Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 08:39:39 -0500


Well, guys, I've been on this list since April of 95, and I've seen every
possible up and down, certainly more than I would or could have imagined.
Now, as it comes to a close, so does my membership. I'm heading off for
parts unknown. I'm not sure when I'll turn up again. There have been
several recent debates I was itching to get involved in, but other matters
call to me.

I've disparaged this list many times, in many ways. I hope it's always been
clear that what I was talking about was the general level of discourse, not
about the people I've come to know. I've been unwontedly harsh many times,
not least to people I have come to have a great deal of respect for.
Attribute it, if you will, to an excess of passion. There are many others
to whom I should have been far harsher. Perhaps I'll get a chance at some
later date.

I don't really know how I feel about the new structure of the lists, since
I haven't been thinking much about the list at all recently, but I hope
that it does provide an avenue to realize the extraordinary potential of a
community and a mode of interaction like this, a potential which has been
sadly lacking any realization. To paraphrase some English twit, all that is
necessary for capitalism to triumph is that communists do nothing but talk
about ontological dialectics or about how Stalin sucked. Or, like me, to
sit around poking fun at obvious idiocy without lifting a finger. The list
certainly will always need a few gadflies, but, I hope, there will be
plenty of new candidates.

Not farewell, but au revoir.

Rahul




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