Re: open forum about pkt

[bill mitchell <ecwfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Herb says:
>	I feel the same way. I am not interested in someone's opinion,
>but rather in empirical facts and references to the literature on a
>topic. I also don't like the fact that people who write frequently
>tend to gang up on views they jointly dislike. This is intimidating to
>people who have real information to offer, but don't like getting flamed.
>
then said:
>	I may be different from others in one regard, however: I find
>Methodenstreiten across 'paradigms' (Post-Keynesian, Marxist,
>Neoclassical, etc.) boring and uninformative, since I think all the
>existing paradigms are wrong, but have interesting stuff to offer. The
>'frequent posters' often appear to me to be trying to peddle their pet
>paradigms, which accounts for their ability to respond on so many
>fronts at once--they give the 'party position' on an issue. Like some
>others, I have been guilty of this myself, but I think it is a waste
>of time and I should be repremanded for it when it occurs.
>

well i read that as being somewhat contradictory. the second paragraph is
full of your opinions mate, not a fact to be seen.

and opinions are really interesting for me to read. i like that informal
aspect. i can read all the formal reasoning i like in the literature and in
papers people submit to the archives here and elsewhere or send me or
whatever. here there is a chance to be spontaneous and avoid the sickenly
restrictive prose that publishing editors make you conform to. here there is
personality. you wouldn't have any hint of my nature if you read my
scholarly work. this doesn't suggest that you want to, but i have developed
pkt images of people over the years. they are warm images and improve my
life. and when i spent time with michael this recent northern summer i
translated that cyber image into a real friendship.  it just started
out listening to opinions.

i am thinking that anarchy is the way to go. all this "should" stuff,
regulations, reprimands, discipline.....that is what we are taught in the
schools of the capitalists to make us compliant little fools so that we work
longer than we need to (party line rhetoric, herb).

why should a list like this have any rules? let it flow. the fact that the
membership has doubled in the last 18 months or so (facts needed Ric!) is
evidence that the unsubbing-culture is not as problematic as might be the
case. after all we are not down to those bad handful who dominate the list
yet are we. this is not to say that the statements of concern by jamie, gary
and i can't remember who else are worthy of disrespect. far from it. but the
list is growing, the spin-offs that ric mentioned are expanding. why put
rules on it?

kind regards
bill



>Herbert Gintis
>Department of Economics
>University of Massachusetts
>Amherst, MA 01003
>gintis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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