Alpha males Cutting noses and spiteing faces
MalignD at aol.com
MalignD at aol.com
Sat Jun 12 15:05:03 CDT 1999
RJackson:
<<What I like about the dynamics of cyberdiscussion at its best is that
reading and interpretation become a truly collaborative process.
Participants contribute new knowledge and insight, and act as a sounding
board for same. There's time for reflection built in, which is something you
wouldn't get at a weekly seminar-style reading group. And, it's not so
in-your-face. There's no pressure, no onus to contribute. When interest or
insight wanes so the thread will peter out, or be
transformed. This venue's virtually ideal.
I certainly agree with this and most of the rest of what RJackson says
regarding third parties taking it upon themselves to decide for others what's
enough and what's going too far. And this--
<<Doug, pointing out hypocritical BS when he sees it ...>>
--well: no further comment called for. However:
<<What I don't like is when some individual (or nation) sets him or her (or
it) self up as autarch, dropping their scatterbombs and more insidious forms
of rhetoric with pinpoint precision and then stepping back with all innocent
bemusement and saying, "Oops, I had an old street directory. Sorry. Honest
mistake." It's this whole thing of possession/ownership/might is right which
is at the centre of capitalist democracy, and which extends to the cultural
realm as well. The traditional critical lexicons are all wrapped up in the
exclusivist mentality and demagoguery of the Western imperial regime in the
way that they aspire to "possess" the one and true meaning of a cultural
artefact. "Bow down now. We *must* read like this ... ">>
Well ... Millison's and others' finger-wagging on the p-list is one thing;
finding it an example of western imperial demagoguery (with allusions to
Kosovo) makes you sound a raving loon.
And one needn't be an American chauvinist to get a little tired of all this
carping from down under. Let the Aussies handle things next time. Surf the
Serbs to their knees. Drink them to death.
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