From: Pablo.Gilabert-AT-p26.f109.n900.z4.fidonet.org (Pablo Gilabert)
Date: 	04 Mar 96 15:35:28 -0300
Subject: Stop the madness!



I suscribe Rahul's words. And I'll be clear in Spanish: el giro que esta
tomando la lista es el de convertirse en lo que un burgues adoraria que el
marxismo sea: una bolsa de eunucos disparandose entre ellos en un desierto,
saboreando la soledad de una carcel autoconstruida.
We have to do something now.



 RM> From: rahul-AT-peaches.ph.utexas.edu (Rahul Mahajan)
 RM> Subject: Stop the madness!

 RM> What the hell is going on here? Are we turning into another
 RM> alt.politics.radical-idiocy or
 RM> alt.politics.socialism.trotskyist-sectarian.mindless.flamewar.hell?
 RM> Now Justin is gone too. Peter Burns is gone. I haven't seen anything from
 RM> Paul Cockshott in a while. Does freedom of speech mean we have to allow
 RM> ourselves to be swamped by a rising tide of mediocre inanity? We're in a
 RM> catch-22 situation here. Any measures that might have a chance of success
 RM> by the same token are tantamount to censorship (I assume we want to
 RM> respect
 RM> the spirit and not just the letter of freedom of speech; I know I do).
 RM> Personally, I have no problem deleting huge amounts of drivel; I
 RM> sometimes
 RM> even read it to indulge my scatophilia. I certainly understand why
 RM> others,
 RM> especially those not blessed with a Macintosh and Eudora Light, feel
 RM> impelled to unsub, but it pisses me off. As always, the effect of
 RM> bombarding people with vicious nonsense is not to make anybody with any
 RM> sense listen to it, but simply to drive out anything decent, intelligent,
 RM> or human, and to isolate the people who won't buy what they're (and you
 RM> all
 RM> know who I mean) selling.

 RM> I imagine that this is one of the kinds of situations that we have (non)
 RM> moderators for. I understand why so few have sought to stop this
 RM> nonsense,
 RM> though; how do you reason with a Stalinist? Anyway, I will now briefly
 RM> arrogate to myself the awesome mindbending power of a co-(non)mod and
 RM> make
 RM> a few suggestions. First of all, I think the only measure that is at
 RM> least
 RM> formally short of censorship that might work is if all of us (who is the
 RM> we
 RM> I'm talking about here; that's part of the problem) agreed simply not to
 RM> respond to THEM. I don't like this because it is even more of a coercive
 RM> act than the spamming that drove Justin away (it wouldn't be if we all
 RM> happened independently to decide that, but in the natural flow of things
 RM> all of us feel impelled to answer them from time to time). I'm definitely
 RM> not suggesting this, but I think it's necessary to fight back while
 RM> there's
 RM> still a semblance of substantive content on the list. To that end, I have
 RM> some suggestions:

 RM> Louis, I understand why you said you want to further the dialogue with
 RM> the
 RM> PCPers. I also think the facts about PCP atrocities could use some
 RM> clearing
 RM> up. But we're up to our necks here. Inundate us with long treatises on
 RM> McCarthyism, Cuba, the potential for fusion of environmentalism and
 RM> socialism, and anything else that comes up, like you used to.

 RM> Lisa, I know you're angry. You've complained about the list several times
 RM> recently. Unfortunately, the problems won't listen to you; they're not
 RM> here
 RM> for dialogue, just to bombard us with their rhetoric. Help us to
 RM> synthesize
 RM> modern biological/anthropological thought with Marxian political economy
 RM> to
 RM> create even more powerful analytical tools.

 RM> Jerry, stop fighting with Louis. Don't rearrange deck chairs on the
 RM> Titanic. Write about Marxist economics. There may not be too many of us
 RM> left who are professional economists or worth your while to talk to, but
 RM> maybe if you start some threads you'll find some of us have something
 RM> interesting to say, even if we didn't know it beforehand.

 RM> Ralph, be yourself. No one else can.

 RM> Leo, keep 'em coming. Right now, your posts are some of the few that are
 RM> truly interesting and sensible. Tell us what the hell your conception of
 RM> radical democracy is. I think Marxism (at least the nonacademic kind)
 RM> has
 RM> never adequately theorized what democracy should mean. Let's talk about
 RM> it.

 RM> Doug, bury us under a load of useful statistics.

 RM> Rakesh, you're probably halfway through the Library of Congress by now.
 RM> Spread some of the wealth around; some of us are never going to read all
 RM> that ourselves.

 RM> Justin, come back.

 RM> Chris, stop trying to be psychoanalyst for the list and to "facilitate
 RM> dialogue." You used to write some interesting stuff.

 RM> The rest of the white hats: As above.

 RM> SECTARIAN FLAMEBAITING STALINISTS: We're a bunch of fake leftists. Not
 RM> only
 RM> are we not good enough to talk to you, we're not even good enough to read
 RM> what you write. Until you can find a truly worthy audience, you might
 RM> want
 RM> to look into creating a list of your own, so you can recognize each
 RM> other's
 RM> genius.

 RM> I also have a lot of suggestions for myself, but I'll leave it to the
 RM> passage of time to make them evident.

 RM> Rahul Mahajan (now resigning as co-non-mod)



 RM> Better a fake leftist than a fake human being.

 RM> Rahul Mahajan c. March 1996. (May be used in any forum for any purpose,
 RM> with attribution)





                      Pablo
                       Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
                      pablo-AT-carrenet.com
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