On Wed, 25 Oct 1995, Babette Babich wrote:
> Moralizing, Mr. Harrawood, is suspect, particularly when one is
> attempting to bend others to one's own sense of propriety.
>
> It tends to reduce to the parental, Because I said so sort
> of reasoning.
>
I would have to agree with the bit about moralizing, although I can't see
anything in my earlier post that was moralizing. I think it is possible
to treat other people with respect and to expect them to treat you that
way without resorting to parental reduction. Most people do it all the
time. They also do it on other philosophy-oriented lists.
I object to anyone using this list for personal attacks. Posting a
"yawn," doesn't seem to me to advance any of the topics the people on
this list are discussing; instead it uses the public space to punish or
humiliate somebody for something he or she said.
It is a great temptation, of course, to invoke the First Amendment here,
and to make a pitch for freedom of expression, freedom from the
parental. Amidst the "yawn"s and "fuck-you"s, however, its a bit of a
stretch to suddenly encounter such high-mindedness. I feel instead like
I've encountered somebody who needs a Daddy to resist, in order to feel
rebellious. Its a job I'd like to decline.
I'm just a guy who subscribes to the list, and who doesn't want to see it
degenerate into the constant pissing contest that we can all find on the
usenet lists. Without a doubt, the people posting all this flamebait are
convinced of the rightness and the importance of their work, but so is
every asshole who uses an accessible and vulnerable space like this to
rub his or her ego against.
There's no moralizing here that I can see. Nik shouldn't have to take
shit for postings to the list which seem to me to be interested and
engaged, and which want to talk about Heidegger. That's just how the
list works.
Michael Harrawood
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