Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 23:32:16 -0500 (EST)
From: malgosia askanas <ma-AT-panix.com>
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: Spoon policy


Since there has been a lot of invocation of "Spoon policy" on this list,
I want to clarify something about "Spoon policy".

Spoon arose in opposition to the concept of the list owner "owning" the
discourse of the list.  As long as I am in Spoon -- and I think I am
hardly alone in this -- we will not permit any attempt to enforce 
anybody's notion of "etiquette", "politeness", and so on. 

We are not interested in running sectarian lists on which people feel
they are being silenced.  To the extent that this is happening on
the marxism list, we will support any reasonable solutions.  There
_is_ clearly a problem, and a solution is needed.

However, we will not regard as "reasonable" any solution that involves
dictating how people should behave in a discussion.  We will do our best
to facilitate _discussion_ as opposed to intellectual terrorism.  This
notion of "discussion" is perhaps a bourgeois invention, but we -- 
the originators of these lists -- live in bourgeois societies and the
lists are a reflection of this.  They are not a reflection of the
struggle of the Peruvian people, and if they cannot accommodate the
demands of this struggle, so be it.  The lists are meant to be useful
to the people we live among.  If this is in irreconcilable conflict with
their usefulness to others, we will make a choice in our own favor.
It is our hope that perhaps this conflict is _not_ irreconcilable,
but this, again, might be a bourgeois invention.  

However, beyond trying to find remedies to terrorism and silencing, we will 
_not_ support any regulation of discourse on our lists.  


-malgosia 




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