Posted by pancho from pool0334.cvx24-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.211.79) on Sunday, December 08, 2002 at 9:05PM :
At beth and aina and even old atour, the sorry state of Assyria .com, they ban and delete what displeases them, what's inappropriate...and not just the crotch shots...ideas too.
The "advantage" is they can appear to be something...something they aren't. They appear to be people, people with all the variety of conflicting ideas and emotions people have...but only because they eliminate the richness and variety and complexity that real humans exhibit. By narrowing the scope and field for discussion, they narrow themselves. It's not just a matter of ignoring the posts they don't like...or answering or blasting them....they go the extra step of removing them, as if they do that, then the things they don't like will be gone...don't exist.
This can't make you strong...can't civilize you and teach you to control your impulses...to not engage where you can't maintain a discussion without calling people's mothers whores...their sons traitors and such. It can't test your skills or best of all provide some new slant on things you hadn't thought of. In this atmosphere everyone is looking for friends and loathes and fears enemies. Every time you break in on them...they react in panic and fury...slamming the doors shut and barring the windows even tighter. This is not good for the mind...it can't produce people who can deal in a world where no holds are barred.
And we don't. We seem to have no intention of doing so. Dr. Sargon Dr. Dadesho waxes eloquent on his TV and radio shows where he can cut people off...splice their taped interviews, reassembling them at will...appear to be, appear tp be, appear to be. Then, his ears full of the fullsome praise of his fans he feels bold enough to appear in court, suing the United States government no less. Even he must know what a fool he made of himself.
We do this all the time. Unwittingly we provide ourselves the good reasons we now have to avoid real contact like it was the plague. We protest and mail incoherent letters...we make demands to the four corners...we make incredibly bold statements, anonymously. And it all means absolutely nothing...except for sinking us lower in our own self-esteem. Which we stave off by doing even more of the same...being more selective, more secretive, having more passwords and closed forums. How can you have a forum at all if it's closed?
Let's leave Andreas here...let's invite anyone else...lets hear them out...ignore them if we don't like what they say....refute them where we can...cuss them out where we can't...let's laugh at them and us...let's do it long enough and nothing will shake us...we will have heard it all, and we might just feel like taking on some other people...of making our case outside of forums and community gatherings.
There are all sorts of things to do that need doing and would be satisfying to do. We're just afraid...unprepared...unsure...and we keep ourselves that way.
-- pancho
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