agree with dwayne and doug about the diversity on this list. it's impossible to pin one dominant ideology to "it" (albeit, agreed that it's american through and through and someone ought to dig out Cat's great post where she very subtly skewered us on that very point. heh)
it's not odd. even in one person, you might find extremely radical ideas most of the time but then, on one point, you'll find the person's opinion seems rather rightwing.
Vive la differance! This list is full of the most luscious variety of characters, personas, opinions, intellects, passions, well-worn axe blades, obsessions..... It is really quiet gorgeous.
I love Wojtek. I disagree with him a lot but isn't one of the best things we can do, is learn how to experience this incredible variety and deal with it in _productive_ ways rather than set up us/them Great Walls, etc.?
Maybe there's no action here (and I busted a gut when I read the new name for the list, Carl), but places like LBO are growing something. It does (has the potential for?) nurture practices that, as those who study civil society argue, prepare us for a day when we really might have all kinds of radical self-governance. Don't you need, under such conditions, to be able to, not just tolerate others 'opinions,characters, ethics,e tc.? but learn how to work with them _productively_.
substantive democracy, not procedural democracy. our procedural democracy, now, is an attempt to evade the sticky issue of how to deal with difference productively. its guiding principle is: "we'll never come to agreement, so we'll just have rules for adjudicating disagreement. as long as we follow the rules, it's fair. the ends of the good society aren't up for discussion."
anyway, got work to do. but i thought i'd take a break to ramble.
k
At 02:21 PM 8/26/2005, Wendy Lyon wrote:
>On 8/26/05, andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > I
> > believe that unless you're pretty careful about your
> > proteins a vegetarian diet does stunt your growth
> > (hey, that's just a fact
>
>It's a fact that a lack of protein stunts growth. It is *not* a fact
>that this fate will befall any vegetarian who does not take careful
>steps to avoid it.
"Finish your beer. There are sober kids in India."
-- rwmartin