Free and Cruel and Proud

[barger@ils.nwu.edu]

What I'm hearing, so far, is that people think rudeness is relative and
nobody can ever draw any line, anywhere (on the Net, anyway).

If I woke up one morning and discovered I could no longer tell honesty from
rudeness, I swear I'd shoot myself.  I don't believe this is really that
kind of world.  I think really what's going on is everybody's afraid to act
the grownup anymore, for fear someone will 'turn grownup' against *them*.

I don't claim I've never hurt anyone's feelings, nor that I never will
again, but I have no qualms about standing up and saying I find rudeness
unacceptable, maybe because I also have no problem apologizing for my
misjudgments in that area when I'm told about them.

I can easily imagine that Stev0 didn't really think what he was saying,
that Ron is just a name on a CRT to him, that Ron's feelings are difficult
for Stev0 even to *imagine*, but I can't rationalize half a dozen people
saying they think that shit is *funny*, calling our outrage
"humorlessness".

Ten-year-old interviews???  "Geez, dude, that's even before *Megadeth*...
how could there be anything worth reading in *that*?  Fans, man, they're so
*infantile*, they think artists have something to *teach* them, but
everybody who's cool knows life is just a sewer of shit and all you can
ever do is dig your boots in a little harder on the other guy's face in
hopes of getting another inch above it."

(There's no way in hell Kate would have written "Up yours, ugly!" is there?
 That picture disc, was it official?)

I think the London Konvention in 1990 was a turning point for many of us,
meeting face to face and finding this huge band of friends who were utterly
trustworthy and true.  And we carried that back with us, and managed to
keep it going for most of a year before the locusts hit.

It's miraculous how much *heart* you can transmit over a digital line.  You
get a bubble going and everybody feels it and rushes to work just to get
another fix off it.  When Kate talks about her music feeling to her like a
mission.... **what else do you think she's referring to????**

Nobody doubts, right, that mailing lists have the right to kick out
assholes?  So why are moderated newsgroups any different?

I'd like to see an agreement where if someone is rude, everybody notices,
nobody clogs the airwaves arguing that they have a right to do that,
somebody (anybody!) clues them in and if they keep it up, you figure
they're emotionally retarded and leave them high and dry to work it out
with the folks who can eyeball them face to face... YOU DON'T KISS YOUR
COMMUNITY GOODBYE AND HIDE OUT FOR THE REST OF FOREVER.

You kick em off.  *Until they come clean*, is all.

If people are hoplessly uncomfortable with that, I guess I want to hear
from people who'd subscribe to a new private Kate mailing list (I'd like to
call it Homeground, if Krys and Peter and Dave don't mind), along the lines
of Ecto-- warm and fuzzy-- but with the upfront agreement that we won't
suffer fools, if any should try to subscribe.

I guess I wouldn't even mind digesting it to r.m.g./lh, so as to keep the
doors open for newcomers, but I won't be sticking around to read the
reactions there.  Ron, would that be agreeable to you?  Jessica, how much
work is maintaining a digest?  Can't it just run on automatic, usually?  I
will see if I can take it on here, but if anyone else is willing to
administer it, tell me too.

If you send me a 'yes', please make the subject line "Yes" or "Yes and
also..." or "Yes but...", so I can keep them sorted out.
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Jorn Barger, Northwestern U., Chicago, Midwest, USA      barger@ils.nwu.edu
   "And crazyheaded Jorn, the bulweh born?"   _Finnegans Wake_ 513.07
     (Ask me about the electronic Finnegans Wake reading project!)
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