Date: Tue, 04 Nov 1997 14:09:30 +1100
Subject: Re: new list members, about rules


Hi all and especially Ralph,

Nice to see your prose again mate. You're one of the many whose writings I
missed when I de-subbed from the original Marxism list.

I take your point on Juan, and on the fact that the main criteria here has
to be quality of content.

Cheers,
Steve
At 11:15 AM 11/3/97 -0800, you wrote:
>At 06:59 PM 11/3/97 EET+200, Jukka Laari wrote:
>>It surely seems that Juan Inigo woke up the moment his name had been 
>>taken up on the list: he tried to "zubscribe", and I will do it. 
>
>Many of us here were on the receiving as well as giving end of Juan's
polemics.
>I'll bet he was a hell of a lot harsher on me than he was on Steve Keen.
>The only one who got insulted worse than me was Lou Proyect, who in turn was
>just as much a flamer as I.  However, I nominated Juan for this list,
>because, in spite of our disagreements, I find him theoretically
>sophisticated and his view is original enough that we could learn from it,
>to the extent that we succeed in deciphering it.  Also, I was thinking about
>Juan, how much crap he has to suffer in filtering out all the trash from
>marxism-thaxis and perhaps other lists, and that perhaps marxism-theory
>might be more worthwhile an investment for him as a theorist.
>
>Also, to my recollection Juan entered the original marxism (or was it
>marxism2?) list at the moment when it was already in a highly polemical
>state.  So why not after all give us a taste of our own medicine?
>
>>Thirdly, Steve mentioned the problem of flame wars. Rightly so, this 
>>list ain't intended for that kind of waste of bandwidth. I'll do my 
>>best that the list won't turn out to be a sewer. 
>
>I hope Jukka has kept in mind another reason for having a closed list, which
>is a question of content more than form.  One invites people on this list
>that one thinks will have a substantive intellectual contribution to make,
>and filter out some of the cranks, dogmatists, and other sterile influences
>that just take us round in circles.  Experience has shown that Stalinists,
>Trotskyists, the Red Orange wankers from Syracuse, and others, have a
>deleterious effect on these lists regardless of the presence or absence of
>nasty words or invective, because of what they have to say, not just how
>they say it.  The marxism-and-sciences list was the worst, a complete
>disgrace to Lisa's memory.  Hence participants to this closed list should be
>prejudicially screened for content as well as form.  Juan can flame me all
>he likes, and I may radically disagree with him on the issue of Marx and
>philosophy, but I do believe his contribution can be productive, in a way
>that Chatterjee, Rodwell, Godena, and certain other alien life forms cannot.
>
>As for me, I'll try to be a good boy.  After all, I'm even nastier to my
>friends than to my enemies, as Justin, Hans, Rakesh and many others can
>attest.  But I still have death and thaxis, so I'll save my teasing of
>Justin for thaxis posts (knowing I can't hurt his feelings, because he's an
>analytical philosopher).  Just remember, if socialism means I have to start
>being nice to people, you can keep your revolution.
>
>
>
Steve Keen
Senior Lecturer
Economics & Finance
Faculty of Business & Technology
University of Western Sydney
PO Box 555 Campbelltown NSW 2560
Australia; Building 11 Room 30
s.keen-AT-uws.edu.au (046) 20-3016 Fax (046) 26-6683
Home: (02) 9558 8018
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