Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00427)

Hey,

I would concur that political discussion is inappropriate here, but we should all understand Eldon's reluctance to play policeman. When ULTers start going on about unnamed people who shouldn't be here and ideas that shouldn't be discussed, I can't help suspecting that they'd prefer to get rid of every active participant who doesn't parrot the ULT party line. When it is said that people on "ego trips" should go away, I think "be careful what you wish for" because a god granting that wish might remove a lot of you true believers along with some of us heathen.

Although my political sympathies are quite different from those of Bart, Larry, and Bill, I consider them friends and have no desire to debate politics with them here or elsewhere. People who want spirited liberal debate are advised to check out 
http://democraticunderground.com 
There are comparable rightwing sites.

There is a happy medium between defining theosophical discussion so narrowly as to exclude "everyone but me and thee" and defining it so broadly as to allow any old thing. Eldon surely has the judgment to do this, but do we want to burden him with enforcing guidelines about theosophical discussion topics? 

What I propose: put some guidelines in the list description about what is off-topic here. Then, when someone posts something off-topic, instead of arguing with it, (BART) just say "that's off-topic." And most especially (DALLAS, LEON) don't write vague sweeping posts denouncing multiple unnamed miscreants who ought not be here, and implicitly asking Eldon to get rid of them. Just say "Hey, Steve, (or whoever) that's off-topic." That way you are taking responsibility for objecting to specific posts by specific posters, rather than (IMO) polluting the atmosphere with denunciations of a generic class of unnamed, unwelcome participants. That's carrying ULT "impersonality" to a destructive extreme.

Cheers,

Paul