--- In [email protected], tartbrain <no_reply@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "sparaig" <LEnglish5@> wrote: > > > > Aside from a few sociopaths and/or trolls, I suspect that > > you can make the claim that everyone who bothers to post > > on the internet has some stake in what they are talking > > about. > > True. Otherwise why take the time to post it.
I am going to disagree with both sparaig and tartbrain here...respectfully...by pointing out that their argument may be based on the writer's feelings about the writing process. I write for a living. I am a fast enough typist so that there is almost no lag between what I think and it appear- ing onscreen as text. So I do it for fun. It's a way of concretizing the abstract ideas that flit through my mind, to see whether they have any lasting meaning for me other than as Just Another Flit-Thought. I write for fun. As Curtis has explained eloquently on this forum, I also write to figure things out, for myself. And then, having figured them out, I move on, and possibly figure them out a different way tomorrow, and yet another way the next day. I have no lingering attachment to any of them. I honestly believe that the people who make the claim that one cannot write an idea on the Internet without having some investment in it, or in wanting to convert others to the validity or supremacy of that idea are stating their *own* limitations, not mine. Sometimes I really write just for the fuck of it, and for the fun of it. If you can't, that's your problem, not mine. The rest of tart's post I agree with wholeheartedly, and have no comments on because he stated it eloquently and succinctly. > However "stake" in this context is not limited to "vested" > intellectual or emotional interest. One may want to explore > an idea,not attached to where it leads, happy with any insight > or conclusion that appears stronger, more insightful than from > where the journey began. Their stake is in understanding things > better. > > The other bookend are posters who are strongly, clinically > addicted to their ideas, conclusions and views. Such posters > may even have their self-identity wrapped up in these ideas > and conclusions. Such have a HUGE stake in their posts because > diminishment of their posts translates directly into diminisment > of their souls, self-identities or at least addictive pleasure > sources and drug source. > > Most posts fall somewhere in between.
