>>You can't gossip without inventing a whole slew of social forces &
>>categories to stick your people in. You are using Gore to illustrate
>>various ensembles of social relations.
> It's not as if you're saying something people here haven't heard or
> thought about before.
The things do seem to be a commonplace, maybe even trite, and I feel a little silly insisting on them. But then I read James's and Ted's contributions to these threads and see them acting as if they were unaware of them.