File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_2004/foucault.0411, message 59


Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 18:57:05 -0500
Subject: Re: The foucault list - PLEASE READ
From: Farideh Seihoun <fseihoun-AT-juno.com>


I'm just sorry but I understand your frustration. Thank you for years of
good work F
On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 12:26:25 -0500 (EST) "malgosia askanas"
<ma-AT-panix.com> writes:
> Dear All,
> 
> This is to let you know that in about two weeks I intend to close 
> down the 
> foucault list.  This decision is part of a wider set of decisions 
> having to 
> do with the present circumstances of the Spoon Collective - which, 
> as you 
> probably know, has been running this list. 
> 
> The Spoon Collective, of which I am the sole surviving founder, has 
> been 
> operating continually for over 10 years.  Of the 8 people who 
> currently 
> constitute it, 3 have been in it basically from the very beginning, 
> and almost 
> all the others for almost as long.  
> 
> When the Spoon Collective was originally created, a crucial aspect 
> of its life
> was our own passionate involvement in the lists we created or took 
> over.  
> As  vehicles for bringing into mutual contact and confrontation 
> thinking 
> people from all over the computerized world - people from 
> astoundingly 
> different walks of life and with astoundingly different ways of 
> thinking, 
> but with a shared passion for more accurate perception and deeper 
> understanding
> - these lists seemed to us to present a stupendous potential for 
> evolving 
> new modes of thought and new modes of life.  And it is essential to 
> note that 
> when we were motivated by a thirst for new modes of thought and 
> life, it was 
> for _ourselves_ that we wanted them.  Our project was not about 
> providing a 
> public or academic or political service, discharging a societal 
> duty, or 
> providing platforms for this or that political organization or 
> orientation - 
> rather, it was about changing life - the life we think and live - 
> right at the
> present moment.
> 
> Over the years, however, our relationship with our lists gradually 
> changed,
> and we now find our collective endeavor basically reduced to an 
> indifferent
> performance of a not-excessively-bothersome piece of labor.  The 
> reasons for 
> this are undoubtedly complex - the first and simplest one, perhaps, 
> being that 
> the same group of people has been doing the same thing for 10 years. 
>  If our
> goal had been less the stability of existing lists and more the 
> preservation
> of our own passion, we probably could have done better.  In any 
> case, we find
> ourselves a bunch of burnt out and apathetic bureaucrats.
> 
> I personally find thie prolongation of this situation no longer 
> tolerable or 
> sensical.  As a result, I have (1) announced that I am quitting the 
> Spoon 
> Collective; (2) decided to close down a number of lists that I have 
> been 
> responsible for; and (3) declared the end of the Spoon Collective as 
> a
> certain historic formation, and stipulated that the name no longer 
> be used for
> whatever the present members may undertake in the future.
> 
> I, of course, cannot judge the value of any particular list from 
> any
> perspective but my own - and neither would I want to.  Only each of 
> you can
> decide whether you value this list enough to step in and recreate it 
> somewhere
> else.  If any of you wants to do this, I can make available to you a 
> copy
> of the subscription list, a tarred and gzipped copy of the archive, 
> and 
> software support for a smooth transition.  The present list will 
> stop operating
> around December 10th.
> 
> A number of the other members of Spoon have expressed an interest in 
> either
> continuing their present lists or initiating other collective 
> projects at
> Virginia.  We very much hope that no matter what develops, the Spoon 
> archives, 
> which, in large part, constitute an eminently useful and fascinating 
> resource, 
> can continue to be housed in their present location.  In addition, a 
> copy 
> of the archives is being installed at the domain driftline.org, 
> where they 
> will soon be accessible over the Web.  If anybody would like to 
> house 
> additional copies of the full or individual archives elsewhere, this 
> would 
> of course increase the goodness.
> 
> 
> Yours,
> -malgosia
> 
> 

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005