>No one here has a problem with debate, Bill. Carrol
>and I go after each other hammer and tongs all the
>time. The problem is with debating _you_. As long as
>it was just me, maybe you could write it off to my
>being hypersensitive. But it's not just me. Perhaps
>you might reflect on your approach.
OK I will. However Carrol is being quite vague about his actual complaint, so his comments are no help. As he admits, he's never been willing to actually engage me in debate either. So I suspect that it is not how I express myself, but what I say that alienates Carrol. After all, he makes no complaint about my style, rather he complains that I twist "fundamental ideas of the left" (doctrines of the left?) so that "they simply can't be discussed" (without implicitly conceding that these concepts are subject to challenge?)
Its pretty hard to escape the conclusion that he finds it offensive that I express certain ideas at all, rather than that he is offended by how I express them.
You don't have that problem. At least not with me. Basically we aren't that far apart on many things. My perception is that you have a tendency to play the victim at the slightest pretext though. Like for instance your accusation below that I am threatening someone with physical violence. I don't quite understand this, perhaps it is merely due to a cultural barrier, you expect certain things, I fail to notice clues that you are annoyed that I don't respond properly. I'm afraid I'm a bit hopeless at personal interaction.
> We've all had to
>revise ours here to get along, me included. Or not, as
>you see fit, but then you might find yourself ignored
>by more and more "interlocutors."
Ignoring certain views, in an attempt to marginalise them, is one tactic.
> And btw, as to
>"failure to communicate," I _have_ seen Cool Hand
>Luke. So who you intend to smash in the head? jks
You're being hypersensitive again. I haven't seen Cool Hand Luke, which I assume is a film. I think I've heard of it though, at least it rings a bell. (A cowboy film?) I simply meant, literally, that the problem is a failure to communicate. I guess I must have picked up the line from somewhere.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas