PEN-L contributions

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nature hates a vacuum.

When there is an absence of learned contributions on economics from all
the well-established academics on pen-l, naturally you will see other
people-including myself-using the forum for a discussion of issues that
are not quite economic in nature. For that I apologize in advance.

But I do not think that my posting a commentary on the film "Lord of the
Flies" or on the differences between John Kerry and Ralph Nader with
respect to Palestinian rights is an excuse from some of the more
credentialed lurkers from posting on some economics question. What goes
on in the mind of a celebrity lurker? "Oh, there's that Proyect again
nipping at the heels of Tariq Ali. I was all set to write something up
on the over-accumulation of capital, but now I've lost my appetite..."

A while back I got a list of subscribers for pen-l, just out of
curiosity. Among the more than 400 subscribers, there were many "edu's".
I'd really like to know what inhibits them from writing a 3 or 4
paragraph commentary on what Paul Samuelson said in the NY Times or what
they have been reading lately.

Maybe they are just inhibited from speaking out on a list where they are
not surrounded by their peers. I note that Jerry Levy's value theory
mailing list (many who used to post on the same issues here 10 years
ago) has no trouble eliciting contributions. Perhaps establishing a
faculty lounge atmosphere is what's necessary.

If that's the case, then there is something deeply wrong with the left
academy. If its leading lights view listservs as just a place to post
job, conference or journal announcements or queries for a print work in
progress, then you end up with the intellectually arid atmosphere of
H-Humanities.

After LBO-Talk was launched, it became fairly obvious that a lot of the
discussion that had been taking place on pen-l was being diverted there.
I proposed to Michael Perelman at the time that he set up something at
H-Humanities which would be a no-nonsense mailing list for left
economists. It would be pre-moderated, just like all the other
H-Humanities list, and would require a questionnaire to be filled out by
a prospective subscriber. That would weed out the riffraff.

In any case, unless pen-l makes up its mind what community it is serving
and unless the illustrious lurkers decide to go out on a limb and
actually *say something*, I doubt if things will get much better.


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