[PEN-L:7734] Daring the list

[michael <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I do not like throwing people off the list.  As I said before, I have only done
it a few times in the long life of pen-l.  I especially would not relish
throwing someone like Jim Craven off.

I do not share Brad's beliefs.  Nor do many people on the list.  Again, it is
not hard to taunt Brad.  He will come back with a retort.  In the end, the list
as a whole will suffer.

You have to understand that I watch the subs and unsubs.  When stuff like this
flares up, so do the unsubs.  I think that people join a list like pen-l to
learn.

For example, Henry, while responding to Brad, had some very interesting material
about the Chinese famine.  I learnt from what he had to contribute, but only
after wading through the other stuff.  Many people do not want to wade through.
They want to learn.

Henry was also correct that we should be able to "yell" at our closest
comrades.  Unfortunately, not all of us see each other as comrades.  Also, not
all of us have the same tolerance for yelling.

I can yell at Louis Proyect or Max Sawicky.  They can laugh it off and give me
one better.  Brad also seems to have thick skin, but he will, justifiably, come
back with something that will make you even more enraged.  Why can't you carry
on that particular debate off list?

Some of us take insults more personally, for example, when Jim C. attacks my
beloved alma mater.  We need to be more thoughtful.

Craven, Jim wrote:

> It is tragic that Berkely has sunk so low that this person can be regarded
> as a serious "analyst" or "scholar" of anything.
>
> Sorry, as a registered "savage" I am not polite in my language when dealing
> with academic scribbler/know-it-alls/legends-in-their-own-mind scholar
> experts who reveal, underneath the veneer of civility and polite language,
> that they can utter the most pedestrial and sophomoric "analysis" and remain
> "experts" in little ponds surrounded by even smaller frogs.
>
> Now go ahead and thrown me off the list too.

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx