Rhetoric

[malgosia askanas <ma@xxxxxxxxx>]

I want to respond to the rhetoric of "free speech", "censorship",
"First Amendment rights" and "kangaroo courts" that is constantly being
invoked in discussing the issues of the two marxism lists.  These are
ridiculous concepts to employ in this discussion.  An e-mail list can
be as private or as public, as restricted or as unrestricted as the
creators and/or participants of the list choose to make it.  If 100 people
decide to exchange e-mail among themselves, this does not in any way
compel them to "open the discussion" to anybody outside their own circle.
A list is nothing but a convenient way of exchanging e-mail between
large groups, who can define themselves however they damn please.

There are people who, although interested in the topic of this list,
have found the atmosphere of this list intolerable.  There is no reason,
given sufficient resources and willingness on the part of Spoon,
why there shouldn't be another list, with a different atmosphere.
It is idiotic to insist that all available fora for the discussion
of marxism within the Spoon environment must be subjected to the same
conditions, and it is idiotic to harass people because they want
a different kind of list.  Instead, if people think that the current
marxian environment in Spoon is inadequate, they should take the trouble to
think this through and to propose other lists, with their own defining
parameters, that might remedy the situation.  If you have such proposals,
submit them either to the list list-proposals or to spoons.

Alternatively, those who are drunk on their own vacuous rhetoric of "free
speech" and "violated rights" can continue to force their drunkennes
upon the members of this list, thus driving some more people off it
and into a more protected environment.


-malgosia


     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---