Theos-Talk Archives (May 2009 Message tt00041)

Here's the message that new subscribers get on theos-talk. It would be good
to keep it in mind during the discussions.

One thread that seems to be getting a bit too personal seems to have
originated in a message of Ananad's where he says that Reed Carson, Katinka
Hesselink, and Daniel Caldwell were "some of the individuals who did much
damage to Theosophical movement by their online activities." This is the
"will you shut up" thread.

I think it's time for the "will you shut up" thread to itself shut up.

Let's enact a cease fire on all sides where all the "you're a bad person
because you did ..." talk stops.

We can talk about the relative merits of Leadbeater, Crowley, Bailey, Wood,
Ballard, Hodgson, Barborak, etc. without picking still-living people on the
list being personally put under the microscope and dissected.

It would be good if we shifted our attention from the weakness in our
opponent's position, looking to strike yet another stunning blow, and
instead look for something interesting, creative, and unrelated to personal
disputes.

There's an interesting short piece in the March 2009 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.
"Taming the Madness of Crowds" on page 16 talks about hooliganism, about
"the melees ant international soccer matches are infamous for the intensity
of violence . . . Social scientists who study hooligan chaso think they have
fonud a better way to keep the peace . . . Portuguese security adopted the
researcher' recommendation to institute low-profile, not-aggressive
tactits--the most visible of which was to leave the riot gear behindfor
police officers closest to fans . . . [It] did not alienate fans in the same
way that legions of police in riot gear do. Shows of force . . . tend to
antagonize crows, especially if police display favoritism, as in the case of
a 2001 match in Rome when the officers stood by while Italian fanatics
pelted Mancherster United aficionados with full plastic bottles."

There are many short pieces of new discoveries, ideas, or approaches that
appear in popular magazines. Anyone else come across something inseresting?

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