Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 18:08:38 -0500 (EST)
From: "Chris M. Sciabarra" <sciabrrc-AT-is2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: M-TH: A call for sanity


I have only met a few of the participants here, in-person, and hope, at
some point, to meet several other participants as well.  I have genuinely
enjoyed meeting people from the various marxism lists, and I am always
entertained, and engaged by some of the rumblings on this newest of
lists:  marxism-thaxis.  But I must say that in recent days, I've been
very disgusted with the direction of the discussion.  Without pointing
fingers, or passing judgment on the merits of the issues raised, I am
asking the participants to take their gripes to private cyberspace.
This should be a list for the discussion of ideas -- and insofar as these
ideas impinge on political practice, I would appreciate it if the
participants would limit their discussion to broader issues of political
practice, and not to issues that single out specific individuals within
our little community.

Simply put:  Cyberspace is not the place for a trial.  Being a thorough
bourgeois, I can appreciate the principle of due process.  If anyone here
has anything to say about anyone else, please discuss this directly with
that person, or with appropriate administrators.  Finger-pointing, no
matter how valid or invalid, is just not something I have the stomach for
in this group.  A number of individuals have already expressed a desire to
unsubscribe from thaxis if this continues.  I, myself, have mulled over
the possibility of handing over the moderating duties to somebody else.
Granted, as moderators, Jukka and I can do little here -- and we are
certainly not authoritarians.  But that does not mean that we have to
sanction this continuing battle.  I'm imploring each of my colleagues
here, to please settle the disputes in private.  We pollute our community
if we think that these issues can ever be settled by charges and
countercharges on this list.  I am not going to single out any individual
-- I have always had cordial relationships with just about everyone here,
and I want to keep it that way.  But we have to take the high road here,
because there are people who simply take one look at the bickering, and
dismiss the list as yet one more example of sectarian BS.  Do we really
wish to alienate individuals who are genuinely interested in exchanging
ideas?  We owe it to each other, and to new participants, to create a
better community.  
- Chris
=================================================Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Ph.D
Visiting Scholar, NYU Department of Politics
INTERNET:  sciabrrc-AT-is2.nyu.edu
http://pages.nyu.edu/~sciabrrc
=================================================



     --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---