Subject: Re: HAB: lessons in Power, Sharon's latest production
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 20:08:55 -0400 (EDT)


David Hawkes wrote:

> But since you bring up the subject, I actually think its not such a bad 
> idea to insist on a few qualifications from the posters in this forum.  
> I propose the following qualifications, failure to produce which will 
> result in immediate and irrevocable expulsion from this list: 
> (1) The equanimity to participate calmly, without protesting "what does 
> this have to do with Habermas" whenever anyone posts something the 
> pertinence of which isn't immediately obvious to the simplest
> undergraduate.  (2)  The self-restraint to refrain from posting annoying 
> nonsense about evolutionary biology.  (3)   The magnanimity to spurn the 
> ad hominum (4) The ability to prove that one is not Ralph Dumain.

Well, I could go with those, especially since they would encourage the rise
of a new industry: the manufacture of proofs of non-identity.  Always a good
thing in these difficult times.  However, I am a tad disappointed to see that
all your proposed qualifications are negative virtues: abstinence, restraint,
spurning, not-being Dumain.  It reminds me of a post that once appeared on the
Nietzsche list in which some frustrated list-member encouraged people to
defect to another Nietzsche list, which -- he said -- was so well moderated
that no posts ever appeared on it.  Couldn't one come up with a set of
positive qualifications?  Say, everybody would be required to post, at 
least once a month, one idea which is novel, thoughful, stimulating, 
thought-provoking, and capable of changing the course of people's lives.
Failure to produce would result in immediate and irrevocable expulsion.


-m


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