Chas writes:
>Ever noticed how e-mail threads that are polemical go more than others ?
They certainly feel like they go on forever ...
>Without struggle there is no progress. Contradiction underlies movement.
Yeah, but that struggle needn't be with each other! Contradiction and dialectic need not refer to individual egos dressing themselves up in gladiatorial garb at all. I reckon the idea is to fashion a space and a practice in which it's just possible that all parties leave the conversation with something they didn't have at its beginning.
All this glorifying of 'robust debate' (which is what so many boy-lefties call slanderous flame-outs) is just so much destructive self-deception in my book.
It makes us feel like brave fighters for the just in a little arena the unjust need never know is there.
Mebbe not quite two cents' worth, but there it is.
Cheers, Rob.