Call me Humphrey

[Mike Weaver]

Oooo,  I'm coming over all dejavooey:  watching this latest bout of ego
fever spread through the list.  Churlish behaviour increases, up goes  the
temperature, sensibilities  inflamed and  the passage ways become bunged up
with mucus worthy of That adenoid.  Wonder if you could dry it and smoke it?

 " Interesting shit, huh?" 
" Yea, maybe, gets you going off in all sorts of interesting directions,
but after a while yu just  feel worn out and frustrated as hell."

A while back someone described the list as a consensual anarchy or something
similar.  I was thinking of it as the electronic ghost of an intentional
community.  Similar flows of harmony and fractiousness.  
Some communities go through long periods of closeness and creativity,  which
ending,  break down into bitter divisions, or become flat and dull,  the
creativity stifled by the dust of suppressed dissention.  
There is nothing wrong with arguments.   In the flesh they clear the air,
reveal the limits  (or new channels) of co-operation. To be sure there are
casualities,  people leave and/or are unjustly treated,  emotionally
scratched or scalded.  Sometimes the divisions prove too deep and mass
leavings happen and the group goes through a period of period of instability
while newcomers,  sometimes young,  naive and know-it-all, settle in.
On the net the threads are not necessarily so tangled,  you can withdraw in
far more ways than in situations where you brush by those you loathe too
often for calmness.  If we are a crowd of efriends and fellow eexplorers
then we can use those arguments to develop our strength.
The strength and uniqueness of socialism/feminism/antiracism and all the
other young isms as  (historically ) transcendent movements are their self
consciousness.  The net is the appropriate medium of communication for the
political era which produces such a ferment.  What's the line from the
dynamic duo, > particular technologies defining particular economic epochs<
  Lenin, I seem to remember, said something about electrification equalling
socialism.  The net is electrification  made conscious.  
The p-list will continue to go  through the kind of emotional convulsions we
have seen several times in the last year.  It's growing pains.  If we hang
in there and don't unsub we may well through constructive reaction to the
fires that rage develop a collective wisdom and response ability.

Personally I'm not bothered where the threads on this list lead,  it's all
grist for the mill.    Pynchon's writings are the spring and flippers, the
rest of the pintable is the universe. I continue to read this list and
occasionally write a bit because I enjoy engaging with the majority of other
contributors,  exchanging opinions and perceptions of all sorts of stuff,
gathering a reading list to bequeath to my descendants - more than a life
time's worth have I culled in the last year- having political and
philosophical debates.   (IMO nothing is wrong with I'm right/you're wrong
pingpong,  as long as there is some creative, enlivening elaboration in the
process.  Political action starts with that kind of tension.)  
 I do however think that newcomers should be warned that the list is the way
it is.  Might cut down on the number of explosions of (sometimes
self-righteous) frustration from those of them who don't slip into the mix
so easily.  Think about it,  you're a young and/or straightlaced newcomer to
TRP,  not a maniacGRmaniac.  You expect something a little more narrow band
and you find us!!!
Can a description of a typical range of exchanges on the list be
automatically sent to new subscribers?  I'd also suggest that all newcomers
be advised to take the digest in the first place.  Easier to skim by far and
the annoyance caused by the idjits,  whoever you think they are,  is invoked
far less often and easier seen in perspective.  Read the comic first before
getting the interactive game later.

Okay you all,  stay right and tight,  cool and crazy, and it'll be a gasser.

Mike
(Stoned reading?  What about stoned writing?)