-----Original Message----- From: Kelley <kwalker2 at gte.net> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>; lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Who are you typing to? Thomas seemed to be addressing you; but you seeming
>to be talking to...well...i guess it's that turd in your pocket.
Your hostility is interesting. Who was I typing to? I was typing to the rest of the list - just as Seay was. You aren't misled by the form of Seay's jibe into believing that he was actually "addressing" me, offering to begin a constructive dialogue with me, are you? Do you think he was actually proposing that the Hungarian working class rule the world? In his "you know.." clause, was he actually reminding me of the 1956 events (as he sees them through some distorting medium), out of concern that I might confuse the Hungarian workers with some other working class? That was the form of his jibe, but was it the essence?
Of course Seay was not actually addressing me. Nor was he talking to a turd. In so far as there was a message, the message was addressed to you. He was saying to you and the rest of this list, "Don't forget that Paulsen is an evil man and that his party is an evil party." But his post can also be construed as not a message at all, but just a military action - an attempt to drown out or disrupt any thread in which I participate, exactly like heckling or jeering or spitting in the speaker's face. In its own minuscule way it was an attempt to terrorize: "Don't write here any more, Paulsen, on any topic, or I may vilify you some more."
My own little post attempted to send three messages to the rest of the list: (a) a reminder of what the real issue in Hungary was; (b) a suggestion that we return to the issue I raised about Burford's "planetary government" strategy (Fitch saw exactly what I was getting at); and (c) a message that I'm not going to be terrorized. Not by Seay at any rate. You can also interpret it in a Goffmanesque sense: when someone spits in your face in public, and everyone is watching, you more or less have to react publicly somehow and show how you are going to react to it. That applies to Seay's post, and, to a lesser extent, to your 'turd' post.
There, Kelley, that was addressed to YOU, not to any turd. But if I had ONLY meant it for you I would have e-mailed it to you. Of course it has messages for the rest of the list as well. Even for Seay.
lp