It takes skills and practice to see discussion as thinking
but it takes allies of kindness to think together creatively.
For the engagement within a group [FFL] to be effective there
need be folks and a moderation willing and able to stand up
to bullies who would destroy forum, to have a thinking
forum.Truth evidently won't 'set us free' until we have the
courage, skills and habit and moral courage to kindly explore
it. There evidently are few allies of civil discourse on FFL
and Rick Archer in moderation is seldom here to evenly
protect civil discourse. Kind thoughtful discussion is up to
the folks left here to seize if it can be had at all. Kind
discourse has been 'thrown to the dogs' on FFL to tear up by
a lack of moderation let alone any self-control.The bullies
have run most wild here unchecked because nice people were
not protected and thoughtful folks often inside are afraid of
embroiling mean conflict upon themselves enough to invest in
it, ..in provoking the bullying..“/*For the record, I
apologize for nothing. Rien. Nada. Nichevo. Bupkus. I meant
everything I've ever said here, and stand by it fully.”*/In
thinking together, people often may fail in process of
creative thought out of fears to extend themselves
individually in to the collective, for fear of engaging with
evidently untrustworthy folks. Engagement that may provoke
unfriendly embroilment which potentially might be brought on
to themselves by stepping forward in conversation. 'Thinking
as process' takes skills and practice to see dissonances as
thinking and get good at it, to get beyond ego and not let it
get out of control. Too many of the writers in character
writing here derail creative thinking on FFL by their default
to the assault of the personal invective instead of just
commenting on a substance of the material brought. That
abusive character has been really unfortunate for the larger
FFL community.The challenge of FFL as a forum community is to
find constructive ways of engaging with people. That takes
kindness, tolerance and patience as skillsets and practice to
be able to think together and be creative, to look at and
solve problems together. FFL is a long ways from that by a
grip of vice of some folks who dominate FFL.Collaborating in
'Disconfirmation': seeking different ways of looking at
models, of 'thinking' in constructive conflict.Thoughtful
conversation seems a willing kind collaborative, a kind
cooperative 'process in disconfirmation'. By contrast a trust
in kindness as element has been driven out of Fairfieldlife
at Yahoo-groups by a dominant methodical use of personal
invective in the ad hominem used as weapon to personally hurt
people here.Collaboration in a type of, Love? In kindness to
a creative process?Quite evidently thoughtful conversation
takes a civil kind collaboration in self-control to have
productive conversation. Some have done their poisonous work
here with the communal well-spring.Collaboration? Could many
folks dare at all to publicly disagree here on FFL anymore
given the lack of self-restraint in the culture that remains
on FFL? What is mostly missing now from the dominant FFL
writing is a kindness to process, a love enough of
collaboration that seems necessary enough for there to be
creative thinking between people. Instead what we have is a
culture of rudeness that has long interrupted the communal
thinking here and driven people away.The cultural place that
was FFL seems to have been poisoned. The place evidently has
died for lack of a willing collaboration as an oxygen that
could include other points of view other than some caustic
character of dominant internet haters and personalities in
method. The cost to FairfieldLife at Yahoo-groups has been
the loss of a forum for communal thinking.A pervasive
unkindness in ad hominem-istic snark parading as
'intellectual retort', it's the dominant 'culture' here at
FFL now, as the evident lack in thoughtful community culture
here. Folks otherwise have come instead to fear to spend
their time thinking here reading let alone posting here. It
is a sad commentary on how it has gone down for FFL. Many of
the writers left here have in many ways become the people
they revile, bullies like they see Bevan or others in the
movement community.Salon, saloon or shalom; who would enter
in to a place met with the likes of, “You Suck..” or “Fuck
you” as first text lines or “You lying Fuck” as a subject
heading? MJ, there was a long period of a poisonous
malignancy here in the postings between a few people who came
on before you came along and added to it in your way. FFL is
just not a safe place for well-meaning people to loiter or
join in hence most folks wandered out. Meditators and people
around Fairfield here always go 'whew-phew' and roll their
eyes about the reputation of FFL as a place for thoughtful
dialogue whence FFL gets mentioned. FFL got wrecked a while
ago as a community place that way. mjackson74 wrote, well
Buck how do you account for the departure of all the people
who used to post on FFL in the years before I joined? Looking
back at the archives, there were a whole bunch of folk who
had already dropped out before I came along, so the fact that
Judy, Anne, Jimmy the Enlightened and Nappy Nabby jumped ship
does not seem to be that much of a recent trend.Yep, even
Rick chooses to post substantial material elsewhere now
instead of posting to FFL as to just shark-feeding for what
is left remaining of FFL. A long list of people is now gone
before us who had once helped further the culture of the
list, mostly been driven off by an aggressive and appalling
unkindness of culture in the ongoing personal shark-like
attack by the ad hominem that evidently has become endemic
here; that seeming 'professionals' default to use in their
writing method instead of simply dealing with material posed.
And those same complain about originality, thinking and lack
of creativity..*/Nothing to see here folks. Just another
person trying to blame the fact that he and the people he
likes can't think of anything intelligent to say on the
people they don't like. :-)/*Good timing, Turqb,Left or
driven off? This as your thinking is fine as intelligent
retort on one level Anartaxius except, the low post and
dwindled active member counts may show something else.Looking
in on the culture of what is FFL now, is it a surprise the
numbers have dropped off when there is so much about
Fairfield or larger spiritual matter being talked about
otherwise by others actively involved in it? No, it is like
the well was poisoned here by some.Ironically there is an
evident invective that is intolerance to conversation here
and to divergent idea by a concentration of some few who
remain active posting here.If could be we are just getting on
with our lives. Now that most of the TB crazies have left,
some of the tart, sharp conversation has dwindled, and there
are less opportunities for intelligent retorts. I think you
would have welcomed the change. 'Intelligent retort'?We've
not been very good at discussion here for some time on FFL
and the place as a forum is nearly dead.Yep, visiting looking
back in on Fairfieldlife at yahoo-groups evidently this is
mostly a sad inhospitable place rendered down to some pulp
substance of travelogue, movie reviews and the personal
bickerings of a few. Om, for what once was
Fairfieldlife,Sooooooooooo, turns out that there WERE ZERO
posts since last night.Just another tell that FFL is going
down for the count.
