confused, yet enlightened consciousness! As of now a resident of
Crete, Greece}. Will post something on the Feb 15 demo in Chania, Crete,
where there is a NATO base. That is if I understand events well enough. My
Greek still leaves much to be desired.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
[mailto:owner-aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu]On Behalf Of Dave
Graham
Sent: 12 February 2003 23:09
To: Harald Beyer-Arnesen
Cc: aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: AUT: Remove Scott from this list!


Dear Harald [and everyone else]

A long time ago Ben Seattle made a very interesting argument about how a
new movement would clarify its ideas - using cyberspace. One of his
proposals was what he called a 'bozo filter' - people posting stuff that
most others disagreed with would after a while simply find their posts
ignored so that their social 'space' would become much reduced.

If I recall correctly [and Ben may still be lurking on this list so he can
explain it better] he thought/argued that this was a necessary evil, part
of the process of self-clarification that any movement must do to shake of
'the muck of ages' and renew itself.

At the moment there is too much noise in the signal to noise ratio - but I
feel we cannot turn off the transmitter in the way you suggest.

As a matter of interest how many people on the list are using the delete
button as the 'bozo filter'?

I normally find myself in agreement with you Harald [and I say that never
having thought of myself as an anarchist nor an anarcho syndicalist] but
not this time - is it possible that Scott has simply tried your patience
too much and goaded you into this latest response?

Gra


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Nate Holdren" <nateholdren-AT-hotmail.com>
> To: <haraldba-AT-online.no>
> Sent: 12. februar 2003 16.52
> Subject: Re: AUT: Remove Scott from this list!
>
>
>
> To Nate, Laura Thomas and all
>
> The delete button functions for an occasionally post.
> But at this stage about half of the posts to this list
> comes from Scott. Had Scott showed any respect
> for the intention of this list at all, and even at all been
> interested in having real discussions, I might have
> seen it differently, but what he does is to
> effectively sabotage this space.  Quanity is not un-
> important.
>         I do not know how Steve Wright and others that
> put up this list view it, but at least I see it as attack on
> our freedom. There is no other list I know of quite like
> this one I know of, at least not for those of us who are
> pretty ignorant when it comes to reading and writing
> in Italian.   And it is not like there where no other
> places Scott can post his sermons for those interested
> in "discussing" with him.
>
> Harald
>
> PS. As for IWW and World War I, it is a bit more complex
> story and context -- real life often is, and IWW never
> was perfect. But I see no use in discussinf this at all in
> such absurd terms as some claimed Stalinist and
> Kautskyist IWW policies.
>         But part of the story is also this, the view of an editorial
> Tulsa "World," an organ of the oil companies:"
>
>         "The first step in the whipping of Germany is to
>         strangle the IWW's. Kill them, just as you would kill any
>         other kind of snake: Don't scotch 'em, kill 'em dead.
>          It is not time to waste money on trials and continuance
>         and things like that. All that is necessary is the
>         evidence of the firing squad."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>      --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
>





--
Dave Graham
<davgraham-AT-merseymail.com>

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