Tragedy of the Commons

[Henry M]

On 12 Dec 96 at 22:00, you, Steelhead wrote:

" Chris acts indignant, then hurls a litany of questions, about Garrett Hardin 
and his relavence to anything Pynchonian:

Chris wrote:
"But, whoa, Steely, what the HELL is this all about?"

With typical put-upon, dare I say quasi-academic ill-humor that I 
find curious in one who has recently excoriated all of academia, 
you replied:

"Well, Chris, it's a Tragedy of the Commons. You _know_ that
kind of tragedy don't you, Chris. "

I reply:
Woa, Steely! What the hell was THAT all about. I picture the voice of 
"Hannibal Lechter" in "The Silence of the Lambs."

You ended your reply to Chris thusly:
"What does all this have to do with the VV, which has recently been
handed out for free in the NYC area? Simple. Since the paper is now
free, it has became a kind of literary commons that will--if you
follow Hardinian logic--ultimately degenerate into a smear of
meaningless utterances."

I hope you don't have the temerity to deny that in the above closing, 
you imply that Chris had suggested that the VV has degenerated 
because it has become a free press, rather than answering the 
reasons that she actually enumerated. I haven't had the pleasure of 
reading the article that you wrote in the VV. From Chris' humorous 
(humor is permitted, isn't it Steely?) recommendation, I had thought 
that the article was probably rather good. Might be. I'm sure that I don't 
have access to the material to which you refer in your VV article, 
but if in your VV article you use source material is as partial and 
inaccurate as it was in you reply to Chris... 

Maybe it's NOT academia that has ruined the world. Maybe its 
irresponsible journalism, free or otherwise. <meow>

Cheers,

H

Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
Moderation in moderation. -- Husky Mariner

http://www.nicom.com/~gravity