Theos-Talk Archives (June 2009 Message tt00392)

Some Interesting Observations on Maillists
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We talked about the secret organizations where a lot of TS members are
active and the non-official (virtual or real) interlocking produces some
interesting results. Firstly, it compromises the freedom of action even
though many will dispute this. But, if one is active in secret organizations
for too long, the thought process seems to restrict oneâs thinking even
outside secret organizations. Another effect that seems to take place is the
predisposition of some folks to look at everything from the standpoint of
control, either directly or by other subtle means.
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When we see the above applied to Internet environment, it is very
interesting to watch. In the maillists, there is the multi-way communication
and the velocity is at the speed of light since postings are distributed
instantaneously. When one tries to moderate (some can call it censorship),
it is a very time consuming task, since the moderator has to read all the
messages and make a judgement about releasing each as is or after editing.
As the traffic increases, it would overwhelm the poor moderator.
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Charlie Chaplinâs humor and sarcasm in his movies depicting the assembly
line comes to my mind. Chaplin could not keep up with the increase in the
speed of the assembly line. On the other hand, too much moderation turns off
posters who are used to free for all culture of Internet.
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A graphic example is that of the moderated maillist that TSA tried years ago
and which fell on its face and disappeared. Recently, I saw a comment in
another maillist that in this month there was only one message and some
participants seem to think it was the result of some participants trying to
confront some posters both on the list and off the list. It is very
instructive to watch these kinds of trends in the Internet culture.
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So the bottom line seems to be that those who have been involved in secret
organizations need to change their thinking in matters outside of the secret
organizations, in this age of Internet.
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MKR
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Visit theosophy.net and enjoy life.


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